Mar
27
Passive Subwoofer Connection Considerations
Filed Under Speakers
From time to time I encounter customers who want to use their subwoofers passively, i.e. to run their front left and front right speaker leads through the subwoofer to power it passively. While this isn’t something I generally recommend (due to the delicate nature of analog signals) there are preferred methods to improve the overall sound quality of passive subwoofers.
Every extra foot of cable and additional break in the signal path attenuates the signal slightly and eventually enough attenuation leads to audible distortion. Now this is an extreme illustration but it does happen. If you can’t run a low-level signal cable to the subwoofer (for whatever reason) try to make the leads from the receiver to the subwoofer as sport as possible.
Also try and use banana clips, spades, soldered on connections etc. over raw wire, raw wire can oxidize easily and enough oxidation can reduce the sound quality of the signal. Soldered connections obviously reduce oxidation to a great degree than twist on speaker leads but in this case anything is preferable to raw speaker cable.
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