I was so surprised when you quoted the orchestra example. I used to wait for my son's school band practice I never realised till date that all the drummers are right side of the conductor. It makes sense....

I can't thank you enough for suggesting that the subwoofer be placed on the right side. It's been on the left for seven years, just due to my living room configuration. What an incredible difference, just with that minor change. Something always felt wrong and now I feel more relaxed even. Again thank you!! John M

Your ears never lie. I have ALWAYS judged my setups with my ears and adjusting to what sounds best.

You sir, are the most precise, easiest to follow, Audio instructor I have stumbled upon. I have a library of your instructional's. In my bookmarks. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Your advice has perked up my system. I will compensate a bit.

Thank you so much for these tips, Just a bit of moving around on my rather old subwoofer 2 speaker setup made it sound so much better its amazing!

Thank you so much for not making me confuse during listening like other KZfaqrs, they want to talk about subwoofers but after a minute they become confuse and start thinking while talking on what topic they were talking 😂.

Thanks for saving me some trouble. I was considering using an XLR y connector, but I was a bit dubious. Now I know.

That’s pretty good advice. However, an advantage to test tones and digital signal processing is that it compensates for both speaker anomalies and room interactions. What Paul refers to is only adjusting the subwoofer to the main speakers and has very little to do with adjusting the sub and speakers to the room. After decades of being into audio I finally purchased a sub and a MiniDSP 2x4HD processor. Using Room Equalizer Wizard (REW) freeware, I’m astounded by how great my system sounds. There was a steep learning curve to using the software but it was well worth the trouble!

Thanks for such highly significant tips to enhance our audio experience!

Thank you Paul. Enjoy your talks!

I did the sub in the listening position thing when I set up my system a number of years ago, it does work very well. Then to get a starting point to tune it, I set the sub low pass filter to a setting higher than I would normally use, like 200Hz, then boost the sub volume till I can begin to hear it, then lower the crossover frequency till the sound from the sub blends in to the sound from the mains, this is my starting point, I will then listen to the music I typically listen to plus a few of my favorite songs for testing, then make an adjustment and re-listen to a few songs in-between changes. If you set it up right, none of the speakers should standout. And if you picked components that have good synergy, it should be able to reproduce any genre of music equally well, I've listened to systems that do really well with genre, but fall flat or gets muddy with another.

Great site. Just getting back into audio after 50 years. I remember my fathers 78 rpm records with Nipper of "His masters voice" on the RCA labels. I've got to get Nipper!. Your advice on subs and other content is really helping me to transition from analog to digital. Thanks again!

I made my own sub woofer. I got one with two voice coils. My amp has four outputs so I used a set of those. I ended up puting the voice coils out of phase... sure solved a lot of problems.

Listening to you is very informative but very inlighting thank you for being willing to help on this hobby

That is great advice, thanks for sharing and explaining so well.

Excellent info Paul and easier than the subwoofer crawl.

Thank you. Just got a new subscriber & fan. I like your style of explaining things. Concise & to the point in an easy to follow manner. 👍🏼😎

You continue being the best, regardless what any body may say.

my spkrs are superzeros, i lusted after them since the 80's and at last got'em. my sub is cheap, 8 inches down-firing cone; i first placed it against the front wall which clearly increased its apparent efficiency but sounded boomy at moderate sound levels. then placed it besides the right spkr, the three of them one third distance from the front wall; now the bass seems to come from the spkrs, the sub is nowhere to be heard, its sound level dialed at the "10:30" position, that's all i need. i'm into midfi (not wealthy) since 1980 and had never had my sub blending with my spkrs like this. thanks, Paul!

Thank You so much!!! I absolutely love your channel, so many questions answered and answers for things i didnt even know i wanted to know lol

Very informative! thank you.

Great advice. Thanks Paul.

Excellent tip! Thanks so much! Regards from Brazil!

That is an absolute awesome tip. Thanks so much

Good video and shoutout to Boulder CO!

thank you, helped out alot.

Nice Paul, I agree totally, a subwoofer is so critical to a great sound system, but placement has to right, with doing the subwoofer set up, subwoofer placed in prime listening position, then walk around listening for sweat spot in room to set sub up at, I also recommend you do this at different heights, on your hands and knees, crouching and then standing up right, as it might be a better response at different heights too, another trick whilst doing this, if your ears have trouble listening for bass, try a big empty plastic soft drink bottle or the likes, the larger the bottle opening the better, like that of a gatorade bottle, if you gently hold empty bottle in hand nearer to top of bottle, whilst walking around to find sweat spot, you'll find the bottle will get real excited in a sweat spot, it will vibrate more, allowing you to feel it as well as hear it, it's a little thing I discovered, whilst setting up my subs, I had a bottle of coke I was drinking at the time, so I experimented with different bottle's, finding a larger opening the best and good size bottle around 2ltr is good.

Subs with high level inputs are awesome for music especially if u using small front speakers u get to control how much u sent to yur fronts and u get awesome full range response no tricky lfe

So many great tips. Thank you so much sir.

Thank you sir. It’s was an informative and refined answer to very common question.

Will the sub connected via speaker input, not distort when the amp's signal to the speakers will distort? I always choose the line level input to make sure of no distortion.

Thanks Paul..Im using Denon AVR...and want to go high level to my 2 svs sb2000...currently using low level lfe rca....how should I set up the base mgt in the denon spkr size, crossover, etc..when i switch over to high level?..Maybe just tell Denon "no sub or sub off"?????

Wouldn't you want to run a crossover before the power amp so that you are only amplifying the frequencies you want coming from your speakers?

Great vid Paul. Like all folks looking at these videos, we are music lovers and lovers of high end sound delivery. I have some older stereo equipment in my LR. NAD 1300 Preamp, NAD 2600 AMP, connected to KEF 103 mid tower speakers, all 35 years old. I just recently considered addi g a SW. The NAD does not have sw preouts. So, the quick question is: do I connect speaker wires from the same two speaker connections on the AMP to the high level speaker terminals on the SW ? I presume one would not splice into the speaker wires ( i used Monster cables for the original speaker connections)? Thx fir your advise or any responses from others. Stay well all.

Great tip, thanks

Hi Paul what do you think of JBL Pro Sub18 combined with the JBL M2?

Absolutely sound advice!

Hahaha I love the first letter because I’m from MA and we have a lot of towns with awkward spelling and silent letters etc. you did well though! Also, thanks for the info!

My active sub doesn't have high input chanel so what will happen if i insist to put high input from my amplifier? Will it blow my sub in the long run? Im using car amplifier which is 4 chanel 300w rms per chanel 1200w peak, i think its too big so i abit worry. Or its better to use the left rear chanel from my head unit (reciever) output which is 18w rms 55w peak? Now im running the later, but the former seems to offer more potential hehe 😊

That thumbnail looked like you were about to spit some Lyrics

Thanks sir great advice 👍

I agree 100%, Im big fun of subwoofers to, goood subwoofer is whnen you can not locate the box with your ears, first I setup my main speakers-satelites for bass, than turn on my powered sub and setup how laud will be. Sub give much more wider bass with much low freq. in the room.

Good advice... But not for subwoofers almost as big as a fridge. Well... still applies, but it's a pain to move. Also you can't not see the sub, however I have it tuned pretty well and flat and it sounds great to my ears.

Paul I know rel has d high level output using speakon cable that's with their T line series it's really difficult choosing a sub so many brands would u also recommend Dali subs I'm going with a denon x3700h Dali oberon 5 n not sure d sub which will you recommend thanks

I just a Denon 3600h, so know pre amp. I used audyssy set up for my 2 towers and a svs sub. I had the tripod and the microphone and it recognised the 2 towers and the sub, but when it finished I loaded it and there was no sub output it was like the sub was turned off at the mains? My 2 towers worked though. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi Paul, I like checking out your videos cause they are pretty precise on the info.Now I have a question, I need orientation on how to connect a Pioneer Elite VSX-LX101 7.1 ch A/V receiver with Bose Redline single cubes and if possible with the powered Acoustimass 9 sub unit, which has a 8 pin din cable and from receiver end 2 RCA and one 3.5mm servo control, how do I connect all those cables.My Pioneer has 2 sub pre outs. I also have an Kenwood stereo control Amplifier KC-992, can I combine then all?.

I am planning a sub! (despite having been a bit anti - you have helped convince me, and yes I'm British!) The Main amp is to driven by a passive pre (all in planning stage) - I'm concerned about diluting the CD signal between sub and power. My solution is to use an old (but reasonable) DAC I have to drive the sub, while the CD continues to solely drive the power amp. Is there any obvious flaw to this plan?

i want to connect 2 tweeters & 2 mids, but when I do that on series or parallel it eats up a lot of energy & the sound level goes down, what do I do now?

I have a 5.1.2 set up. A Denon avr and Arcam SA20 used together to run the home cinema and stereo. I have a sub with LFE and high end. So using LFE from AVR and getting bass for movies but when I go to my stereo, I have to unplug the LFE to get bass and it’s really loud so have to turn it down. Then back up and plug the LFE back in when I go back to movies. Is there a workaround for this?

If i have a 2ch system and i want to add a sub, how do i wire that up?

I set my 2.1 up @60db for my mixing/tracking station. The mains are 112db max spl and the sub is 123db. The sub has many +/-db adjustments. With each component at 60db, should I attenuate -12db on the sub after db matching or before? Or am I completely off?

"His Master's voice". Love the RCA dog in a video talking about setup of sound system.

I run the Y splitter from the amp to the first sub and again speaker wires to the second sub and oh my lord, bass is sweet. I never need to turn the sub volume more than 25%. There is so much bass or power out of there amp compared to pre amp.

Is it wise to put a floor standing speaker on your subwoofer. I did this to my klipsch floors on my klipsch subs .

Thank you for this explanation:-)

isn't the low level signal supposed to run from the preamp or receiver to the sub? I think you said from preamp to power amp and then to sub.

Why would it be a problem to combine botch the left and the right channel in the subwoofer? Wouldn't it just play the low frequencies from both channels? How would everything get screwed up?

Would you suggest using booth out from my dj controller or from my controller to the sub then out of sub to tops?

Do you connect the sub to left/right speaker out, if no sub connection specific on amp. Thanks

Hello, I have my sub Adam 10 "MK2 And ADAM S2V couple in my homestudy, the fact is that I have it in the center between my two monitors, under my desk, if I leave it with the 0 ° phase and with sonarworks, the graph gives me a + -3db waveform up and down, between 100 Hz and 28 Hz. And if I change it to phase 180 °, I have a +6 dbs rise in the graph, from 80 Hz at 28 Hz. No waveform, all this measured in the whole room The question is that with phase at 0 °, as the graph says, At ear, I perceive less serious, and with the phase at 180 ° I perceive more serious. My question is, which of the two configurations do you think would be in the correct phase? I'm lost.

'got it hooked up to the input/output terminals. now I can avoid that sound processing bull. thanks.

I have one 15 inch sub for my computer audio. My mains are JBL EON 612 for right and left. How to tap one of the mains for back round sub effect? Thanks I have a sub amp and crossover with inputs ready to go.

I think I understand what your saying. Your sub should complement your speakers one should not be over the other but be in harmony with eachother

Can the sub be tied into the center channel? My denon has no high power sub out, but I could run the center out to the sub and then the sub out to the center channel.

My subwoofer, between the two outside (Front?), speakers, sounds absolutely KA, in my small space!

Hello there and fast forward almost 3 years. Actually, its a tossup on either left or right for orchestral music. The reason is because the percussion section is to the left, which is where the timpani and bass drum is - especially the bass drum. On the right, with cellos, bass, and tuba you can get away with lower mids or upper bass; so on a decent system your speakers can handle that by themselves. Organ music - you should definitely have 2 subs. Thanks for your videos.

Watchin the end credit there, looks like your in Arizona. Is this True??? 👍🏼. Thanks for advice bud. I am about set up my 1st surround sound system. Klipsch HD-300 speakers ($15 buckarooneez) and polk audio PSW12 subwoofer (snagged it for $20buckaroonees) . I think i got a pretty good deal on this set up. I have Monster cable speaker wires and some banana plugs (not sure i will use the banbans) but they are there if i needem. Got the wires n plugs for $15. Oh and i got this Sony str-HD720 Amp $40 (not bad of deal). All this was a spur of a moment snag n grab set up. Saw the deal and just went for it. Klipsch HD-300 (5 speakers) $15 Polk Audio PSW12 $20 Spk wires n banplugs $15 Sony Str-HD720 $40 Total $90 Not bad for a Oldskoo setup. Have no idea how i got into talkin bout my set up, haha. Wasnt in the playbook comin in. Haha but there it is. Thnks for all the advice bud. Wish u,PS audio Team & everyone reading contined success😉👍🏼

is the best choice the high level input? even if the amplifier has an preamp rca output?

Great Video

Hi Paul! I'm getting a strange intermittent knocking sound (more like a thud) from my subwoofer when the power from my preamp/Denon is off. I have a two sub set up and they both seem to be doing it. One sub is actually doing it worse than the other, that's the sub that is closer to the Denon with a shorter digital audio cable. Do you have any thoughts on what could be causing this issue? Thanks :-) Greg

Thanks Sir. Very valuable information.

Good day I have connected 1 subwoofer in 2 amplifiers and on each amp connected a set of bookshelves on 1 channel and another set on 2 channels for each of the amps. Am I going to break anything.

Do you recommend using the power line into the sub and then the power line out of the sub to the monitors. Or is it preferable to use both A&B stereo outs from the power amp to the sub and monitors separately? My thoughts was that crossover freq would probably work better using the through option on the sub, I also am not sure if using A&B in this situation would change the Ohm rating or power delivery.

hi let me start by saying that I love all your videos. I need some advise on a set up. I have the acoustimas 15 Bose and the directions from Bose says that they speakers should be set to large instead of small but doing so leaves me bass deprived when watching movies. I have the system connected to a Sony receiver STR-dn1000 and when I use the calibration tool from Sony it also sets the speakers to large... you have mentioned in the past that those speakers should be set to small and 80hz, the base sounds better but is not there yet. There is a lot of boom but not a lot of deep bass LFE. What do you recommend? P.s the room is an open floor plan 25ft by 50+

I didn't get the Y cable thing (I know what a Y cable is). Probably too fast a spoken English to catch up with (I'm French), anybody has an explanation?

Hi there, I always enjoy your perspective on Hi Fi stuff. My situation is rather unique, so I was curious if you or any of your listeners had any good advice on what to do with my circa 1995 Plexus Sub woofer. The unit has (2) SEAS speakers. About 10 inches in diameter. It was originally designed to use a dedicated EQ which went in to the system between the pre amp then the amp, or in my case the tape loop. Remember those? Any way, I currently have the sub woofer hooked up to the "B" speaker terminals and the bookshelf speakers hooked up to the "A" speaker terminals. The EQ box has died and I can not find a technician I trust to fix it. I was wondering if I should simply use the "A" speaker terminals directly to the subwoofer then use the subwoofer out jacks to go to my bookshelf speakers.

How are you even supposed to set the crossover frequency? Like, what are you listening for?

Paul newer viewer here from MN. I have 3 THX systems and my favorite is Logitech 5.1 1000 watts. After 15 years of masterful home theater it is starting to power down when advertising codec changes through the optical input. I know it's my satellite provider but I am looking for advice for a family man who can't afford anything more than about $400. What are your favorite "budget brands" until the kids grow up?

You the man. What best position for 2 subs? My location is limited

Not sure your still responding but I have a Mcintosh ma9000 with focal 1028 I find I have to overuse the sub to make up for the lack of bass? Your thoughts?

I used a Y Splitter at the receiver "LFE" output. Running 2 subs no problems 👍

Happy lil subwoofers

Thought your were going to do the old Johnny Carson routine

This is a little confusing, considering most new mainstream receivers, have LFE outputs for subs, And that signal is determined by your main and surround speaker crossover settings. Most newer subs don't even have the speaker tap connections. But I do agree with the parts about sound preference, and the sub sounding like low range extensions of the main speakers.

ok, maybe a dumb question. Great video Paul. I have a crossover knob on the back of my SB-2000 and a crossover setting on the amp. I've set the amp to 80 and the knob to 80... does one override the other? do they need to match? I have QAcoustics 3050 towers, a QAcoustic center. Do mostly TV/Movies and 20% music. Is this the best set up? thanks for your help!

I have a set up at my brother barbershop a 3 speaker system a cheap small Pyle amp 2 fluance signature bookshelf on stands a bic america pl 200 sub a Bluetooth reciever with built in DAC upscaller plays like a boss everyone hears it always ask is it that thing playing like dat its pretty awesome.am goin from amp to sub high inputs the sub high outputs to speakers crossover on sub set to in sending 80 hertz to the speakers cheap but awesome as hell 2.1 system

Hey Paul, Do dual subs have to be exactly the same or even the same company ?

Use a frequency sweep and an RTA.

Should you use the pad things underneath?

My ears are the best tool.

Mine is on the right, behind the main speaker and bit off the wall.

I would point out that you should listen at the height of the Sub as it sits on the floor. So crawl around while listening.

My sub became obsolete when i purchased a pair of bowers&wilkins 683's. Now i have"too much" low end - much to my neighbors annoyance!

How on Earth do you adjust the phase on a sub???

Are there any audiophiles about the age of 18 like me?

I can not find many subs with high level inputs.

You're set-up method is only feasible for big rooms with free standing speakers . In UK most hifi stand-mount speakers tail off around 50/60 hz so using single sub is not so discernible in terms of directionality . Plus presumably most people can afford a higher quality unit and cables if only buying a single sub. In my experience it takes a lot of experimentation to perfect sub set-up.

Hi Paul This neat trick of placing the sub in the listening position is cool, but what if we have two subs?

YOU ARE THE GURU OF THE BOTTOM SOUND SIR

Hey Paul what's your best subwoofer n would u prefer svs or rel n to add q acoustics q b12 n does a sub need to go below 20hz for movie n music