When you have a home theater or music system at home, the subwoofer is one of the most important components you need to invest in. The speaker helps you hear sounds from your music more clearly, adding a whole new layer of depth.
Whether you listen to music, watch a movie, or play a video game, your subwoofer can greatly enhance your experience. To add that final touch of oomph to your audio setup and make it feel as immersive as possible, connect your subwoofer to your receiver.
While this might sound like something very technical and complicated, it is actually quite simple. However, if you don’t know which cables to use and where exactly they go, perhaps this blog post will be helpful for you!
Table of Contents
What is a Subwoofer and How Does it Work?
A subwoofer is a speaker dedicated to low-frequency sounds such as your footsteps or a car passing by. While regular speakers have a limited range of frequencies they can produce, subwoofers are made to reproduce only low frequencies by using a larger speaker with a long-excursion driver. Instead of woofers that vibrate back and forth inside a speaker cabinet, the subwoofer’s woofer is mounted in a box and ‘thrown’ against the back wall.
This allows the subwoofer to produce low-end sounds that felt as much as they are heard. It is a perfect fit for the home theatre system, especially for watching action movies where you can feel the explosions shake your couch.
Step 1: Identify Which Channel(s) of Your Receiver Will Be Used For Your Subwoofer.
First, you will need to identify which channel(s) of your receiver connected with your subwoofer. Most of the receivers will have specific channels or RCA inputs intended for your subwoofer. However, You can use any channels or RCA inputs if you have an older or lower-end model. Any other audio source operates it. Suppose you are unsure which channels are used for what purpose. You can refer to the user manual provided with your receiver.
Step 2: Connect the Subwoofer Out from Your Receiver to the Sub Out on Your Woofer.
Connect your receiver’s output channel to your subwoofer’s sub out once you’ve identified it. This can be done directly from the receiver or using a cable. You can use either a subwoofer cable or an RCA cable for the latter. The subwoofer cable has a single RCA connector at one end and two spade connectors of different sizes at the other.
The spade connections should be plugged into the subwoofer output on the back of your receiver. The RCA connector is plugged into the equivalent input of the subwoofer.
RCA cables, on the other hand, are versatile wires with two connectors.
They are designed to connect components close to one another, such as the sub outs on your subwoofer and receiver. If you use RCA cables, connect RCA cables of the same color from the sub-out of your receiver to the sub-out of your subwoofer.
If your cable has a red and a white end, connect the red end to the red input of your subwoofer and the white end to the white input.
Step 3: Turn On the Automatic Speaker Calibration Function of your AVR.
Once you have connected the subwoofer from your receiver to the subwoofer on your subwoofer, you can turn on the automatic speaker calibration function on your AVR. This will automatically detect the optimum sound settings for your subwoofer and make adjustments based on the size of your subwoofer. Depending on the receiver that you have, you may have to go to the speaker settings menu and select the subwoofer or you may have to go to the sound settings menu and select the subwoofer.
Once you have chosen the subwoofer, the AVR will walk you through the speaker calibration process and adjust the settings based on the subwoofer’s size.
Step 4: Go to the “Speakers” menu and Select “Subwoofer Trim.”
Once your subwoofer connected to the receiver and the automatic speaker calibration of your AVR is done, you can go to the “Speakers” menu on your receiver. Here, you will see a subwoofer trim option. Depending on the receiver model, you may have to go to the “Speaker Configuration” menu first, then “Speaker Trim.”
Once you are in the subwoofer trim menu, you can adjust the subwoofer level to your preferred level. Depending on the receiver model and software version, you can also use the level meter to find the optimum subwoofer level. You can either increase or decrease the subwoofer level to your preferred level.
Conclusion
Subwoofers can add depth and richness to your music and videos. However, you connect it to your receiver to get the most out of your subwoofer. You can do this by using a subwoofer cable or an RCA cable to connect your receiver’s sub out to your subwoofer’s sub in.
Once you have connected your subwoofer to your receiver, you can go to the “Speakers” menu and adjust the subwoofer level to your preferred level. And there you go! With this straightforward process, you can connect your subwoofer to your receiver and enhance your home audio setup.
