Dual Subwoofers: Stereo vs 5.1

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riskylogic

300 Club - QQ All-Star
Joined
Nov 23, 2015
Messages
343
For the last fifteen years, I've had two different systems: A stereo system in the living room, and a home theater system in the basement. My old stereo system was basically 2.2: I had a pair of Piega speakers with not great bass response that I supplemented with a pair of 10" Ruark powered subwoofers. The Piegas were driven by a Classe amp using the XLR output from a Classe premap. The subwoofers used the RCA outs from the preamp.

Now, we have moved to a townhouse, and I have upgraded the stereo system to an AV system. Besides buying more speakers, I replaced my Classe preamp with a Yamaha RX-A3080. The 3080 has XLR inputs and outputs for stereo, so I am still using those with an Oppo and the Classe amp. But, I'm conflicted on the subwoofer hookup. The mimic my old stereo system, I should plug them into the front preouts. And that does indeed work for when using the XLR input for stereo and for quad recordings where otherwise the subwoofers just sit there. However, for 5.1 and Dolby atmos purposes that's not what the system is designed for. So, I've been switching the subs back and forth. I have a third subwoofer from my old HT system that I could use for 5.1 purposes, but there's really no good place to put it. I think maybe I need an A/B switch:

https://www.amazon.com/Sescom-SES-AUDIO-AB-Stereo-Audio-Switch/dp/B008BMLXAU
Is that crazy?
Any other suggestions?
 
I have a Yamaha RX-A2050, an older generation but similar in functionality. I don’t use an external amp for the front speakers, but I think the concept is the same. Here’s what I recommend: Connect your two subs to the two subwoofer outputs in the rear of the AVR, regardless of listening to stereo or multichannel. The receiver should handle bass management for you, sending the bass frequencies from stereo (and multichannel) sources to the subwoofers as long as you set the front l/r speakers (or effectively the line level outputs in your case) to “small”. It will also filter out the bass (below the utoff frequency you pick in setup) from the front channels. FYI all this only applies if you are NOT listening in “Pure Direct” mode, which bypasses bass management and equalization.
 
For the last fifteen years, I've had two different systems: A stereo system in the living room, and a home theater system in the basement. My old stereo system was basically 2.2: I had a pair of Piega speakers with not great bass response that I supplemented with a pair of 10" Ruark powered subwoofers. The Piegas were driven by a Classe amp using the XLR output from a Classe premap. The subwoofers used the RCA outs from the preamp.

Now, we have moved to a townhouse, and I have upgraded the stereo system to an AV system. Besides buying more speakers, I replaced my Classe preamp with a Yamaha RX-A3080. The 3080 has XLR inputs and outputs for stereo, so I am still using those with an Oppo and the Classe amp. But, I'm conflicted on the subwoofer hookup. The mimic my old stereo system, I should plug them into the front preouts. And that does indeed work for when using the XLR input for stereo and for quad recordings where otherwise the subwoofers just sit there. However, for 5.1 and Dolby atmos purposes that's not what the system is designed for. So, I've been switching the subs back and forth. I have a third subwoofer from my old HT system that I could use for 5.1 purposes, but there's really no good place to put it. I think maybe I need an A/B switch:

https://www.amazon.com/Sescom-SES-AUDIO-AB-Stereo-Audio-Switch/dp/B008BMLXAU
Is that crazy?
Any other suggestions?
Welcome to the QQ forum riskylogic
 
For the last fifteen years, I've had two different systems: A stereo system in the living room, and a home theater system in the basement. My old stereo system was basically 2.2: I had a pair of Piega speakers with not great bass response that I supplemented with a pair of 10" Ruark powered subwoofers. The Piegas were driven by a Classe amp using the XLR output from a Classe premap. The subwoofers used the RCA outs from the preamp.

Now, we have moved to a townhouse, and I have upgraded the stereo system to an AV system. Besides buying more speakers, I replaced my Classe preamp with a Yamaha RX-A3080. The 3080 has XLR inputs and outputs for stereo, so I am still using those with an Oppo and the Classe amp. But, I'm conflicted on the subwoofer hookup. The mimic my old stereo system, I should plug them into the front preouts. And that does indeed work for when using the XLR input for stereo and for quad recordings where otherwise the subwoofers just sit there. However, for 5.1 and Dolby atmos purposes that's not what the system is designed for. So, I've been switching the subs back and forth. I have a third subwoofer from my old HT system that I could use for 5.1 purposes, but there's really no good place to put it. I think maybe I need an A/B switch:

https://www.amazon.com/Sescom-SES-AUDIO-AB-Stereo-Audio-Switch/dp/B008BMLXAU
Is that crazy?
Any other suggestions?
sbrom has provided great advice.
I have the Yamaha 2070 model. As mentioned there are two subwoofer outputs. You can adjust the volume of each output separately. Multiple subwoofers can be connected to each output. I am running 4 subwoofers.
There are also 3 different ways to configure the outputs. Front/Back - Left/Right or Mono. I used Mono because I want each subwoofer to get the same content.
 
I have a Yamaha RX-A2050, an older generation but similar in functionality. I don’t use an external amp for the front speakers, but I think the concept is the same. Here’s what I recommend: Connect your two subs to the two subwoofer outputs in the rear of the AVR, regardless of listening to stereo or multichannel. The receiver should handle bass management for you, sending the bass frequencies from stereo (and multichannel) sources to the subwoofers as long as you set the front l/r speakers (or effectively the line level outputs in your case) to “small”. It will also filter out the bass (below the utoff frequency you pick in setup) from the front channels. FYI all this only applies if you are NOT listening in “Pure Direct” mode, which bypasses bass management and equalization.

Setting the speaker size to small did the trick. Thank you very much
 
I’ve been enjoying the dual subwoofer world for years now using a Velodyne CT-120 and one of the original non powered SVS subs the 25-31CS+. Both have served me well. i usually just use the SVS for music and both for movies.
 
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