I've had my Pioneer home audio/video system since 1993, top of the line back then. The receiver has stopped working and I am picking up a new Pioneer VSX-LX505 tomorrow. My surround sound speakers system still sounds great, 7 channels plus subwoofer. It has a passive sub-woofer and I removed the connections from my old receiver and never paid attention to how the sub was wired. The old receiver didn't have sub out connections and the sub only has the old style wire clip connections. The new receiver has 2 sub out connections, looks like rca pins although I'm sure it is specialized. Wondering how to wire the sub.
Anyway:
Is there a way to connect the sub to the new receiver sub out pin(s) to the wire clips on the woofer?
If not is it okay wire the sub sharing the front speakers? I think this is how I had the last receiver wired.

Those sub outs on the back panel are RCA jacks and meant to go to a separate amplifier or two to drive one or two subs.

No, connecting your sub the both fronts is not the best way to go. It’ll work for 2 channel music, but not for surround sound music or movies.

quote:

If not is it okay wire the sub sharing the front speakers? I think this is how I had the last receiver wired.

If they (the fronts) are full range, then yes, that's how you would connect it. That receiver only has an output for RCA/line (2v ish) mono connection.

^^^^ What he said.

You need a Power Amp between your Sub and the Sub Out /LFE of your new Receiver

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Before wiring in the passive sub with the front speakers you'd want to confirm overall impedance is still within the spec range of the receiver itself. Wiring it in parallel will result in a drop in the impedance and this could cause significant problems if things aren't within acceptable limits...

That also ignores the other issues such as frequency control...

I wouldn't do it if I were you... I'd consider it now to be the time to solve the problem by throwing some more money at at... either buying an active subwoofer to replace the passive one or buying a dedicated subwoofer amplifier for the job...

I'd personally choose to buy an active sub... if you don't want new retail, there are often decent to good choices on the used marketplace locally as well as thrift stores.

Alternatively , you can likely find a suitable amplifier at Parts Express and then add that to your current passive sub... this, of course, would take a small amount of research to ensure compatibility... but it is an easy thing to verify, usually.

But again, first place I'd personally look is Offer Up to see what is available locally.

Any chance we can get the part number of the passive sub?

Pioneer s-w55. Thanks

I read the specs, that model wants powered subs, and that would be the way to go, single output cable to a dedicated amp for your passive sub.

Plenty of inexpensive amps for passive subs on Amazon from $30 and up.

Or as others said, dump the passive for a powered sub, or two powered subs since it will handle both...

New Receiver will likely have a detailed software setup and configuration procedure.
Don’t think you’ll be able to tell it how you added your sub so it will likely ignore it.
Most people recommend you configure your speakers as SMALL regardless of their size and range so the receiver will send the low frequencies to the Sub if there’s one. You’ll be missing this too.
Better get yourself an adequate power amp to feed your sub and be done. Nothing fancy.

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That sub is 8ohm's.
You amp supports loads from 4-16ohms.

Couple problems with using the fronts, or any other output to parallel into.

1. The fronts would need to also be a minimum of 8 ohms.
2. You're "sharing" (50/50 if they're all 8 ohms) power between the speakers, so you're getting half the power to each, read ~33% of the acoustic db's.
3. Neither your speaker pair or the sub likely give you a way to balance/trim their output.

Now, perhaps you could buy a separate subwoofer amp and run the passive with it? Preferably one with a gain control on it?
https://www.google.com/search?q=subwoofer+amplifier

In which case you could set it up as an LFE.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the help. One more stupid question, the subwoofer has 2 sets of inputs but the amp I'm looking at, (Acoustic Audio WS1005) only has 1 set of outputs. How/can I wire this? Run 2 wires out of the single set of the amp to both sets of the sub?

Maybe someone can read the schematic for your sub. It looks to me that both speakers are wired to separate pairs of input jacks. The question then becomes does the 8 ohm rating apply to each speaker separately or both speakers?

How old is this speaker? Before I spent money in a sub amp for it, I’d take it apart and make sure the surrounds on the drivers were good. Foam surrounds don’t last forever. Even then, while the speaker is an interesting design, the drivers are 4”.

I’m now in the buy a new powered sub camp.

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Originally posted by trapper189:
How old is this speaker? Before I spent money in a sub amp for it, I’d take it apart and make sure the surrounds on the drivers were good. Foam surrounds don’t last forever. Even then, while the speaker is an interesting design, the drivers are 4”.

I’m now in the buy a new powered sub camp.

Sounds like it's from 1993.

At 31 years old, I'd definitely be looking at whether it's time to just upgrade to a more modern subwoofer, rather than jumping through hoops to try to get it to interface with the new receiver.

You can get a quality modern subwoofer for $200-$400... Not that much more than the $150 amp you're looking at.

And it'll interface directly, have new materials, and the driver will be 10"-12".

My sub only has one rca out, the receiver has 2 rca outs, I believe I only connected the negative ( black to the receiver ( or it could be the red, not sure ). So maybe one wire connected to the center speaker?

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Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Sounds like it's from 1993.

I saw the 1993 and assumed that the receiver was that old, but thought the speakers were newer for some reason.

My subs are almost that old, but I replaced all four 12” drivers about 10 years ago. They’re both Miller & Kreisel MX-150 THXs and each has 2 - 12” drivers. The drivers were $65 a piece plus shipping from M&K.

If your receiver/amp has two RCA outputs, one should be for a left channel and the other is for a right channel.

If your sub has two RCA inputs, put the right in the right and the left in the left.

If your sub has one RCA input, use a "Y" adapter to go from the two wires from the amp into the single input on the sub.

If your amp has one output and your sub has two inputs, use a "Y" adapter to hook up one wire to the two inputs on the sub.

If you have two outputs and two separate subwoofers, hook one sub to the right and one sub to the left and enjoy bass levels in stereo or a true surround experience.

Read it again, petr... His sub has no RCA inputs. It's an older one that was wired in with wire clips.

Also, subwoofers are not directional. There's no such thing as left and right "stereo" subwoofers. (Even if your receiver supports multiple subwoofers, they're each still mono.) Some receivers and subs use a pair of RCA outputs/inputs to pass the signal. Some use only one LFE cable output/input. Some can do both, with one of the two RCA outputs doubling as a standalone LFE output.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RogueJSK,

I saw that before and forgot. I read the post above by mistake.

RCA Speaker Cable Bare Wire Speaker Wire to RCA Plug, Replace RCA Plug Connector Adapter to Bare Wire Open Audio Video RCA Cable Repair Speaker Cord (RCA Male) https://a.co/d/cHSt5F4

Just snag this and be done with it

Nope. It's an unpowered/passive subwoofer, and the low voltage RCA output won't power it, even if the cables can physically connect using that adapter.

Hence the need for either getting a powered amp to connect between the receiver and the old subwoofer as discussed above, or just getting a newer powered subwoofer (which would eliminate the need for adapters as well as the amp).