Can I use normal 8 ohms speakers as subwoofer and connect to an AVR?

[soomro.raheel]

Hi there!

I am a newbie to Audio/Home Theater so please don't mind my stupid questions. :|

I am building a Home Theater on a budget; so for now, I am just buying an Onkyo AVR TX-NR575 7.2 with 2 satellite speakers and 2 front speakers. I have two 8 Ohms Sony speakers lying at home and I was wondering if I could use them as 2 subwoofers and connect them to the subwoofer jack, making my system 4.2 until I buy a center speaker.

Also, each Sony speaker has 4 wires coming out from the back with a single connector at the end. Two wires are black and two are grey, I am assuming here that the pair of grey wires is for the main 15" Loudspeaker and the pair of black wires is for Horn Loudspeaker.

Now I have two sub-questions

1) Can I connect the "grey wires" as Front Speakers to a binding post on AVR and "black wires" to subwoofer RCA (Subwoofer Preout jacks)? I think I need powered subwoofers so these won't work as subwoofers but I am curious and I need a professional answer and also, by doing this will it damage my AVR?

2) And, if I can't use them as subwoofers, can I connect them as the Front speakers on AVR by joining the black and grey wires together (L to L and R to R) and then connecting them to a binding post?

I'd appreciate your time and thank you in advance! God bless you!

Raheel

 

[Rocky Bennett]

The sub woofer jack sends out a line level signal that is not amplified, so the answer is no.

 

[boju]

As said, wont be able to use LFE output from the AVR without an amp. Unless the unit the Sony speakers came with has an LFE input.

Those Sony speakers with multiple sets of speaker wire, do you remember if the unit they came with had speaker wire outputs for speaker and subwoofer? Not sure if Sony still make Hifi systems where subwoofer was separate speaker wire, they used to do it that way. Pair of speaker wire was for the Mid and tweeter and the other pair was for subwoofer only. Does it say back of speaker what wires are designated for?

If those Sony speakers are wired that way, use them as fronts or surround backs and set in the AVR menu to full range speaker and subwoofer crossover low as possible. AVR's usually crossover down as low as 40Hz, meaning 40Hz frequencies will be passed on to the speakers, should be able to set this in your AVR menu.

 

[soomro.raheel]

Thanks for replying Boju,

These are the speakers: https/www.sony.co.th/en/electronics/hi-fi-systems/shake-x7d

Here is the diagram of the speakers: https/servlib.com/sony/audio/ss-shakex1-ss-shakex3-ss-shakex7.html?start=4

Now back to my sub-question question No. 2, Shall I connect grey and black wires together and then connect them as the front speakers to the binding post?

I just don't want to damage my new AVR

Please help!

 

[boju]

Should be fine. They're 8ohm speakers so the AVR won't be stressed. Different story if speakers were 4ohm like with the Shake x3 then i would advise against running these speakers with your AMP.

 

[soomro.raheel]

Should be fine. They're 8ohm speakers so the AVR won't be stressed. Different story if speakers were 4ohm like with the Shake x3 then i would advise against running these speakers with your AMP.

Dear Boju,

Thanks a lot for your reply. I am still perplexed about the wiring part. There are three sets of wires coming out from each speaker, one pair is for LED lights, that I figured myself. Now shall I join the remaining pairs and then connect them to the binding post of AVR or try separately first and then join them?

Have a good day!


Raheel

 

[boju]

Ok, need to find out if these speakers have internal passive filters wired to the positive terminal of the driver. Only way to find out is by opening the speaker cabinet and looking behind the tweeter speaker. Not sure if ringing Sony tech support would help with information like that.

Passive filters are a small transistor that filters out certain frequencies for a particular speaker. In your case the top speaker. This small speaker needs to be filtered from low base frequencies else they will be damaged.

Active filters are done by the amp itself and since theres two sets of wires, this is most likely how Sony does the filtering and not by passive transistors. Sorry thought i saw 3 drivers in these speakers and thought the tweeter was passively filtered.

What you could do is search passive filters for tweeter driver, get a couple and solder tweeter's positive wire to one end and bit of speaker wire to the other. Then combine posts.