Help with laptop to speaker + Subwoofer setup

lucas58227

Estimable
Nov 7, 2014
3
0
4,510
Hi everyone.

So I have had the Dayton B652 bookshelf speakers for a couple of months now, and wanted a little more oomph from my home audio. Things sound great, but without much bass to support everything it felt a little lackluster.

Thus, i purchased a cheap subwoofer from amazon.de - the Yamaha YST SW-012. This is a very very basic subwoofer with no controls other than volume and on/off. It is, I assume, a mono subwoofer. the subwoofer has only one RCA input, for which i've used a 3.5mm to RCA adapter. this allows it to connect to my 3.5mm splitter.

My laptop has just one output for audio and I would like for both my speakers as well as my subwoofer to function together.

my current set up is as follows:
laptop 3.5mm jack - 3.5mm splitter
3.5mm splitter - (3.5mm - stereo RCA) - Lepai 2020a+ - (speaker wire) - Dayton B652 Bookshelf Speakers
3.5mm splitter - (3.5mm - RCA converter) - (RCA) - mono subwoofer Yamaha TST SW-012


the problem is, when I use the 3.5mm splitter (single male 3.5mm to two female 3.5mm) only the left speaker works. (the subwoofer works too)

Firstly, I would like to know what the problem is. I suspect the 3.5mm splitter split my stereo output into two mono outputs. However, the strange thing is that when only my speakers are connected to the 3.5mm splitter (with one of the two slots unused), both my speakers play.

Secondly, and more importantly, how do I get everything to work properly?

Many thanks in advance!
 
I would use one of these
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_142LOC80/Scosche-LOC80.html
to convert the speaker level out of the lepai to line level to the sub. It would be in parallel to Dayton speakers. You might to able to use an Y connector with 2 RCA males to 1 RCA female to create a mono output for the sub. If not just use one of the RCA outs since bass is mostly mono
You could also split one the the RCA inputs going to the Lepai and feed that to the sub. .
 

lucas58227

Estimable
Nov 7, 2014
3
0
4,510


so basically your solution for me is to wire up the speaker wire to RCA in the same holes that the bookshelf speaker wires are occupying? and then connect that RCA to my subwoofer?
 

lucas58227

Estimable
Nov 7, 2014
3
0
4,510
Ok I solved the problem.
My solution works - but there is something probably wrong with what I did.
I simply stripped the mono cinch cable from my subwoofer and inserted it into one of the amplifier outputs (to the speakers).

Another problem arose - a loud humming noise from my subwoofer. So i touched the shielding cable on the mono cinch with another cinch nearby and the humming stopped - something to do with grounding the powered subwoofer.

yup. solved! but if someone could tell me what was wrong that would be cool too!