No sound from passive sub

[aksel.grotmol]

Hey, this is my first post here, hope someone can help me clear up this issue.
I'm trying to connect an old Canton 12" passive subwoofer to my harman cardon avr 325 receiver.
I connected my Focal chorus 706's (also passive) to the sub, and ran speaker wires from the sub to the receiver (in the connections where i had previously connected my speakers).
There is now sound from the speakers, but extremely low sound from the sub (i can barely feel the vibrations when touching the element).
Am i doing something wrong? Is the subwoofer dead?
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[jay32267]

You might be causing an impedence problem by hooking up the Focal passive speakers to the sub depending how you are connecting them.

Try the subwoofer by itself. Yes, you won't get the high frequencies but the reason you are trying it by itself is to see if you get the volume back.

 

[aksel.grotmol]

Hey, thanks for answering!

I tried to disconnect the Focals and play directly from the receiver to the sub now, and it plays a bit louder (still miles away from making the room shake, heh)!
But I think it puts a lot of strain on the receiver, could that be correct? I pushed the volume up quite a bit, but sounds like there just isn't enough power to drive it.
Could that be a correct assumption?

 

[jay32267]

Well....subwoofers suck a lot of power. For instance, I'm powering a 15" sub with a 600 watt rms amp. So 50 watts...which is what your receiver is...may not be enough to push the 12" very hard...especially depending how you have the Focals hooked up....but you should still get SOME volume out of it.

I prefer to go with a powered sub so it doesn't use power that I'd rather use on my left and rights and in many cases the hookup is simpler.

 

[americanaudiophile]

It's very unlikely that the passive sub will match the level of the Focals correctly. Powered subs have their own level control to adjust for this. Passive subs don't. You could add an amp to the passive sub and connect it to the subwoofer out but getting a powered sub makes more sense.