Lots of questions about these subwoofer connections, but can't find answer to my question.
I have a new Onkyo TX-NR676 Receiver that has subwoofer outputs with what appears to be an RCA jack plug. My old subwoofer is a Polk PSW50. It has both speaker wire inputs (left, right, plus and minus) and Line Input left and right RCA inputs, but no specific LFE input. In spite of what I read in many forum answers, even though it has speaker wire inputs it IS clearly a powered subwoofer. The only cable available from the receiver to the location of the subwoofer is a bundled speaker wire cable with 4 wires.
I have various old cables and have cut the ends to see what they look like. Even though they all appear to have RCA jack plugs, they are clearly not the same. One that was bundled with what was probably speaker wire is a thicker type with stranded copper wire surrounding some type of inner core (I am assuming this is therefore coaxial but am not certain). Another one with RCA jack has what looks to be a single speaker wire in it. I also have a simple Y-splitter available to use.
It seems like I should be able to make some kind of connection, but the responses I have found are not clear. I could certainly connect what appears to be the RCA jack speaker wire to the receiver subwoofer output and to one of the 4 speaker wires in the bundled cable and then connect the other end to one of the two line inputs on the PSW50. Will that work? I have seen some comments indicating that Receiver subwoofer output is only mono, and others suggesting that both the left and right on the subwoofer should be connected. Of course I can also connect the splitter to the receiver subwoofer ouput and then use 2 of the 4 speaker wires to carry signal to the PSW50 and then connect those to both the PSW line in left and right.
Just don't know what is the right choice.
I have a new Onkyo TX-NR676 Receiver that has subwoofer outputs with what appears to be an RCA jack plug. My old subwoofer is a Polk PSW50. It has both speaker wire inputs (left, right, plus and minus) and Line Input left and right RCA inputs, but no specific LFE input. In spite of what I read in many forum answers, even though it has speaker wire inputs it IS clearly a powered subwoofer. The only cable available from the receiver to the location of the subwoofer is a bundled speaker wire cable with 4 wires.
I have various old cables and have cut the ends to see what they look like. Even though they all appear to have RCA jack plugs, they are clearly not the same. One that was bundled with what was probably speaker wire is a thicker type with stranded copper wire surrounding some type of inner core (I am assuming this is therefore coaxial but am not certain). Another one with RCA jack has what looks to be a single speaker wire in it. I also have a simple Y-splitter available to use.
It seems like I should be able to make some kind of connection, but the responses I have found are not clear. I could certainly connect what appears to be the RCA jack speaker wire to the receiver subwoofer output and to one of the 4 speaker wires in the bundled cable and then connect the other end to one of the two line inputs on the PSW50. Will that work? I have seen some comments indicating that Receiver subwoofer output is only mono, and others suggesting that both the left and right on the subwoofer should be connected. Of course I can also connect the splitter to the receiver subwoofer ouput and then use 2 of the 4 speaker wires to carry signal to the PSW50 and then connect those to both the PSW line in left and right.
Just don't know what is the right choice.