Subwoofer wired together with speakers

[Dkagay]

Hello,

I have a professionally installed high end built in home theater speaker system which is 15 years old. I am upgrading my AV receiver and television only and keeping the speakers. My subwoofer has it's own power cord and the wires from it are identical to the wires coming from my 7 speakers (red, black, green, white). With the old receiver, the subwoofer wires were combined with the speaker wires, twisted together, and wired together...that is, one red from the speaker, one red from the subwoofer were installed in one input...one black from speaker, one black from subwoofer, etc. I drew a diagram before disconnecting my wiring and marked all the wires, so I know exactly how it was wired.

My question is can I duplicate this wiring scheme with my new receiver or will it damage it? The new receiver has subwoofer inputs but they use a plug and I have bare wire. Is there a way to equip my bare wires with a connector to go into the subwoofer input?

I'm not an expert, so please pardon me if I've not used the correct terminology. I hope I've been clear and would appreciate any help.

 

[blackhawk1928]

Can you please upload a picture of the diagram so I can get a better understanding of what you mean.

If I understand your question correctly, then let me explain. Current receivers have either 5 or 7 channels mainly for 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound systems. Each channel has a positive and negative terminal from each speaker. Subwoofers are mostly powered these days and are connected to the receiver using a simple RCA-type cable to the subwoofer pre-out connection. The power wires run separatley for each speaker.

However, I don't think I completely grasped what you trying to ask, 15 years ago systems may have been entirely different, I know the hookup of modern systems so maybe I don't understand.

 

[americanaudiophile]

You can leave the wiring the same. When you go into the setup menu of the new receiver you will set the front speakers as large and subwoofer as none. All other speakers that you actually have will be set as small. This sends all the bass to the front speaker terminals where the sub is connected as well as the left and right front speakers.
You cannot feed the speaker wire inputs of the sub with the line level output of the subwoofer out. If you put RCA plugs at both ends of 2 of the wires that go to the sub and change the connection at the sub to the RCA input and the sub out at the receiver this may also work. Then you would set the speaker set up differently; sub yes, front small or large depending on size and bass output.

 

[Dkagay]

Best answer selected by Dkagay.

 

[Dkagay]

Thanks to blackhawk1928 and americanaudiophile for helping. I really do appreciate your efforts.

As for anwaypasible, I guess I was under the mistaken impression that the purpose of this forum was to ask for help. Calling my question stupid is not helpful. I'll find a group with friendlier people. I won't be back here.