Question Using an Active Soundbar with Passive Speakers

[ApresSki]

Good afternoon all,

I recently bought a stereo set comprised of a standard receiver plus a pair of passive speakers.

They work great together, but I'm having a party next and am worried about if they'll be powerful enough to fill the space.

My roommate has an active soundbar and paired wireless subwoofer also. If possible, I'd like to play music out of both speakers and soundbar at once. Is there a way to have my receiver send audio to both, but only power to the passive speakers? In other words, have the same music go to both, but not have the amplification drained from the passive speakers to power the already amped soundbar.

Just for reference, here's my set up currently:

-Sony STD190 receiver (100W/Channel)
-Sony SS-CS5 bookshelf speakers (Pair, 100W each)

-Samsung HW-J450 Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[hang-the-9]

If our receiver can run multiple outputs at once, then yes, you can connect a line out from the receiver to the powered speakers and the speakers cables to the speakers.

Are you trying to get music to several rooms that are more than a room away or just add more sound in one room?

If these are for the same room (which I am guessing it is since you did not ask about running cables to them) I would just test out the speaker setup and see which one is better for you instead of trying to run them both.

 

[ApresSki]

If our receiver can run multiple outputs at once, then yes, you can connect a line out from the receiver to the powered speakers and the speakers cables to the speakers.

Are you trying to get music to several rooms that are more than a room away or just add more sound in one room?

If these are for the same room (which I am guessing it is since you did not ask about running cables to them) I would just test out the speaker setup and see which one is better for you instead of trying to run them both.

Thanks for the response!

It will just be one room, but its really the entire first floor of my house. I'm trying to use both at once so its loud enough to fill the room with dance music. Also, the soundbar has a large wireless subwoofer that would really help bolster the two bookshelf speakers.

I managed to get both working at once by running an RCA cable from the output on the receiver to the soundbar's aux input. That works, but there's a notable lag on the soundbar.

I can add a manual sync delay on the soundbar, but that doesn't help since it's already behind the bookshelf speakers. Do you know of any way to lag the bookshelf speakers to sync them with the lagging soundbar?

 

[hang-the-9]

Thanks for the response!

It will just be one room, but its really the entire first floor of my house. I'm trying to use both at once so its loud enough to fill the room with dance music. Also, the soundbar has a large wireless subwoofer that would really help bolster the two bookshelf speakers.

I managed to get both working at once by running an RCA cable from the output on the receiver to the soundbar's aux input. That works, but there's a notable lag on the soundbar.

I can add a manual sync delay on the soundbar, but that doesn't help since it's already behind the bookshelf speakers. Do you know of any way to lag the bookshelf speakers to sync them with the lagging soundbar?

Nope, no idea how to add in a lag on purpose to the audio output.

 

[americanaudiophile]

The way you connected it is the only way you could.
Since the delay is in the soundbar check to see if you can turn off any processing in the soundbar. Sometimes that will reduce or eliminate the delay.
Plan B would be to borrow or rent a pair of PA speakers and run them with the receiver. A far better solution if you can swing it.