Weird monaural cord (too small?!)

[felixht]

Alright, I'm aware this is a longshot but here goes.

First off, I don't have anything in front of me, things got a little slow in my office so I decided to try figuring this out once and for all.

Here is my problem: I have a Sony HT-DDW990 home theater receiver system. Everything about it worked fine until once time I moved it around from one room to another and then a few days later I notice that the subwoofer is not making any sound. It's a powered sub which connects to the receiver via 1 rca cable (labelled a "monaural audio cord" in the instruction manual), and that cable goes into a dedicated Sub output on the receiver.

I checked the power and there was indeed a tone if I put my finger on the rca input of the sub. I figured it must be my RCA cable so I switched it with a random red, yellow or white rca cable from my drawer. Here is where I noticed I had a real problem.

One of the ends of the "monaural audio cord" that had come with the system is SMALLER than a normal RCA jack, and it goes into the subwoofer which has a SLIGHTLY smaller RCA input. Meaning, I CANNOT connect my subwoofer to my receiver without this cable, and it seems to no longer work.

Now, this whole deal happened over a year and a half ago. Despite my best googling efforts, I haven't found ANY information on a strange sized RCA jack or the cable or the subwoofer or ANYTHING, even on all the message boards and the tech support sites.

please help!

 

[soundguruman]

If the connector on the sub is SLIGHTLY smaller, then you take a pair of pliers and squeeze gently the outer sleeve of the RCA plug, so it grips. Sometimes you gotta do that, on some RCA connectors.
I couldn't find any replacement cable for that system either.
I'm not looking at it, but some RCAs have to be squeezed down to size, unless it's some proprietary connector. It would not surprise me if Sony used a proprietary connector. Sony replacement part support is not very impressive. But try squeezing one, and see if you can get it to fit.

 

[felixht]

I don't have it in front of me because it's in storage until I move, but squeezing it might work, if anything...

I don't have very high hopes, because of the way these things usually work, aha. Do you know of anywhere I could possibly order that proprietary piece? I'm thinking some parts dealer somewhere might have it... I really hope I can get this fixed because my system is pretty worthless without the sub...

 

[MEgamer]

im pretty sure RCA and monaural audio cables are different, as mono.. well is mono, where as RCA u either have left right, and more on some receivers.

 

[MEgamer]

http/www.monstercable.com/home_av/audio_cables/subwoofer.asp this is the kind of cable u want

a MONOAURAL cable, is exactly what is says.

monster cable makes some great interconnects, u should check em out.

 

[soundguruman]

Monster cable has been compared to coat hanger wire in blind tests, and the expert listeners picked the coat hanger wire as sounding better. Personally, I can not imagine a bigger waste of money. Radio shack sells cables that will work just as well for 1/10th the price.

RCA connectors are supposed to be standard, but occasionally you will find a female jack that is a bit smaller, and squeezing down the male connector slightly usually solves the problem. I have done that many times, and it worked every time.

But no, I did search, and could not find any supplier of that cable. Just use a regular RCA cable.

You can try contacting Sony parts, but they have not been a huge amount of help in the past.

If you still can't get it to fit, I would open the cabinet and solder a shielded audio cable to the connections, at least that would make it work again.

 

[MEgamer]

then u havent searched enough, whethers its crap or not, subwoofer interconnects are very popular cables, probably jsut after speaker terminal wires.

http/www.amazon.com/Monster-Standard-THX-Certified-Subwoofer-Interconnect/dp/B00006RHZG

http/www.amazon.com/Belkin-PureAV-AV20500-25-25-Foot-Subwoofer/dp/B0001XGQTA/ref=pd_cp_e_2

http/www.amazon.com/Acoustic-Research-MS252-Subwoofer-y-adaptor/dp/B0002RPSKS/ref=sr_1_22?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1279358018&sr=1-22

http/www.amazon.com/Philips-SWA3604W-27-Subwoofer-Cable/dp/B001U3YA1G/ref=sr_1_44?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1279358088&sr=1-44

and anyway why would THX certify cables that sound worse then standard subwoofer cables? (sounding better does not always mean its more accurate.)

 

[MEgamer]

there like £8 cmon....

 

[MEgamer]

IMO i think QED makes the best cables.

http/www.qed.co.uk/index.htm

not sure how many resellers there are outside of UK though.

 

[soundguruman]

Yes, that's a hotly debated issue, spending maga bucks on "more accurate" cables... but for a normal system, the consumer grade cables work just fine, and don't cost an arm and a leg.
For very long cables, silvered wire does have less loss. For environments where salt air causes corrosion, gold plated connectors can really help.
But really, in most systems with normal short cables, does spending lots of money really make it sound better? Using super thick speaker wire really make it sound better? Oh, come on now. I've been a tech for 35 years, and I know when somebody's yanking my chain. Unless your amplifiers equal 22,500 watts RMS...I have really hooked up systems with that much power, and we used marine grade rope-lay cables, for less than $1 a foot.

 

[MEgamer]

lol salt air...

well its not just me, there are other ppl who im sure have spent loads on jsut cables, claim that they can hear loads of differences, all i can tell is the bass and treble.. and thats about it really.

 

[soundguruman]

Ya, when you live near the ocean the air actually speeds up the oxidization of the connectors, and gold plating is more resistant to it. It actually does make a difference. Also coating the connectors with deoxit 100 helps quite a lot.
But if you don't live near the ocean it's not that much of an issue.

 

[soundguruman]

I don't have it in front of me because it's in storage until I move, but squeezing it might work, if anything...

I don't have very high hopes, because of the way these things usually work, aha. Do you know of anywhere I could possibly order that proprietary piece? I'm thinking some parts dealer somewhere might have it... I really hope I can get this fixed because my system is pretty worthless without the sub...

I found the sony part numbers for this system:

https/servicesales.sel.sony.com /ecom/accessories/web/productSearch.do?sessionId=BWhCiLPhaJtxt4xF_21ydAq

take the spaces out of the above link before copy paste to browser...

176943362 CORD, SPEAKER
175134713 CORD,10M SPEAKER SHORT
176932923* CORD, CONNECTION (PIN-PIN)

But I don't know which speaker cable is the correct one for the sub, there is no pictures or descriptions.