Video Asylum

Posted by avjguy (A) on March 25, 2005 at 11:46:37

In Reply to: New to 5.1 - Have a few questions please posted by bamadawg_63 on March 21, 2005 at 20:07:00:

This old sub is passive, which is fine. Generally when you use the in and out on the subwoofer there are some capacitors to roll off the lowest frequencies to the mains. This may not be necessary with your Cerwin Vega Mains, but it would probably be slightly safer for the amplifier relative to the summed load in the bass being difficult for many amps. IF the Rotel is very powerful and can run 2 ohm loads, I wouldn't worry, but if it rated only for 4 ohm at minimum, it could be a problem. Cerwin Vega's are traditionally very high sensitivity, which is also in your favor, but leads me to see a different problem. You are using the Realistic minimus speakers in the back, which are probably 6 to 10 db less sensitive with one watt. You may be able to adjust the volume with static test tones to get the rears as loud as the fronts ( and I would do this by turning the front down, not the rear up ), but you are likely to find that in loud scenes you will not be able to hear the rears. This is a very common problem when using high and low sensitivity speakers together. If you do find this problem to be true, you should look for some Cerwin Vegas, Infinity (SM series ONLY), or some Klipsch, trying to find some speakers with a sensitvity rating not more than 3 db different than the fronts.