need help connecting a subwoofer to an amplifier

coril

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Hello,

I am a complete newbie in this terrain and need some help setting up my subwoofer. I have bought a mivoc hype 10 g2 subwoofer, and want to connect it to my Laptop with an amp.

I have this Lepy Amp here LEPY LP-V3S-SILVER LP-V3S digitalförstärkare 25Wx2, silver, silver : Amazon.se: Elektronik.
This is the subwoofer Amazon product ASIN B00F0JPUFQ

I already have a cable to connect my Laptop to the MP3 input slot on the amp, how do I connect the amp to the subwoofer?

I have bought some speaker cable. The speaker cable has two strands with different colours. I guess they somewhere need to go into the "R+, R-,L+, or L- slots.

And then into the subwoofer, which has 8 of these red/black slots, 4 of them "in", and 4 of them "out". Can anyone advise how to connect the cables?

Pictures of both the amp and the subwoofer attached.

Thanks,

Cori
 

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There is a picture on the Amazon listing showing what needs to be done.

E65E3425-BBB1-431C-B12A-FC4B6BEBBA90.jpeg


Connect your Laptop to the 2ch amp, you have the cable already (I assume it’s a 3.5mm headphone cable).

Then connect as per the pic, which is showing that you take the speaker outputs from the amp, and in to the respective high-level ‘In’ connectors on the sub. Then connect from the high-level ‘out’ on the sub, to your left/right spekers.
When connecting, make sure you connect + to + and - to -. The cable colours allow you to make that distinction easily. I don‘t know what colours or markings your cable has, and really it doesn’t matter which you choose for + or for - connections. The critical thing is just make sure you connect the same at each end.

For sub setup, on the sub set the phase to 0, level and crossover to about a 10 o’clock position. Trial and error though form now I’m afraid, as ultimately you will have to experiment with these to suit your speakers and where everything is placed in your room, no one can tell you what will work best here.

Once you have the level and crossover setup it should essentially be that the sub is just providing a seamless extension to your speakers. It should not be obviously loud, or obviously localised in terms of hearing where the bass is coming from. If its too loud, you have the level too high, if it’s really obvious where the bass is coming from (i.e not the main speakers), then you’ll have the crossover too high.
The phase, well not really a quick or concise way to explain - so I sugget before playing with the level and crossover dials, try flicking the phase back and forth between 0 and 180. If one of them sounds decently ‘better’, then stick to that setting and then go on to adjust the other dials.

And once the sub is setup, leave it alone - it should be well blended to your speakers if you’ve done a decent job. Volume control is done via the 2ch amp that feeds the signal to the sub.
 
Hi Rich,

Thanks for your input, that is very helpful. So, I need to connect all of the four slots on the amp R+, R-,L+, and L-, to the subwoofer? Somewhere else I read that you only need to connect two of these, and someone even told me that my amp is unsuitable for the subwoofer, so I am a bit confused now.

As I don't have speakers yet, would it be possible to just test the sub with the setup you mentioned, without adding speakers?

Cori
 
Yeah all 4 connections to the sub, and all 4 connections from the sub to speakers, the signal passes through the sub.
As to if the amp is unsuitable, then the LEPY which is no doubt a Class D amp can be funny with high-level, but as far as I'm aware it's only when the speakers are connected to the LEPY. In that scenario then yeah you can have issues, you would like need 2 or 3 cables and it gets a bit more complicated - avoid that!
In the passthrough config then there shouldn't be any issues to connect that way.

However....if you don't have speakers then honestly I would get a set of active speakers with an RCA sub out:
Amazon product ASIN B07GBG8H14
Depends on your budget but these (come in 3 models) all have the same connectivity, which is simple and safe to hook up.
They also have an optical connector so if you have an optical out from your laptop (some MacBooks for example) then you might find it better to connect this way rather than in to either the RCA or 3.5mm Line in (depends what analog cable you have).

61Zt8Z25bAL._AC_SL1000_.jpg



If you want to spend a lot more money, KEF LSX or LS WII are great active options, and the sub out has a crossover and all that stuff built in to the app you control them with!
 
That was really helpful, thanks. I just tried out the setup you suggested, with four cables, connecting the amp to the subwoofer.

At first no sound came at all, then I played around with the settings on the amp, and after a while I got some intermittent sounds coming out of the sub - stuttering and unclear, but it did resemble the track that I was playing somewhat (I was playing sounds under 200hz, therefore lack of speakers couldn't have been the problem). What could I be doing wrong? The speaker cables I bought are slightly too large and therefore some of the copper strands didn't fit quite neatly into the holes, could that be the problem?

I also didn't have a cable stripper so I just used scissors and I actually did cut off one or two of the thin cables inside, maybe it is that?

Or maybe that my sound input comes from a small MP3 player?

I did make sure to connect from plus to plus, and minus to minus.

I am a bit at a loss right now, any ideas what I could try?

Cori
 
That was really helpful, thanks. I just tried out the setup you suggested, with four cables, connecting the amp to the subwoofer.

At first no sound came at all, then I played around with the settings on the amp, and after a while I got some intermittent sounds coming out of the sub - stuttering and unclear, but it did resemble the track that I was playing somewhat (I was playing sounds under 200hz, therefore lack of speakers couldn't have been the problem). What could I be doing wrong? The speaker cables I bought are slightly too large and therefore some of the copper strands didn't fit quite neatly into the holes, could that be the problem?

I also didn't have a cable stripper so I just used scissors and I actually did cut off one or two of the thin cables inside, maybe it is that?

Or maybe that my sound input comes from a small MP3 player?

I did make sure to connect from plus to plus, and minus to minus.

I am a bit at a loss right now, any ideas what I could try?

Cori
There's a few issues with all of this. but ultimately playing and assessing without the speakers in place strikes me as a frivolous task!

I'm not sure I understand what the problem is fully, the sub wasn't playing enough (volume, or content?)? where was the volume of the mp3 at? and on the amp? and the sub gain?! - there's 3 parts to this chain.
You should run the mp3 at max volume, the LEPY in normal listening I'd assume less than 50%, the sub is a gain and wants setting up as previously describing - matching to the amp/speakers and then not touching again. (and you obviously can't set the sub gain correctly without the speakers!)

Get the speakers, and to make life easier get actives. I think you'll have a way better time of it.
 
The problem was that the sound was "stuttering"...meaning, it was just coming out intermittently. Playing and then stopping again. And it didn't really sound like a subwoofer either, more like a normal speaker (bass couldn't even be felt). I fumbled around with it a bit more, and now somehow it is working amazingly well. I have no idea what I did 😂. I am scared now to touch it because I don't want to ruin it again.

Of course you are right, eventually I will need speakers. The ones you mentioned were a great suggestion. You helped me get this thing running, big thumbs up to you! 👍
 
In which case could be down to the speaker terminals, those 'clip' type terminals are pretty notorious for being a pain! As a rule if it ain't got banana plugs, I'm not giving it a second thought!!
 
Yes I realised this today, it was pretty fimbly (is that a word?) to get the wires in there. Hopefully it will keep running as beautifully as it does now, if not I might get some wire that is the right size and actually fits into the holes properly. The adventure continues...
 

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