Subwoofer recommendation needed

At the amplifier end of the Neutrik cable there are three bare wires. Twist the single black (i.e. -ve) one of these wires with speaker wire that goes into one (doesn't matter which) of your -ve banana plugs for your main L/R speakers.

Twist the other two Neutrik cable wires with the speaker wires that go into the +ve banana plugs of the main L/R speakers.

So at the end three of your banana plugs will have an additional wire coming out of them. One of the negative ones will not.

Are you with me?
Hello Sir,

Was chatting to BK Electronics today re the XXLS400-FF re the wiring of the high end cable and it appears following clarity i can use the spare 'B' speaker terminals. They followed it up with an email as follows:

"The high level lead comes with Speakon plug that connects into the subwoofer and three bare wire that connect to the speaker terminals on your amplifier. I have Googled your amplifier and see that it has 2 sets of binding posts. This gives you more options, you can put the bare wires straight into the binding posts and screw them down and if you are using Banana plugs on channel A then you can either screw the wires down on the binding posts or put Banana lugs on the bare wires".

They said this negates the need to twist cables together etc and simply to select both 'A' and 'B' speakers on the front of the AMP.

For a dumb ass like me, this would be simpler lol, lol.

I assume this means i will have one of the terminals free as there are only 3 wires. Hopefully this ties in with your own thoughts.

Really appreciate all your help to date, its been invaluable in helping both my own knowledge and to help make an informed decision.

Simon.
 
Personally I wouldn’t do it that way as you’re only running one pair of speakers. There’s nothing difficult, complicated or time consuming about twisting two wires together before inserting them into a connector as if they were one wire. This is how these subs are designed to work which the instructions will confirm if you buy the sub.
 
It makes no difference which way you do it; you’re just wiring your mains and sub in parallel.

Before I had my AVR I was using a stereo amp and I had my subs wired to the ‘B’ speaker terminals.

If anything, using the speaker B terminals gives you a more convenient way of turning off your sub, and you could argue you’d get a better contact using separate cables in the terminals rather than twisting cables together.
 
I know it will give the same result but personally I would still choose to twist them into the speaker wires because it's quick, easy and to me there's simply no reason not to.

The Speakon cable wires are such a tiny gauge (well mine are at least) that I think they would quite difficult to clamp securely on their own into banana plugs plus you need three less banana plugs. If you're using soldered plugs or bare speaker terminals I guess these are non-issues. I would also always prefer not to rely on an internal parallel splitter if I can.

The only possible advantage I see of the other way is that you could perform A/B listening tests of your speakers with or without the sub at the press of a button which might help with getting it dialled in when setting it up.
 
Personally I wouldn’t do it that way as you’re only running one pair of speakers. There’s nothing difficult, complicated or time consuming about twisting two wires together before inserting them into a connector as if they were one wire. This is how these subs are designed to work which the instructions will confirm if you buy the sub.
Thank you, i think i will take your advice.
Once its delivered will drop you a line just to make sure i dont blow the place up.
 
Once its delivered will drop you a line just to make sure i dont blow the place up.
No problem. I think you're going to be very impressed with it.
 
You have no form of bass management in that amp nor any pre-outs (fixed voltage "record out" doesn't count) so you'll need a high (i.e. speaker) level connection to the sub.

As you're in the UK I would probably go for a sealed sub in BK's range (all have speaker level inputs), the choice of which will depend on space available and your budget but the bigger the better.

Well hello my friend, me again. I’m finally ready to order the sub.
The BK one is coming in at £500 odd quid when I take in the shipping to Northern Ireland and to be honest i probably do not want to spend more than around £300 to £350.
Based on our discussion in this thread are there any others aside from BK that you would recommend and are connected the same way etc. Any additional makes and model numbers that would also give me the high level bass management function that you refer to?
Thanks again for all your help, Simon.
 
Well hello my friend, me again. I’m finally ready to order the sub.
The BK one is coming in at £500 odd quid when I take in the shipping to Northern Ireland and to be honest i probably do not want to spend more than around £300 to £350.
Based on our discussion in this thread are there any others aside from BK that you would recommend and are connected the same way etc. Any additional makes and model numbers that would also give me the high level bass management function that you refer to?
Thanks again for all your help, Simon.
I don’t know of any cheaper subs that use the same system so I would suggest you look further down the BK range. Frankly, proper subs don’t really come any cheaper than BK’s offerings. My first proper (HiFi grade) sub was a REL Q100 which cost £500 way back in 1997 and it was only a 100W sealed sub with a paper 12” driver.

My advice is to take a long term view on purchases like this. A quality sub could easily last 15+ years in which case an extra £150 would only equate to £10 a year.
 
I don’t know of any cheaper subs that use the same system so I would suggest you look further down the BK range. Frankly, proper subs don’t really come any cheaper than BK’s offerings. My first proper (HiFi grade) sub was a REL Q100 which cost £500 way back in 1997 and it was only a 100W sealed sub with a paper 12” driver.

My advice is to take a long term view on purchases like this. A quality sub could easily last 15+ years in which case an extra £150 would only equate to £10 a year.
Thanks for the honesty.
If I was to opt for the attached, what would I compromise?


I’m only using for hi-fi not home audio but if I stepped down to this in line with the Cambridge Audio Aero 6 speakers would it cause problems or is it missing any key functionality that I would need I.e bass management?

best

simon
 
The XXLS400 certainly has the better reputation of the two. It’s a bigger sub with a larger 12” Peerless driver and more power so should be expected to be able to play lower, louder and have less distortion.

That said, as I haven’t owned either of those two subs I‘m not really in a position to comment meaningfully on this but if you phone BK and ask them directly I’m sure they will tell you.
 
The XXLS400 certainly has the better reputation of the two. It’s a bigger sub with a larger 12” Peerless driver and more power so should be expected to be able to play lower, louder and have less distortion.

That said, as I haven’t owned either of those two subs I‘m not really in a position to comment meaningfully on this but if you phone BK and ask them directly I’m sure they will tell you.
I would definitely spend the extra and get the XXLS400 personally. I'm sure Tom @ BK will concur! As @Mr Wolf says a subwoofer is a long term investment, so spending the extra now, is worth it and cost effective imo 🙂
 
I would definitely spend the extra and get the XXLS400 personally. I'm sure Tom @ BK will concur! As @Mr Wolf says a subwoofer is a long term investment, so spending the extra now, is worth it and cost effective imo 🙂
Well sir, just thought I would check in with you in the attached.

Firstly, a very happy, peaceful and safe New Year to you.
Been really enjoying the XXLS400-FF sub.

However, recently my wife was cleaning and managed to reset all the dials 🤦‍♂️

I’m just wondering, using this sub alongside the Cambridge Audio Aero 6 speaks, what are the ideal settings for this sub?

I like a good bit of punch and a lot of my music is dance based or metal.

Just wondering what settings would compliment the speakers best as previous I was just playing around with same with little or no idea as to what I was doing

Best

Simon
 
Well sir, just thought I would check in with you in the attached.

Firstly, a very happy, peaceful and safe New Year to you.
Been really enjoying the XXLS400-FF sub.

However, recently my wife was cleaning and managed to reset all the dials 🤦‍♂️

I’m just wondering, using this sub alongside the Cambridge Audio Aero 6 speaks, what are the ideal settings for this sub?

I like a good bit of punch and a lot of my music is dance based or metal.

Just wondering what settings would compliment the speakers best as previous I was just playing around with same with little or no idea as to what I was doing

Best

Simon
Hi Simon. Thanks for the seasonal greetings!

Firstly, can I check some basic system details with you? I'll then be able to give guidance of some basic subwoofer speaker settings etc. (These are of course tweekable to your liking, but the basic settings will give a good starting point).

Is this a music only system or multichannel? If multichannel, how many speakers in total?

What AVR/amp model do you have?

Edit: I was being lazy before (not rereading the thread! 🙊)....

Now I've done this I can see you're using a high level Neutrik (speakon cable) connection to a Marantz Stereo integrated amp......

Dialling in (integrating the sub) into your Cambridge Audio Main speakers will be a lot of trial and error - unless you have a measurement mic & REW.
 
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Hi Simon. Thanks for the seasonal greetings!

Firstly, can I check some basic system details with you? I'll then be able to give guidance of some basic subwoofer speaker settings etc. (These are of course tweekable to your liking, but the basic settings will give a good starting point).

Is this a music only system or multichannel? If multichannel, how many speakers in total?

What AVR/amp model do you have?
Hi Friend,

The system is used for Music only.

2 x Cambridge Audo Aero 6 speakers
1 x Marantz PM6005 AMP
1 x BK Electronics XXLS400-FF sub.

That is it

Does this help?

Best

Simon.
 
Hi Friend,

The system is used for Music only.

2 x Cambridge Audo Aero 6 speakers
1 x Marantz PM6005 AMP
1 x BK Electronics XXLS400-FF sub.

That is it

Does this help?

Best

Simon.
Based on my edit to my previous post (and do correct me if I'm wrong). But I assume you have the sub connected to the PM6005 via it's high level lead?

If this is the case. I start by doing the following:

1. Play a familiar piece of music that has a good range of frequencies (particularly in the bass department).

2. Set the "high level" gain dial on the sub to halfway (12 O'clock) and the crossover dial to 60Hz....

Then adjust both the high level gain & crossover dial until the bass from the sub "blends into the mains". You'll need to do this by ear and may need to listen to the track multiple times as you adjust each setting.

Once you're happy with the overall sound, take a picture of the rear of the sub for future reference so you can reset the dials to the same position.

This process would be a lot easier with a measurement MIC and REW (software). Or an amp with built in bass management. But with a bit of trial and time you should be able to get the bass punch you like.
 
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My old REL Q100 works the same way and (way back in 1997) came with these instructions. This is all done by ear. My experience is that, if in doubt, it is much better to have the LPF on the low side otherwise you get an undesirable boom from overlapping “double bass”.

BEC488F1-3572-446B-9CDF-0087B7052DBC.jpeg
 
Once you're happy with the overall sound, take a picture of the rear of the sub for future reference so you can reset the dials to the same position
Mine just has bare dials with no scale so I counted the number of clicks in each (40) and made a note of how many my favourite settings were from the full anti-clockwise position. I’m at about 17/40 on the LPF and 19/40 on the volume (still have the sub).
 
Based on my edit to my previous post (and do correct me if I'm wrong). But I assume you have the sub connected to the PM6005 via it's high level lead?

If this is the case. I start by doing the following:

1. Play a familiar piece of music that has a good range of frequencies (particularly in the bass department).

2. Set the "high level" gain dial on the sub to halfway (12 O'clock) and the crossover dial to 60Hz....

Then adjust both the high level gain & crossover dial until the bass from the sub "blends into the mains". You'll need to do this by ear and may need to listen to the track multiple times as you adjust each setting.

Once you're happy with the overall sound, take a picture of the rear of the sub for future reference so you can reset the dials to the same position.

This process would be a lot easier with a measurement MIC and REW (software). Or an amp with built in bass management. But with a bit of trial and time you should be able to get the bass punch you like.
That is great, thank you so much. What should i do with the low level gain, filter in/out and Phase dials if anything?
 
That is great, thank you so much. What should i do with the low level gain, filter in/out and Phase dials if anything?
Low level Gain - leave at zero (although changing it won't have any effect on the sub) - since you're not using a RCA cable, aka low level connection.

Filter - set to "in"

Phase - is usually fine on zero
 

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