Audio Interface and Y cables?

K

kriz808

New member
Would using a Y cable on my audio interface damage my equipment or suffer from quality or volume by doing this? Would it even work?


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what brand subwoofer?

most designed for use in mixing/playback situations have the ability to split the signal out from the sub to each of the satellite speakers, whilst extracting the sub 175Hz (depending on where you set the crossover point) signal for itself: no need for "y" cables at all

"y" cables are fine when you are trying to split an audio send to more than one location, but using them to mix two sources into a single source is never a good idea - electronics theory suggests that you will unduly burden the output stage of the two devices/sources as both signals will try to travel back to the other source
 
The subwoofer is a Athena AS-P4000, a home theater sub. It does not have outputs for monitors. It has high level inputs and a low level rca input. From what it looks like, it probably wont work. Shame... such a damn fine sub...
 
Setup #2

Another attempt to hook up a sub-woofer to my home studio where my monitors do not have a sub-out, or my sub does not have outputs for passive monitors.

Will it work? I have ordered a digital-to-analog converter to test this method out. Will post an update as soon as I get to try it out (2/9/15).

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sorry won't work - your diagram shows you using only 1 spdif channel to generate the sub signal when you require both

look into what the sub form the m-audio's costs to buy - it may well be cheaper in the long run than trying to finesses your way around the problem
 
bandcoach said:
sorry won't work - your diagram shows you using only 1 spdif channel to generate the sub signal when you require both

look into what the sub form the m-audio's costs to buy - it may well be cheaper in the long run than trying to finesses your way around the problem
Click to expand...

Since I downloaded the pdf manual for the audio interface that read:
"S/PDIF OUT – Connect the digital input of another device (e.g., a stereo system receiver, solid-state flash recorder, etc.) to this output using a 75 Ω coaxial (RCA) cable. The signal sent from this output is identical to that of the MAIN OUT. "

It would be a bummer if it only received a sound source from the s/pdif in other than the USB connected to the PC for audio out to the main TRS output.
 
Kriz-- Are the speakers active (powered/with amp), or passive (unpowered)? Is the sub active or passive? Internal crossover? If by "high level inputs" on the speakers, you mean "needs powered signal using speaker wire," then line-level signal will not do it for you. Need some more detail on the gear...

And most definitely mind what Coach said (even though it doesn't look like you're trying to combine at all in your examples)-- Only use a Wye-cable ("Y-cable") to split signal, never combine. That unauthorized usage can cause you a lot of trouble.

GJ
 
So it looks like setup #2 worked and has digital signal converted to analog signal running to the subwoofers low level input. Only problem is I cant control the volume of the sub via the audio interface main level knob. Only through windows volume. That will not be a problem for me, I just needed my sub to work since my studio monitors did not have sub-out and my subwoofer is not a studio subwoofer.

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I retract my earlier objections go with and let us know what you think of the final results
 
Sweet jesus! They sound so good!!! Instead of the BX5 Carbons, I went with the JBL LS305 studio monitors paired with my athena as-p4000 subwoofer. I have owned a pair of KRK Rokit 6's before and they didn't sound this good.
Still need me some padding for the wall and under the monitors and a break in period for the monitors to get an even better sound out of them.

Thanks to all who helped here. Much appreciated.

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