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Thread: technical advice on a subwoofer

  1. #1
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: South London UK

    Posts: 168
    I'm Colin.

    Default technical advice on a subwoofer

    Please help. Love my small Martin Logan Speakers but would like to add a sub. These are powered via Musical Fidelity JS modded power amp via my Naim Unilite. So far so good & yes theres a big improvement via the power amp as opposed to just using the Naim amp.
    Trouble is theres only 1 audio out which is taken by the power amp.
    Would it be possible to connect a sub via the Naim speaker terminals? ( I know the amp can be switched to using internal & external amps). If so, would it need to be a passive sub amp & how could I then control its volume independently of the external amp.
    Could someone out me straight here & possibly recommend a suitable sub?
    thanks
    Colin

    Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk

  2. #2
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: Kent

    Posts: 76
    I'm Steve.

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    I'm not familiar with the amp or streamer Colin but it sounds like you should be looking for a sub with a 'high level input' where the sub input wires are connected to the speaker terminals of the amp (as well as the speakers). I have one by BK Electronics whose products seem well regarded by two channel listeners (I used mine with Frugel Horn speakers). Mine was/is great but I only use it in LFE mode now for surround sound.

    In high level mode the amp in the sub acts as a slave so when you turn the amp volume up the sub volume goes up too. Have a look at https://www.bkelec.com/ and you should get more information. Their subs came with high level connections but I think they sell them separately so you can have a look at one to get the gist of how they're connected.

  3. #3
    Join Date: Nov 2019

    Location: Manchester

    Posts: 115
    I'm Richard.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Colinijohnson View Post
    Please help. Love my small Martin Logan Speakers but would like to add a sub. These are powered via Musical Fidelity JS modded power amp via my Naim Unilite. So far so good & yes theres a big improvement via the power amp as opposed to just using the Naim amp.
    Trouble is theres only 1 audio out which is taken by the power amp.
    Would it be possible to connect a sub via the Naim speaker terminals? ( I know the amp can be switched to using internal & external amps). If so, would it need to be a passive sub amp & how could I then control its volume independently of the external amp.
    Could someone out me straight here & possibly recommend a suitable sub?
    thanks
    Colin

    Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk
    In this setup you'd want to connect to the power amp speaker outs in parallel to the Martin Logans. It would be hard to balance output from the power amp and the Naim going into different sets of speakers. The BKEs are active but once connected would act like another speaker as dahdit say - controlled with amp volume.

    This was exactly my setup with some PMC stand mounts plus a BKE bought off ebay as a second with a big saving on ones straight from the factory.

    For me unfortunately it didn't quite work out as despite extensive twiddling and analysis I could never get a holistic sound - I always felt the bass was a separate thing. Many will say "ah but you didn't use such and such DSP and stand on one leg outside with a copy of the Financial Times dated March 17th......". I moved to floorstanders and sold the sub in June - and the PMCs.

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