Connecting sub-woofer to Yamaha surround amplifier.

[Johnno]

Hi,
I recently bought a surround amplifier from Ebay. Good price , came with 4 speakers and a sub woofer , all are Yamaha. The set up came with no speaker leads. No problem for me, I thought , I have been connecting speakers many times during my 80 years, however, the issue is with connecting the sub woofer. It must be passive as there is no power input jack. All the speakers including the sub-woofer have spring clip connectors, which match the connectors at the amp side , except the woofer. This has an RCA audio jack. Am I missing something or is there actually a cable available which has 1 single normal audio jack which plugs in to the amplifier at one end and standard speaker wire at the other? I have always wanted a sub-woofer so I hope this issue can be solved.
Thanks
Johnno

 

[Shaggy]

Hi,
I recently bought a surround amplifier from Ebay. Good price , came with 4 speakers and a sub woofer , all are Yamaha. The set up came with no speaker leads. No problem for me, I thought , I have been connecting speakers many times during my 80 years, however, the issue is with connecting the sub woofer. It must be passive as there is no power input jack. All the speakers including the sub-woofer have spring clip connectors, which match the connectors at the amp side , except the woofer. This has an RCA audio jack. Am I missing something or is there actually a cable available which has 1 single normal audio jack which plugs in to the amplifier at one end and standard speaker wire at the other? I have always wanted a sub-woofer so I hope this issue can be solved.
Thanks
Johnno

Before you go hunting for a cable its worth pinning down what that sub actually is, because a single RCA jack tells a different story than spring clips do. A lone RCA on a sub is almost always a line-level input, the kind fed from a receivers SUBWOOFER OUT with a normal RCA cable, not speaker wire. That type is powered, so it should have a mains lead somewhere. Worth another look for a power inlet, sometimes its a recessed socket or an external brick rather than an obvious jack.

There isnt really a cable that turns a single RCA into speaker wire, the two carry totally different signals, so Id skip that idea, it wont end well.

If you can post the exact model numbers off the amp and the sub, someone can point you at the right hookup. Yamaha did these a few different ways and the manual for your set will show which one you got.