Subwoofer Connection Made Easy: How to Connect Without a Subwoofer Output

The subwoofer is the only audio appliance capable of handling your music’s low frequencies to make them sound irresistible in your “home orchestra”. So adding it to your existing audio system is not a big deal and is not even a high cost. Still, it’s of some tricks depending on the type of your subwoofer and receiver model.

I dedicated this article completely to the question of how to connect a subwoofer to the receiver without subwoofer output. Here I will answer all your questions and share my insights and secrets.

Subwoofer connection options

So, you have a subwoofer but cannot find any output on your receiver. “I was fooled, and they sold me the broken device,” – you might think first. Well, the truth is, receivers don’t have any specific outs for subs most often, so other connection types are used. The most popular types of subwoofer connections are:

Speaker-level input connections

The input connections for a subwoofer can vary depending on the specific model and manufacturer. However, there are two common types of input connections for subwoofers: line-level inputs and speaker-level inputs.

• Line-level inputs: These are typically RCA or 3.5mm (auxiliary) inputs and are the most common to connect a subwoofer to a receiver. Line-level inputs are designed to receive a low-level signal from a preamplifier, audio receiver, or a dedicated subwoofer output on an AV receiver. They usually have a left and right input, and you would connect the corresponding outputs from your audio source or receiver to the subwoofer’s line-level inputs.
• Speaker-level inputs: Some subwoofers provide speaker-level inputs, which allow you to connect them directly to your amplifier or receiver’s speaker outputs. To connect using speaker-level inputs, you would run a speaker wire from the amplifier or receiver’s speaker outputs to the corresponding speaker-level inputs on the subwoofer. This allows the subwoofer to receive the full range of audio signals and extract the low-frequency content.

Also note that some subwoofers may have both line-level and speaker-level inputs, so you can choose between the two. I also recommend using wireless connectivity options available in many subwoofers, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. This eliminates the need for physical connections.

Preamp and Zone 2 output connections

This is another popular way to hook up a subwoofer to a receiver. When connecting a subwoofer to a preamp or Zone 2 output, here are a couple of scenarios:

I also recommend consulting the user manual or documentation for your specific preamp, amplifier, receiver, and subwoofer to ensure you connected everything correctly.

Line-level adapters and external devices

You can also use line-level adapters or external devices to establish the connection between your subwoofer and receiver. Here’s how you can do it:

Using line-level adapters or external devices, you can convert the speaker-level signal into a line-level signal that the subwoofer can accept through line-level inputs. This method allows you to connect a subwoofer even if your audio system or receiver lacks dedicated subwoofer outputs.