My surround receiver has some issues, so I brought it in for repair. That leaves me with my stereo amplifier (Denon PMA-1500, one could do worse…) and a lot of speakers. Of course I can only hook up the two front speakers. They are full range satellites, so basically I don’t need more. But I’m at home, with too much time on my hand, so I wanted to connect the subwoofer as well. It’s an active subwoofer, so it should be connected un-amplified. My analog Denon only has a pre-out (no digital out), which are two RCA connectors, one red, one white, you know the drill. It’s not difficult to connect those to the subwoofers line-in counterparts, albeit that the subwoofer is not in close proximity of the amplifier.
So….I googled around to see whether I could use my coaxial digital cables on a regular RCA. Turns out a lot of people are doing it the other way around, just to hook up their set el-cheapo-style. I figured: why not the other way around? I took two coaxial digital cables, connected them correctly (left to left and right to right) and switched on the subwoofer. To hear…..perfectly good sound. YES!
On the left the back of the amplifier, on the right the back of the subwoofer
In case you were wondering, the yellow cables are a pair of Vandenhul D-102 MkIII. They are great when using Denon equipment.