I've recently taken the plunge into the magical world of hifi, and am in the process of putting the finishing touches on my first set up and would love some advice. I'm currently running a musical fidelity x-150 integrated out to infinity primus 150s via canare 4S11 cables. My audio sources are a remodded pioneer PL10 turntable with shure m97xe cartrige (purchased off Audiogon) which came with MIT interconnects, and FLAC files played through my macbook using a audioquest dragonfly USB DAC. Bought everything used (except for the mac, which I already owned), and it ran me around ~1000. This set up has served me well for several months now, but the infinitys jsut weren't putting out enough low end and I decided to add a sub. Grabbed a Miller and Kriesel VX-4 (old, but in great shape) off of ebay for under 100 (I'm already well over my initial budget) and am having some difficulty with it. The x-150 only has LR speaker outs, no sub line, so I'm forced to go through the high level inputs. The problem here is the vx-4 only has spring clip connections, no 5-way posts, so I'm unable to use my canares (spade terminations) to connect back to my speakers. I have some monoprice 12awg speaker wire I planned on using to run to the sub, but I'm unsure of how to configure everything properly. My solution for now has been to connect both my canares (for infinitys) and monoprice cables (for sub) to the same binding post. I'm worried that in doing this there will not be enough contact with the spades.
Long intro, I know. Here are my questions:
-Am I better off just using the monoprice cable (bare wire) to connect to the sub and then run the high level outs from the sub to my speakers? This would forgoe using my canares, which is fine, but I spent 60 bucks on em and don't want them to go to waste.
-Is it advisable to connect the two cables I have so that both have a solid connection on the same binding post? Right now my connection does not seem very secure, but I'm also wary of overtightening the posts. With spades and bare wire is this even possible?
-If my connection currently is not recieving enough contact or whatever, how would that manifest itself in the sound? I've noticed the infinitys by themselves sound a bit more anemic, and the mid-to-upper frequency range (piano, female vocals) sounds less present.
-Once I get everything set up right, what would be the best setting for the LPF on my sub? The frequency range on the infinitys goes down to 58hz (+-3).
Thanks for taking the time to read all this, I know it's a little long winded, but it's my first post and I wanted to be as detailed as possible. Any other comments, suggestions, questions on my set up are more than welcome. I've been completely on my own putting all this together, so I'd love to know what knowledgable people on here think
Best,
Nolan
Long intro, I know. Here are my questions:
-Am I better off just using the monoprice cable (bare wire) to connect to the sub and then run the high level outs from the sub to my speakers? This would forgoe using my canares, which is fine, but I spent 60 bucks on em and don't want them to go to waste.
-Is it advisable to connect the two cables I have so that both have a solid connection on the same binding post? Right now my connection does not seem very secure, but I'm also wary of overtightening the posts. With spades and bare wire is this even possible?
-If my connection currently is not recieving enough contact or whatever, how would that manifest itself in the sound? I've noticed the infinitys by themselves sound a bit more anemic, and the mid-to-upper frequency range (piano, female vocals) sounds less present.
-Once I get everything set up right, what would be the best setting for the LPF on my sub? The frequency range on the infinitys goes down to 58hz (+-3).
Thanks for taking the time to read all this, I know it's a little long winded, but it's my first post and I wanted to be as detailed as possible. Any other comments, suggestions, questions on my set up are more than welcome. I've been completely on my own putting all this together, so I'd love to know what knowledgable people on here think
Best,
Nolan