Cambridge audio A5 + subwoofer set up

[Curlykale]

Hi, I’d be very grateful if someone could advise how to set up my Cambridge Audio A5 with a Wharfdale subwoofer? What kind of connectors and where? I know the pre outs may be involved…View attachment 2217411View attachment 2217412

 

[Al ears]

Why?
The A5 has speaker connection only when it comes to adding any speaker.
Not too sure on what sort of connection that Wharfedale sub requires

 

[JDl]

What subwoofer, is it active, powered or not.
Does it have high level speaker inputs, connectors?

 

[Curlykale]

Hi, its a Wharfdale active subwoofer

 

[JDl]

Personally I would take two wires from the left speaker outputs on your amplifier and two from the right and connect them correctly to the speaker level inputs on the subwoofer. Of course this means you will have your stereo speakers, and the sub, connected to the speaker connectors on the back of your amp, but it should be easily doable. The wires don't need to be very thick at all, because all they're carrying is a signal to the amplifier in your sub.
On my active subwoofer the speaker level connector wires are the same as telephone wires, in other words, very thin.
The fact that it's an active subwoofer, should mean that the impedance of the sub, will be negligible therefore you won't overload the amp. Check to see what the sub's impedance is, but as I say, it should be such a large number as to mean it will make no difference to the load on your stereo integrated amplifier.
Active subwoofers, integrate with a stereo set up, much better connected this way than trying to use the line level connections.
I would try the crossover frequency at about 80 Herz, experiment with phase., to see what sounds best and have the speaker of the sub firing across, or roughly at right angle to the direction of your stereo speakers.

 

[Curlykale]

I’ll try this thank you so much! I’ll let you know…

 

[JDl]

I’ll try this thank you so much! I’ll let you know…

Hey, my pleasure. Good luck, I've no reason to think you'll have any problems.

 

[Curlykale]

It’s brilliant! What a difference, thank you!

 

[JDl]

It’s brilliant! What a difference, thank you!

You're most welcome, I'm very glad I was able to help.
One more thing that might be of interest.
In the user manual for my B&W PV-1 subwoofer, B&W explain to the user, that if using with a stereo set up, the phase is best set at - rather than +. I hadn't read that previously, so I did as suggested and it really did improve things. My sub had always hummed a bit, so I turned it down enough that I wouldn't notice but resetting the phase completely eliminated the hum and it really did improve the integration of the subwoofer's sound into the sound as a whole.
I suppose that the equivalent phase setting to - (minus) on your sub , would be 180°. (?)

 

[Curlykale]

Not sure, I’ll check it out, thanks