So I was thinking about adding a sub to my desk setup but I’m a bit in the dark here!
I got an interface (motu m2), initially because it had a fairly good headphone amp and for simple interface uses (mics, guitar inputs) and recently I added the Edifier Mr4 in the setup, which are powered speakers since the interface allows me to add them without having to buy more gear. It has come to my attention that in my house we had a powered sub, fairly small but I believe its enough for my use case but I’m confused on what to get to actually be able to use the sub! I’m not sure if i should get an amp since both the speakers and the sub are powered, so the only other thing my mind gets to is a mini dsp. Is that the wise choise? Or do I have other options (of course fairly priced, need food at the table).
Hopefully yall can help me!
if the sub is powered, you don’t need an amplifier to power it, but it doesn’t look like your EM4’s have a sub-out on them, so I’m not quite sure what you need to get to add it. that said, I see the M4 have low and high frequency trimmer dials. so before you spend $$$ to add a sub, play with those as when you have bookshelf speakers in nearfield the bass from them is almost always sufficient or more than sufficient as you’re so close to the drivers.
I’ve played with them quite a bit and they’re pretty good, quite impressed for the price they cost. Still i think the low end is a bit lacking (disclaimer I use them for movies in my room that is quite big and the main complaint about the low end is when im further away from the desk, at the desk i feel like its quite enough bass if you dial them correctly), so if I could help them on the low end for media consumption mainly.
I can do without a sub but I wanted to try and see if it would be any good or if id be better off just with them alone. I also thought about moving them to my Living room and buy a new set of non powered for my room but I need to save up quite a bit for that.
Also the why I wanted the sub is mainly bcuz i happen to have a sub laying around the house collecting dust, and it would be nice to try things out!
I’m not familiar with the mini dsp but i read somewhere that you can setup a 2.1 setup on them even tho they are more popular for multi sub configurations and since they’re about 100 bucks I could get one in a couple of months.
well, let’s see if we can get the attention of @M0N and see what he says would be necessary to split the audio for a powered sub before the signal gets to the speakers.
Some powered subs have a crossover built in and have line level outs to send to your speakers - have you checked the panel on the sub for I/O? It could be as simple as rca from interface to sub, then Rca from sub to speakers…
So, with the MiniDSP (assuming you get a simple model such as the MiniDSP HD), you would run from your DAC (in this case, your MOTU M2) RCA out to the MiniDSP, and then RCA out from the MiniDSP to the MR4 (left channel / right channel) and then either the other two channels or a single channel summing the two channels (you will decide this in the MiniDSP’s setup software, it can always be reconfigured however you want) into your powered sub. Using the MiniDSP’s software interface, you can then separate the signal from the MOTU M2 into a high-pass filter to your speakers and a low-pass filter to your sub (you can define whatever slope and cutoff you want to blend the shelves). Here is an example of how I run my Polk LSiM 703s with my RSL Speedwoofer 10S:
There are other options, but this is how I do mine (both on my PC setup and on a separate speaker/sub with another MiniDSP HD setup for my HT gear). Do you know what model your sub is, or can you take a pic of the back of it? If it has High Pass input/outputs or a decent crossover dial, you may not even need a MiniDSP or similar device to do this. The MiniDSP or a high pass setup allows you to completely eliminate the lowest frequencies from ever reaching the speakers, which will help to keep them running happier, longer. Given that they are powered Edifiers, they may already have DSP in the amplifiers themselves that do this and it may not be necessary to cutoff the lowest frequencies at all, in which case you would just need to use the crossover dial on the sub (depending on the sub) to blend to ear.
Some shops sell Edifier T5 with MR4 speakers so they kinda cheap package together.
Probably works ok as a set? You just need 1 x RCA cable more if you now get sound from speakers.
Wow that is actually a pretty cool device when you look into it!
Thank you for the help but as @MadGman pointed out the Edifier t5 seems like a better choice, may not be using my old sub, but for 10 bucks more than the mini dsp (found the t5 in promo), I’ll get more sub than i had before, also its a rl old sub and from what I remember it only has a coaxial input and no output. It belongued to a set of speakers that we still have laying around but most of the drivers are dead Bcuz of a certain to be audiophile blowing them up
I’m watching the video of the sub and in the video he basically clarifies all my questions about having a sub and powered speakers, u need this and that, unless you have a mini dsp
Fairly convinient I’d say
E: Continued with the video and according to Z id be able to have what i want with a simple passthrough with a splitter so instead of buying a sub or a minidsp I would only need a splitter and if i can set the sub to the only go as low as the speakers can (to avoid making a low pass filter)
Will do, already bought a rtx 3090 and the koss kph40’s this month so I’ll prob wait a bit to actually buy the sub but I think i have the stuff to actually make the rca splitters so I might try the old one if I manage to make the splitters
Also - The Motu M2 has two sets of outs that mirror one another. Since you’re using as a pre-amp anyway, a TRS to RCA cable isn’t hard to get ahold of. The output from the TRS outs is still line level (unless I’m reading it wrong) so it shouldn’t pose a problem feeding it to either powered speakers or to powered sub.
yeah that was what Z said in the video about the edifier t5, one for left one for right! @zenstrata thx, thank you for the videos recommendation, will watch hem @Dzaw that is a fair point, I believe that both the outputs are line level its just that the trs are balanced, that might be an option indeed and my speakers coincidentally accept balanced trs and rca so I’ll not need the trs to rca, just normal trs cables will do but Thank you all non the less
E: @Dzaw it its line out according to the website
