When Do You Need A Passive Subwoofer Amplifier

A passive subwoofer amplifier is usually needed when you have an in-wall subwoofer speaker.

The home theater system has a subwoofer output. but it’s a passive output. Meaning the output is not amplified.

So you need either use an active subwoofer (a subwoofer enclosure with an amplifier built-in) or a passive subwoofer amplifier.

Searching For A Subwoofer Amplifier

The criteria for a subwoofer amplifier is pretty simple. It needs to be strong enough to power the sub-woofers and something that could be triggered on and off from the home theater system – removing the need for yet another remote control.

And of course a subwoofer amplifier that’s not too expensive would be nice.

When doing the searches for a subwoofer amplifier many of the search results will be for 12 volt car stereo amplifiers – not exactly what you’re looking for. lol

One good way to get search results to be more relevant is by searching for 8ohm subwoofer amplifier. Typical house speakers are 8ohm and car speakers are 4ohm.

Tips For This Amplifier

The Subwoofer Amplifier’s 12 Volt Trigger

The 12 volt trigger is what the sub amp uses to detect when it should turn on. The trigger “listens” for sound coming to it and turns the amp on when it things it needs to turn on. That way it would turn itself on/off without the need for a remote control.

The trigger did technically work the way it should have. The amplifier did turn on when it detected that it needed to.

But when it did, the subwoofer made a really loud popping sound when the amplifier turned on.

Tech support even sent me a replacement amp but the new amp also made the popping sound.

I instead changed the subwoofer amp trigger to be on all the time, which turned out perfect.

The amp does go into stand-by mode when it doesn’t receive an audio signal. Then when it comes out of stand-by, it doesn’t make a popping sound!

250 Watts

This one is a good problem, in a way. lol

One of the reasons I chose the OSD Audio SMP250 passive subwoofer amplifier was because of the wattage. Since the subwoofers are 300 watt speakers, I wanted an amplifier strong enough to power them.

Honestly, I could have gone with a less powerful amplifier and the bass would have been fantastic.

This amplifier was more than enough to power my subwoofers. There is a level volume control on the back of the amp which I set to about half way and the subs basically shake the house.

This is a Mono Subwoofer Amplifier

This is a mono subwoofer amp, meaning there’s one output channel. And I have two subwoofers.

The subwoofer amplifier manual does have a workaround. It says the speakers will get the power they need if they’re connected in parallel.

So that’s what I did. Basically, I have the speaker wire for both subwoofers squished into one banana plug.

Like the projector and projector screen, there are many options for a home theater system or amplifier. And just like the projector, the sky is the limit when it comes to pricing.

The first thing you’ll need to figure out on your home theater system search is what features are important to you.

If you were like me, you don’t even know what features you’re looking for.

Hopefully, my research will help cut a few hours off your amplifier search.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you decide to purchase any of these products, we earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. We recommend these products only because we have experience with them and use them for our own projects. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

What I Was Looking For In A Home Theater System

Options For A Home Theater System

Dolby Digital Options

Dolby, THX or DTS

There are three different standards for a home theater system – Dolby, THX, and DTS.

By far, the most common standard of the three is Dolby digital. I wasn’t able to figure out the differences between the three – other than THX and DTS usually cost more.

Because THX and DTS cost more, the choice, in the end, was more about which flavor of Dolby to get.

Which flavor really depends a lot on the speaker budget – and how many speakers can fit into that budget.

What Flavor Of Dolby?

I have always heard of Dolby Digital 5.1 but never really knew what the numbers meant. All I knew was that 5.1 was a good surround sound system.

In my search for a surround sound system, I finally understood the numbers.

A 5.1 system means there are 5 surround sound speakers and 1 subwoofer.
The 5 surround sound speakers would be:

• the center speaker
• left and right front speakers
• left and right rear speakers

In our days, there are a lot of systems that are Dolby Digital 7.1 surround sound. The difference between 7.1 surround sound system and the 5.1 is an additional two back speakers.

When shopping for speaker systems, you’ll come across a third number, like 5.1.2 or 7.1.4. That third number is the number of in-ceiling speakers, also called presence speakers.

The latest iteration of Dolby is Dolby Atmos. The way they describe it is that is object-oriented sound. Which means Atmos does a better job of determining what sound should be sent to which speaker.

Below is a table with the different Dolby speaker layouts. 

The Different Dolby Speaker Layouts

If you want more details about the different Dolby speaker setups, below is a great link from Dolby. (Fair warning it gets pretty speaker geeky)

Dolby Atmos Speaker Setup Guide

Other Features Available

There are a lot of features available on home theater systems. But most of them aren’t a factor for a dedicated home theater system.

In my case, the surround sound system was only for the movie theater. And really only for the audio from a TV, DVD, NetFlix, etc…

Features like multi-zone, Bluetooth streaming, wifi streaming, and network audio playback are available. But none of those mattered in my setup at all.

The Home Theater System I Chose

Get The Same Home Theater System Amplifier 

Yamaha TS-R7810 7.2-Ch x 95 Watts Networking A/V Receiver Same as RX-V781

Tips For This Home Theater System

Here are a few tips that’ll help your Yamaha TSR-7810 amplifier sound it’s best.

Make Sure To Run The YPAO Test

When I ran my test, I placed the mic on the top of the center seat in the theater. Then I started the test and stayed out of the room until it was complete.

YPAO will do a few tests on the speakers and optimize the audio for the space.

I’d say there was a big difference in the surround sound quality after the test ran. Even a non-audiophile like me was able to tell the difference.

Enable The Enhancer Option

Sound quality is not always an easy thing to describe. But enabling the enhancer option on the amp gives the sound a nicer, deeper, fuller sound.

Make Sure To Get Banana Plugs

When there are only a couple of wires going to the back of your equipment the wires are totally manageable.

But when you have multiple speakers, things can get messy in a hurry. In this case, there were 9 sets of speaker wire along with all the HDMI and power cables.

Banana plugs help make the wire management manageable.

Something To Keep In Mind About Home Theater Systems

My past purchases for home theater systems have always included powered (active) subwoofers.

An active subwoofer is one that has an amplifier built-in, a passive subwoofer doesn’t.

When you’re dealing with a passive subwoofer, you’ll need to buy a separate amplifier to power the subwoofer.

That was a fact that escaped me when I was doing my research for a home theater system. I only figured it out when I installed the amplifier and speakers, and sadly, my subwoofers had no sound coming out of them.

After a few web searches, I found out I needed to buy a separate passive subwoofer amplifier.

When you’re designing your home theater, it’s best to look at both, your amplifier and speakers at the same time.

Each one affects the other, so researching them both at the same time will help you make the best choice for both.  This article will focus on home theater speakers. For more details about the amplifier, make sure to check out the article in this series on the amplifier.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you decide to purchase any of these products, we earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. We recommend these products only because we have experience with them and use them for our own projects. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

What Was I Looking For In Home Theater Speakers

The initial search criteria was simple, quality speakers and a reasonable price.

After a lot of searching, I soon realized I needed to find a reasonable price above anything else. These things are expensive!

If money was no object, I would go with Klipsch speakers. But those were many thousands of dollars, way outa my budget.

Now back to the search criteria. They needed to be affordable, in-wall, and a strong enough wattage that I could feel the sound from them. I figured a couple of hundred watts would be in the right ballpark.

I wanted in-wall speakers because I liked the finished look it gives.

To me, having speaker enclosures hanging around the room doesn’t give it as much of a finished look.

The Speakers

I did a good amount of searching, but honestly, the prices I kept coming up with were knocking the wind out of my sails.

Then I came across a company called Acoustic Audio. They had sets of in-wall speakers that were very reasonably priced.

Now I’m sure these speakers wouldn’t compare to the high-end speakers I kept finding in my searches. But, at less than 1/10th the cost they were the right choice for me.

The speakers I chose are the Acoustic Audio HD728 7.2 Home Theater Speaker System. There is an HD726 model as well, which is the same amount of speakers, just smaller speakers with a bit less power.

I’m pleased with these speakers; they sound and look great.

One thing that they don’t mention on Amazon’s listing was the rotatable tweeters. All the tweeters rotate, to get high pitched sounds directed at the listener.

I have a few tips with these speakers that I’ll share. In the end, these speakers are great once you follow the tips.

The Speakers I Chose

The speakers are the Acoustic Audio HD728 in-wall home theater 7.2 surround 8 inch speaker system.

They work great for me, just follow the tips I have below and you are sure to have the same results!

Acoustic Audio HD728 in-Wall/Ceiling Home Theater 7.2 Surround 8″ Speaker System

Tips For These Speakers

I have a bunch of tips for the Acoustic Audio hd728 speakers. As I said, I really like these speakers, and the tweaks I used helped make them an even better purchase.

Don’t Judge The Speakers Until They Are In The Walls

When the speakers came in the mail, I did what most people do when they receive their speakers. At least I hope I’m not the only one that did this. 🙂

I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, I was dying to see what the speaker sounded like. So I ran to the movie theater and plugged them in without installing them in the walls.

It was a bit of a buzz kill – the speaker sounded like they were all tweet with no woof.

Luckily I didn’t act on impulse and return them. The thing to keep in mind with any speaker is they can only provide bass when there is some sort of air resistance. The speakers need an enclosure around them for air resistance.

In the case of in-wall speakers, they use the walls themselves to provide that resistance.

Once the speakers were in the walls, the mid-tones and deep basses came out, and the sound was great!

Home Theater Speakers – The Placement

The speaker placement took some time to figure out. Between the surround sound aspect of it and which speaker should go where it was a lot to put together.

Unfortunately, the speakers I bought don’t really specify which speaker is for what.

I did a lot of digging around in posts, forums, and reviews. With some process of elimination, I figured out where each speaker should go.

If you also buy one of the Acoustic Audio speaker systems, this will help you save hours on guesswork.

The Acoustic Audio speaker system I bought was the HD728. Acoustic Audio has several speaker packages, but they all seem to use the same speakers.

Here are the speakers the Acoustic Audio hd728 system came with and where I installed them.

(4) HD800 Front In-Wall Speakers – These are the rectangular speakers – I used them as the Front Left and Right speakers and the Front Left and Right presence speakers (in the ceiling)

(2) HD8 Rear In-Ceiling Speakers – The smaller round speakers with a round frame – I used these as the rear left and right surround speakers.

(1) HD6c Dedicated In-Wall Center Channel Speaker – The long rectangular speaker – it goes under the projector screen.

(2) HDS10 Dedicated 10-inch In-Wall Passive Subwoofers – The larger round speakers – Some posts said spreading the deep bass around the room makes the sound more immersive. So I put one in the bottom front right of the projector wall, and the other in the platform floor. Behind the back row of chairs.

I used the surround sound amplifier documentation a lot to figure out the speaker layout.

The layout I used is 5.2.2:

• 5 surround sound speakers (Front left and right, back left and right and center)
• 2 subwoofers (in the floor in the back and in the projector wall in the front)
• 2 presence speakers (in the ceiling in the front, just a little in front of the front row of chairs)

Below are a couple of diagrams that show the speaker placement.

Best Bang For The Boom

Part of my theater design included a platform (a.k.a. a riser) for the second and third rows. I figured I’d use the platform as an enclosure for one of the subwoofers. So I installed the back subwoofer into the platform behind the third row of seats.

That was a fantastic way to get a whole lotta boom out of that subwoofer!

The entire platform (second and third row) shakes when that subwoofer kicks in.

If you have a riser in your theater, I’d recommend doing the same thing to get a better theater experience.

Seriously, It’s better than going to the movies. The entire riser is the encloser for the speaker, so it’ s like you’re sitting on the speaker case.

Buy Good Quality Speaker Wire

I read in many many links that a good speaker wire has a lot of impact on the speaker’s performance.

Inferior speaker wire will affect even the best speakers in the world.

The wiring that came with the speakers was incredibly thin wire. Do not use that wire.

Luckily I listened to the articles I read and ran 14AWG wiring to all the speakers.

My setup required me to crawl into the attic above the movie theater to run the speaker wires.

Going into crawl spaces is not my idea of fun. If I was going to into the crawl space, I was making sure that I was going to use the right speaker wire right off the bat.

Cable Matters 14 AWG CL2 in Wall Rated Oxygen-Free Bare Copper 2 Conductor Speaker Wire (Speaker Cable) 100 Feet

In Ceiling/Wall Speakers Are Great But….

The Front Speaker Enclosures

Here are the details for the front speaker enclosure, in case you’d like to do something similar for your setup.

The enclosure is constructed of 3/4″ OSB plywood, with 1/2 drywall covering it.

The Dividers

The front enclosure is one big box, that’s divided into three sections. That way, each speaker has its own air space.

I figured it was a good thing to do to prevent the speakers from interfering with each other.

The double gray lines show where I put the section dividers, which are also made of 3/4″ pieces of OSB plywood.

Speaker Enclosure For The Back Speakers

The boxes for the back were pretty simple. They also needed a box because the studs didn’t line up where I wanted to place the back speakers.

For the back speakers, they were butting up to the ceiling and the wall. Because of that, they only needed plywood for the face and the bottom.

The plywood for the face of the speaker is 12″ x 12″. The bottom of the box including the face is 6″ x 12″ x 11″

Here are some pics of the back speaker enclosure. Because there wasn’t enough air space created by the box, I cut out the drywall hidden behind the speaker box. It gave the speakers a little more space to work with.

A Modification To The Plastic Clips

One thing the manufacturer did skimp out on is the plastic clip that holds the speakers in place.

I ended up modifying the clips to make it easy for the clips to open and close.

Without the modification, the plastic clips can break when installing the speaker.

The Modification

Unmodified, the plastic clips catch the edging of the plastic speaker frame. If you continue to screw it in, the plastic where the screw head sits will break (ask me how I know that).

The modification is simple. Once done, you’ll be able to screw and unscrew the speakers without a problem.

It’s only a matter of removing the corner of plastic and angling it, so it directs the clip where to go.

Do that to each clip, on each speaker, and you’ll be all set.

Cut This Corner Out

Choosing The Right Home Theater Speakers

I hope the information in this article helps you with your choice for home theater speakers.

These speakers are fantastic. I’m sure there are other speakers out there that are even better, but for the money – these speakers can’t be beaten!

Are you planning on getting the same speakers?  What speakers are you thinking of getting instead?

Let me what you think about them in the comments below.

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