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Need help grasping how to connect active speakers to a sub - Kali LP-UNF / Kali LP-6 v2 with sub

You're going to get all kinds of advice, stick with the basics and research. You might decide on other speakers and subwoofer or other DACs or streamers . The Minidsp is prefectly fine what you want and so is the WiiM Ultra as well as other devices. I'm not one to tell you something is a piece of crap when it's a device that's suitable for your needs. I'm not going to tell you what to buy and I usually ignore those who do.
 
The Scarlet Solo has a DAC in it and you connect the Solo to the computer with USB. The subwoofer is connected analog from the Solo then analog from the subwoofer to the LP 6 left / right. The crossover it done with the subwoofer.

The Solo is professional audio interface which can take microphone in if you want to record for instance you playing a guitar and mix on you computer with other instruments or prerecorded music. It has loopback if you are a podcaster etc... Is that something you are wanting to do then yes you would want this type of interface. It can also be used as just a stand alone DAC like a Schiit or Topping etc..
Gotcha, yeah I don't need all that music recording stuff, I do see that that's what their content is made at replicating tho but I was curious nonetheless thank you for clarifying for me
 
Sorry, if you compare the mini DSP to the WiiM ultra, you will see how overpriced this piece of plastic s**t is. You still need a microfone to do something with it. You will need a year to do something usefull with it.

The Mini DSP is a very basic crossover and DSP, while with the WiiM ultra you get a complete media center of highest fidelity. You can connect your PC, TV and stuff, all at the same time, the TV convenient over HDIM. Read what it does and you will understand what I write.
Speaker and sub are a second question, but you are on the right track if you stay with active pro monitors and don't wast your money on HIFI stuff.
If you plan to use a sub, stay with a woofer like 6 1/2 or smaller, as a rule of thumb. You need not buy sub and mains from one brand.
If you not know already, there is a dealer of such gear that delivers to your doorstep for free, has the best prices in the EU, allmost any brand, a 3 year extended warranty and a very polite "return if you don't like" policy.

PS if you want something nice for a good price, look at the ADAM T5V and the matching sub, the ADAM T10S. Don't hesitate to buy Thomann "B-stock", in most cases you only find some hardly visible scratches or, as I often did, nothing at all.
Thank you for the input on this, will look into the Adam speakers, seen a bit about them in the last few days, can I ask why a 6 inch woofer or smaller? I thought I guess that 10 inch is minimum

I was actually looking at Thomann for the Kali Speakers, didn't know about their very friendly policy tho so thank you for that
 
OK, the miniDSP is a DSP'd crossover that works as such and nothing more. It may do what you want from it, but doesn't make all users happy, because of some limitations and features they would like not to have. There are alternatives with a lower price and more solid build quality on the market.
Better?
 
You're going to get all kinds of advice, stick with the basics and research. You might decide on other speakers and subwoofer or other DACs or streamers . The Minidsp is prefectly fine what you want and so is the WiiM Ultra as well as other devices. I'm not one to tell you something is a piece of crap when it's a device that's suitable for your needs. I'm not going to tell you what to buy and I usually ignore those who do.
Thank you, it's very easy to get overwhelmed with all of this audio stuff, all these different techniques and ways of going around it, insane, but I definitely want to keep it basic for now and your advice on this thread has been extremely helpful to keep it simple but giving me a good idea of what to research
 
OK, the miniDSP is a DSP'd crossover that works as such and nothing more. It may do what you want from it, but doesn't make all users happy, because of some limitations and features they would like not to have. There are alternatives with a lower price and more solid build quality on the market.
Better?
I'll be sure to research a lot more, the guys here definitely helped me get an idea of what to even research, I'm sure I'll stumble upon a lot more equipment but at least I know what they can do and what to look for
 
If you use a sub, you do not need a large woofer to produce low frequency. A smaller woofer has advantages over a larger one, if you do not ask it to do bass below 80Hz (or 120Hz maybe). A smaller woofer has less mass and will not break up in partial resonances that much.
So in many cases a smaller main speaker, relieved of lowest frequency, will sound better than a large speaker. Think of 5" and 8" for example.

PS the miniDSP brand started as a very low cost DSP years ago, when it was a one of a kind from price and performance (less than 100€). Because of that history, if you say crossover and DSP, many will mention it. Today there are many alternatives around. The WiiM ultra has the DSP functionality as well, all included and you will not miss anything, but get a heap of high quality features and functionality you will enjoy, for a very reasonable premium.
 
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If you use a sub, you do not need a large woofer to produce low frequency. A smaller woofer has advantages over a larger one, if you do not ask it to do bass below 80Hz (or 120Hz maybe). A smaller woofer has less mass adn will not break up in partial resonances that much.
So in many cases a smaler main speaker, relieved of lowest frequency, will sound better than a large speaker. Think of 5" and 8" for example.
I see, thank you for the explanation and I'll look into that as well so, for some reason I always thought bigger = better when it comes to this stuff
 
OK, the miniDSP is a DSP'd crossover that works as such and nothing more. It may do what you want from it, but doesn't make all users happy, because of some limitations and features they would like not to have. There are alternatives with a lower price and more solid build quality on the market.
Better?
Yes, build purposely a mini PC with Audio card for NAS and Audio processing needs and make sure everything goes through it. It will start form 300~400$ for N100 mATX with SB Z SE, case, RAM, power supply and basic M2 SSD. If you give it some effort you may find older mini case that fits and has 5.25" port in front to mont optimal drive. WiiM really doesn't have processing capabilities and Mini uses relatively old DSP and probably won't switch to anything else as DSP's are so hard to program. On the other side even weak general purpose core's on already developed code trough FPU and SIMD sre capable of doing it all. For regular blokes it's put audio card in, install software and play with it hoping you don't have loud noisy PSU. Problem is his PC is so much overkill that I am afraid it will have noise problems anyway but maybe he can prove me wrong without spending a single dollar simply playing with integrated one. Key is use of DSP software with microphone and learning basics and following guidelines certainly doesn't take all that much time. You can spend lifetime perfection and doing it if it catches onto you but only if you want to.
 
You're going to get all kinds of advice, stick with the basics and research. You might decide on other speakers and subwoofer or other DACs or streamers . The Minidsp is prefectly fine what you want and so is the WiiM Ultra as well as other devices. I'm not one to tell you something is a piece of crap when it's a device that's suitable for your needs. I'm not going to tell you what to buy and I usually ignore those who do.
I think this is so true. We are enthusiasts here and get a little carried away sometimes. The first diagram with just using the analog audio from your PC into the sub and then from the sub to the speakers will probably sound really good for most people and it is simple.

If you go further then add a Wiim Ultra for a TV and its HDMI ARC connection and your PC could use the USB connection so everything uses the Wiim DACs which are better than any standard PC. You also have more flexibility for set up, EQ, crossover, streaming services, BT, Etc. But, if you don't have the TV yet the above will get you started and still sound good. The Wiim will sound better but can be added later. Go with the best speakers/sub first.
 
I think this is so true. We are enthusiasts here and get a little carried away sometimes. The first diagram with just using the analog audio from your PC into the sub and then from the sub to the speakers will probably sound really good for most people and it is simple.

If you go further then add a Wiim Ultra for a TV and its HDMI ARC connection and your PC could use the USB connection so everything uses the Wiim DACs which are better than any standard PC. You also have more flexibility for set up, EQ, crossover, streaming services, BT, Etc. But, if you don't have the TV yet the above will get you started and still sound good. The Wiim will sound better but can be added later. Go with the best speakers/sub first.
No it won't sound great. It's passive fixed point (80 Hz) high pass trough poorly done passive splitter and will influence output to mains as such. But it's a start at least and enough to see what you want to improve. Even such low level RCA line on sub's is becoming rarity this days. It's not connection diagram but all digital filters in between and how you do them (qualitative and quantitative). I am in the mood that I don't care and do it double precision FP and I mean all of it including effects and simulations, unlimited PEQ's, convolutions... how much you beat the signal. I can even make 2.2 active proposition for the budget (speakers only) and cheap internal sound card just might work (with some limitations of course) even I am skeptical. What I can't is ensure you will do all of that correctly even if it works regarding hardware. Of course you can get some guidance hire how to cope with usual problems placement and simulation of it, room modes, limited accustic treatment, how to EQ and so on but it's a journey that much is certain. A great complicated analog/digital game if you wish.
 
I think this is so true. We are enthusiasts here and get a little carried away sometimes. The first diagram with just using the analog audio from your PC into the sub and then from the sub to the speakers will probably sound really good for most people and it is simple.

If you go further then add a Wiim Ultra for a TV and its HDMI ARC connection and your PC could use the USB connection so everything uses the Wiim DACs which are better than any standard PC. You also have more flexibility for set up, EQ, crossover, streaming services, BT, Etc. But, if you don't have the TV yet the above will get you started and still sound good. The Wiim will sound better but can be added later. Go with the best speakers/sub first.
Thank you, needed to hear that I'll be for sure checking all the options out but definitely looking for something basic compared to what most others here would use I think so thank you for keeping it real
 
No it won't sound great. It's passive fixed point (80 Hz) high pass trough poorly done passive splitter and will influence output to mains as such. But it's a start at least and enough to see what you want to improve. Even such low level RCA line on sub's is becoming rarity this days. It's not connection diagram but all digital filters in between and how you do them (qualitative and quantitative). I am in the mood that I don't care and do it double precision FP and I mean all of it including effects and simulations, unlimited PEQ's, convolutions... how much you beat the signal. I can even make 2.2 active proposition for the budget (speakers only) and cheap internal sound card just might work (with some limitations of course) even I am skeptical. What I can't is ensure you will do all of that correctly even if it works regarding hardware. Of course you can get some guidance hire how to cope with usual problems placement and simulation of it, room modes, limited accustic treatment, how to EQ and so on but it's a journey that much is certain. A great complicated analog/digital game if you wish.
Yeah I think it might be a simple enough start for me to get my head around slowly understanding more and more, youre definitely on another level with this I'm not sure I understand half the stuff you're saying but not in a mean way of course I love all the advice and will definitely take yours into account as well it just sounds a lot more technical if I can say that, might be just a lot for me to start with before even owning a speaker
 
Welcome to ASR and the wide world of audio!

For an active monitor like the LP-UNF that doesn't perform bass management on its own (it does not have a built-in crossover, as far as I'm aware, nor a subwoofer out) you'd generally use a subwoofer that can perform the crossover functionality, like the WS 6.2. You would connect the PC to the subwoofer, then the subwoofer to the speakers, like so (excuse my quick and dirty diagram):

View attachment 418208

Hope this makes sense.
Once again another post for PC users trying to integrate subs.... It's all the same responses. Studio sub or expensive MiniDSP. Everyday there's someone new trying to integrate subs with studio monitors..... WE NEED A SIMPLE 2.1 WITH BASS MANAGEMENT DAC for about $200-300 and balanced outputs. Minidsp is kinda expensive although powerful and I hate the idea of setting 3rd party software for multi channel DACS.
 
Once again another post for PC users trying to integrate subs.... It's all the same responses. Studio sub or expensive MiniDSP. Everyday there's someone new trying to integrate subs with studio monitors..... WE NEED A SIMPLE 2.1 WITH BASS MANAGEMENT DAC for about $200-300 and balanced outputs. Minidsp is kinda expensive although powerful and I hate the idea of setting 3rd party software for multi channel DACS.
Well certainly you could just use a DAC with bass management, such as Wiim Ultra. Balanced outputs aren't strictly necessary, as going RCA to XLR in a home environment is not an issue at all. But unless you want the additional features of the DAC, the simplest solution often is a studio sub. There are options that aren't terribly expensive, particularly in the context of getting a subwoofer anyway.
 
Once again another post for PC users trying to integrate subs.... It's all the same responses. Studio sub or expensive MiniDSP. Everyday there's someone new trying to integrate subs with studio monitors..... WE NEED A SIMPLE 2.1 WITH BASS MANAGEMENT DAC for about $200-300 and balanced outputs. Minidsp is kinda expensive although powerful and I hate the idea of setting 3rd party software for multi channel DACS.
It doesn't have XLR but the Minidsp 2x4 HD is $225.
 
Should have no negative impact. The reason to use XLR to TRS is because that preserves the balanced nature of the cabling. You can also go XLR to RCA and that would likely work fine also, but there's no advantage to doing so. XLR/TRS is used for balanced cables, which is used in the professional world as it prevents noise on long cable runs as are common there. For home setups it's generally unnecessary and RCA (unbalanced) works fine for the short cable lenghts there. But again, there's no disadvantage either, except that balanced cables and connections are generally a bit bulkier and more expensive.

The LP6-v2 would work the same way, except that the individual right left/right speakers have their own input rather than having all the inputs on one speaker and then a cable that connects the primary speaker to the secondary. So the diagram would change to this:

View attachment 418220

You'd still need a subwoofer with inputs, outputs, and a built-in crossover function like the WS 6.2 (though that's hardly the only subwoofer with those features). You could also just go straight XLR with those, rather than XLR to TRS, as unlike the UNF the speakers have XLR inputs.


Honestly, the simplest setup that would enable you to use most any subwoofer wouldn't be going the active monitor route. I might suggest considering the Wiim Amp, which is a combination streamer, DAC, and amplifier. Then you can hook up any passive speakers you like using standard speaker cable. It also has a subwoofer out, an RCA port which you would connect to the corresponding RCA input that pretty much any subwoofer on the market has. The Wiim Amp can handle the bass management through the Wiim app which is pretty straightward. For starters, you would probably just want to set an 80Hz crossover.

Then, as you get more comfortable, you could start experimenting with more advanced stuff that the Wiim has to offer, such as equalization and room correction. If you want. Or you could just get it working and enjoy it. :)
Will the XLR output of the subwoofer be balanced even if RCA is used to connect the subwoofer to the computer? I'm asking this because I want to minimise tweeter hiss
 
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