What's powering passive sub-woofer on a 5.1 or 7.1 AVR setup?

[Ruediger]

Poweramp only.

The AVR has pre-out for that. It makes no sense to built that much power into an AVR.

 

[john61ct]

The AVR is capped out at 140 W /chnl., most (if not all) of these power active sub-woofer is easily a few hundred W.

Active subwoofer means it has power amp built in.

It must be connected to the line level "pre out" from the AVR.

> So say the Focal gives you XLR, but that big box needs 500@ to 1K W of electricity as per the manual

If that unit has no power amp built in,, then you need to buy it one. That amp will be fed at line level from the AVR "pre out".

The speaker might be able to handle a maximum of 1000W, but I doubt "it needs" even 500W to give strong SPL for a small space.

140W if true is a LOT of power for most "main L/R" full range.

 

[Ruediger]

High power numbers are very common with active subwoofer.

My smallest is 220/350w. And the largest 500/1500w. Only the first number matters to me when chosing a subwoofer.

What also matters a lot is diameter of the driver. The Focal mentioned with 13" and ports should be very capable. Especially when it's more than one.
My largest is 12" and I see no limit to the room size it can handle.

 

[jcmccorm]

I re-think about what you talked about, it still won't work

The AVR is capped out at 140 W /chnl., most (if not all) of these power active sub-woofer is easily a few hundred W. So say the Focal gives you XLR, but that big box needs 500@ to 1K W of electricity as per the manual, how can a AVR w/ 140W/ chnl. works?

You use the subwoofer output (preamp/line level) and feed that to an amplifier that feeds the sub.

It's the same as feeding an active subwoofer, the difference being where the amplifier is; either built into the subwoofer or an external box that drives the sub.

 

[john61ct]

Interesting. I assume that device yields a "true" balanced signal.

Relevant

Looking for audio interface to use for audio measurement

To this end I need precise and repeatable gain settings in and out, accessible from the unit itself flat response down to well below 5 Hz and up to at least 40-50 kHz both for inputs and outputs. 32 bit float and all integer bit formats. preferably multiple microphone/Line inputs inputs...

www.audiosciencereview.com