Can I add a subwoofer to my Technics Stereo?

WinterNight

Member
Greeting Everbody,

I have a Technics SU-G95 Stereo amp and I was wondering if I could hook up a subwoofer to the set up, which consists of a turn table, tape deck, and EQ. It has to large speakers connected to it, two Technics SB-A36 and two small Technics rear speakers and a central speaker. It sounds great, but I really love music with a lot of bass. Do any of you fine gents and ladies know how I can hook up a subwoofer to my set up?
 
Is this the back of your amp?

SU-G70rear.jpg

If so, you have two options:

1) Get a pair of male/male/female "Y" splitters. Remove that jumper between your pre out and main in jacks*. Replace it with the two male plugs on that "Y" splitter and run an interconnect from the dangling female RCA jack to the line in jacks on the powered sub woofer. Make sure it has a right and left line level inputs.

2) Run speaker cables from your front right and lett speaker terminals to a speaker level input of a powered sub. If you need to, you can connect the wire to the same terminal as your main speakers.

* You might want to save those jumpers, just in case.
 
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Just one example of a sub that can be added to ANY stereo system (using the methods described by the skipper:

300-628_ALT_1.jpg
 
With that sub Rob used for an illustration, you can run your speaker wires to the sub's speaker (high level) inputs and then run wires from the sub's speaker outputs to your speakers. Either way will work. Use whichever is more convenient.
 
Thanks for the replies!!

Skipper: the back of my amp is a little different. It does not have a pre out or pre in inputs, or remote control inputs, and the inputs to plug in the speaker wires looks a bit different.
Rob: I checked that speaker on amazon and it is exactly in my budget, so thank very much for showing me that! I am planning on buying it, after i save up first. How would I connect that subwoofer to my amp?
 
Thanks for the replies!!

Skipper: the back of my amp is a little different. It does not have a pre out or pre in inputs, or remote control inputs, and the inputs to plug in the speaker wires looks a bit different.
Rob: I checked that speaker on amazon and it is exactly in my budget, so thank very much for showing me that! I am planning on buying it, after i save up first. How would I connect that subwoofer to my amp?

DIsconnect you wires from your speakers, and connect them to the subwoofer. Get some more wire, and connect the subwoofer to your speakers.
Alternately (and perhaps more conveniently, depending on where the sub is located), you can connect an additional set of wires to the amp (right alongside the existing speaker wires), and run them to the sub.

Depending on the sub, the first way might filter the low bass from going to your speakers, letting the sub do the hard work.
 
One more thing, which speaker wire gauge do I need? I'm still using the original wires that are like 22 years old, or at least 20 years old. And i bareley had enough wires to hook up all the speakers, and I have absolutely no clue which gauge they are. And are some brands better than others?
 
One more thing, which speaker wire gauge do I need? I'm still using the original wires that are like 22 years old, or at least 20 years old. And i bareley had enough wires to hook up all the speakers, and I have absolutely no clue which gauge they are. And are some brands better than others?

How much do you need? Dollar Tree sells six-foot 18 Ga. extension cords for...a dollar.
No less than 18 Ga. for the main speakers for short runs (less than 50ft) , the sub can be the same or even less as there will be no current flow to worry about.

Copper-clad aluminum wire can be used, but you would want to go with a thicker gauge wire to make up for the reduced conductivity of aluminum.
It probably balances out price-wise (though I have no empirical evidence to support that).
 
Copper-clad aluminum wire can be used, but you would want to go with a thicker gauge wire to make up for the reduced conductivity of aluminum

No matter what you hear from audiophiles/audio purists, I have recently tried both pure copper and copper-clad and i can hear no difference. AC current flows towards the surface of a conductor. This affect becomes more pronounced at higher frequencies so bass frequencies will be traveling through more aluminum and high frequencies will be in more copper but to my "untrained" ears, I can't hear the difference.

Just my .02
 
No matter what you hear from audiophiles/audio purists, I have recently tried both pure copper and copper-clad and i can hear no difference. AC current flows towards the surface of a conductor. This affect becomes more pronounced at higher frequencies so bass frequencies will be traveling through more aluminum and high frequencies will be in more copper but to my "untrained" ears, I can't hear the difference.

Just my .02

The difference is that copper is much better at conducting electricity than aluminum.
Copper-clad has so little copper that it actually makes no difference in conductivity. Running thicker gauge makes up for the reduced conductivity.

(in other words, I'm not thinking about that skin-effect stuff that some purists claim they can hear. I'm just thinking of making up for the increased resistance in the metal).
 
Hi everybody! Just thought I'd post an update. I bought that Dayton Audio subwoofer, and wire that was suggested, and with the help you fine folks, I was able to connect it to my stereo system and it sounds really great!! Thank you all so much for your help! Also, I thought it was cool that the wire I bought is from San Jose, CA, which is my hometown haha.
 
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Hi everybody! Just thought I'd post an update. I bought that Dayton Audio subwoofer, and wire that was suggested, and with the help you fine folks, I was able to connect it to my stereo system and it sounds really great!! Thank you all so much for your help! Also, I thought it was cool that the wire I bought is from San Jose, CA, which is my hometown haha.

glad to hear you got your subwoofer into your system :beerchug:

(in other words, I'm not thinking about that skin-effect stuff that some purists claim they can hear. I'm just thinking of making up for the increased resistance in the metal).

This is not an attempt to troll, please don't take it as such. As far as skin effect, it is a scientific fact. AC current is pushed to the outside of the conductor by the eddy currents created by the changing direction of the current. Whether this effect keeps the current within the copper, with the lower resistance and away from the aluminum, I couldn't tell you. I just know that I use 14 gauge copper wire because my longest run is about 25 ft and I tried 14 gauge copper clad aluminum and couldn't hear a difference, although I dont have any equipment to confirm or deny that there is a difference :biggrin:

And really it was an attempt to ensure WinterNight that he was safe going with the copper clad.

:blah: I know I sometimes talk too much. Sorry.
 
Has anyone considered how easily CCA wire breaks? Aluminum does not take kindly to repeated bending.
 
I can't say that I could hear a difference because of skin effect at audio frequencies but we sure worried about it when I was working in microwave radio the air force. That's why we used wave guide with them thar big ass klystron finals. Now, THERE there's no dispute that skin effect is a major player. At audio frequencies, well...
 
Has anyone considered how easily CCA wire breaks? Aluminum does not take kindly to repeated bending.

Good question.
I have several chunks of solid 10 ga. that I use like a twist tie for Christmas lights. They were from a 10 foot long coil of the stuff.
In my laziness, I tried to break off chunks by the old flex-it-to-break-it method.
I gave up after too many unsuccessful flexes and walked the 200 feet to the garage to get the sidecutters.

I wonder if the very fine strands used in speaker wire would break more easily?
 
Has anyone considered how easily CCA wire breaks? Aluminum does not take kindly to repeated bending.

I suppose if you are playing jump rope with it you might have a problem at some point. Even if your wife moves the furniture every 3 or 4 months (like mine does) I think you will not have to be too concerned with breakage,
 
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