Connecting Audio Components To The Cwa-1 And Setup; What You Should Know; A Little Background - PSB CWA-1 Installation Manual

IX. Connecting Audio Components To The CWA-1 and Setup

What you should know

Connecting your CWA-1 is straightforward but there are a number of system
variables that may confuse the issue of how best to connect the CWA-1 and what
settings your other equipment will need in order for the full system to work at its
best. In this section we will discuss some of the variations, both in wiring and
settings, and then give concrete examples of how to connect your CWA-1 into
the most frequently encountered systems.
In all systems the CWA-1 comes next in line after your system processor. This
processor may be a stereo preamplifier or receiver or it may be a 5.1 (6.1 or 7.1
as well) AV processor or receiver. Whatever the preceding piece of equipment
we will want to get an isolated bass signal from it to drive the CWA-1 or get 1 or 2
full range channels from the processor that we can filter the bass from.
In the case of stereo (2 channel systems) most processors don't have subwoofer
outputs and we will use the internal filtering of the CWA-1. This means that the
left and right channels can be fed to the CWA-1's LINE LEVEL INPUTS, the
CWA-1's LINE LEVEL OUTPUTS would then have the stereo signal minus all
bass below 80Hz. This signal will be returned to the power amplifier or the power
amp section of the receiver for ultimately driving the main left and right speakers.
Conversely, most multichannel processors have subwoofer outputs and
provisions for bass management. Bass management is a fancy term for the
various options that determine, for different kinds of signals (stereo, Dolby pro-
logic, or Dolby Digital) and different speaker configurations (large or small
speakers, subs or no subs) where the bass is routed to.

A little background

Digital 5.1 source material (Dolby Digital or DTS) has a separate bass track
usually reserved for movie explosions and rumblings. This is called the LFE
(Low Frequency Effects) or .1 channel. The other 5 channels are full range as
well and will all have some bass content, such as the background music of a
movie or perhaps all the bass content of a music video.
When a subwoofer is present we may want to route the bass from all channels to
the subwoofer. If the power handling of the front and surround speakers is
limited, then this is certainly the case. In some systems an owner will have a
preference for sending only the .1 effects bass to the subwoofer and allowing the
bass from other channels to carry on to their respective channels. This might be
the case where the front channel speakers are full range and, we like their bass
character on music, as an example. Such variations are handled by the
processors Bass Management options usually by designating the various
channels as "large" or "small". These code names simply mean: "Send the bass
of this channel to its respective speaker" in the case of large, or "No, send the
bass of this channel to the subwoofer output", in the case of small.
The main points to be emphasized are that the processors settings must be set
such that no bass content is lost and at the same time speakers that might not be
able to handle heavy bass content have it diverted to the subwoofer. The best
approach is to study the owners manual of the processor and, based on the
discussion above, to make the appropriate settings.
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