Are you installing it in your car, or as part of your hifi/soundsystem? And what is the mixer you have?

Ah ok, you’re using it in your room…

By the way, the speaker is in a cabinet isn’t it, it’s not just loose? There’s really not much point using the driver on it’s own – it will sound awful.

As Spazhazzard says, you’ll need an amp to drive the sub. Connecting it to the outputs of a mixer won’t do anything, as the speaker needs far more power than the mixer’s outputs can supply (which are at ‘line level’, used for sending signal between equipment). Most likely, the output labelled ‘sub’ on your mixer is a line-level output with the higher frequencies filtered off (as you wouldn’t ever want to send these to the sub – google ‘crossover’), suitable for sending to an active sub, or amplifier>sub.

Treat the ‘1200W’ rating of the sub with a very large pinch of salt – there are lots of good technical reasons why this is probably not a useful indication of how loud it is (manufacturers, especially in car audio, pull all sorts of tricks to make this number as big as possible). There’s an interesting white paper about it on Peavey’s website here.

If you were building a sound system and risking lots of money + equipment then I’d suggest that you read up on amplifier + speaker power and impedance ratings so you can choose a suitable amplifier, but as it sounds like you’ve just been given a free sub and want to add some quick and dirty bass to your existing computer speakers, I should just find some sort of cheap power amp and give it a go, connecting the ‘sub’ output of your mixer to one of the amplifier’s inputs. Sorry, that’s unprofessional advice to give, but I have a feeling you’re not too arsed about the tech side and just want it to work! Also, being car equipment I don’t really trust the power rating – I wouldn’t want to recommend a 1500W @ 4 ohm power amp and have it blow your speaker up!).

Tbh if I was you I’d get rid of your computer speakers, sell the sub and buy yourself a hifi amp and second hand speakers off ebay. As whatever happens you’re looking at spending money on an amp. Computer speakers and car sub + amp is starting to get a bit Heath Robinson – you might as well do it properly, get a nice pair of hifi speakers and end up with a system that sounds 100x better.

As for the suggestion about talking to people in a hifi shop for advice – I’d stay well clear, you might end up leaving £100 down with a paper bag on your head.

I get what you’re saying, but hifi sellers have a well-earned reputation for being technically clueless salesmen who make a living selling over-priced consumer audio equipment to other half-deaf, middle-aged men who have ‘golden ears’ and can hear the difference made by silver speaker cables and so on…

On the few times I’ve been into a hifi shop the staff have tried to baffle me with inaccurate technical info. Last time I went to ask about a pair of second hand speakers in Sevenoaks hifi I said ‘are they fully working?’ and the bloke said ‘dunno, you’ll have to buy them to find out!’

Maybe I do have a chip on my shoulder, but hifi is seen as a bit of a running joke in the pro audio industry.

As long as you use different coloured wires and connect red to red and black to black you’ll be fine lol.

@Moonie 441735 wrote:

Basically Cheeseweasel you’ve hit it on the head there, I’ve been given a free sub, now I want an amp and some speakers to go with (My existing desktop ones are shocking), yes it’s in a cabinet and yes I know that 1200w is probably wildly inaccurate.

I can probably ask about and get an amp and some speakers for waay below what I should pay for them (and no not nicked either), I just need to know the kind of thing I should look for, even a couple of brand names. I’m also concerned about blowing stuff up because I have no idea about wiring it all together :S

So I’d put the sub to one side for the time being and try find a pair of full-range hifi speakers and an amp. If you still need extra bass you could always add the sub at a later date.

I’ve bought some great speakers from Ebay in the past – my last ones were a pair of 1980s Mission Freedoms that cost a few hundred quid back in the ’80s but I won for £25 (actually some nobhead blew them up just the other day at a party by playing crappy r’n’b off youtube through them whilst redlining everything – I didn’t see him do it!). There are always tons of good deals on 70’s/80’s/90’s speakers on ebay. As for brands, you can’t go far wrong with Mission, B&W, Kef, Tannoy. There are loads of other good brands too that are more obscure and might have gone out of business years ago. Just find a pair of big chosty speakers on Ebay you like the look of and search for reviews on Google or whatever to see if they’re any good.

You’re not likely to blow anything up by wiring things wrongly – it’s literally a case of connecting the black and red on each amp channel to the corresponding terminals on the speakers (and even if you get this wrong you can’t do any harm). Not blowing the speakers up is mainly common sense – don’t mix in the red and if the sound is distorted you’ve got something turned up too high (it’s actually easier to damage a speaker by underpowering it with a distorted signal than it is to overpower it – my Missions, whilst rated at 100W RMS, got fried by a 30W amp being ragged by an idiot).

@cheeseweasel 441732 wrote:

I get what you’re saying, but hifi sellers have a well-earned reputation for being technically clueless salesmen who make a living selling over-priced consumer audio equipment to other half-deaf, middle-aged men who have ‘golden ears’ and can hear the difference made by silver speaker cables and so on…

On the few times I’ve been into a hifi shop the staff have tried to baffle me with inaccurate technical info. Last time I went to ask about a pair of second hand speakers in Sevenoaks hifi I said ‘are they fully working?’ and the bloke said ‘dunno, you’ll have to buy them to find out!’

Maybe I do have a chip on my shoulder, but hifi is seen as a bit of a running joke in the pro audio industry.

I’m wholly amazed these idiots still exist in this day and age. Hopefully the economic depression and the increasing trend of PC’s and other digital devices being the source of music will put the remainder of these muppets out of business.

They used to make the marshall speaker elements(guitar and bass)….and for a whole loads of other big brands as well both pro and hi-fi