How to hook up subwoofer to Creek 5350SE?


I just bought a 5350 SE and I’m confused about how to use my subwoofer. I was hoping there would be a pre out that didn’t interrupt the signal to the power amp. I suppose I could run a long RCA cable from the pre out to the subwoofer and then another long one from the sub to the amp in, but I’m not crazy about messing up the signal going to the amp like that. Is there some sort of splitter I could use to let me make a short, solid connection from pre amp to amp, while also getting a feed out to the sub?

Alternatively, I could run the speaker B outputs to the subwoofer since it accepts high level inputs, and then run speakers A + B at the same time. But I’m worried that would degrade the sound, and maybe reduce the available power of the amp (since I’d be unnecessarily sending a powered signal to the sub). Also, I’m sure the sub has a different impedance from the main speakers and I wonder whether that would be a problem.

My main speakers are B&W 805 and the sub is a Velodyne F-1000.

What do you recommend?

Thanks a lot.

--DZ
dbz
I've done a couple of things in a similar situation, though with a different amp and sub.

One way to do it is to get a pair of these Y-adapters, plug them into the pre-outs on the amp, run a long interconnect to the sub from one of the female connections and a short interconnect from the other female connection to the main-in on the amp.

If you want to use the speaker-level connections to go to the sub, you don't need to worry about splitting the power between your main speakers and the sub. The sub will draw only a very small amount of power, then boost that signal with its own internal amp. That's the way it works on my HSU sub, at least. The speaker terminals on my integrated accept both spade and banana connectors so I simply attached the spade terminals on my main speaker cables as usual, then put banana plugs on an additional pair of small-gauge speaker cables, plugged those into the ends of the speaker terminals on the amp and ran the cable to bare-wire terminals on the sub.
Use the speaker connections. It will give you the best results. Perfect timing with you speakers. The preamp out is always going to be just a little slower.
speaker level worked best for me with both my Bryston B60 and my Electrocompaniet ECI3...and it wasn't a small difference...just my 2c.

Ellery

I agree that the speaker-level connections sound better in my setup with an HSU VTF-2 sub and Audio Refinement Complete amp. That's a much less expensive solution than buying the Y-adapters and a good-quality long interconnect, as well.

The set-up I described above using both spade and banana connectors on the amp speaker terminals is necessary for me because I have only one pair of speaker terminals. If you've got A and B speaker connections the setup is even simpler.
Thanks for the ideas. I'm trying the B speaker output right now. It's certainly a cheap option b/c there doesn't seem to be any need for fancy cables when you're just going into a subwoofer. Seems like I can also "A/B" any sonic problems this way b/c I can just switch the Creek from A+B speaker outputs to A only.