4
PLACING FOUR SUBWOOFERS
Video Screen
CONNECTIONS
Speakers and electronics have corresponding (+) and (–) terminals. Most manufacturers of speakers and electronics, including JBL, use red
to denote the (+) terminal and black for the (–) terminal. It is important to connect both terminals identically: (+) on the speaker to (+) on
the amplifier, and (–) on the speaker to (–) on the amplifier. Wiring “out of phase” results in thin sound, weak bass, and a poor stereo image.
With the advent of multichannel surround sound systems, connecting all of the speakers in your system with the correct polarity remains
equally important in order to preserve the proper ambience and directionality of the program material.
If two SSW-2 subwoofers are used, the wires for both speakers should be the same length. If the bass response seems low, there may be
a phase problem, with the sound waves from the two subwoofers canceling each other out. If the bass response seems low, try inverting
the polarity on one subwoofer – i.e., connect the (+) terminal on the amplifier to the (–) terminal on the speaker, and the (–) terminal on
the amplifier to the (+) terminal on the speaker.
To use the binding-post speaker terminals on the terminal cup located behind the SSW-2 subwoofer, unscrew the colored knob until
the pass-through hole in the center post is visible under the knob. Insert the bare end of the wire through this hole, then screw the knob
down until the connection is tight. Spade connectors can be slid around the post before tightening the knob if those are used. The hole
in the center of each knob is intended for use with banana-type connectors. Making sure to observe the correct polarity. The wire from
the amplifier’s negative (-) terminal is to be connected to the negative (-) or black terminal on the terminal cup, and the amplifier’s positive
(+) terminal is to be connected the positive (+) or red terminal on the terminal cup.
Since the SSW-2 is a passive loudspeaker, only speaker-level connections are available. The SSW-2 subwoofer is specifically
designed for use in conjunction with the JBL® Synthesis SDA amplifiers. It is optimized to offer the best dynamics and frequency
response with the use of the JBL SDA-4600 amplifier, which is specially designed to use the proprietary SSW-2 tuning file and
drive the signature reactive load impedance of the SSW-2. When using a different SDA amplifier with the SSW-2, contact your
certified Synthesis installer for correct adjustment and loading of the SSW-2 tuning file. The SSW-2 is capable of running off of
two SDA-4600 channels in bridged mode.
Connect your main receiver or processor’s line-level subwoofer output to the line-level input on your subwoofer amplifier.
When using two or more subwoofers, use the correct number of amplifier channels (these can be mono-block or multi-channel
amplifiers) each connected to the appropriate output on your processor or receiver. Then connect the positive and negative terminals for
each amplifier channel to a single SSW-2 subwoofer system.
