Adding Subwoofer to M-audio Studiophile BX5a using Laney AH200 as Sub

I observed that M-audio BX5a lack the deep bass needed to mix music genre that requires deep bass. Although M-audio Studiophile BX5a has a good and tight bass, it is still not enough for sub-bass mixing.

I went to research how it is possible to add a subwoofer to M-audio BX5a. Then I came up with standard subwoofer units that can be added BX5a such as SBX10. The problem is that these subwoofers can be very costly.

I looked upon my existing gears/equipments and I have Laney AH200 which is a 160-watts power amplifier capable of reproducing deep bass with a 15 inch cone. In fact, I use this amplifier in recording bass guitar and even guitars which is quite good. Wanting to make sure; I send an inquiry to Laney regarding the use of AH200 as monitoring equipment as these are the reply:

“The Laney AH200 is a great monitoring amplifier, and provides a very clean and very flat (EQ) to what is being played through it. This will give you a very true sound of your instruments, but it may not make your instruments sound as you would like them too (no distortion etc).”

The main advantage I am looking into this setup is that I only need “one” amplifier (all-in-one) for accomplishing these types of things:

a.) Recording guitars and bass
b.) Live gig monitoring (since AH200 is a 160 watt PA, it is loud enough for live band use.)
c.) And lastly as a subwoofer of BX5a.

But the question is how to use this power amplifier as a subwoofer unit of BX5a?

Changes in the Wiring: Use a mixer to route the signals

Originally the BX5a reference monitors are connected to outputs 1 and 2 of Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 audio interface. Although Saffire Pro40 is capable of providing a lot of output combinations, I then want to use only Outputs 1 and 2 for both the BX5a and the sub-unit for easy routing and volume control. So I made the following changes to the existing wiring:

I have a spare Xenyx 502 mixer from my old home recording setups. I then connect each of the BX5a unit to Xenyx 502 main out (LEFT for one monitor unit and RIGHT for the other monitor).

Then for the inputs, I simply plug the Saffire pro 40 outputs 1 and 2 to CD/Tape inputs (LEFT and RIGHT) of Xenyx 502. Then for connecting the Laney AH200 which is now used as a subwoofer in this case, I connect the CD/Tape Output (LEFT and RIGHT) to the AH200 Aux input.

Important: I recommend turning off your PC, audio interface and subwoofers when doing changes in the wiring.

Testing the Subwoofer installation

Now for the testing, I do the following:

a.) Turn on audio interface first and AH 200 first.
b.) Boot computer to Windows.
c.) Turn on BX5a.

Make sure all volume levels of the monitors, audio interface, amplifiers and subwoofers are set to minimum before doing any test. Once everything is set:

1.) Press CD/Tape Mix button of Xenyx 502. This will make the inputs (which is coming from the Saffire Pro40 outputs) to appear at the Xenyx 502 outputs.

2.) Turn the volume of the BX5a reference monitors to 50% maximum. Later once everything is OK you can turn this from 50% to full volume if you like.

3.) Turn the monitor volume to 50% on Saffire Pro 40

4.) Turn the volume of Auxiliary input control in AH 200 to around 50%.

5.) Turn the main mix level control to 50% on Xenyx 502. Do not apply any EQ and other settings on the mixer, leave everything flat (unadjusted).

6.) Since AH200 is used as a sub; you won’t be need the mid and high frequency components. So turn the master mid and high EQ to minimum (0) and turn the low (bass EQ) of AH200 to maximum. This will let AH200 output only bass components of the signal.

Now to balance the low, mid and high frequency in your room; you need to do some audio testing.

a.) Re-calibrate your room using test tones, or those that are found here:

Sample tones at M-audio Overdub
Studio monitor test tone at Home Tracked

b.) If the bass is too dominant, kindly lower down the aux in volume of AH200 until the desired low to mid/high frequency balance has been achieved.

b.) Try to listen some professional recordings with great sounding bass. This will let you know how much bass level they have and makes it easy for you to adjust how much bass you need in the mix.

Below are my favorites in calibrating the bass to mid/high frequency:

“Soul to Squeeze” – Red Hot Chili Peppers (for bass guitar notes clarity test)
“Time after time” – Inoj (for deep kick drum bass clarity test)

Of course, you can use any of your favorite tracks.

7.) If you are now mixing, if you want to turn the mix volume level up and down in your mix, you only need to adjust the audio interface monitor output volume. It will automatically adjust the volume of both the BX5a reference monitors and the AH200 used as sub.

8.) If you want to turn off the subwoofer during mixing, then simply turn the volume of aux input in AH200 to minimum or much better turn off AH200.

This is how the complete setup would look like:

I put AH200 in the center of the mixing position to preserve the BX5a reference monitor stereo imaging. Now, my low end/bass mixing decisions would be more accurate with the help of this setup.

Content last updated on August 5, 2012