Subwoofer and room correction question

[wavetomars]

Maybe a dumb question… I have a Schiit Kara preamp arriving tomorrow to use in conjunction with the Wiim Ultra. My plan was to hook the subwoofer up to the Kara (since that it where volume control will be taking place).

My question: does this have any impact on room correction, if I’m not using the sub out on the Wiim ultra anymore?

 

[Jamp7]

I think the room correction would still be functioning. I am not sure how the room correction affects the sub. The typical sub adjustments of level and crossover can be used to compensate for any loss. I have a Saga S preamp and the thing you will miss by connecting your sub to the Kara, is the bass management in the Ultra. It is that bass management that proved valuable to me since it allows me to not send the lower, sub handled, frequencies to my other speakers. This may or may not be important in your setup. I would be interested in knowing what works best for you.

 

[harkpabst]

The WiiM Ultra's RC will treat your setup of pre-amp, speakers (either active or with separate power amp) and subwoofer as one unit. It doesn't know anything about what's happening downstream.

The only disadvantage is that you cannot high pass filter the mains and you'll need two cables from the Kara to the sub.

Can the Kara use single ended and balanced outputs at the same time? Or are you going single ended to your speakers as well?

 

[wavetomars]

I think the room correction would still be functioning. I am not sure how the room correction affects the sub. The typical sub adjustments of level and crossover can be used to compensate for any loss. I have a Saga S preamp and the thing you will miss by connecting your sub to the Kara, is the bass management in the Ultra. It is that bass management that proved valuable to me since it allows me to not send the lower, sub handled, frequencies to my other speakers. This may or may not be important in your setup. I would be interested in knowing what works best for you.

Missing out on the high pass filtering is something I’m worried about. At the same time, I’m running Focal Aria 936 floor standing speakers, which I believe do well with a fairly wide range of frequencies. I will let you know if I notice much of a difference either way!

 

[wavetomars]

The WiiM Ultra's RC will treat your setup of pre-amp, speakers (either active or with separate power amp) and subwoofer as one unit. It doesn't know anything about what's happening downstream.

The only disadvantage is that you cannot high pass filter the mains and you'll need two cables from the Kara to the sub.

Can the Kara use single ended and balanced outputs at the same time? Or are you going single ended to your speakers as well?

Cool, thanks!

According to the Kara’s manual, it can output to both SE and balanced outputs at the same time, with this small caveat: “However, if you use products that short the input when turned off, it may cause distortion.”

Not totally sure if that means anything for my use case, but I guess I will find out!