Hi,

I am new to the 990. I just received it last week and have began setting it up. I came across the SW balanced connection that according to the directions connects directly to my subwoofer. My subwoofer does not have an XLR connection. Is this ok or am I missing something here?

Thanks,
Danny

there are 2 different types of subwoofer connections on the 990: XLR and RCA. you sub should have RCA inputs on it, so just use those cables instead. should work out just fine for you

If you want to use the balanced out, you can purchase a XLR to RCA cable, and it should be fine, but you might want to just use one of the two RCA sub outs. There probably won't be much of a difference, the balanced outs are mostly to help with keeping the signal clean on long cable runs. Funny, I just purchased a SVS ultra passive sub, and had a hard time finding a short XLR to RCA cable to connect the sub out to my amp. Ended up finding one, but until I saw your question, was thinking the 990 did not have a balanced sub out. Not sure how I missed it, especially since it's location makes it the most visible of ALL the outs on the back of the 990....my amps only have balanced inputs, so I use the balance outs for all the other channels, and must have saw the SW balanced out when connecting up the others, but just forgot about it. Now I might end up taking the XLR to rca cable back, and getting a regular XLR to XLR cable for the sub.

Is it worth using the XLR connection to the sub? I need a 25 foot cable and I purchased a sub-1 interconnect (RCA) from audioquest. I would need the XLR to RCA cable for it to work.

Thanks,
Danny

if your sub does not have a XLR input, using a XLR to RCA cable you will not benefit from the balanced design of the XLR connection.

I would use the RCA to RCA in this occasion because you signal would be going through less circuitry.

I agree - just use one of the two RCA subwoofer outputs (it doesn't matter which one).