Terry Asks:
Hello,
I have Sony surround sound and I would like to add a extra sub woofer , how
could i do this as all connections on the back seem to be like some sort of
Sony 2 pin , and the speakers have same connection , if this isn’t possible
, is there a audio/video receiver thing that I could hook my speakers up to
and add another sub woofer to , sorry if this doesn’t make much sense , I am
not very good with these things,
Thanks ,
Terry

Hi Terry,
It sounds like what you have is a home theater-in-a-box system in which the speakers and receiver (it might also include a built-in blu-ray player) all came as one system and all the parts were designed to work together. Those are great for people with limited experience with home theater because they’re very easy to set up (often the speaker terminals are even color coded for the inputs). The only problem, as you’ve found out, is that you can’t really add anything to them that wasn’t specifically designed for it.

Without knowing the exact model I can’t be sure, but it sounds like your unit has proprietary inputs which will prevent you from adding different speakers or an additional sub.  If you really want another sub you’ll probably have to buy a new receiver—one that wasn’t part of a whole home theater package.
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We have some experience with these types of systems as well, and just like Grant said, it sound very much like a HTiB (Home Theater in a Box).

The very likely situation is that the subwoofer in your system is PASSIVE, meaning that the receiver itself powers it, as opposed to an ACTIVE subwoofer, where the sub has an amplifier on-board.

It is unlikely that you could just add another sub to your existing system, as the impedance of two subs in parallel wiring would probably cause problems.

One POTENTIAL option, and I caution against this, is adding a completely DIFFERENT passive subwoofer to the system, one with a larger woofer perhaps. The issues are impedance, power needs, and efficiency at that point.

So, going back to what Grant said, a new receiver with an ACTIVE subwoofer in the system will give you more flexibility in the future. HTiB’s weren’t meant to upgrade.