TV to Soundbar Connection

[Denis O]

I have a Blaupunkt 40" TV which is about 3 years old and works well. I just bought a Blaupunkt Soundbar, 60 watt, to partner it.

Initially I connected the 2 with the supplied twin RCA phono cable. No good so I tried another included cable, twin RCA to 3.5mm jack in the TV earphone socket and all good.

I asked the supplier for advice and he arranged return of the soundbar and replaced it with another. I also ordered a new and better quality twin RCA to twin RCA cable from a different supplier. The Blaupunkt supplied cables were decidedly iffy.

New soundbar arrived and I connected the twin RCA to twin RCA cables and nothing. I connected the twin RCA to 3.5mm jack and that worked.

Is there something I'm missing or is it more likely the TV's RCA out sockets are knackered.

I also tried an iPod touch lead to twin RCA, direct to the soundbar and that worked fine.

At this point, with the current connection between the TV and the Soundbar, I'm guessing I'm using the TV's amp as opposed to the soundbar amp. So, inferior amp to better speakers. It does sound better although that's not surprising.

[bristolracer]

Are you sure the TV twin rcas are for output? If there is a white red and yellow clustered together they are likely to be an input to the TV.

The simplest way of connecting the soundbar is to use an optical input from the optical out of the TV.

[Denis O]

Very good point Bristol and you may well be correct.

No optical on TV although there is on the soundbar.

[belleair302]

HDMI an work too. Surely your 3 year old TV has an optical....ten your old tv's have them.

[anonymous-user]

belleair302 said:

HDMI an work too. Surely your 3 year old TV has an optical....ten your old tv's have them.

yeah - look hard - they are small ports, but it would be very very odd for a 3 year old TV not to have an optical port (they are covered with a small dustflap so can easily be missed)

[Denis O]

On further investigation I find I have a socket marked "COAX" which the manual explains as being "COAX Audio Out" and further describes it as "Digital Coax Output".

Is this the connection I should be using?

[bristolracer]

Have you got one of these on the tv?

https://www.howtogeek.com/241828/what-is-the-optic...

The socket you have identified confusingly uses the same type of plug as the phono type, but it is going to output a digital signal ( ie ones and zeros) rather than an analogue signal which your soundbar expects to receive in the phono in sockets.

If it helps post up the make/model numbers of the TV and soundbar and ill see what i can find

[anonymous-user]

In the early days of digital surround you had a choice of fibre optic, or coaxial cable. Ages ago. I'm struggling to understand why there is a digital coax port on a 3yr old tv.

What's the model ?

[Denis O]

Sorry guys. I'm now away for a couple of months so can't check the model number. I had photographed it the other day but deleted the picture once I'd got the model number.

I did some research on the COAX plug and it looks like I need a DAC to connect to the COAX cable and then run twin RCA's to the soundbar. DAC's seem pretty cheap on eBay so maybe that's the way to go.

[belleair302]

Denis O said:

On further investigation I find I have a socket marked "COAX" which the manual explains as being "COAX Audio Out" and further describes it as "Digital Coax Output".

Is this the connection I should be using?

Yes you can use this with a single digital coax audio cable. The sound will be transported.