Wiring up a surround system

[boyse7en]

The speakers on my elderly TV have given up after many years of galant service, so I thought i would buy a sound bar to use instead, as the picture quality is still very good.

However, looking at the local Facebook for sale section I found a surround sound setup for much less money than a new soundbar so I have bought that and now have the job of trying to wire it all together.

The TV is a Panasonic TX-P46G10 plasma with FreeSat
The Amp is a Pioneer SC-LX71
The Subwoofer is a Yamaha YST-SW120
The Front speakers are a pair of KEF floorstanders and a KEF centre speaker
The rears are a pair of small Sony speakers

So i need to get the sound from the TV to the amp, and also to plug in an Amazon Firestick, Nintendo Switch, and Samsung Blueray.

So what is the best way to do this? Do i plug the blueray etc into the amp and then run a HDMI lead to the TV? Or do i plug them into the TV and run an audio feed back to the Amp?

[Largechris]

boyse7en said:

The speakers on my elderly TV have given up after many years of galant service, so I thought i would buy a sound bar to use instead, as the picture quality is still very good.

However, looking at the local Facebook for sale section I found a surround sound setup for much less money than a new soundbar so I have bought that and now have the job of trying to wire it all together.

The TV is a Panasonic TX-P46G10 plasma with FreeSat
The Amp is a Pioneer SC-LX71
The Subwoofer is a Yamaha YST-SW120
The Front speakers are a pair of KEF floorstanders and a KEF centre speaker
The rears are a pair of small Sony speakers

So i need to get the sound from the TV to the amp, and also to plug in an Amazon Firestick, Nintendo Switch, and Samsung Blueray.

So what is the best way to do this? Do i plug the blueray etc into the amp and then run a HDMI lead to the TV? Or do i plug them into the TV and run an audio feed back to the Amp?

If all that stuff is fairly modern I'd suggest plugging everything into the tv then running a cable - preferably optical cable - back to the amp.

Originally I had everything plugged into my amp, but when I got 4K my slightly older amp I couldn't pass it through. Forced me to use the optical out of the tv to the amp and the sound quality noticeably improved.

Edit - ah an older tv, you might not have optical out. Will the tv menus handle all the inputs easily to swap between them?

[boyse7en]

The TV has got a Digital Audio Out socket, and as well as the two HDMI sockets on the back panel, there is another side-mounted one.

The manual says it has:

HDMI 1 / 2 / 3
TYPE A Connectors
HDMI™ (Version 1.3a with x.v.Colour™)
This TV supports “HDAVI Control 4” function. ●


OUTPUTS
AUDIO L - R
RCA PIN Type × 2
0.5 V[rms] (high impedance)

DIGITAL AUDIO OUT
PCM / Dolby Digital, Fiber optic

[Largechris]

Yep, so the amp is about the same age as my Denon, and also has optical, and may not pass through a 4K signal.
You'll need an optical cable (not expensive) and plug everything through the tv IMHO.
I have KEF speakers as well, should all sound great, way better than any soundbar.

[boyse7en]

Largechris said:

Yep, so the amp is about the same age as my Denon, and also has optical, and may not pass through a 4K signal.
You'll need an optical cable (not expensive) and plug everything through the tv IMHO.
I have KEF speakers as well, should all sound great, way better than any soundbar.

Thanks

It is fairly elderly kit (think most of it is from around 2010-12) but for £150 i think it is a bit of a bargain and should add some oomph to my TV watching

[stevoknevo]

Plug all of the devices into the receiver, image search suggests it has four HDMI inputs and one output - the Pioneer is capable of Dolby True HD which will be on a lot of BluRays and is superior to Dolby Digital 5.1, which is the maximum you'd get connecting everything to the TV and running an optical lead to the receiver.
Both are 1080p so should be no issues with image pass through.

Edit - you'll still need to connect the TV to the receiver via optical for sound from Freeview/Freesat, cables are cheap as chips (probably cheaper in fact!)
You'll also need to set the speaker crossovers in the settings on the receiver, check the labels on the speakers to determine what the lower frequency range is - 80hz for the fronts and 20hz above what the rears are capable of is a good starting point.

Edited by stevoknevo on Tuesday 26th July 11:18

[Pistonsquirter]

these days i think the amp takes hdmi for sound only or maybe it takes pass through hdmi and takes the audio from it

[boyse7en]

stevoknevo said:

Plug all of the devices into the receiver, image search suggests it has four HDMI inputs and one output - the Pioneer is capable of Dolby True HD which will be on a lot of BluRays and is superior to Dolby Digital 5.1, which is the maximum you'd get connecting everything to the TV and running an optical lead to the receiver.
Both are 1080p so should be no issues with image pass through.

Edit - you'll still need to connect the TV to the receiver via optical for sound from Freeview/Freesat, cables are cheap as chips (probably cheaper in fact!)
You'll also need to set the speaker crossovers in the settings on the receiver, check the labels on the speakers to determine what the lower frequency range is - 80hz for the fronts and 20hz above what the rears are capable of is a good starting point.

Edited by stevoknevo on Tuesday 26th July 11:18

That sounds logical.

So, HDMI cable from blueray to Amp. HDMI from Amp to TV
Digital optical cable from TV to Amp

I assume the Firestick still goes in the back of the TV?

[TEKNOPUG]

boyse7en said:

stevoknevo said:

Plug all of the devices into the receiver, image search suggests it has four HDMI inputs and one output - the Pioneer is capable of Dolby True HD which will be on a lot of BluRays and is superior to Dolby Digital 5.1, which is the maximum you'd get connecting everything to the TV and running an optical lead to the receiver.
Both are 1080p so should be no issues with image pass through.

Edit - you'll still need to connect the TV to the receiver via optical for sound from Freeview/Freesat, cables are cheap as chips (probably cheaper in fact!)
You'll also need to set the speaker crossovers in the settings on the receiver, check the labels on the speakers to determine what the lower frequency range is - 80hz for the fronts and 20hz above what the rears are capable of is a good starting point.

Edited by stevoknevo on Tuesday 26th July 11:18

That sounds logical.

So, HDMI cable from blueray to Amp. HDMI from Amp to TV
Digital optical cable from TV to Amp

I assume the Firestick still goes in the back of the TV?

No, everything connects via HDMI to the Amp. If you have a Firestick, do you need to even bother with an optical from the TV - what freeview would you be watching that you couldn't via the Firestick?

Ensure you set front speakers to "Small" if using a Subwoofer.

Manual here: https://www.manualslib.com/products/Pioneer-Sc-Lx7...

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Tuesday 26th July 15:59

[mk2 24v]

boyse7en said:

The TV has got a Digital Audio Out socket, and as well as the two HDMI sockets on the back panel, there is another side-mounted one.

The manual says it has:

HDMI 1 / 2 / 3
TYPE A Connectors
HDMI™ (Version 1.3a with x.v.Colour™)
This TV supports “HDAVI Control 4” function. ?


OUTPUTS
AUDIO L - R
RCA PIN Type × 2
0.5 V[rms] (high impedance)

DIGITAL AUDIO OUT
PCM / Dolby Digital, Fiber optic

I'd plug anything with an HDMi lead/output in to the receiver, then use the ARC HDMI port for TV to receiver and that will transmit audio back to the amp from the TV if watching freesat

You won't miss out on 4k, as that age of Panny plasma isn't capable of displaying it

[Lucid_AV]

mk2 24v said:

I'd plug anything with an HDMi lead/output in to the receiver, then use the ARC HDMI port for TV to receiver and that will transmit audio back to the amp from the TV if watching freesat

Would you? Would you really? That's tremendous. Now, if you could just share the secret of how you plan to get ARC audio from the TV HDMI sockets that would be fantastic. You know, since they don't support it being HDMI 1.3a when what's required is HDMI 1.4 standard.

[mk2 24v]

Lucid_AV said:

Would you? Would you really? That's tremendous. Now, if you could just share the secret of how you plan to get ARC audio from the TV HDMI sockets that would be fantastic. You know, since they don't support it being HDMI 1.3a when what's required is HDMI 1.4 standard.

Oh, that i didn't know

I thought the difference between 1.3 and 1.4 was 3D pass through

[Timothy Bucktu]

Surely you're missing a trick here? It's an ideal time to justify to yourself (and more importantly your wife if you have one) that it's time to ditch that old TV and buy a new OLED?