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Scrapez posted:If you buy a receiver with preamp inputs,, you can use it as a straight amplifier after the processing section becomes dated. I'm using an old pre-HDMI Onkyo with Multichannel (5.1) inputs attached to the 5.1 channel outputs on a USB Xonar and works a treat with all the modern formats etc. I can still use Pro Logic II/DTS:X emulation on stereo sources too by hooking up the TOSLINK cable to the SPDIF out and just switching inputs. When I eventually get a newer HDMI receiver I'll probably look at using it for HHA, or just a surround amp for my PC, but right now it does the job real well.
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Nov 6, 2017 07:14
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I don't think it matters nearly as much as the placement of your front and centers, because so little information comes through the surrounds. Generally it's going to be a compromise between where you can physically mount rear speakers without pissing off the people you live with. My living room requires my surrounds to be mounted about 12 feet behind and 6 feet above the top of my couch, at about 125 degrees or so because there's a massive plate glass window preventing me from mounting them any closer, but you still get a pretty good 3D image, and the fronts are about the same distance anyway (it's a long-rear end room).
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Apr 30, 2018 04:32
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I was recently gifted a Yamaha rx-v565 early HDMI receiver, and I'm having a few issues with the HDMI side of things. I'm using an older 46" generic tv from like 2010 with it, with a htpc, Chromecast and a blu ray player connected. The Chromecast works great, but I ran into some trouble with the htpc, the picture was full of noise, and clearly something was off in the decoding, which is weird cause it was fine when I had it connected directly. I swapped out the old ati HD5450 for a GeForce GT210 I had lying around and it cleared up; but then I got the same issue with my Samsung Blu ray player. I'm pretty sure the BR player is a lot newer than the rest of the kit, but I would assume it would be backwards compatible with older versions of HDMI etc. And I would have assumed it would have failed handshake rather than display a distorted image. Googling and the owners manual have given me no ideas, so if you can think of anything I can try short of buying a new tv, I'm keen. Edit: update: I fixed this by disabling the "HDMI Deep Color" option on the Blu Ray player. Don Dongington fucked around with this message at 04:05 on May 8, 2018 |
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May 7, 2018 06:01
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So I'm temporarily using an older tv without ARC while saving up for something newer, and I'm getting tired of having an RCA cable running between the tv and the AVR, as I have everything else running through the wall. Is there an acceptable quality, reasonably priced wireless point to point transmission solution I can use to pass a stereo audio signal to my AVR beyond loving around with Bluetooth pairing? It has to be wife-operable and as fool proof as possible, because it'll be used to put free to air tv on for the kids at like 6 in the morning. The AVR is an older unit (Yamaha RX-V565) without Bluetooth, but I do have a BT 4.1 receiver lying around. Thanks!
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May 24, 2018 07:04
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I had a feeling. It does have optical out, so maybe I'll look into a longer toslink cable situation. I have speaker wire running along the skirting boards there anyway.
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May 25, 2018 05:53
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I'm reconditioning a pair of hi fi speakers I've had since I was 17 to run in my workshop/possibly out the back when we have guests over etc, and I'm trying to figure out how I want to power them. I used to run them off a Pioneer SX525 (~22WRMS) which needs a heap of reconditioning work, so I was thinking of grabbing a cheap T-amp or something; but it seems there's a heap of poo poo-tier knock offs and the original 20W 2020A+ amps don't exist anymore. All I can find are the lovely ones or unknown stuff that's probably 10W regular class D nonsense. What's the go with these at the moment - are there any decent iterations in that "cheap and good" price pocket right now, or is it all dogshit?
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Jul 26, 2018 04:54
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Sioux posted:I recently bought a Yamaha RX-V481D Surround-receiver to replace my broken Onkyo. The Yamaha is great, although with my speaker setup (5.0) I feel like the back (surround) speakers are really hard to hear when watching Netflix or TV. They are a different brand (2x Harman/Kardon SAT TS-60) from my front speakers (L+R Heco Metas XT 501 and a Heco center speaker) I'm wondering if I can manually up their volume a bit inside the Yamaha. The other 'problem' is that sometimes when I turn on my TV, I see the message on screen that the external receiver failed to turn on. Then the TV speakers are used. I don't know why this is the case, but it's easily resolved by either turning on the receiver, or turning it off and on. All in I'm really satisfied with the new receiver. Did you connect the mic and run the self setup thing? That automatically calibrates things like volume and latency.
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Sep 25, 2018 14:23
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There's a tone of 50w X2 no-frills class D mini amps on eBay Amazon and AliExpress now if you don't mind taking a gamble. Most will run well off a 19v laptop supply, but some need 24/36V to actually come close to their rated wattage (and usually do so at like 1% THD)
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Nov 4, 2018 02:06
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If you're just after a stereo setup, you can get by with one of the small Class D amps that are everywhere now. If you don't wanna gamble on Chinese brands, Parts Express sell a few dayton audio mini amps that are pretty popular. Other option is a simple Class AB integrated amp, which usually run about $200 for the sort of power levels you're chasing. That and some basic floor-standing speakers would do it.
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Nov 15, 2018 14:05
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UncleGuito posted:I got some really nice powered bookshelves for a great deal and trying to figure out how to hook them up properly to my TV- otherwise will just use them for music with a Chromecast Audio. I've tried ignoring my receiver and hooking them up directly to my Samsung TV via digital optical, which works, but won't let me control the volume. Are there any ways to control audio the volume of speakers hooked up via optical without extra adapters or using something like a Harmony Hub? Also not sure if I'm just being crazy for trying to use powered speakers on a TV. In my experience, The optical connection never seems to be able to use TV volume control, and won't disable the onboard speakers either. Sometimes there's a 3.5mm out that will disable the tv speakers and allow you to control the volume via the remote, and HDMI ARC MAY allow you to control the volume via CEC from your receiver. Some receivers have an RCA out (often Zone 2) that you could potentially connect to the speakers, which would allow you to control the volume via CEC if you have a reasonably recent TV and receiver.
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Nov 20, 2018 03:26
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:My wife wanted me to just run them naked in the ground and then up the fence in the back yard. What I kept seeing in my head was them snapping in half from the trimmer when I went around to get the grass around the perimeter of the fence. Prognosis: one year to failure. In this case I would just run a foot or so of PVC conduit where it leaves the ground, that way you can trim to your hearts content and the only thing you'll snap off is trimmer line.
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Nov 27, 2018 08:39
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I grabbed one of those little class D mini amps to power the big floor speakers I have in my man-cave/workshop - but obviously it doesn't have any EQ to speak of. Is there a cheap solution that I can put between my bluetooth receiver and the amp's inputs to give me at least a 2-3 band EQ?
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Dec 6, 2018 05:57
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KillHour posted:This is where used is the way to go.  Yeah Australia sucks. The cheapest lovely Akai 7 band stereo eq is running about $80 on marketplace/Gumtree also. Tonnes of very similar stuff to what you posted fetching 200+ because everyone dealing in used hifi over here are grifters.
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Dec 6, 2018 11:22
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Panty Saluter posted:I say just install in-ceiling speakers. Even if you live in an apartment Is Atmos really even worth it, or is this just another 7.1 (aka not worth the logistics of implementing it)
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Dec 13, 2018 00:56
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Also keep in mind you can't really go over 5M for HDMI without risking having transmission loss issues. 4k is only weakly guaranteed up to that point on passive cables, and active cables/Ethernet transports are expensive.
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Dec 18, 2018 00:29
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I've been wondering for a while if it's possible to crack open a google home mini, which are cheap second hand due to Google literally give them away with their Pixel line, tap into a stereo line level off the PCB and create a cheap source of Chromecast Audios (They're $60AUD here) but then I also can't be hosed.
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Dec 20, 2018 02:32
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I'm stuck on optical because my receiver doesn't have ARC, but I don't have any 4K sources anyway and I'm not convinced I'd be able to hear the difference between DTS and DTS-HD on my setup. The only lovely thing is that I couldn't run optical through the wall without going past the attenuation threshold, so I had to run stick-on conduit. CEC doesn't work worth a poo poo with my tv though, as you can't turn the built in speakers off and every time you turn the receiver on it turns them up to whatever level it's set to. It might work better with ARC but probably not?
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Jan 16, 2019 08:28
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I really like my TPA3116 as a power amp, but I haven't been able to locate a cheap preamp for less than I'd be able to get a whole 80s era solid state amo for in the first place. There are a few chinese kit/pcb preamps around, but for some reason most of them seem to need 12VAC not DC.
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Feb 24, 2019 04:19
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Would like a 2-3 band EQ to put between my CCA and the amp ideally. Graphic EQ would be great but nobody seems to make them anymore.
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Feb 24, 2019 13:19
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The old Tripath amps have been somewhat superceded by the TPA3116 and TPA3255 chip amps. Similar sound quality, but significantly more powerful. Prices have been creeping up, though.
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Sep 21, 2021 14:41
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KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD posted:I think so, but the stereo mode just uses the Z5500's internal dac, and I think any cheapo outboard DAC I use to gain a toslink output is going to have a worse dac anyway, so I'm fine with that. Grab a Behringer UCA202/222 USB DAC for like $25. I would honestly be surprised if even the Z5500 Logitech's had a better DAC on board, but it has TOSLINK out anyway. This has been a solved problem for ever.
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Nov 23, 2021 00:55
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I think right now, unless you're happy paying premium prices for a Yamaha RX-V4A/6A, or a Denon 1600H, the best bet is to wait for the usual suspects to release their budget/entry level stuff with HDMI 2.1 on board. In similar news, I got sick of using optical on my ARC-less RX-V565, so I grabbed a slightly newer 5.1 RX-V377, which would have been entry level at the time, and has ARC. Optical sounds the same, but none of the TVs I have or have had support volume control over CEC properly, or at all using optical. It's a huge QOL difference being able to use the TV's remote, rather than a harmony or juggling two. Also the newer one had a setup mic, so I was actually able to calibrate it properly, and it sounds much better than the old one did uncalibrated. It came with a 5.1 Yamaha NF125 speaker set, that I have already sold with my old receiver minus the sub and the setup mic for $50 less than I paid. So I basically paid $50 for ARC and an extra sub, and the other guy is getting a screaming deal for $100AUD (it sold 15 mins after the ad went up). If you're in a similar spot, consider a used newer model. This cheap entry level AVR that the PO apparently paid $700 for with the speakers sounds just as good as my old one, does everything I need If it had eARC and 4K HDR/VRR, it would do everything I want, so definitely not going to pay for 8k/Atmos that I'll probably never use. I'll get an entry level one when they come out and then get my remaining $50 back selling the 377.
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Dec 9, 2021 08:56
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KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD posted:I just got a bundle of home theater equipment for nearly free. One thing I got was a Panamax M5100-PM power conditioner. I know that power conditioners are hokey in terms of improving sound quality, but I was thinking it might be stronger than a surge protector in terms of protecting my equipment. However, the unit is at least ten years old, so is it safer to stick with a newer plain old surge protector? Just get a TPA3116 amp with USB in from AliExpress if you want super cheap. Sound quality is good enough for most people. Something like https://a.aliexpress.com/_mLhR9HI
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Dec 28, 2021 03:37
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KillHour posted:You're supposed to go Source -> Receiver -> TV, not source -> TV -> Receiver. It's how they're designed to work. Except that since the majority of video content is now served via smart TV apps, this is no longer really true. with eARC, it shouldn't matter as much which order you plug things in, however in reality having an extra layer of complexity between the source and the amplifier isn't ideal, provided the receiver has the ability to pass through content with the same capabilities that the TV can receive (HDR/4K120/8K60) For a lot of people, HDMI 2.1 receivers still aren't available/affordable, so you might find a mix and match, or people using eARC/ARC exclusively and the TV as the source switcher so they can get their 4k120 game on. 2-3 HDMI inputs are probably enough for most people now.
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Apr 7, 2022 05:28
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The biggest advantage for me going from TOSLINK to ARC was that CEC actually works, whereas with optical it's pretty sketchy. You either don't get volume control or the tv remote turns up the internal speakers, or CEC barely works because the tv is expecting you to use ARC alongside it. I'm sure the experience is better on more premium TVs, but for stuff like TCL and Hisense that a lot of people end up buying now, optical is a pretty sad experience.
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Apr 7, 2022 12:47
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Jolo posted:Yep, the arc works with the tv but I think it's making the other sources act up. Kinda feels like this thing either wants to do all through the receiver or all arc and swapping between isn't a good setup. Wondering if this could be the TV rather than the AVR? I haven't really spent much time reading up on ARC/eARC as I don't have a HDMI 2.1 unit yet, but I expect if the TV was failing to send the right messages to the AVR (i.e. "Okay we're using you as the video source so turn off ARC and do your thing, buddy"), it could cause it to act up. I know that at one point, I was trying to be clever while playing games off my PC by connecting one HDMI port to the AVR for audio, and one to the TV for video so I could game in 4k60 with HD audio as opposed to 4K30 which is the max my AVR can do, or using lossy 5.1 via ARC. I had to unplug the AVR from the TV or disable ARC+CEC altogether to make it work. The TV didn't care that no sound was coming through the HDMI connection; because no video was coming from the AVR, and I was using an input source on the TV, it kept switching back to ARC as the audio source, and CEC meant that if I tried to manually switch the AVR to the input I was using for audio, it would try to use that input for video. In fairness, I was doing something it was never designed to do, but it makes me wonder that if the TV was telling the AVR "hey, I have an audio stream for you" or "Oh I see you're passing through a source with audio, I'll take that" when it's not supposed to, it could gently caress with the AVR in exactly the way you're describing?
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Apr 25, 2022 13:36
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FYI, "max" input is a pretty worthless metric. You want to look for RMS wattage, as it's more of an industry standard and much harder for manufacturers to cheat big numbers by achieving that rating under ultra-favourable conditions. The Max/Peak/PMPO rating can often be up to 5x the RMS rating, or more, by nature of the way the measurement is taken. If the manufacturer doesn't supply RMS Power ratings at all, that's generally a warning sign to stay away. That said, 50/100w max is suspiciously low for most hi fi speakers, and almost any AVR on the market can manage at least 50W RMS with all channels driven, which would comfortably drive those.
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Jun 14, 2022 12:55
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Kithyen posted:https://www.bose.com/en_us/products...ndbar_900_black I mean both "Bose" and "soundbar" are generally going to be pretty unpopular solutions in here. Bose, because generally speaking for the money you can do better, and a lot of people don't like the way modern Bose stuff sounds (they're generally coloured in a particular way that tends to sound good in the showroom but often sucks when you put it up against a decent set of bookshelves). I would generally recommend a nice set of active bookshelves these days over a soundbar - the Edifier stuff is both dirt cheap and surprisingly good, for example. I have some hooked up to the tv in my bedroom, another set on my pc, and I got some little ones for a friend for their tv as a birthday present because they were about $70AU, small and look/sound good. The 1280DB with the subwoofer out is a pretty solid option. You may not even need a sub, they have an unreasonable amount of bass on tap for a 4" driver.
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Jun 21, 2022 04:58
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Mozi posted:Well... I can't say I need surround but I did really like having the rear speakers for movie stuff. Plus I already got the mounts on the dang walls. I noticed when I connect these to my TV with the optical and set the TV to use its own speakers it still outputs to the optical regardless which helps fill thing out a bit/act as a central speaker but I need a subwoofer, this isn't quite cutting it in that department. If I do ditch the soundbar that's a thousand bucks back in my pocket... would the Edifiers really not work with a receiver to which I could add a subwoofer and worry about adding surround later? It's not that the bass is bad but I'm fortunate to be able to shake the house when I want to and not have anyone complain. Don't gently caress around with mixing Bluetooth, powered speakers and passive speakers, there will be latency and it will just be lovely to use. Almost any receiver should be able to run actives for L+R though, so if you're looking to keep your edifiers in the mix that would work... But I would forgo a centre in that case as you're unlikely to find something that matches them closely enough, and any half decent receiver can do a perfectly good "phantom centre" mix anyway. Order of priority after L+R should always be sub, rear/side surrounds if you want that experience, and then centre. A good centre is great. A cheap one is not. I would wait until you have the coin to buy a nice pair of passive floor standing L+Rs and a matching centre and get them all at once. Just make sure the drivers in the centre are the same size (or at least in the same ballpark) as the L+R, or it may actually sound worse.
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Jun 24, 2022 21:49
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Does the Denon support Spotify connect? Using local media for streaming/casting seems like a pain in the rear end compared to pure streaming options these days, especially if you're not specifically doing it to enjoy lossless audio formats etc. I'd wager Spotify sounds better than about 80% of the 15-20 year old MP3s sitting on my server right now even on the default quality setting.
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Aug 15, 2022 11:10
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Wouldn't a $50 (or whatever they cost in the US) Chromecast with google tv be a better solution than sideloading onto a fire stick or buying a current gen console?
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Aug 17, 2022 12:43
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I had to turn off either ARC or CEC on my Hisense to do this - in my case because my old-rear end reciever can only do 4k30 and no eARC. Found that every time I switched the tv to the PC input it would automatically flick the receivers input to ARC. Frustrating. Then I got a Series X, and now just use regular old ARC with Dolby Digital until I eventually get off my rear end and find a cheap second hand 4k60 receiver.
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Aug 27, 2022 00:07
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This is correct, windows bafflingly only supports 2.0 and 5.1/7.1 setups, so doing 4.0, 2.1 or 4.1 without either a better soundcard than I've ever had or splitting the signal elsewhere in the chain is impossible. If you use 5.1 with no centre you'll lose all the dialogue. Fortunately, windows will let you use a HDMI port (or newer displayport formats with an adaptor) for audio output only, so you can send 10 channels of lossless PCM audio to the AVR of your choice, which can in turn mix that down to whatever combination of speakers you tell it to. HDMI is the only real choice now for multichannel audio, and any video card suitable for gaming should have enough ports to cover a multi monitor setup with at least one left over for audio. If not, you can run one that's not used for gaming through the AVR, as long as it supports the resolution. You won't need high/variable refresh rates or low latency for your spreadsheets.
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Jan 26, 2023 09:46
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If I recall Dolby Atmos and 7.1 TrueHD mixes have a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix encoded within to cater for hardware that can't decode/transmit 8ch uncompressed audio. Would not be surprised if they had a stereo/2ch mix in there also, but if not almost anything that can decode DD5.1 is also capable of downmixing to stereo. As for the sub, just make sure your receiver is set up to pump low frequencies through it from a stereo source, rather than just a dedicated LFE channel, as there's no guarantee the downmix will include that. Playing music is the easiest way to test this.
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Dec 4, 2023 16:33
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Geemer posted:Thanks again! Once I got all the settings right (which was pretty easy) it all works better than I ever thought it would. I picked one up a 660H this weekend too, replacing an older 3xx series Yamaha with no 4k60 or eARC support. Audyssey is definitely a step up from the YPAO room calibration. I'm happier with the sound even on DD5.1 sources, and getting 6ch pcm out of the Xbox vs compressed Dolby Digital via ARC is definitely a noticeable improvement. Have had some issues with my Chromecast GTV not playing nice (messed up video signal), so I've popped that back into the tv, but this seems to be causing some wack behaviour with CEC, so I probably need to go through the settings on everything again. TV doesn't seem to want to turn off with the AVR remote, and sometimes the input changes back to the GTV when it shouldn't. Getting the Google TV working properly with it seems like the best solution. It works fine straight into the TV so any advice would be appreciated.
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Dec 5, 2023 00:52
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Sounds like a perfect use case for one of the Fosi or similar chip amps. Most have a volume control, but small enough that you can set it and shove it behind something so it never gets touched. Example: https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtiPjko
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Dec 28, 2023 16:47
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This is the weirdest thing about modern AVRs. With almost every media source able to crank out at least Dolby digital+ now, I wonder how many people have only ever listened to emulated 5.1 on their systems because they hit the "movie" or "game" button in the remote one time? You'd think if a multi channel source was available it'd default to that, but my last 3 need to be set back to Direct/Auto manually. Unless I'm wrong and pro-logic II etc automatically disable emulation for the front centre side and sub if they detect a 5.1 source, but I see nothing indicating that on the display.
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Jan 21, 2024 01:34
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I mean that makes sense. I had a 7.1 Onkyo from the pre -HDMI days, with literally no way to get more than 6 channels of Audio from the source - so the rear 2 were always emulated. I've been playing with my Denon a bit, and it looks like if you leave it set to "auto" it will fail over to Pro Logic II for stereo sources, but switch back to the relevant decoder if the source is outputting in Dolby/DTS/Multi channel PCM so looks like that's the way to go.
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Jan 22, 2024 16:49
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Not if you own a jigsaw.
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Apr 2, 2024 03:48
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If there's an air gap that will be an issue, whether it's ported or sealed. Your best bet would be to make an adapter plate out of some MDF or decent quality ply, using the old amp's plate as a template, and route/jigsaw a hole large enough for the new one. 6mm or imperial equivalent would be fine if we're only talking a few mm of difference between the old amp and the new one. Add some rattle-can rustoleum black and you'll barely see it (also doesn't need primer, always best choice for speaker backs etc where you don't need a gloss finish). If you're short on space between the screws for the new plate and the original plate you can always screw the adapter plate in from the inside of the sub using some short screws and using the route for the new amp for access, and then screw the new amp in from the other side. If you find it still leaks air, the original plate may have a gasket or something to prevent air leaks that you can re-use - otherwise a bead of silicone around the inside edges where the adapter plate and the original cavity meet will sort that without looking gross.
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Apr 2, 2024 05:43
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