Buying new A/V receiver...only 2 speakers question
Duane Riggs
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Hi,
I am in the process of buying my first A/V receiver. I will be building a HT system over the 12 months. My question is getting the right cables etc. that I need now to get the best sound since I have only 2 speakers. My order of purchase will be.
Receiver (my stereo reveiver died and need to replace) Speaker system TV New dvd player
My system now:
Comcast DCT2524/1612 cable box with RCA and digital coax cable out
Sony 36" TV composite and S-Video inputs
Polk SDA-2B speakers (havent decided to add to these or get whole new system)
Pioneer 525 DVD player
My question is what cables etc do I need to get now? For example, since my cable box has digital coax out should I get that cable since I only have 2 speakers? Any advice on hooking this system up with the components I have now?
TV audio outs to receiver: RCA cables DVD to receiver: digital coax or RCA cables Cable box audio out to receiver: digital coax or RCA DVD to TV: S-video cable if no component video available
Get cheap generic Phillips cables from Walmart or online at eBay. Save your money for the receiver and sub.
Duane Riggs
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Dale
Let me clarify a bit. My Yamaha stereo receiver died and I am buying a new A/V receiver. I am buying a Onkyo 702 receiver in the next couple of days.
The question I have is along the lines of this. For example, my cable box has rca A/V outputs plus a digital audio coax out. Since i only have 2 speakers now is there a reason to spend $30 for a digital coax audio cable now. I understand that yes if I already had surround speakers to get that. But since I only have 2 is there a sound improvement, etc with hooking the cable box up to the coax audio vs just using the rca jacks. That is the sort of thing I am getting at.
Might as well get the best picture out of the system while he can though, surely? Even inexpensive s-video and/or component will look a lot better than a standard composite feed.
Regards, Frank.
anonymousII
Unregistered guest
Posted on
As Frank said you should use a s-video cable for your dvd player and your cable box if it has a s-video output. Mine does and the picture is much better that way. As to the audio cables you won't hear a major difference between the coax and rca cables in 2 channel mode. In fact I have two cable boxes hooked up so I can use one for "music choice" music only. I can switch back and forth between the boxes and for music the box that has the rca cables sounds a bit better than the optical output on my other box. If you can get to the back of your system easily I would use the rca cables for now but if it's a pain to get back there[mine is awful] then hook up digital cables for the dvd and cable box and be done with it.
> Since i only have 2 speakers now is there a reason to spend $30 for a digital coax audio cable now.
Probably not.
But even if you had more speakers, IMO there is NEVER any reason to spend $30 for a digital coax cable. Just buy a normal coax cable with the needle ends ($8?) and a pair of cable-to-RCA plug adapters ($2/each?).
Also you can look at accessories4less.com for good prices on this kind of stuff, but Walmart or Home Depot is usually OK.