Ok, I asked earlier and was told to see what connections I had on the back of my television. Unfortunately I forgot all about it and won't be back towards the house till later tonight. I bought a NAD 742 and Energy Take 5.2 speakers with Sub, and will be hooking up only a VCR and DVD player. Are there any special connectors I will need other than standared stereo connector wires? And what gauge speaker wire should I use? My longest run will probably be abou 15 to 20 feet. Any help would be appreciated so I can get it up and running after I unwrap it. Thanks David Hickey
OK, decent affordable kit, so same standard connections. Some people suggest a budget of 10% of your hardware as a guide to how much you should spend on connections - I think it's not a bad guide to prevent you buying super-duper cables that your hardware is unable to take advantage of.
So anyway, you'll need...
I'm assuming you will send all the audio through your NAD and on to the speakers, but will connect the video signals direct from the DVD and VCR to the TV.
VIDEO ===== DVD to TV: Scart (See Note 1) VCR to TV: Scart (See Note 1)
AUDIO ===== DVD to Receiver: Optical or Coaxial digital (See Note 2) VCR to Receiver: RCA analogue Stereo leads TV to Receiver: RCA analogue Stereo leads
SPEAKERS ======== 12-14 gauge speaker wire. (See Note 3)
Sub: Single RCA analogue "stereo" lead (See Note 4)
NOTES ===== 1: Scart is a standard European connection. Not sure what you what you would use if you're not in Europe. Someone will help soon. 2: There are plenty of threads debating the pros and cons of each type of cable, but with your kit I don't think you're going to hear any appreciable difference (if there is one to be heard). Co-Ax is cheaper, but you might be limited by the number of sockets on the back of your box. Basically, make your decision based on practicalities and how much you want to spend. 3: I use QED Original cable. I've seen other posts from Americans saying they have a perfect setup using own label wire, such as Best Buy. I'm guessing you'd probably want to be looking at about GBP£2.5 / USD$4.5 a metre. Don't bother with banana clips or other terminators unless you're going to be moving your speakers around a lot. They're just for convenience, they won't make any noticable difference to your sound (IMHO). 4: You can get specially designed "sub woofer" cables. Not sure what difference they'll really make.
The above suggestions are based on my setup of Marantz SR4300, Mordaunt Short Premiere 5.1 speakers, DVD and VCR. I think this is in more or less the same price/quality range as your outfit (I expect others will disagree). I use QED Original speaker wire and the other connections are Cambridge Audio.
But those are the types of conection you'll need and as I said, if you give yourself a guide of 10% of your budget, then you probably won't go far wrong.