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Newbie needs assistance

post #1 of 3
4/14/09 at 6:49pm
Thread Starter 
First off, thanks to all of you who take the time and have the patience to teach, it really helps those of us who are somewhat tech challenged immensely. Through reading, looking, and listening to the experts here, I have begun to put together a little system for my brand new 20' by 20' family room.

I have made 2 purchases, and received one excellent gift. I bought an Onkyo 706 and a Velodyne Impact 10 subwoofer, and received a PS3 to use as my blu-ray player. I have an older but dependable Toshiba big screen, and an odd lot of speakers. I am doing my best on a limited budget to piece something respectable together. I have a great pair of Klipsch RP3's which I have to admit, I like a great deal for music, but only so so for Surround sound. I am hoping that somehow the subwoofer will help that. Ideally I'd like to move the Klipsch's out to the adjacent room and use my Onkyo remote capability to play music in there, but for now, i think they have to hang in as my front speakers. I also have a pair of movie theatre type, Acoustic Linear 520's, and up to 6 Pioneer Bookshelf speakers at my disposal.

I have gone out and purchased 200' of 10 gauge speaker wire and am using HDMI where I can, and component cable everywhere else. I have leafed through the Onkyo and Velodyne manuals, but have not powered anything up yet. The cables and wire all came today, so I am wiring up this evening. I have never had a stand alone sub before, and have to admit, I have no clue how I should best connect all my mix and match together. I don't want to (can't afford to) destroy anything by misconnecting or miswiring, so I am ... throwing myself on the mercy of the court.

I am thinking Klipsch front left and right (Until I can scrape together money for another pair of something to free them up for music), Pioneer for center, back left and right, and Acoustic Linear's for surround left and right. I readily admit I am a little intimidated by the back of my onkyo and quite unsure what do do with my klipsch settings and my subwoofer hookups. (the backs of both of these look amazingly similar, so I suspect I ought to be turning off the sub component of my Klipsch's somehow?) DO I sound confused enough yet?

Help!!

Mazinoverhisheadman
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post #2 of 3
4/16/09 at 8:01am

Re: Newbie needs assistance

I understand the intimidation the rear panel of a surround receiver can impose. The RP3s should make good mains in both music and surround if configured correctly. You don't say exactly what you don't like about them, but I'm guessing it's the way surround channels most of the sound to the center leaving the mains for sounds panning left and right. On TV, unless broadcast in surround, most everything is in the center. Also since most of the sound is in the center the bass output is reduced.

I see two options for your surround system.

(1) Since you don't like the Klipsch' for surround, put them as the Zone 2 speakers for stereo use only. You can still keep them in the same room, or another if desired.
Since the 520s are a large speakers they're best suited for main L/R surround use. Use the pioneers for center and surrounds. Since side/rear surround normally has very little bass, putting them in the rear would be a waste, unless you have capabilities for SACD or DVD-Audio. If the Pioneers are very small you may want to consider a better center channel in the future.

(2) Use the Pioneers (if all are the same model, or pairs). This will keep the sound consistent when it pans across the front or from front to rear.

The sub is easy and same for all configs. Connect it to the

The 10ga speaker wire is a bit overkill and may be a problem fitting into the speaker terminals of the receiver. I would recommend using banana plug to terminate the ends. You don't want stray wire strands to touch each other. Ebay is a good source for these. They come in singles or as a combined pair. The pair are more economical, but don't always have the correct spacing to plug into the back of the receiver. I've been known to cut these apart when needed. Be sure they are capable of using 10ga wire. If you can't find any 10ga capable, trim the wire a bit to fit. You won't lose anything by trimming them down, but again be careful not to have stray strands. Be sure to keep your polarities consistent. Keep the +s red and -s black. You may already know this, but I don't want to assume. It makes a big difference.

The PS3 is a very good choice as a Blu-ray player. I work for Sony. We have a Media Test center which has over 165 different DVD and Blu-ray players pretty much all the Blu-ray players available and they tell me the PS3 is still the best.

Connect it to one of the receiver's HDMI inputs using an HDMI v1.3 capable cable. This will allow both audio and video through the receiver with all the newest formats and features.

Connect the HDMI out to the HD TV. You don't say what model of Toshiba you have, so I'm assuming it has HDMI. If not, the next best is component video (red, blue, green). I believe you have to purchase a special cable for the PS3 to use component video since the jacks aren't on the back panel. Use the component in from the PS3 and component out from receiver to TV.

Good luck with the setup. I'm sure others will chime in with other ideas.
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post #3 of 3
4/16/09 at 9:48am
Thread Starter 

Re: Newbie needs assistance

I appreciate your feedback. My TV is the old Dinosaur Toshiba 50H72. It has 2 sets of Color Stream component cable inputs with red and white rca's for sound for HD1 and HD2. It also has Video 1 and Video 2 with red, white (and yellow for video). Both of those also have S-Video inputs above. then there is the same setup in the front panel for gaming (Video 3). There are 1 set of red, white and yellow output, and one additional pair or just Right and left audio out. SO, long windedly, no HDMI of any sort, and no optical jack either. It does however have a single jack out with an on/off switch to be used when tv is used as center channel. For an A/V receiver it says to use the tv as the center speaker and connect this single jack to to the receiver,or turn the switch to off. It does seem to allow me to hook everything to the Onkyo, and then simply connect the audio out from the tv to the tv in of the onkyo, and the video out of the onkyo via yellow cable or S-Video cable to video in of tv.

So my first concern is, do you think it wll work if I hook everything to my Onkyo via HDMI cable (PS3, DVD, Fios Box) but then connect my Onkyo to my TV via Component Cables? I'm truly not sure if this will work or not, but I would think using as much HDMI as possible makes sense. Second, I think I will use my Klipsch as part of the surround setup until I can afford to get another pair (so I can move my Klipsch out to the adjacent room with the pool table for music). Thing is, they have a subwoofer built in them. The back of the Klipsch looks very much like the back of the Velodyne sub! So do I need to somehow turn off the sub on the Klipsch, or do I use both the Klipsch and the Velodyne. Also, I am assuming my small Pioneer would be a better center channel then the Toshiba TV, but the TV will allow me either option, so which would you think is better?

You are absolutely correct about the speaker wire, being a rookie, and having read so many places on the forum that I shouldn't skimp on speaker wire, i went with the 10 gauge, had I known, I would have gone one step down I did buy pin and aligator clips though, so all my connections will be using those. I so appreciate your feedback,
Thanks,
Maz
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