First HT, need help with hookups (1 Viewer)

[MatthiasSmitty]

Hey folks, please forgive my ignorance with regards to many aspects of home theater, but I again turn to you that are much more knowledgeable to help me out.

I've been looking to buy a home theater recently, and after over a year of budget balancing and looking at amp/speaker combos, I decided to go with a home theater in a box, albeit one that impressed me quite a bit. I bought the Onkyo HT-S770, a 6.1 system that I have personally heard and thought was very good. I found a really good deal on it, and so I snatched it up recently. I'm picking it up some time next week, and I need your help when it comes to hooking it up.

I was wondering if you guys know what wire I should use to hook up my setup with? My receiver has 2 component inputs, 2 toslink (optical) inputs, 1 coax digital input (Is coax for sound? If so, which is better, coax or optical?), and I've got 6 speakers and a self-powered sub to hook up. The wire that comes with the system is crap, and probably too short. I've read that I should get some heavy-gauge wire (anywhere from 10-16). Will I need wire for the sub if it's self-powered? The receiver has a nice-looking RCA-ish port that says "sub in," so do I need a subwoofer cable or what? Do they even make those?

Anyway, to this receiver I'm hooking up my TV (27" Sony, can't do HD but I have the component anyway), my Xbox (already have the AV pack with the optical port and component cables), my PS2 (again, have the component wires, and the PS2 has an optical port built-in), and my GameCube (yet again, I bought the component cables from Nintendo's web site, and the 'Cube can output Dolby Pro Logic II/IIx, so I'm covered for audio wires there). Oh yeah, and to ensure that I can use component for everything I have a component switchbox.

Now, I'm not looking to wire everything with solid gold Monster cable here. I want good cable with shielding but nothing too fancy, after all this is a HTiaB setup on a non-HDTV, so I probably won't notice the "Monster difference" anyway ... plus, I'd like to keep the cabling as cheap as possible. The way I figure it, I need:

1 optical cable to go from Xbox to receiver
1 optical cable to go from PS2 to receiver
6 lengths of cable of different sizes to connect the 6 speakers to the receiver
1 subwoofer cable
1 component cable to run from the receiver to the TV

There's my system, and what I think I'll need. Please give me any suggestions. Thanks a ton!

 

[John Garcia]

For budget stuff, you could pick up all cables necessary from www.partsexpress.com for pretty cheap. Take a look at the AR Pro stuff. Radioshack will have comparable decent cables as well.

There are also the forum sponsors such as www.bettercables.com and www.bluejeanscables.com

 

[Robert*S]

You pretty much nailed all the things you need to get up and running.
As for the difference between optical and coax. It really does not matter, they both sound the same.
Gaming in 5.1 is incredible. It adds a whole new layer to the games!!

 

[MatthiasSmitty]

Thanks for the input guys. Here are a few specs on the speakers:

130x6 watts
10" 220 watt sub
Fronts: 17-1/8"W x 5-7/8"H x 16-1/4"
Center: 7 7/16"W x 16 1/2"H x 9 5/16"
Rears: 15 1/4"W x 6 3/16"H x 7 15/16"
Sub: 6 7/8"W x 10 7/16"H x 4 15/16"

If it's at all possible, any idea what gauge wire I should get for these speakers? Like I said previously, I've been told anywhere from 10-16, but I really don't know. I don't want to spend the money on cables that are disappointingly weak, but I really don't know much about what I'd need, and I don't want to go in there and take the word of the salesman without a little a priori knowledge. Thanks again for any help you can offer.

 

[Robert*S]

I used 12 gauge wire for my HT and my xbox setup and everything sounds great. I have a 35 foot RCA sub cable from bettercables for my HT and am using a radio shack RCA sub cable for my gaming system.