Need help hooking up your receiver or other devices?

[Tony V.]

Often we get questions on the forum "how do I hook up this or that to my receiver"? I hope this will assist many who are simply overwhelmed with all the inputs and outputs on the rear of a receiver or the plethora of wires that need to be connected.

Receivers always seem to be the biggest part of the confusion and a lot of questions come up about "how to get something working" or "why don't I hear this properly" so Below is a step by step guide as to how to go about this:


Although there are many manufacturers of receivers, DVD players and other components they all have a lot of similarities with regards to connections on the back.

We will start with the what I call the heart of the system the Receiver.

The first thing you need to decide is what speaker connections you need to use and this seems to cause a lot of confusion. Do you have a two speaker setup or a full 7.1 and Atmos setup meaning 7 speakers along with Atmos ceiling speakers and one or more subwoofers?

1) Above I have highlighted the speaker terminals that are most commonly used,
In light Blue I have marked the Front or main speaker connections. These are to be connected to your front Left and Right speakers the red terminal is the positive and the black is the negative (do not reverse these or you can cause problems but it wont damage anything).
Now you need to know what Ohms your speaker is (this is important) look at the back of the speakers where you connect the wires and there should be a label saying what wattage and Ohms they are the Ohms symbol looks like an upside down horseshoe and will usually be 8 or 4 ohms. write this down for use later.

Now here is where the confusion starts so just follow these instructions and you will be fine:

2) With most home theater receivers that are newer they have 5.1 - 7.1 (up to 11.2) channels and you need to know what you intend to use, in small theater rooms (less than 200sq ft) a 5.1 speaker system will do just fine. If you have a larger space then it may be necessary to use all 7 - 11 speakers This also depends on if you have one or two rows of seating.
Here is a link to a diagram of what a 5.1 and 7.1 speaker layout should look like. You can also place the side speakers on the back wall as well but keep the at least 4ft apart (I will explain later)

Ok, now that we have decided what we have for a speaker layout if you receiver is 7.1 channel and your going to use all 7 speakers skip to point number 4, if you want to only use a 5.1 speaker setup continue on to next point.

3) On receivers with 7 speaker connections you will not be using the 6th and 7th speaker terminals usually labeled "Rear speakers" or "Surround back" seen in light green in the picture. On a 5.1 channel only receiver you will use them.
The confusion always seems to be because most people have there speakers placed on the rear wall and the label on the receiver is not worded this way.
The surround channels need to be hooked up to the terminals labeled Surround side seen in Yellow. If you leave these blank and hook the speakers up to the rear surround terminals the receiver will not (in most cases) send any sound to them when listening to movies. Continue to hook up the center channel speaker as well labeled red and finally connect the subwoofer/s to the line output labeled sub out shown in dark green.

4) For a full 7.1 surround experience you hook up all the speakers to the appropriate terminals shown in these colors:
Front speakers
Center channel
Surround side
Surround back
Subwoofer (connect to line out rca jack)

NOTE: for a setup with Atmos you would hook up the in ceiling speakers to the outputs marked "Atmos"

5) Ok, now you have the speakers hoked up. Now what. Well if your receiver has on screen menu capabilities the next step is to hook up the display.
You will need to know what your display has for a connection but for most people it will ba a flat screen with a HDMI (High Definition Media Interface) input.
If you have an older display it may only have component (Red Green and Blue connectors) or even a S-Video or composite input (Yellow).
Lets assume you have HDMI run a HDMI cable between the receivers HDMI out seen in Dark blue on the far left of the picture above and your displays HDMI input.
Select that input on the display and turn on the receiver (you will need to check the receivers manual for more detailed instructions)
Go into the receivers setup menu (at first you will have to use the display on the receiver) and select HDMI out "On" so that it will output your receivers menu through HDMI.
Now this is where you need to remember the Ohms rating on your front speakers that I had you write down earlier. Go into the Speaker settings section of the receiver and find the setting that adjusts the Ohms to match what you have. Select the closest one available in the menu sometimes it only gives you two choices 6 or 8ohms (for 4ohm speakers select the 6ohm setting if there is no 4 listed).
Note: this setting may also just be a switch on the back of the receiver.

Most newer receivers have many different surround modes (to many to list) and we will leave this for another post. what you need to understand is that some modes are more useful than others and may or may not work well for music and movies. just because you have 5 or 7 speakers set up does not mean that music will sound right if using a mode that sends it to all the speakers. It takes time to find what you will like and dont get frustrated if you dont like what you hear right away.
earlier I stated that the rear speakers should not be placed together like in the diagram THX recommends This is because the rear channels are in stereo and work better spread apart particularly now with the newest movies using them much more than ever before.

 

[Tony V.]

Connecting Your DVD or BluRay player is simple. Again depending on how new the player is it will most likely have a HDMI output This connector handles both video and audio and makes it very easy to hook up. lets look at this option first.

1) take the HDMI cable and plug it in to the back of the player and run it directly to the receiver's HDMI input#1 seen on the left of the picture. Go into the receivers menu and find the setting that assigns the input connections (see manual for information). You will need to assign HDMI input #1 to the DVD input. In the Players menu you will need to set up a few things that normally are not set properly.
First find the video settings in the players menu and select the "aspect ratio" Most new TV's are what is called 16:9 so you will need to select that. If you have an older more square stile of display (CRT) Tube type you should select 4:3.
Next, under the "Audio settings" you need to select two very important things. the first is make sure that you have Bitstream selected and second turn off dynamic compression.
NOTE: HDMI is necessary if you are using a newer receiver that supports the latest audio formats Dolby TruHD and DTS Master audio these uncompressed formats from Bluray DVDs can not be transmitted over optical or coaxial. HDMI is also the only way to get most HD formats to a display now particularly UHDTV

2) If you have an older DVD player or receiver that does not have HDMI connections you will need to use an optical audio cable and component video cables to hook it up to the receiver. These composite video cables come with three cables that have rca connectors on each end that are color coded Red, Blue and green and attach to the same colored connections on both the player and the receiver. (again select the proper component inputs using the receivers menu if available). next you will need the audio connected using what is called an optical cable. it uses light to transmit the sound digitally from one device to another and is very thin. Hook this up to the connector labelled Digital optical.


Hooking up satellite or other set top receiver (we will call these Set Top Boxes or STB);

If you receive cable or satellite you likely have some sort of receiver that acts as a tuner. some have HDMI connections others only have component and optical or coaxial audio connections. Your cable from the dish or wall jack plugs into the STB, the output is then connected just like the DVD/BluRay player was connected to the receiver. The issue here is that some people dont want to have the receiver on all the time if watching TV so you sometimes have to make a choice; go directly to the TV with the output of the STB or go through the receiver first. If the STB has both HDMI and composite video outs then this is easy. Run the HDMI cable to the TV not to the receiver this way the receiver does not need to be on all the time.
Next run an audio cable from the STB to the receiver using optical or coaxial to the satellite input of the receiver this will let you listen to the audio of the STB through the speakers of your system in 5.1 sound if you so choose.


Using the pre-outs of a receiver, what are they for?

Pre-outs labelled in Pink in photo above are not always available on all receivers (with the exception of the sub out) Pre-outs are line level signal rca jacks that allow a person to hook up an external amplifier to your system. So instead of using the built in amps of the receiver you use your own external amp. The level is still adjusted by the receivers volume and relieves the receiver of the load that can be placed on it if using larger speakers that draw more power.
It is usually not necessary to add an amp to all channels but the main front speakers if large you may want to consider it some time down the road as this reduces the heat your receiver generates as well.

 

[NickG]

I just purchased the UMIK-1 to make measurements from a MacBook Pro. The recommendation is to use the computer headphone output to connect to the HDMI port on one's preamp. My system is two-channel and my preamp does not have an HDMI port. I'm wondering if there is a workaround that is simple enough? I do have an old Yamaha receiver that I thought I might use as a preamp, but it does not have 'pre outs'.

Thank you,
Nick

 

[Tony V.]

if your laptop does not have HDMI then you will only be able to use the analog out (headphone) and connect that to the analog input (Tape or CD input for example) on the preamp.

 

[NickG]

Thank you, Tony. In this case, my computer has HDMI but my preamp does not. I think that means I have to use the analog inputs on the preamp as you suggest above, anyway?

 

[Tony V.]

Yes, analog on both ends.

 

[Whitwell10]

Hi Tony. I wonder whether you might be able to help me...I have just purchased a new construction home and have 4 pre-wired ceiling speakers. 2 in my main living room and 2 in the outdoor seating area. They are wired to home entertainment wall plate (see attached). I purchased an Onkyo Surround Sound Audio & Video Component receiver (TX-SR383) so I could play music from my devices via Bluetooth and also directly from the TV etc. through the speakers. I matched the R Front and L Front wires to the wall plate and then Right Rear and Left Rear to Zone 2 but not getting any sound. Any advice or recommendations? I'm the first to admit I don't really know what I'm doing here....

 

[Tony V.]

Ok so if I read you right then your not using 7.1 speakers. If that is correct you want to use the surround outputs on the receiver not the zone 2 outputs.

 

[Whitwell10]

OK. I should still be getting some sort of output from the speakers I have hooked up to the Front R&L though? These are the speakers that are installed. I might need to check to make sure they actually connected the wiring to the wall plate...

 

[Tony V.]

Yes, pull the plate off the wall to ensure something is connected. Have you run the receiver though its AcuEQ setup with the mic?

 

[Whitwell10]

I ran the AcuEQ set-up but not with the mic. I was reading about that yesterday and they said the mic is good for getting the balance right so I should do that. As I said i'm a total novice with this stuff so just finding my meet...please don't be offended by my total lack of knowledge

 

[Todd Anderson]

If you have a digital multimeter... check continuity.