Home Theatre Setup

So I've been trying to revive our old home theatre setup, but it's been a while and might need some upgrades, so I have a few questions regarding setup/wiring etc.

• My front speakers have High/Low inputs.  I'd like to hook this up to a bi-amp setup. I've connected the Front High speaker inputs to the Receiver's Front output terminals and the Speaker's Low input terminals to the Receiver's Surr output terminals.  Is this the right way to do it?
• I also have rear speakers hooked up to the REAR terminals of the onkyo.  When I do a speaker test on the receiver (playing white noise on individual speakers), both front and rear L or R speaker is audible (depending on which speaker is under test).  Is this normal?

• My TV is old - 75" 1080p Plasma.  Is it even worth it to get a Blueray player?  If so, which do you recommend?  Ideally I'd like one that can also play CD's and DVD's. 

• What's the best and easiest device to use that will allow me to connect my laptop, or phone screen to the TV wirelessly?

I was huge into that a long while back.

I am a fucking infidel now.

I don't know if you want to hear this or not.. bi-amping isn't worth it.  It's like a 28.99mm crank spindle.

Direction to the speakers is important.. every receiver has it's own way of saying what speaker should be playing shit.  I've never had an Onkyo.

No, don't get a blu-ray.  Get an Nvidia Shield.  There is no reason to buy and build an HTPC anymore.  It is heavily subsidized. 

(I've been running an HTPC for about 13 years now... no reason anymore).

Posted by: bokinator

So I've been trying to revive our old home theatre setup, but it's been a while and might need some upgrades, so I have a few questions regarding setup/wiring etc.

• My front speakers have High/Low inputs. I'd like to hook this up to a bi-amp setup. I've connected the Front High speaker inputs to the Receiver's Front output terminals and the Speaker's Low input terminals to the Receiver's Surr output terminals. Is this the right way to do it?

• I also have rear speakers hooked up to the REAR terminals of the onkyo. When I do a speaker test on the receiver (playing white noise on individual speakers), both front and rear L or R speaker is audible (depending on which speaker is under test). Is this normal?

• My TV is old - 75" 1080p Plasma. Is it even worth it to get a Blueray player? If so, which do you recommend? Ideally I'd like one that can also play CD's and DVD's.

• What's the best and easiest device to use that will allow me to connect my laptop, or phone screen to the TV wirelessly?

Hi/Lo could mean the speakers are designed to be bi-amped or it could mean the impedance - 4 or 8 ohms. For home speakers it's most likely bi-amp but the easy way to check is to pop the woofer out of the cabinet and see if there is a crossover network of some sort inside the cabinet. If not then you need to bi-amp the speakers with an amp that has high and low frequency outputs. What you've done is a bit of a mess - you've hooked up the woofer of your speaker to the surround output of your amp which is useless.

The reason you hear noise from both F/R when doing your test is that the rear outputs play at the same level as the fronts - unless your amp has a fader control on it. If you're setting up a home theater the rear speakers should connect to the surround outputs on your receiver. The rear outputs just allow you to run a second set of speakers for more volume and possibly better sound depending on how much you've had to drink.

75" plasma??? How are you watching movies, buying blue-rays from a retailer? If you do get a blue ray they can all play CD and DVD.

Last one will be some sort of media box that has bluetooth, check the specs to see.

I bi-amp my front speakers.  It uses the side surround channel.  The extras power to the speakers is worth it.

The sounds test should only play on an individual speaker.

I use a PlayStation for Blueray and CD/DVD.

Plasma still looks great, especially for cinema.

Depending on what functionality you want a a $40 Chromecast might be all you need for displaying content on your TV.

Agree w/switch that plasma at 1080p is great, LED at 4k will be better picture but won't reproduce darks/blacks as well as plasma, and OLED at 4k is as good as it gets in the consumer space right now.

I have two used 1080p blu-ray players that I don't use any more - one I am happy to give away for free, the second I'd ask a few bucks for.

1 - Sony BDP-S300 - one of the first players on the market. It's old, in great condition, but lacks some of the newer features. Most frustrating thing about it is that it takes like 2-3 minutes to fully start up. Processor tech has come a long way since then. Free if anyone wants it.

2 - Oppo BDP-93 - Effing near reference level BD player. Top of the market back in 2011/12. Still kicks ass but I've upgraded to 4k HDR end to end so it sits unused now. I'd be looking for a few bucks, haven't figured market price yet.

For speaker hookups, not knowing which specific receiver you have, hard to comment, but if it's a 7.1 channel model, "surround" outputs are supposed to be for the surround speakers to either sit of the seating position. "Surround back" are for behind the seating position. For bi-amping the fronts, different makes/models have different ways to do it. Personally, I wouldn't bi-amp, but rather use the LFE signal to an amplified subwoofer (minimum 10-inch, 12-inch is mo bettah).

I honestly have no idea how that screaming, awful font happened.  And I tried to edit, doesn't seem to be a way to edit font size.

Thanks for the offer KenN,

I might take your offer once I have more things settled down - next thing I need is a media device player.

Right now, I've done what SYNCRO has suggested, which was to connect my rear speakers to the SURR L/R output from my receiver. The Rear L/R outputs are unused ATM.

I ended up using the Subwoofer PREOUT to connect to a Class A amplifier my dad built way back and then hooked it up to the woofers of my front speakers. I'm not sure how else to hook up the woofers for my front speakers though... ideas?

I also have two dedicated subwoofers which I would actually prefer to use (refer to photos - the brown speakers that sits face down on the ground), but then what would I use the woofers of the front speakers for? Nothing?

I'm considering the Nvidia Shield atm, and maybe even upgrade my dinosaur TV...

Oh, there's a lot of echoing around the room... should've went carpet instead before I did renos this year... Advice on sound dampening would be appreciated.

EDIT

I found this link to my user manual, so I'll give that a go:  https://www.manualslib.com/manual/115432/Onkyo-Tx-Sa806.html?page=19#manual

err, images didn't attach.  Hope it works this time.

With my Yamaha receiver, when I bi-amp using the side channels the receiver understands this and I end up with a 5.1 setup (fronts, center, rears, and sub) instead of a 7.1 setup.

Looking forward to getting a 4K TV, but I'm using Telus TV and the content just isn't there yet so I've only got 4K from the DSLR.