Hi all & help please

A

andya08

Audiophyte
Hello everybody, andy from Portsmouth UK here :)

Have decided to update my music / dvd system to this

receiver: SONY STRDA1200ES HOME CINEMA RECEIVER

And I want to connect all the following:

Plastation 3 for dvd, Blu ray & games
Xbox 360 for games
Marantz cd player
Marantz Graphic equalizer
Acoustic solutions mp3 jukebox

Tv LG 37" LCD with 1 x hdmi input

Speakers:
Front EPOS ELS303 floorstanders
Centre KEF CRESTA 20C
Sub sanyo one that came with dvd system, will upgrade later
rear MISSION M30i

The receiver sits unopened in the box on the floor, have seen picture of the back of the receiver and I'm VERY :confused: I have 1 x hdmi cable for PS3 and all the normal phono/xbox cables for the rest, I know I need a digital sound cable and maybe another hdmi cable :confused:

My question is this, can someone please take the time to help me out here, what do I need to buy and where do I plug all those cables/leads in the back of that thing :confused:

Any help fully appreciated fellas :)
 
A

andya08

Audiophyte
Thanks for that :D saw that last night when I took it out of the box and promptly returned it :D

Do you think you could label which wire goes where on that pic???

That would be very helpful indeed.

Thanks again for your help
 
ParadigmDawg

ParadigmDawg

Audioholic Overlord
Did it come with an owners manual? It is not difficult to hook these things up. Give it a first shot and then start asking questions.
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
Hello everybody, andy from Portsmouth UK here :)

Have decided to update my music / dvd system to this

receiver: SONY STRDA1200ES HOME CINEMA RECEIVER

And I want to connect all the following:

Plastation 3 for dvd, Blu ray & games
Xbox 360 for games
Marantz cd player
Marantz Graphic equalizer
Acoustic solutions mp3 jukebox

Tv LG 37" LCD with 1 x hdmi input

Speakers:
Front EPOS ELS303 floorstanders
Centre KEF CRESTA 20C
Sub sanyo one that came with dvd system, will upgrade later
rear MISSION M30i

The receiver sits unopened in the box on the floor, have seen picture of the back of the receiver and I'm VERY :confused: I have 1 x hdmi cable for PS3 and all the normal phono/xbox cables for the rest, I know I need a digital sound cable and maybe another hdmi cable :confused:

My question is this, can someone please take the time to help me out here, what do I need to buy and where do I plug all those cables/leads in the back of that thing :confused:

Any help fully appreciated fellas :)

Firstly, decide where you will place the receiver in your room as that will determine cable lengths.
Then, where you will place speakers TV and other components.
The speakers will take speaker cables, US gage 14 will be enough for most normal lengths. Hopefully you can pick them up at a local electronics store or hardware store should also carry such cables. I just checked in a ref book, that gage wire is about 1.62 mm in diameter. One of that paired cable should have some marking on it, the other plain; at times it can be a shape difference in the insulation.
Once you know where the receiver goes and speakers, measure the distance, how you want to pass the wire so it is acceptable to the family, if you have one and if they have an input to looks:D
Then, buy the wire with extra length just in case.
Connect the marked wire to the black terminal of each channel on the back of the receiver and run it to the speaker. It too, should have a black terminal. Carefully connect them up making sure the wire will not interfere or come in contact with the bare wire and terminal of the red terminal. Then, connect the other wire in the par to the red terminal. Do this to all the speakers and be consistent with the wire connections, or speaker will be out of phase and sound bad.

Hopefully the Marantz CD player has digital audio connection. For that, use a video cable of the right length and connect from the player digital out to the SACD/CD digital input on the receiver.

Your EQ will be another lesson, or it may not even be connectible with that receiver without other component/s.

The sub, if it is powered, will use a video cable as well from the subwoofer output on the receiver. Hopefully you still have the manual for the sub too;
review it.

You can use HDMI cable for both the PS3 and Xbox if it has it, to the receiver inputs: TV/SAT and DVD, then an HDMI to the TV from monitor out.
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
I tried finding a little smaller picture. Sorry :cool:
Good thing you didn't:D I hate it when you cannot read the printing. At least this you can read what connections they have or don't, etc. Great.
 
A

andya08

Audiophyte
Firstly, decide where you will place the receiver in your room as that will determine cable lengths.
Then, where you will place speakers TV and other components.
The speakers will take speaker cables, US gage 14 will be enough for most normal lengths. Hopefully you can pick them up at a local electronics store or hardware store should also carry such cables. I just checked in a ref book, that gage wire is about 1.62 mm in diameter. One of that paired cable should have some marking on it, the other plain; at times it can be a shape difference in the insulation.
Once you know where the receiver goes and speakers, measure the distance, how you want to pass the wire so it is acceptable to the family, if you have one and if they have an input to looks:D
Then, buy the wire with extra length just in case.
Connect the marked wire to the black terminal of each channel on the back of the receiver and run it to the speaker. It too, should have a black terminal. Carefully connect them up making sure the wire will not interfere or come in contact with the bare wire and terminal of the red terminal. Then, connect the other wire in the par to the red terminal. Do this to all the speakers and be consistent with the wire connections, or speaker will be out of phase and sound bad.

Hopefully the Marantz CD player has digital audio connection. For that, use a video cable of the right length and connect from the player digital out to the SACD/CD digital input on the receiver.

Your EQ will be another lesson, or it may not even be connectible with that receiver without other component/s.

The sub, if it is powered, will use a video cable as well from the subwoofer output on the receiver. Hopefully you still have the manual for the sub too;
review it.

You can use HDMI cable for both the PS3 and Xbox if it has it, to the receiver inputs: TV/SAT and DVD, then an HDMI to the TV from monitor out.
Thanks very much for the replies peeps :)

Thinking about leaving the EQ out of set up now, thnk the benefit would be minimal.

Would I be right in thinking that the Optical Digital Audio Cable would run from PS3 to receiver then another Optical Digital Audio Cable from receiver to tv???

Thanks again folks :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Hi, Andy. I can't think of a reason to run an optical cable from the receiver to the TV.

When you connect the PS3 to the receiver with an optical cable, then you can listen to the sound from the PS3 through the receiver and your main speakers. Only if you want to listen through your TV speakers would you run an optical cable to the TV - and if you run the cable from the receiver to the TV, then the receiver has to be on in order to get the audio from the PS3 to the receiver and then to the TV. There's not much to be gained in that. If you want to use the TV speakers, then it would be better to run an audio connection directly from the PS3 to the TV.

Adam
 
A

andya08

Audiophyte
Hi, Andy. I can't think of a reason to run an optical cable from the receiver to the TV.

When you connect the PS3 to the receiver with an optical cable, then you can listen to the sound from the PS3 through the receiver and your main speakers. Only if you want to listen through your TV speakers would you run an optical cable to the TV - and if you run the cable from the receiver to the TV, then the receiver has to be on in order to get the audio from the PS3 to the receiver and then to the TV. There's not much to be gained in that. If you want to use the TV speakers, then it would be better to run an audio connection directly from the PS3 to the TV.

Adam
Thanks Adam, could recommend me a decent optical sound cable please :)

Thanks again
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
Thanks Adam, could recommend me a decent optical sound cable please :)

Thanks again
No need to look for an expensive optical cable at all. A local store that has such cable to pick from, on line will do. I'd recommend staying away from Monster stuff on general principals.:D
 
A

andya08

Audiophyte
Hi again

Have set up my system today!!

Calibrated all speakers

Have a problem with PS3 as dvd player tho

Plugged it in using hdmi from ps3 to receiver and hdmi from receiver to tv

Using digital optical cord from ps3 to receiver

Cant seem to get 5.1 surround sound, just sound from tv

What am I doing wrong???

Can someone give me an idiots guide got for getting 5.1 surround sound from ps3 please.

Many thanks any advice

Andy
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Using digital optical cord from ps3 to receiver

Cant seem to get 5.1 surround sound...
Andy,

First, let's make sure that you have the receiver set up correctly to use that optical input. On the back, the receiver is labeled for which input (e.g. "DVD", "TV/SAT") will use each optical input by default. The default choices are "Video 1", "TV/SAT", and "MD/TAPE". So, if you are using a different input for the PS3 (e.g. "DVD"), then you need to assign the optical input that you used to that input ("DVD", in this example). How to assign the inputs is covered on page 86 of your owner's manual.

If you have done that, then make sure that the optical cord is connected securely to both the receiver and the PS3.

The other thing is that the PS3 might need to be set up to output sound from the optical audio jack. That I don't know.

Please let us know if that works and/or if you need any additional assistance.

Adam
 
A

andya08

Audiophyte
Adam, thank you, you were correct, changed settings on PS3 to optical cable and assigned sat/tv as PS3 preset

All sorted, thanks again:D

PS: Bought epos sub woofer as well now

Sounds awesome

Thanks :)
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Andy, that's great news. I'm glad that it's all working now, and congrats on the new sub!
 
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