Can Speakers be used from an integrated Panasonic Home Theatre system???

[Mauler]

Hi. I have a Panasonic SC-HT800V DVD Home Theatre Sound System. This is similar also to their SC-HT700, SC-HT790V, SC-HT810V, and SC-MT1 systems.

http://www.prodcat.panasonic.com/shop/NewDesign/ModelTemplate.asp?ModelId=18024
http://www.prodcat.panasonic.com/shop/NewDesign/ModelTemplate.asp?ModelId=18025
Owner Manual - http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/SCHT790V.PDF
http://support.panasonic.co.nz/docstore/SCMT1 book.pdf​

Unfortunately the main unit (DVD/Tuner/VCR unit SA-HT800V) is toast. This is similar to their SA-HT790V, SA-HT810V, and SA-MT1 units. Specs for this unit follows:

RMS output power, 10 % total harmonic distortion
1 kHz FL/FR 45 W per channel 6 ohm
1 kHz Center 60 W per channel 6 ohm
1 kHz SL/SR 45 W per channel 6 ohm
100 Hz Subwoofer 160 W per channel 4 ohm
Total RMS Dolby Digital mode power 400 W
FTC output power, 1 % total harmonic distortion
120 Hz–20 kHz FL/FR 25 W per channel 6 ohm
120 Hz–20 kHz Center 30 W per channel 6 ohm
120 Hz–20 kHz SL/SR 25 W per channel 6 ohm
45 Hz–120 Hz Subwoofer 90 W per channel 4 ohm
Total FTC power in Dolby Digital mode (Band 1 % THD) 220 W​

Could I use the SB-WA310 active subwoofer (and connected surround speakers) that came with this Panasonic system with another amplifier? I'm not sure how to work this in with the special system cable (K1HA25HA0001) connection to the subwoofer. You can slightly see on the diagram schematic of this system with system cable attached below (more fully seen in the owner manual linked above) that all the other front/rear/center speakers also attach to the back of the subwoofer. The system cable inlet on the subwoofer, the sole audio signal inlet, consists of a 3 cm x 0.5 cm, 25 pin (female) receptacle, with twelve holes in line next to 13 holes in line. The subwoofer is amped by a 120 V chord. Specs on the subwoofer follow:

1 way, 1 speaker, Bass-ref.
Woofer 17 cm, cone type, 4 ohm
Input power 200 W (Music)
Output sound pressure level 80 dB/W (1.0 m)
Frequency range 40 Hz–220 Hz (-16 dB)
45 Hz–180 Hz (-10 dB)​

In the first set of italicised specifications above for the main unit, it appears that all the front/rear speakers are amped up to 45 W (back of these say they can handle 60), center to 60 W, and subwoofer to 160 W from the main unit. I assume the 120 V power in the subwoofer ONLY amps up the subwoofer (to 200 W or whatever) and that nothing but wire continuance goes through the subwoofer to the connections for the other speakers. Does this sound correct?

Looking at their backs, the subwoofer's resistance is 4 ohm and all of the other speakers are at 6 ohm. Is this normal for speakers? I thought that your normal home speaker is 8 ohm. Any problems here? Should I solder in a 2 ohm resistor within the smaller speakers?

I have a good quality Onkyo home theater amp, with Dolby surround sound. In the back of this amp are RCA and regular speaker wire connection locations, including center, both front, both rear, and subwoofer.

Please let me know what I can do here. Thanks.

BTW, what's (or Watts ) the difference between RMS and FTC Dolby Digital output power? What I can see from the specifications, RMS not only offers greater power than FTC, but greater THD. Trade off a good for a bad I guess.

 

[mustang_steve]

Hmm....I dunno if you could....

I think that's just a preamp signal, in that case you could jerry-rig a panasonic-to-RCA adaptor of your own (if you can de-solder, get the connector from the control unit for this), but...you would need a pre-amp to run it...

Myself, I wouldn't go through that whole shebang...you can get 5.1 box setups for about $160 on ebay that are pretty good...I got a nice one shipped for $200.

 

[Mauler]

As you can see in the diagram, the subwoofer is already "amped" with a 120 V chord. By preamped, I assume you mean virtually that signal from any receiver.

You can slightly see on the attached diagram (more fully seen in the user manual linked previously) that all the other front/rear/center speakers attach to the back of the subwoofer. In the first set of italicised specifications I listed, it appears from the main unit that all the front/rear speakers are amped up to 45 W (back of these say they can handle 60), center to 60 W, and subwoofer to 160 W. I assume the power in the subwoofer ONLY amps up the subwoofer (to 200 W or whatever) and that nothing but wire continuance goes through the subwoofer to the connections for the other speakers. Does this sound correct?

The subwoofer's resistance is 4 ohm and all of the other speakers are at 6 ohm. Is this normal for speakers? I thought that your normal home speaker is 8 ohm. Any problems here? Should I solder in a 2 ohm resistor within the smaller speakers?

BTW, what's (or Watts ) the difference between RMS and FTC Dolby Digital output power? What I can see from the specifications, RMS not only offers greater power than FTC, but greater THD. Trade off a good for a bad I guess. I also purchased this system on eBay.

 

[markw]

Offhand, I think not.

It appears (and I could be wrong) that the main unit is simply a tuner/DVD,preamp/processor and the "subwoofer" seems to contain all the amps for all channels and whatever else might be being passed to it.

Unless you can figure out how to input an existing pre/pro line level signal into that baby, (which I can't) I'd say fergeddaboudit. Even then, it still might not work.

Trust me, It ain't worth the effort.

 

[Mauler]

Well maybe I'll look inside the subwoofer and report back here. I'm not sure the subwoofer contains all of that, since the specs on the main unit says that it provides most of the signal wattage.

What does IOW and LFE acronyms mean?

fergeddaboudit ?

Dant yinz mean fergedabahtit?
Yinz gotta be loose to rilly speak Pittsburghese.

http://english.CMU.edu/PittsburghSpeech
http://www.CarnegieLibrary.org/subject/pgh/Pittsburghese.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburghese
http://pseudodictionary.com/index.php
http://www.Pittsburghese.com

 

[asathor]

YES! I have done it with several different units.

You can use any speaker you want to if the impedance matches, does not vary too much or is not too much higher (lower is not good).

They might not match that well if the reciever has build in equalization.

Try some large full range speakers first, that will show if there is too much equalization.

Parts express have some very high grade 4" and 5" drivers from for example Audax that could be a huge upgrade replacing the sattelites without adding too much bass, but thats a whole other subject.

To replace the sub you might need to use two 8" or at the most 10" since the crossover is at a high 120Hz - I would stay away from specialized sub drivers and choose high grade "full range" woofers (Vifa, Scan Speak, DynAudio, Audax etc.)

Again try to get you hands on a pair of extended range speakers and use one as sub and one as sattelite to hear if the sattelite/bass crossover is sufficiently flat.

Have fun

 

[brewster]

did it work to hook up the ht800v speakers to a ht820v or other system?

I dont want to install the speakers again and my ht800v is broken... so just want to get a ht820v which I can still find. did your experiment work?

-brewster
brewster@archive.org