Hello from a new Audiophile, and some questions on my gear!!!

[as7r080y]

Greetings,

Im new to this forum, and also new to theatre systems.

I recently purchased a setup, coninciding with the purchase of my xbox 360 i always said to myself there is no chance im getting a 360 without the upgrade to a HDTV.

Anyway here are my specs:

- Samsung 40inch model: LA40S71BDX max res is 1080i
- Panasonic Wireless Home Theatre System model: SC-HT995W

This is my current cable connection configuration:

- I currently have a CREST HDMI cable connected from the panasonic to the
samsung.
- Optical toslink cable connected from the panasonic to the samsung
- RCA cable connected from the AUDIO OUT (TV) to TV AUDIO IN (panasonic)
- Component Cables connected from the back of the TV to the xbox 360

thats about it, other than that its the speaker which are all connected to the panasonic corrently.

Ok now that you know the config and hopefully understand it, i have a couple of questions id like answered if possible.

1) Does anyone else out there have this config ?
2) Is the current config i have OPTIMAL meaning is this the best i can get from my current equipment or can i improve on cableing or configuration of the way its connected up ?
3) Are there setting in both the TV or the Panasonic that i would need to make sure are configured to get the best optimal Picture and Sound from my hardware ?
4) Ive heard that MONSTER Cables are the best, and range from $100-$400 AUD. I would like to know if me buying top of the range cabling (hdmi) will really improve my picture quality that much better to what i would be seeing already ?

5) And lastly only today i connected the optical link cable from the samsung to the panasonic and when i put the panasonic on D-IN i get very nice sound comming out of the left and right speaker, its nice and loud. When i put it back into TV the sound is comming from the RCA inputs and the sound is still nice, but the volume drops considerably and seems to be coming out from the center speaker only, can someone please explain to me why this is happening and if its better to be using D-IN over RCA ?

Ok thats about it i think, these are great forums and hope to be around for a while.

kind regards.
mitch

 

[MDS]

Monster Cable is the most expensive (of 'consumer' available brands at your local store) for sure but not necessarily the 'best'. Some are very good, some are average. Not bad cables for sure (and full disclosure: I have a few, although I have never bought their top of the line uber expensive cables), but definitely more costly than others of comparable quality. In most cases, the interconnect or speaker wire contributes the least to the sound quality.

The level difference between the optical connection and the analog connection should only be apparent when the station you have tuned is analog vs digital. The level of the sound is much higher on stations that transmit a digital signal vs those that transmit an analog signal. With my cable system, some stations transmit both but the receiver is configured to choose the digital feed over the analog when both are present. The digital signals are always much louder. This is purely a level difference and the ears naturally prefer the louder version as 'better'.