How to connect active subwoofer, passive speakers, TV, and PC

J

JSR62

Audiophyte
I have an old Boston Acoustics CR400 powered subwoofer, and a pair of their Micro 80x wired passive bookshelf speakers. The specs for each are below. I want to set them up so I can use them with my Samsung LN46B550 TV (regular TV, not smart; has Roku) and to play music from my (Windows) laptop. The TV connection would be wired, and the PC connection would be Bluetooth (or it could be Wifi if that would be better).

The available inputs on the subwoofer are RCA connections for line-level in, and the speaker-level inputs (and outputs) are screw-on posts that take wires or banana plugs. There are no optical or HDMI connections. Diagram of the connections is below.

I tried connecting the speakers to the subwoofer and then connecting the TV audio out to the subwoofer but while the subwoofer seemed to work fine, I got almost imperceptible sound from the speakers when I connected the TV to the speaker-level input, and no sound at all when I connected it to line-level input.

I'm setting all of this up in a fairly small room (17' x 11'). I want to keep my costs extremely low, but still have decent sound quality. Unless there's a better way to go, I'm thinking I could get a soundbar and use that to connect everything. There are a lot for under $100 on Amazon that have gotten decent reviews from Audio magazines.

I need some advice on what to buy and how to connect everything. If a soundbar will work, what does it need to have? Since I have a separate subwoofer, would I want 2.0, 2.1, or something else? I saw an article that said 50w per channel would be good for a small room. Does that sound right? Do I need a receiver? What's the best way to connect everything?

Thanks in advance!

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BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
Typically you would use an AV Receiver (AVR). This acts as the central hub for all of your sources and devices. You plug your sources into the AVR, it peels off the audio amplifies it, and sends it to the speakers. It pulls off the low frequencies and sends it to the subwoofer. It then passes on the video and sends it to the TV.

The sound quality from an AVR and some decent speakers blows away, by miles, most soundbars on the market.

You would just take your PC, plug it into the receiver using HDMI, it would take both audio and video from the computer and pass it on properly with great quality.

Bluetooth is not designed for video use. Low latency Bluetooth is rather new and sometimes works alright, but many people find that they have lip-synch issues with bluetooth devices.

It is about $300 for an entry level AV receiver that is 4K capable and from a major manufacturer, but it will allow for several sources to be plugged in, and you can expand and add more/better speakers in the future if you would like to.
 
J

JSR62

Audiophyte
Typically you would use an AV Receiver (AVR). This acts as the central hub for all of your sources and devices. You plug your sources into the AVR, it peels off the audio amplifies it, and sends it to the speakers. It pulls off the low frequencies and sends it to the subwoofer. It then passes on the video and sends it to the TV.

The sound quality from an AVR and some decent speakers blows away, by miles, most soundbars on the market.

You would just take your PC, plug it into the receiver using HDMI, it would take both audio and video from the computer and pass it on properly with great quality.

Bluetooth is not designed for video use. Low latency Bluetooth is rather new and sometimes works alright, but many people find that they have lip-synch issues with bluetooth devices.

It is about $300 for an entry level AV receiver that is 4K capable and from a major manufacturer, but it will allow for several sources to be plugged in, and you can expand and add more/better speakers in the future if you would like to.
Thanks. I neglected to mention a couple of things: My Xfinity X1 TV service gives me access to YouTube and all the premium channels, so it's usually just audio, not video, that I'm using my computer for. It's a laptop so I'd need that connection to be wireless. I understand what you're saying about the quality of a soundbar, but if I needed to keep my costs really low, what would I be looking for?
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
You can also buy used / refurb units to keep costs down...and sending via wifi is easily done with most avrs...
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
The link provided on AC4L has refurb AVRs. I've bought from them a few times, including my current Marantz preamp, with no issues.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Post up your location and maybe some might look thru your local craigslist for some ideas on used gear, too....
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
what about getting an audio receiver vs getting an audio-video one?

would something like this work? https://www.amazon.com/TPA3116D2

The link didn't work for me. Audio only receivers tend to be just 2ch and have no bass managment for the sub particularly. Depends on what avr might work best from the various past years of such....depends on other needs but a basic avr can be had cheaply but depends on your audio/video connectivity needs.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
This is a wireless transmitter designed for powered speakers. You don't have powered speakers.
You need an amplifier and volume adjustment for your speakers. The speakers you have are not internally powered (your subwoofer is, and that is normal, but your speakers are not)

You are very excited to get this working, but it is clear that you are new to audio/video. Slow down, spend some time reading and understand, that Craigslist and other options listed are really the best and least expensive ways to get things done. The guys on this forum have been doing audiovisual work for decades.

I'm not following what you are doing with your laptop, and if you have a Xfinity cable box, then that is currently wired into your TV with a HDMI cable right? And when you hook your laptop up, you are hooking that up to the TV aren't you? This means that the TV you currently own is handling all duties for both audio and video. It means you are using the jenky speakers built into the TV instead of the better speakers you have and the subwoofer.

The point of the AV receiver is that it handles everything at the best possible quality. But, if you want to keep the video going to your TV and your TV has a digital optical audio output, then that's a decent way to get audio out of the TV and into a used AV receiver that doesn't have HDMI, but does have optical audio input on it.

The AV receiver provides the power for the speakers you have. That's CRITICAL!!!! Most proper home theater speakers are not powered. They are designed to connect to an external amplifier, typically a stereo or AV receiver of some sort.

SOURCE->AV RECEIVER->SPEAKER WIRE->SPEAKERS
SOURCE->AV RECEIVER->RCA 75 Ohm CABLE->SUBWOOFER

This is the standard in the industry.

The previous link you provided, for the stereo amplifier, isn't the worst way to go and will work, but I would MUCH rather see you get a AV receiver off of Craigslist as you are sure to be able to get something locally that will be MUCH better. People get rid of old receivers all the time when they upgrade. The claims of 300+ watts from that little box is also a blatant lie for actual power delivery.

FOR EXAMPLE:
$40 -
This one is my favorite of what I went through quickly. It has both a digital optical input, which may get surround sound out of the TV, but it also has HDMI inputs so you could connect sources right to it for the best possible audio from those devices.

$100-
These are good, but not as good of a deal as the one above for $40.

The rest of this stuff really needs to use the optical output from your TV, assuming your TV has an optical audio output...

There are quite a few good products out there which have decent connectivity, offer a great deal of expansion, and more. They may not have integrated Bluetooth reception, but if that's important, Bluetooth receivers can be had on Amazon for 20 bucks to add that functionality. Keep in mind, wired audio is ALWAYS a better way to do things. It's a lesson to learn now... WIRED IS BETTER! In almost all circumstances, while it isn't always as convenient, it is often more reliable, almost always better quality, and more consistent. Networking, audio, video... wired if at all possible.
 
J

JSR62

Audiophyte
Yes, as you said, I don't know much about this stuff. You guys are great - really knowledgeable and I can't thank all of you enough for the great information - and steering me away from making bad decisions. I'll spend some time educating myself and plan to follow all the advice.

Jeff

p.s. BMXTRIX - to answer your questions, yes, my Xfinity cable is connected with an HDMI cable, the TV does have an optical audio output, and at present I'm only using my laptop to play music I have on its hard drive - using the laptop's speakers (and occasionally with headphones), so anything will be a huge improvement!

Thanks again!
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
p.s. BMXTRIX - to answer your questions, yes, my Xfinity cable is connected with an HDMI cable, the TV does have an optical audio output, and at present I'm only using my laptop to play music I have on its hard drive - using the laptop's speakers (and occasionally with headphones), so anything will be a huge improvement!
So, I would try to pick up one of the AVRs I listed in my previous post, or post a couple of links if you have questions about a specific product. Your TV is a 1080p model (1920x1080 resolution). This will work well with the AV receivers as they should all support 1920x1080 resolution just fine. This means you could hook up your laptop, using HDMI, right to the AV receiver and stream content easily, or run audio through it using the better wired connection easily. You could also run line audio out if you wanted to, depending on how you wanted to hook things up, or get a Bluetooth receiver, and just do it that way. Lots of options.

Likewise, you could play around with things a fair bit. Get a Roku streaming device for 1080p video streaming and a user interface that stomps on what XFinity gives you. Those are like $30-$100 depending on the model you get. You could setup Plex on your laptop, and use the Roku for streaming your music to the AV system from your laptop. That's a cool way of doing things.

But, start simple. If you have a pair of speakers and a self-powered subwoofer, get an AV receiver to run it all and pick one of the first few I linked above and it will do you fine for a few years at least I would expect.
 

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