phone to receiver question

[Robert Ellis]

Hi,

I have Onkyo Ht - R2295 receiver. All is good using the hdmi connections for home theater. What I can't seem to figure is what settings to use on the odd occasion that I play music from my Android phone. The way I connect is with mini connector to the headphone jack of phone - the cable at the other end has left and right rca jacks which I connect to the tv/cd connector of the receiver. Ok ... Question 1 is: is this a good way to connect? Question 2 is: what settings on the receiver should I use if I want good sound from all the speakers (the sub in particular). I realize I can't expect 7.1 sound but there should be a way to get sound from all the speakers? My speaker set-up is with 'surround back' rather than 'front high' speakers. At the moment I have no speakers attached to the Zone 2 jacks. Thanks in advance!
R.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Connecting the phone to a receiver via the former’s headphone jack is perfectly acceptable. Actually, it’s probably the only way with most phones. Many receivers have a “5.1 Stereo” or “Party” mode that will distribute the sound to all the speakers. If yours doesn’t then you’re probably out of luck in that department and will have to be happy with standard 2-channel stereo sound.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Robert Ellis]

Hi Wayne,
Thanks for the reply - it seems I'm out of luck for using it straight from my phone :-(. What I have discovered as a workaround is .... I copied the mp3s to a thumb drive and plugged the thumb drive into the receivers usb port - using the receivers built in but very limited player (1 line interface) I can get a reasonably good emulated 7.1 sound (using the Neo 6) setting. This is ok for my music but .... when a friend drops over with good music on his phone, it's kinda annoying to have to copy his music over to a thumb drive. I'm very surprised that the receiver can't do much with sound from the headphone jack but .... it is what is! Thanks again for your reply.
R.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

I have a hard time believing that a receiver can’t get anything decent from a phone headphone jack, since they typically put out a signal that’s even hotter than line-level. What cabling are you using between the two? Did you have the phone’s headphone level up at a decent level?

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[KEW]

Robert,
Most of us prefer listening to music in two channels. That was the way it was recorded/intended to sound. Adding the extra channels make for decent background music and works for a party where people are not really listening and you want to get the sound level even throughout the room. However, the extra speakers interfere with one another and the synthesis of the signals for the extra channels often reveals inadequacy of the technology.
YMMV, and you like what you like; I just wanted to give you a counterpoint to consider.

 

[Dargent0628]

Since your AVR had a usb input why not use that to connect your phone? That might allow the receiver to play those mp3s in surround modes.

 

[highfigh]

I have a hard time believing that a receiver can’t get anything decent from a phone headphone jack, since they typically put out a signal that’s even hotter than line-level. What cabling are you using between the two? Did you have the phone’s headphone level up at a decent level?

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

The output from an ear plug jack is often not as hot as normal level from a source and since it uses the DAC in the phone, the sound isn't as good, either- in addition, it's not a good impedance match. It's one of the reasons it's better to stream using Airplay, AllPlay, DLNA, etc- the AVR is allowed to decode the signal.

 

[highfigh]

Hi,

I have Onkyo Ht - R2295 receiver. All is good using the hdmi connections for home theater. What I can't seem to figure is what settings to use on the odd occasion that I play music from my Android phone. The way I connect is with mini connector to the headphone jack of phone - the cable at the other end has left and right rca jacks which I connect to the tv/cd connector of the receiver. Ok ... Question 1 is: is this a good way to connect? Question 2 is: what settings on the receiver should I use if I want good sound from all the speakers (the sub in particular). I realize I can't expect 7.1 sound but there should be a way to get sound from all the speakers? My speaker set-up is with 'surround back' rather than 'front high' speakers. At the moment I have no speakers attached to the Zone 2 jacks. Thanks in advance!
R.

If you want a cheap way to listen to the music without needing to move it and still be able to carry the phone where you can use it, a ChromeCast or Roku will do the job. You'll be able to use AllPlay from the Android and if guests with iPhones want to stream on your system, they can load the appropriate app. The basic Roku and ChromeCast are around $35 and connect to an HDMI port.

As far as quality using the ear plug out as a way to connect, see my other reply.

 

[pewternhrata]

I recently picked up a rocketfish Bluetooth with aptx, was going to use in my car but tried it out on inside first. It's staying inside, wasn't expecting anything much but it is a huge difference between the headphone out vs Bluetooth. It's connected by optical. Phone is a galaxy s8+.

 

[lovinthehd]

Since your AVR had a usb input why not use that to connect your phone? That might allow the receiver to play those mp3s in surround modes.

You'd need to root the phone most likely to use it as a usb mass storage device that the avr can use.

 

[lovinthehd]

Hi,

I have Onkyo Ht - R2295 receiver. All is good using the hdmi connections for home theater. What I can't seem to figure is what settings to use on the odd occasion that I play music from my Android phone. The way I connect is with mini connector to the headphone jack of phone - the cable at the other end has left and right rca jacks which I connect to the tv/cd connector of the receiver. Ok ... Question 1 is: is this a good way to connect? Question 2 is: what settings on the receiver should I use if I want good sound from all the speakers (the sub in particular). I realize I can't expect 7.1 sound but there should be a way to get sound from all the speakers? My speaker set-up is with 'surround back' rather than 'front high' speakers. At the moment I have no speakers attached to the Zone 2 jacks. Thanks in advance!
R.

What phone? Are you turning it up to max output?

My Galaxy S4's output into the aux input on my vehicle's headunit was poor even at highest output so I got a bluetooth transmitter that I can stream to, much better. When I try and use the headphone output into an avr like you are doing, it is also too low even at max output. I usually don't try this with my avr as I can more easily stream over my network from my pc or phone (and with better file choice on the pc than I keep on my phone), but just did as an experiment.

If level isn't an issue, not sure why you can't use any sound mode available for matrixing into all channels (or even just 2.1 in stereo mode). What sound modes are you using?