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How to set up surround sound speakers to a TV?

Do you need to buy an A/V receiver to hook up a set of surround sound speakers to a 40 inch HD tv?

  • I ask because I want to know if I should just buy a set of speakers or if I should also buy a receiver.

  • Answer:

    An external surround system (AV receiver and surround speakers) will give the best sound, but you may wish to consider a sound bar HTIB speaker system (See link). The big advantage is simplicity (and reduced cost). The disadvantage, as mentioned, is sound won't be as good as a true receiver (or amplifier .. which is a receiver minus the radio tuner) and surround speaker setup. A half way approach is a soundbar that requires a stand alone receiver (2nd link). Note that by having a receiver (either with soundbar or stand alone speakers) is that you can feed the audio from set top boxes (cable or satellite), DVD or Blu-ray players or game consoles and send the video only to the TV. So you have several options. In order of increasing sound/equipment quality (and price/complexity) they are: soundbar with built in amp, soundbar + amp/receiver, Home -theater-in-a-box (HTIB, a compact combo receiver (and sometimes DVD or Blu-ray player) and speakers), and, stand alone speakers and receiver (you pick the brand/model independently). The last link may be useful.

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It depends. If you have a lap or desktop it is now possible to purchase speakers wirelessly connected to your computer and stream the audio to external speakers through the tv. Another and perhaps better option is to purchase a tv that has built in usb ports, the speakers could plug directly into the set. Another option is a set top box, like Apple TV which has a usb port. Link the Apple TV to the flatscreen by an HDMI cable, plug in the speakers to the Apple TV and it will all work in unison with the flatscreen. A receiver is not a must, to do what you want. The key is to make sure everything is compatible. If I were you, I would not mix and match brands without a receiver. I use Apple everything, because I can hold Apple accountable and everything Apple works best with Apple products. If you use PC stay in the PC line, preferably Sony Vaio line. It is possible to mix and match, but the chances of a headache are reduced by a wide margin.

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Yes. You feed the Optical output from the TV to the receiver. The receiver then: * Decodes the single optical signal into 6 speakers worth of sound * Amplifies the signals to drive speakers Your television does not contain an amp to drive speakers other than the 10 watt internal speakers. My advice: Look into Onkyo TX-SR series of receivers Buy a 5.1 speaker set from a company that makes speakers as their main business. You can find crappy "systems" for $300 that appear to have a DVD player in a skinny receiver and 5 speakers - but these will NOT take the signal from the TV. (We get lots of whining here about this when people buy the crappy systems and realize what they gave up for the low price.)

Grumpy Mac

Yes, most of the time. There are some exceptions. What sets are you thinking of?

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