Surround Sound

[highlander]

Hey all,

I just got my new TV on Saturday (an LG 37LH5000 - fantastic LCD television!) Absolutely delighted with it, except for two issues.

1) As the reviews noted, the audio is quite tinny from the built-in speakers. I can live with it, but I'd rather take advantage of my surround sound system. Bringing me on to point 2...

2) My existing surround sound system takes its 5.1 input via 6x analog RCA jacks. My new TV only has Optical Out and headphone jacks. Using the headphone jack would give me stereo output only, which is a bugger (though I may do this for the time-being anyway, as it will give better sound than the built-in speakers do)

I've been tearing my hair out trying to find a surround sound speaker system with floor-standing speakers that DOES NOT include a DVD or Blu Ray Disc player as part of the package. I already have a Playstation 3 which does DVD and Blu Ray admirably. I also don't want to have to pay a lot of money for what should be a fairly simple item.

Can anyone recommend a reasonably good 5.1 receiver and speaker system that has an Optical Input feature and doesn't require me to sell a kidney in order to finance it?

Alternatively, if anyone knows of a product which will receive an Optical connector and split it into 6x analog RCA outputs for surround sound, please let me know - I've had all sorts of trouble finding one and I'm normally pretty good at finding audio converters. Could it be that such a thing does not exist???

Cheers
Graeme

[mjb]

I've got the 47" version of the same set - great screen ain't it?

What I do is just take the line-outs from the sky hd, xbox 360, wii and media pc, and throw them at my stereo amp with the tv speakers killed. Means I have to change the input on two devices at a time, but it saves buying an SPDIF decoder (takes optical SPDIF, outputs analogue over RCAs) and having the TV re-encode the audio.

[jasper5]

It's a pity that you live so far away, I updated my system on saturday and therefore my Panasonic Home Theatre system is for sale at £75, it has everything that you need(and what you don't, ie, DVD player....the HDMI upscaling type).

Have a look here....http://www.richersounds.com/products/ho ... -receivers or http://www.superfi.co.uk.

I bought the Yamaha RXV 765 AV reciever and some 1020i and 1010i bookshelf speakers (Q Acoustics), i'm waiting for my centre speaker and I'll buy a new sub woofer later.

[maglite1]

have a look at this from maplin http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97934 , sure somethin simmilar will be cheaper on ebay or would it not be possible to use a scart lead and fiy rca on the audio pin outs on the scart ? .

[highlander]

@maglite - sorry, that's not what I need.

I need to take one of these (S/PDIF Optical Output, the red glowing port on the right):



and split it into this (6x RCA phono jacks for 5.1 surround sound):




@jasper - is that Panasonic system still for sale? If so, let me know what model it is, and how much the postage/courier would be, and I'll have a serious think about it - I miss having surround sound

[mjb]

Go to ebay and search for "DAC" in the "consumer electronics" section. You'll find stuff that does the job there.

[highlander]

Well, looks like this is the thing I've been looking for:

HLLY HIGH END DTS AC3 5.1 DIGIT AUDIO DECODER DAC

It has 2x S/PDIF inputs (plus 2x digital coax and 2x analog RCA phono sockets), and the all-important 6x RCA phono outputs.

It's even a good price - £60, or thereabouts.

Thing is, ALL of these products are physically located in China - and I have some reservations on ordering brands I've never heard of from the Far East. Not least the shipping - £30!

All their feedback looks OK though. Anyone seen this product, or anything like this product, available for purchase in the UK?

Or for similar money (£90-ish), a suitable replacement for my old Goodmans surround system that would support S/PDIF input?

[jasper5]

This is my Panasonic system..... mine is the same as this I should say....http://www.trade-it.co.uk/category/tv-v ... 16903.html

If you are interested I will look into courier costs or postage.

[mjb]

Well, looks like this is the thing I've been looking for

Looks well made

It uses the Cyrus Logic CS493263-CL chip for decoding, which is described here: http://www.cirrus.com/en/products/pro/detail/P45.html

Apparently it's the chip used in the Cambridge Audio 540R, which had an RRP of £350 although it was a complete AV receiver+amp...