2. home-theater
  3. 1345486347

Hate this, I need an AV receiver. Help me choose

Since the manufacturers won't simply put analog audio out jacks on their new TV's, it looks like I will have to buy a crappy AV receiver to get sound to the outboard speakers. TV only has optical digital out which you all know we would never choose between our cherished CD transports and DAC's. It irks me because I have unused amp and preamp that would work just fine for this. I am an old school Tube and 2 channel audiophile. Even though this is only for the TV set up I don't want anything that sounds too crappy. What can you guys recommend for me here that I can find maybe at Best Buy without wasting too many dollars. Any hope in a 5.1 Yamaha for under 300 bucks for example?
hifiharv
courant
119 posts
 
Does your TV have a Headphone-Out mini jack?

If so, Audioquest makes a $10 or so Mini-to-Analog that would allow you to connect standard RCA ICs to your television.
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,676 posts
 
Getting a DAC for this is not necessarily a solution unless you are certain that the digital output from the TV is PCM and not DolbyDigital. The vast majority of audio DACs will not decode DD and, therefore, will be of no help to you.

Any inexpensive, used AVR with digital input will do DD as will a few stand-alone devices, such as the Technics SH-AC500D decoder/DAC that I have in my closet (and would love to sell). http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/SHAC500D.PDF

Otherwise, use the headphone output as Courant suggests. It is a cheap but effective solution.

Kal
hifiharv OP
351 posts
 
To Courant and Kal, Thanks for that idea. Is the output for headphone jack really the right level to drive a preamp? i would think it would be too high. This is a great idea though if workable. One TV we considered, a Sony 55" does have mini headphone jack. Not sure about the other one, a Samsung 55".
Also, Kal, thanks for informing me about the DAC compatibility issue, you may have just saved me alot of trouble going down the wrong path because of my "digital dumbness". Thanks again.
hifiharv OP
351 posts
 
Mofimadness, what model Denon is that you like so much?
courant
119 posts
 
> Is the output for headphone jack really the right level to drive a preamp?

It works. I used the AQ adapter to connect a portable Toshiba TV/VCR combo set to a Denon 2807 AV Receiver.

I connected the adapter to the headphone out; attached the source end of a pair of AQ Quartz ICs to the adapter and the destination end of the IC cables to a pair of analog-in RCA ports on the receiver; and it worked fine.

Hope that helps.
More to discover