Looking For A Good Surround Speaker Setup For The Livingroom....

[Captain Weirdbeard]

I was looking around at home theatre systems, but the majority are just standard DVD players without the ability to plug anything else into them, ie Xbox etc.

Anyone got any other suggestions?

This wont suit you perhaps Jim but for others here it could be a very cost effective (and low-tech) way of making you go Wow! using only a stereo amp and three Speakers. It is not true surround sound but it will con your brain into thinking that certain sounds are coming from a third discreet source:-

This technique should only be applied to stereo amplifiers that have provision for two sets of Speakers, A and B. The amplifier must be switched to drive both A and B sets simultaneously.

Connect your front pair of full range Speakers to the A terminals of your amplifier, paying particular attention to the phasing. Correct phasing is the key to this trick. In other words, for each of the A set of speakers, make sure that the positive signal goes to the positive terminal and the negative signal to the negative terminal.

Choose one suitable (similarly rated) full range speaker and place it in a position to the rear of your normal listening area. This rear speaker should be roughly twice as far from the front speakers as they are apart from each other. This time from the B speaker terminals of the amplifier, take the positive signal from the left and the positive signal from the right and connect them to the positive and negative terminals of the speaker. It does not matter for this speaker which way round the left and right positive signals go on the speaker itself.

If you get the phasing right, only the difference between the left and right stereo channels will be heard at the rear speaker. Purists will correctly point out that this is a bodge when such technology exists to get true multi channel sound. Never the less, it is a cheap and cheerful option that can sound surprisingly good if you get your speakers positioned and balanced correctly for the room.

I have had this sort of set up for listening to TV and music in my living room for a long time. I am happy enough with it until full HD TV panels come down in price and I am ready to invest in the full THX and Dolby surround TV experience. Mind you, I am a notorious cheapskate... often using second hand bargain equipment to get full on sounds. If you know where to look, you can get some solid equipment from the pre-digital era that will stand up well to the current high street offerings.

[borodaz]

ive just baught the lg suround sound as posted earlier, thing is i cant find the optical input on my t.v ? not sure if it has one. man in the sony shop said it did.

so i am now guessing i will have to use the red and white cables to listen through my suround sound. will this give me suround sound ?

also im a bit p'd off as my t.v cost me £2000 a while back (a lot cheaper now :() yet it doesnt have a optical input for sound.

can someone help me out here plz :)

[Jinxed]

to the best of my knowledge which granted I'm no engineer :)

The optical connection, if your tv has one, is going to be a really small flap covered thing. Unless its labelled it may be dificult to see as they really arent quite whats expected imo. They're very delicate little connections so make sure your extremely careful if you use one. A model of tv and a google search for specs may well help identify if it does actually have one or alternatively the manual will no doubt have a connections overview that will show precisely where. but seriously.... be really gentle with an optical connection, the sockets and the cable. A tiny amount of movement can knacker one. THey aren't robust like normal cables, connections.

Although I could use optical, I use big thick chunky cable connects instead as firstly theyre more resilient to any stress. Secondly, there really wasn't any audible difference in the quality of the sound produced on my setup. Having said that, when I get a moment of enthusiasm I will try the optical and the usb connects again to see if there is any sig difference.

If your using what are effectively front and rear sound channels then you wont get true surround sound as I'm guessing theres no connection for a front centre? or sub? However, if your Speakers are wired to a monitor or amp and the tv is put through the monitor or amp, if the monitor/amp has a downmix mode then you may be able to get a very decent approximation of surround sound.

Captain W mate.... I was reading your budget suggestion. Can I ask if your effectively connecting that single speaker in a serial type way to the monitor, amp?

[Captain Weirdbeard]

Captain W mate.... I was reading your budget suggestion. Can I ask if your effectively connecting that single speaker in a serial type way to the monitor, amp?

No, not the rear.

When you connect the front pair of Speakers A in the conventional manner you are connecting each one in series with its respective amplifier channel. It is important to get the phasing (+ and -) the same for each speaker relative to the amplifier so that they work correctly. This is true for ALL sound systems. They will work with incorrect phasing but your bass response will not be as it should be.

In my "bodge", the rear (pseudo-surround) speaker B effectively bridges the positive (+) terminals of the left and right channel of the amplifier. By doing this, you can get the spooky effect that there is a third discreet signal. All identical signals from the left and right channel cancel each other out and the resulting signal is the difference between the left and right channels. The negative terminals at the amplifier are not used for this speaker, this is why it is only applicable to stereo amps with provision for separate A and B speaker pairs driven simultaneously.

I'd draw a diagram but I'm not sure how to post it in line with this text. Perhaps a moderator could help? Unless, of course, my latest ramblings have clarified it for you.

[Jinxed]

Are you sure this is ok? I wondered whether this is possibly going to trip the safety circuits on many amps, and potentially lead to damage in the long run

I say this as even using a correctly rated(mathematically) dual input woofer for a serial bridging of 2 rear outputs on an old marantz of mine frequently wigged the protection circuits and ultimately led to amp failure....

just dont want you or anyone else to prematurely knacker their kit etc...

[Captain Weirdbeard]

Are you sure this is ok? I wondered whether this is possibly going to trip the safety circuits on many amps, and potentially lead to damage in the long run

I say this as even using a correctly rated(mathematically) dual input woofer for a serial bridging of 2 rear outputs on an old marantz of mine frequently wigged the protection circuits and ultimately led to amp failure....

just dont want you or anyone else to prematurely knacker their kit etc...

Thank you for your concern.

As always... you do a bodge at your own risk. This works well and caused no ill effects on either of the integrated stereo amplifiers that I've used in this configuration. I have been running this configuration in my living room for many years now on TV, games and sounds generally.

You would be wise to use Speakers of the correct impedance and power rating but beyond there aren't any real problems to setting it up. If you wire it correctly, the most that the signal is going to be at the rear speaker is the max rated output for one channel and rarely at that. If your amp has a sensitive safety feature and trips, then reset it and open up your wallet in readiness for a spending spree on DSPs, amplifiers, Speakers cables, Wi-Fi and whatnot.

The chances are that if you've spent the wonga on an amplifier that is as delicate as you suggest, you won't be doing this bodge anyway. You'll be selling your body outside of Curries every Saturday just to get the cash for the next instalment on your upgrade route to Hi-Def sounds (HiFi was what it were called when I were a lad).

My personal recommendation is to do this on used equipment. It's well worth spending on decent second hand kit to do this when you compare the pros and cons of Hi-Tech vs Low-Tech, especially if you are in a bedsit or at home with your parents. I reckon you can still get old-school amps and Speakers by respected manufacturers in second-hand outlets to do the job for less than a hundred notes. Lots of people are upgrading to newer technologies and getting rid of the old kit.

Bottom line - If you are in doubt... do nought. (Does it really need to be said?)