I've bought one of these because my smart tv has only HDMI ARC output for the audio but my my amplifier hasn't got an HDMI input port. The quality of the audio is non very good though...
What about using a home theater receiver for music? They have HDMI ARC, mains high pass, room correction etc... Would you consider reviewing one of those? If not why? Thanks and keep up the great videos 👍👍
My experience is that there are not many hi-fi quality home theatre receivers. But that begs the question "Why are there no high quality, reasonably priced home theatre receivers?" A person can buy a Chinese $200 portable hi-fi music player, hook it to a great sounding $99 Chinese hi-fi amp and then follow that up to good headphones or decent speakers. For just a few hundred dollars. But God forbid a video signal enters the situation. Then a person has to break the bank and buy a $2000+ home theatre receiver to get both hi-fi audio and 4k output. How can the electronic components for video alone cost so much? If one is just dealing with audio, spending hundreds of dollars will do. Add video to the mix and cheap Chi-fi solutions disappear and one has to spend thousands and thousands. I don't get it. Am I missing something? What am I missing?
This is perfect, thank you! My partner has a high-end stereo and a TV and they're not connected. We have an external Roku Streambar and I'm always like 'why don't we connect the TV to the stereo' 😂
When you paire your Bluetooth Headphones directly to the Apple TV Box instead of the TV, you have no Delay and perfect Lip Sync. Tested it with a few Headphones and it worked every time. Just go to Settings/ Remotes and Devices/ Bluetooth…pair your Headphones there and you can enjoy Lip Sync Video Content. Thank‘s John for your funny and enthusiastic Videos, a little illumination even on dark(o) days
My limit is at a 5.1 system.. And that seems to be the standard in the industry since Atmos(and all the others systems I dont about know.. like you) movies pretty much always have a 5.1 compatibility track along with all the Atmos-stuff.. So I dont need to bother with all the atmos and what not eithet
John, I fully agree with you not wanting to wire up your room for nine loudspeakers behind and above you, but an important benefit of multi-channel audio for movies and TV is the center channel because it carries over 90% of the dialogue and having just that third speaker massively improves dialogue intelligibility over relying on the stereo speakers' phantom image. I used stereo speakers with my TV for years, but always had trouble understanding the dialogue, especially at low volumes. For that reason I like to use a 3.1 soundbar with my TV (bad for music, but much better for movies/TV) and have a completely separate stereo system that's good for music.
I’ve got a NAD M10 connected to my LG OLED via HDMI Arc. Pretty flakey most of the time. Was just as easy to connect via toslink and use a learning smart remote to control everything
This is great content.. I chose to turn my back on multi channel when things (and I) got to 7.1.... Instead choosing to chase higher fidelity with stereo underpinned with sub. .... I've never been happier with my sound.... The current crop of streaming/DAC/Pre make a convenient digital hub.
Or…. I have a topping Dac connected to the USB socket on the TV (Sony With Google TV OS). Automatically mutes the TV speakers and does full bit rate (via Amazon Music TV app for example). Try it.
Hello there! I have thought to do that very same route. I have an amp and a Phillips TV (Android TV) + Chromecast with Google TV, and I saw a Topping Dac tempted to buy it, first thinking to use the optical cable or looking to connect it directly by USB to the TV, but I doubted that work, I haven't found a very clear answer on the internet. How did you manage to make it work?, and it recognizes more than 48kh for example?.
Great vid as always! I prefer watching tv through my hi-fi stereo set up too, for the same reasons as you stated. Even so, I think there a lot of people, including myself, that would like to have the capability of running a centre channel speaker for movie watching, from a ‘stereo’ amp rather than an AVR with multi-channel capability, which I think can compromise the quality and output of sound…. I think audio companies are missing a trick. What are your thoughts….? Thanks
Since I'm building a new system, my first decent stereo setup, I'll go with the Node as my 'all in one' solution. HDMI ARC, subwoofer out (with the hpf option), streamer (with a physical connection to the Datenautobahn!), dac, digital out, two way bluetooth, just about everything I need. I'm happy you're one of the great people in this community recommending this to us. Thank you for your work, Darko team. 🙏
I’ve been down this rabbit hole for years. I too only care about stereo. I’ve never looked into WISA as it’s a little too niche for my liking aka the likelihood of mass adoption is probably pretty low…BUT, I did arrive at a solution that wasn’t mentioned here. USB! I bought a Nvidia Shield whenever the Apple TV ‘updated’ to the ‘temporary audio’ selection for using an airplay receiver. This update totally broke what was once perfect (sending audio over airplay use to not be ‘temporary’) and my AirPlay receiver is no longer supported with software updates. After doing some research I discovered you can use a USB DAC with the Nvidia Shield, and the rest is history. I’m all in on the Apple ecosystem, but flat out, the Shield is sooooo much better than Apple TV in every way AND I can get hi res audio over a cable how God intended it 😂. Hope this helps someone out! P.S. there is an app called AirScreen for the shield that is $20 a year and allows you to AirPlay audio quite well to the Shield. I did this due to no native Apple Music app for the Shield.
This works great! I have a Sony that mutes the TV's speakers when headphone jack to powered loudspeakers are plugged in. Plus you can use the TV remote to adjust the volume to the powered loudspeakers.
My Samsung TV, sending audio via Toslink, to a $20 prozor DAC sounds surprisingly good. My Schiit Bifrost 2 had too much delay with lip sync, so for this application the $20 DAC wins the day. You don’t need to spend a lot to improve your TV sound! (The rest of that chain is a Rotel A11 tribute, with Wharfedale Denton 85th and SVS 3000 micro sub)
The most professional, non biased, factual and genuinely informative audiophile content, even the ad break’s are marked. Wish other channels were this good.
I dove deep into this idea a few years ago and spent months researching the best way to connect my tv to my stereo setup. The best solution I found was the NAD M32 preamp which has the capability of adding a HDMI module with 4 HDMI ports
I guess I'm going to be that guy who says you are missing out on multichannel music, though I understand entirely your reasons. Starting with SACD and moving on to DVD-Audio, then Blu-ray Audio and now Dolby Atmos on Blu-ray I have loved multichannel mixes of some of my favourite albums over the years. And Dolby Atmos on Blu-ray is astonishing. Still niche but I'm hoping this time it will take off. I do find Atmos on streaming disappointing so far, however.
I don't have atmos height speakers installed but the mix down to 7.1 on the only album I know of, "Point" Yello, SACD, Atmos is really fun to listen to with the sound/sound stage moving around the room. Any others you recommend?
I've always got to be different lol. I use a PC as the source for all audio and video. Audio goes from usb dongle dac to old school stereo amp and the TV is just a dumb screen. Wireless keyboard with trackpad controls everything from the sofa. Windows isn't a slick interface for the living room but it's a price worth paying for the ability to access any content on any service ever uploaded to the internet.
There are times, just every now and then, when I do wanna just scrap all that I have invested in multichannel and go back to simple stereo for tv and movie viewing. Especially in the family room. No more catching up to the latest standards, no more sneaking cables over mantles or behind couches, less equipment clutter, and just less fuss overall. However, those moments fade pretty quickly and once set up, living with multi channel in the main room is fine. I do like movies almost as much as music and since I’m not a reviewer and thus not changing out equipment all the time, the burden of living with a multi channel is all on the front end. Once set up, operation and use is easy and the rewards the extra speakers bring is worth it to me.
Mr. Darko, My apologies if I somehow missed this in the video: On the back of my HDTV is the orange Digital Coax output. I simply select the output on my tv to Digital Coax Out, and run the coax cable to my DAC -- in this case a Schiit Modi II. Works like a charm -- plus it can play higher quality audio streams.
I wish google released a new model of the chrome cast audio device since google current chrome cast audio device works with any audio source up to 24 bit 96khz over a wifi connection instead of bluetooth.
I listen to Amazon Music using my Firestick, I like to see the album art and lyrics etc on screen, I input the Firesticks hdmi into a hdmi->optical extractor, the extractor has hdmi output to the TV, the optical toslink can go to the amplifier (in my set up it goes via an external dac then analogue to the amp), this method gets me 24bit/192khz into the amp. Great quality.
I switched from a stereo to a 3.0 "surround" setup connected to my TV (HDMI/ARC) and having a dedicated center channel was a welcome upgrade - can recommend!
Hi, in my system I use the headphone output (3,5 mm) of my Sony TV (KE-48A9 of 2020) with a simple mini jack to RCA cable to the line input of my Pass Labs XP10 pre-amp. Cheap solution and perfect sync. of sound and image of my TV. Reason: My Lumin T2 media player and PL XP-10 do not have a digital input!! (Sixth way!!!)
Great video‼️My audio-visual system is my old stereo hifi set up (including the sub) using an AppleTV to stream using AirPlay and my iPad as a wifi server. Or, of course free to air TV. Simple, fab stereo sound. Use an hdmi lead from AppleTV to TV set and phono jacks from amp to external TV input for audio ✌️🌻 Btw a correction Mr D. Netflix dumped the AirPlay applet which is why I dumped Netflix…
I'm the same not interested in home cinema just music out of stereo speakers Don't even have my tv connected to my hifi In saying that I do love how you have your tv connected to show what's playing Brilliant
I Use toslink from my 10 year old Samsung plasma into my 20 year old sony 5.1 receiver and ENJOY 5.1 multi Channel soundtrack movies DTS. Or dolby digital are both supported via toslink
Wifi on 2.4 and 5GHz is basically a package system. If you are reading data and transferring files you don't notice that it glitches and fixes itself. In audio it drops the signal. WiSA is 5GHz but on different frequency to Wi-fi, has less interference but more limited range (works in a room not multi-room. HDMI eARC carries the highest digital rate needed for 8K video and beyond. The audio part is less demanding. If you have an audio system with HDMI ARC they don't all control or transmit to surround. There are HDMI de-bedders to 8 channel line level analogue and also to stereo Coaxial and Toslink (PCM stereo or compressed 5.1). I have not found a way of getting the digital sound to separate Toslink or Coaxial output to feed 6 speakers or in pairs front l/r, centre/sub, rear l/r. I have speakers with coaxial input, a decent DAC in them but have to use analogue inputs.
My Samsung Frame (bought a few month ago) does not have the extensive list of options for Sound Settings as yours does. Why is that? Also the TV doesn't recognise when my HDMI to RCA converter is connected to the HDMI eARC socket in the tv's top box, even having set HDMI to Auto. Why is that?
Thanks! Good information. Multi-Channel does not work well for urban apartment dwellers in my opinion. It is more a single home owner format. I am blessed to have a theater room and a separate 2-channel room. So I enjoy both worlds. Though I spend most of my alone time in the 2-channel room. When our daughter comes over, we enjoy movies in the theater room.
I want to do it the other way. How do you connect your streamer so the albums art work show up on your TV, but you still get the hi-res audio to come out of your speakers. Right now I use an old 2011 Apple mini with all my music on it running Jriver media center and tidal, which has an HDMI output, so it displays my album art on the TV. But I’m thinking of getting rid of the Apple Mini, and get an Eversolo with a SSD, but how do I get my Album art on the TV with that?
Thanks for the video. But you talk about sending audio from TV to hifi, but you don't talk about the other way you use your TV with your hifi - displaying album art (or lyrics). How do you do that?
Well that would come from your PC or external Chromecast or mi box etc that is connected to the tv or inbuilt smart tv app. That will display some album art , track listing depending on the app. I have a PC with HDMI out and that connects to my screen so I can display anything. The USB sends the audio to the dac.
I'm with you on this one. My take is that you can have a great stereo system for music, and it'll usually do an almost-as-great job with movies as well (especially the dialogue and bassy explosions) - but in most cases, in my experience at least, when playing music over even a "pretty good" home cinema setup, the music usually sounds terrible and really over-processed, and it seems to take a lot of tweaking just to get a less terrible sound out of it. I'm done chasing the evolving audio standards of the video world, to the point that I just bought a TCL TV with a built-in "Harmon/Kardon" sound bar and called it a day since currently my TV and stereo are on opposite sides of my lounge. Maybe I'll invest in a good value soundbar for the bedroom TV because its built in speakers are the usual average junk you find on most TV's, but that's about as far as I'm willing to invest in it right now.
Bluesound Powernode or Edge are excellent. I have the Bluesound Node 2i which sadly doesn’t have HDMI but I think the new Node does but the Node needs an amplifier but is slightly cheaper. Then there is the new Sonos Amp which is very good also. All of the above have Apple Airplay.
Bluray is the only thing that plays poorly for me, soundbars have modes, but these nice systems just change treble and bass so when the dialogue is much quieter than the effects, i cant use my speakers :(
I always use a toslink connection. At first, many years ago, my M-audio Superdac 2496 was the device to select the sound from the tv or cd-player. This dac I think is 20 years old and still running great. Since last year I use the dac of the cxa81. Also a great dac.
Hi @Darko Audio, I would like to hear what you think about the German Budget Brand Teufel. I never heard of it before but it seems to be more up and coming where I'm from. And their combo packs just seem to be, too good to be true, considering the price level.
I use toslink out, since my amp doesn't have HDMI in. Got a Google TV dongle and programmed the included remote to adjust the volume of my hifi amp. It has replaced both my tv and hifi remotes which is a nice elegant solution for me.
Apple will probably include Hi-Res to a new Apple TV and a new Airplay. No sense they wouldn't if they use it in Apple Music. Just a question of time..
Most of the television or movies I watch have a stereo sound track. I have wired my hi-fi to television and video recorders since 1980. A growing number of feature films only have a 6 channel sound track. Some sound tracks only have left right and centre channels. I have a good active centre channel in the Meridian M60C. and a good sub-woofer B&W PV1. If the film includes a strong 5.1 the bass kicks in. I guess if I set the system to bookshelf speakers the bass from left, right and centre would also go to the sub-woofer. As my speakers are 30-20000 they are "full range" so the sub only gets the 6th channel if anything. The best multi-channel sounds tracts are very immersive. Is all the extra cabling (signal lead and power to active speakers) worth it? Yes on a good 5.1 sound track. Most of the time I hardly notice when everything is just from the centre channel anyway. Even if content with stereo only I would want to know if I could add a centre, rears and sub or if I am blocked from doing so because of the lag and lip sync. Some very high quality wireless speakers can't be used as front left and right but cheaper models can be used as rear speakers to a sound bar in the same range (B&W Formation). Speakers that get greater range in a smaller box through DSP don't always address the lip sync even with Toslink, wireless or Bluetooth connect to computers and televisions. Future-fi goes to all in one streaming DSP active speakers, reduces the need for a stack of components but we then have constraints in how they are used that does not apply to analogue passive or active speakers. We are offered stereo system separate from the TV surround sound options and different for use from the computer.
i'm primarily a vinyl and tube amp guy but wanted to use my klipsch forte iv's with my tv. figured it'd be kind of a waste to have them sitting there idly while using the tv's poor internal speakers or a sound bar. i picked up a bluesound node, connected it to my integrated amp, and used the eARC connection between the node and my tv. i also used the node for occasional music streaming via airplay from my macbook to at least take advantage of the better sample rate over bluetooth. this mostly worked fine, but occasionally the audio would frustratingly drop while using eARC and i'd have to toggle the audio output on my tv to fix it. not sure if it was my hisense tv or the node causing the problem, but i eventually got annoyed with it and decided it also wasn't worth burning my tubes watching tv, so i recently got a pioneer vsx-lx305 home theater receiver and a beresford tc-7210 switch. now i have my speakers connected to the output of the switch, and my home theater receiver and 2 channel tube amp connected to both inputs, and i can switch between them as needed. not the most elegant solution, but the pioneer sounds surprisingly good and gives me access to some useful features even just for 2 channel use.
Thank you John. I love your exploring the TV and Hifi connection. I have 2 setups both with Apple TV running Plex from a NAS along with Apple Music. In the living room I am running that to the HDMI connection on the Klipsch the Fives. The main problem I had with that was the Samsung TV defaulting to the TV speakers but that has been fixed. I have not had the problems with the Klipsch EQ and Bass that you hard but the Fives were very fidely at the start especially the firmware update. I bought these specifically to be able to control volume with the Apple TV remote and that works great. To be able to scroll through Plex and play whatever I like with voice control and a big now playing screen is tremendous! In the bedroom, the set up is from pieces that I had upgraded in the living room. So an 19 inch computer monitor running Apple TV to an HDMI splitter, that gives me an optical out to a pair of Edifier powered speakers. So no volume control but I do have a Soundavo dac that my brother was not using that controls volume. After watching your video I tried using the WiiM mini AirPlay2 to the speakers but this WiiM never worked right and now the optical out is broken so I am getting a very basic Belkin soundwave AirPlay2 to see if that will be more stable. So thank you for that suggestion. All this highlights that there are not many inexpensive speakers or DACs with HDMI inputs. Keep up the great work!❤
Ok John. Good video. Now do one for connecting a TV in the other direction. IE for rich visuals of now playing content, album art, visuals to accompany music such as slideshows and visualisers. I have options for all of the above, but it took some figuring out and a video like this would have been very useful… Requirements: Smart TV Apple TV Roon Roon remote AppleTV app Radio Paradise Plex M1 Mac Mini connected via HDMI The holy grail for me is a decent visualiser with no lag, like the one on PlexAmp but for a TV.
John, you mentioned an audio delay when using an R2R DAC like the Denafrips Ares II. Does your Samsung Frame TV or the LG OLED you reviewed offer options to correct the lip sync delay?
looking to do a 2:1 set up for my TV.....moving away from a sound bar....i have narrowed it down to these 4 sets ups and i am curious about what you think and what anyone thinks would be best for my needs.. SVS PRIME WIRELESS PRO SPEAKERS / EDIFIER R2850DB's WITH SUB / EDIFIER S3000PRO's NO SUB / KLIPSCH THE SEVENS WITH SUB or NINES which would you recommend and rate them....thx in advance....cheers from Vulcan Canada
Hi John. I've learnt a lot from you already thanks. I pay for SoundCloud Premium. Can you suggest my best option to stream rather than BT from my phone please? I'm struggling to confirm that I can do this on a TV, Projector or Smart TV box. Cheers.
ALL "video" content come from service VOD or BD or video file have audio at 48khz, 48khz is the standard for "video" content. ...so it's bit-perfect. Also youtube lot of content are 48khz.
I’m legally blind and I’m into audio fully but I agree with you. Nothing sounds better than a good stereo mix I don’t like these 5.1 or 7.1 set ups. They’re way too complex. I’ll have people over at the house and put on a movie or music With stereo and sometimes they’re blown away by how great it sounds.
Thanks John,didn’t realise I could connect my Apple TV to my Cambridge Audio CXA81 wirelessly till you got me thinking.I love stereo for music but use a separately wired soundbar for tv/movies as the dialogue is impossible to follow otherwise.Thx
I'm not an audiophile nor am I nerdy. I connect my TV to my Cyrus ONE Cast streamer. I also use the Spotify app on my tv, too. Result? Very few cables and I almost never have to use my amp's remote.
Hi John, tried most of the options you presented and if you want an upgrade in sound quality for your tv I’d recommend adding an Nidia shield pro, it has a usb audio output at 192k that sounded a whole lot better to my ears than toslink and airplay. Even better with a decent DDC converter in the signal path. Thanks for the great content and happy listening!
Great video. I totally agree with you on all of it. I use optical out. But I will say that with Apple TV the remote does control both content selection and volume control. At least in my system.
I'm using a logitech Bluetooth, this was the only option for me as I have a late 80's technics amp. It doesn't have delay it works perfectly with the image, and also has volume control. It transformed my audio setup. The technics su-v 500 still holds up good
You constantly see claims that you can't hear vocals well through a 2.1 setup and really need a centre speaker for TV/Movies. I don't understand it - I can hear vocals fine in music? Is there any logic behind this, whats going on?
I’m no expert so I’m not 100% sure about this. But I believe movies are mixed mostly with 5.1 or some kinda of audio that uses center channel for voices. That doesn’t translate very well to 2.0/2.1. Where music is mostly recorded and mixed in stereo. Someone can correct me but I think it’s the reason.
Not a good idea! As other reviewers and as I found out for myself, metallic screen will affect your soundstage and not for the good. ask Paul has a video on this.
What I am about to ask is probably heresy, but would this work in the opposite direction? Why would I want to do that I hear you ask? Long story short, I’m finally retired but do not have a huge amount to spend. What I do have, is a new LG 55” OLED TV and the sound from it is not bad and have (so far) resisted the temptation to buy a Sound Bar for it as well. My problem, is that I have a collection of over 400 albums, many singles, cassette tapes and music CD’s, but have not had the means to listen to them for a very long time. Even if I acquired the equipment to play all this media, would it be practical to contemplate having this play out via my TV (with a sound bar if necessary) as ‘good enough’, especially given my living room (very long and narrow) is never going to be an ideal acoustic space anyway?
I’d say get a dac that accepts toslink and use a high quality hdmi cord to carry the sound from your dvd/blu ray player converting it to toslink directly in your tv over to your dac that’s what I’m using and It sounds great with the schiit modi 3 dac going into a preamp
The dialogs in the movie sounds very feeble with respect to background or other sounds.....when viewing tv via ARC.....how to fix it.... Setup is tv-arc-marantz avr-2 chanell speakers
It sounds like you are outputting a surround mix to your stereo speakers, so some of the audio is missing. Make sure your TV is sending stereo through the ARC output. Dialogue should be panned centre in the stereo mix, but you have to have a well balanced audio system that gives weight to the voice frequencies. Some speakers focus too much on bass and high frequencies, leaving the mids thin. A good quality speaker sound should sound high quality whatever you play through it. Different music styles, old and new, games, TV, movies and talking heads. Any colourisation bias to one type of source will not sound good on the others.
I recently bought the Sonos Amp solely for the HDMI Arc to connect a stereo pair of bookshelves to my LG CX. I am also more focused on music, mostly streaming, but having found I can also connect Sonos speakers/subs wirelessly via WiFi, I've now got a 4.1 setup with little hassle. Great sounding music and enhanced experience for movies - best of both in my eyes.
I just use the RCA Line outs (analog) of my LG OLED (you have to buy an adapter for RCA out for LG) to my preamp or integrated amp. Only if you want an as simple as possible 2-channel from your existing set up..
@@goonerinSP Yeah, especially for BluRays/4k Bliurays, Streaming movies and series it depends, and some TH-cam live gigs uploaded by users.. Pretty happy with the sound.. Although with my older (circa 2014) Sony LED 4k TV, the SQ I think is a tad better..
If my Dac had a Toslink input, maybe that’s the route I would have gone, so I had to make do with my TV’s analog outputs. Besides, it’s the “old school” way.. My Dac only has S/PDIF and USB inputs.
I have an AV Receiver as part of my system and wondered why this solution was left out. I don't bother with the multichannel side of it just as that is left to a soundbar. The receiver is useful for its many inputs.
I’m a bit of a newbie, but I think I’ve heard that A/V receivers are jacks of all trades, and so one loses a bit of fidelity in the music output given all that is jammed into an A/V receiver as compared to a a stereo receiver. Happy for someone else to chime in here, but that’s the gist of what I’ve gleaned from having similar questions. I do like the ability to route multiple video sources into an A/V receiver though, so have personally gone that route, but I suppose one could do the same through one’s tv assuming it has multiple inputs.
Some Sony Blu-Ray players also play SACDs, but only out of the HDMI port, which most people plug into TVs or AV receivers. I'm guessing that your TV-out-to-Toslink would allow the playing of SACDs via an external DAC and then into a 2-channel system. Do you agree? (Why? Because I'm trying to get around buying a SACD which typically costs at least $3k.)
Brilliant video. Super clear explanation. Thank you. I’m running Apple TV into Lyngdorf 1120. Sounds great. I just picked up an hdmi splitter box with eARC built in as TV didn’t have one. Coming in at 24bit 48khz and I don’t need the TV on at all. Controlled by my phone. It’s my version of Apple connect. Hooray! 🎉
I approve of your attitude as it suits your kit and your outlook. I am running a Vintage amp ( Marantz 1060 ) bought new in 1979. My hearing is probably the worst component in the system so as far as I am concerned it is death do us part. I would love to integrate the fuller sound of the old hi fi with our modern Samsung QN90CA 50 . I just remembered I have a Logitech BT Adapter so I paired it to the tv and the results are Ok (visual to audio synching is acceptable) Would I be able to have any other stereo outputs from the tv or a sound bar that would be synched in Audio. I suspect a synch shift would be noticed if one pair of speakers are out of phase with a second pair or a sound bar. I really need multiple BT outputs so I can listen to audio on TV at a slightly higher volume while my wife is a level or two quieter. Thanks for your Video i was able to follow most of it. I just need to get the best solution for me without having to buy a heap of new kit. More research and experimentation are needed Stu ( Man with a free bus pass )
John, it’s my experience that a TV connected to an AVR and Apple TV4K via HDMI ARC is a simple method to add quality stereo sound to a TV. However, if a Future-Fi solution were to include a center channel for movie dialog I would consider replacing the AVR with the intention of reducing clutter. There are many like myself with or without hearing impairments that consider the AVR center channel indispensable to the enjoyment of movies. Thank you for your Future-Fi reviews.
With phantom center in a stereo recording you can to raise the overall volume or use an equalizer when experiencing difficulty understanding the lyrics. Movies and broadcast TV are multichannel hence the center channel on AVRs. This allows you to selectively raise the volume on dialog without affecting the background sound. Along with music displaying lyrics and closed captions on movies, controlling dialog with a center channel is indispensable to me.
Good video. 2.0 is the way. I had a plasma TV for 11 years and just bought an QD-OLED TV. For both I used optical out into my CD player/DAC and muted TV sound. Sensational. But I'm not sure how the Neilsen ratings box is going to pickup TV analogue audio without analogue outs... the Neilsen tech is visiting next week. 🙂
HDMI Arc audio extractor as other way to connect HDMI Arc if your system do not have HDMI Arc input by default.
I've bought one of these because my smart tv has only HDMI ARC output for the audio but my my amplifier hasn't got an HDMI input port. The quality of the audio is non very good though...
Such a great idea... help out the beginner. Thank you.
What about using a home theater receiver for music? They have HDMI ARC, mains high pass, room correction etc... Would you consider reviewing one of those? If not why? Thanks and keep up the great videos 👍👍
My experience is that there are not many hi-fi quality home theatre receivers. But that begs the question "Why are there no high quality, reasonably priced home theatre receivers?" A person can buy a Chinese $200 portable hi-fi music player, hook it to a great sounding $99 Chinese hi-fi amp and then follow that up to good headphones or decent speakers. For just a few hundred dollars. But God forbid a video signal enters the situation. Then a person has to break the bank and buy a $2000+ home theatre receiver to get both hi-fi audio and 4k output. How can the electronic components for video alone cost so much? If one is just dealing with audio, spending hundreds of dollars will do. Add video to the mix and cheap Chi-fi solutions disappear and one has to spend thousands and thousands. I don't get it. Am I missing something? What am I missing?
@@esperago I assume because all the Dolby, Atmos, DTS stuff costs money for the licence.
This is perfect, thank you! My partner has a high-end stereo and a TV and they're not connected. We have an external Roku Streambar and I'm always like 'why don't we connect the TV to the stereo' 😂
6:50 Camera conspiracies in the house hahah
When you paire your Bluetooth Headphones directly to the Apple TV Box instead of the TV, you have no Delay and perfect Lip Sync. Tested it with a few Headphones and it worked every time. Just go to Settings/ Remotes and Devices/ Bluetooth…pair your Headphones there and you can enjoy Lip Sync Video Content. Thank‘s John for your funny and enthusiastic Videos, a little illumination even on dark(o) days
I use a 4 year old TV connected with Toslink to a 20 year ago receiver (Kenwood) outputting to 40 year old wired speakers (JBL). Works for me.
Stereo is the best of both worlds for me and I consider myself a music and movie guy.
My limit is at a 5.1 system.. And that seems to be the standard in the industry since Atmos(and all the others systems I dont about know.. like you) movies pretty much always have a 5.1 compatibility track along with all the Atmos-stuff.. So I dont need to bother with all the atmos and what not eithet
John, I fully agree with you not wanting to wire up your room for nine loudspeakers behind and above you, but an important benefit of multi-channel audio for movies and TV is the center channel because it carries over 90% of the dialogue and having just that third speaker massively improves dialogue intelligibility over relying on the stereo speakers' phantom image. I used stereo speakers with my TV for years, but always had trouble understanding the dialogue, especially at low volumes. For that reason I like to use a 3.1 soundbar with my TV (bad for music, but much better for movies/TV) and have a completely separate stereo system that's good for music.
I’ve got a NAD M10 connected to my LG OLED via HDMI Arc. Pretty flakey most of the time. Was just as easy to connect via toslink and use a learning smart remote to control everything
This is great content..
I chose to turn my back on multi channel when things (and I) got to 7.1.... Instead choosing to chase higher fidelity with stereo underpinned with sub.
.... I've never been happier with my sound.... The current crop of streaming/DAC/Pre make a convenient digital hub.
Or…. I have a topping Dac connected to the USB socket on the TV (Sony With Google TV OS). Automatically mutes the TV speakers and does full bit rate (via Amazon Music TV app for example). Try it.
Hello there! I have thought to do that very same route. I have an amp and a Phillips TV (Android TV) + Chromecast with Google TV, and I saw a Topping Dac tempted to buy it, first thinking to use the optical cable or looking to connect it directly by USB to the TV, but I doubted that work, I haven't found a very clear answer on the internet.
How did you manage to make it work?, and it recognizes more than 48kh for example?.
Movie to stereo is good enough for me too. Don't want too many wire and speaker. Ugly.
Great vid as always! I prefer watching tv through my hi-fi stereo set up too, for the same reasons as you stated. Even so, I think there a lot of people, including myself, that would like to have the capability of running a centre channel speaker for movie watching, from a ‘stereo’ amp rather than an AVR with multi-channel capability, which I think can compromise the quality and output of sound….
I think audio companies are missing a trick. What are your thoughts….?
Thanks
3.1 channel is my sweet spot for tv/movies, the center channel for dialogue makes a big difference
@@kwilj true, I have a 3.0 with big 3-ways
Since I'm building a new system, my first decent stereo setup, I'll go with the Node as my 'all in one' solution.
HDMI ARC, subwoofer out (with the hpf option), streamer (with a physical connection to the Datenautobahn!), dac, digital out, two way bluetooth, just about everything I need.
I'm happy you're one of the great people in this community recommending this to us.
Thank you for your work, Darko team. 🙏
I’ve been down this rabbit hole for years. I too only care about stereo. I’ve never looked into WISA as it’s a little too niche for my liking aka the likelihood of mass adoption is probably pretty low…BUT, I did arrive at a solution that wasn’t mentioned here. USB! I bought a Nvidia Shield whenever the Apple TV ‘updated’ to the ‘temporary audio’ selection for using an airplay receiver. This update totally broke what was once perfect (sending audio over airplay use to not be ‘temporary’) and my AirPlay receiver is no longer supported with software updates. After doing some research I discovered you can use a USB DAC with the Nvidia Shield, and the rest is history. I’m all in on the Apple ecosystem, but flat out, the Shield is sooooo much better than Apple TV in every way AND I can get hi res audio over a cable how God intended it 😂. Hope this helps someone out!
P.S. there is an app called AirScreen for the shield that is $20 a year and allows you to AirPlay audio quite well to the Shield. I did this due to no native Apple Music app for the Shield.
I just conect my tv using the headphone output to the RCA's of my amp like a hobo
This works great! I have a Sony that mutes the TV's speakers when headphone jack to powered loudspeakers are plugged in. Plus you can use the TV remote to adjust the volume to the powered loudspeakers.
My Samsung TV, sending audio via Toslink, to a $20 prozor DAC sounds surprisingly good.
My Schiit Bifrost 2 had too much delay with lip sync, so for this application the $20 DAC wins the day. You don’t need to spend a lot to improve your TV sound!
(The rest of that chain is a Rotel A11 tribute, with Wharfedale Denton 85th and SVS 3000 micro sub)
Completely agree.. two ears… two speakers ☺️
The most professional, non biased, factual and genuinely informative audiophile content, even the ad break’s are marked. Wish other channels were this good.
I dove deep into this idea a few years ago and spent months researching the best way to connect my tv to my stereo setup. The best solution I found was the NAD M32 preamp which has the capability of adding a HDMI module with 4 HDMI ports
I guess I'm going to be that guy who says you are missing out on multichannel music, though I understand entirely your reasons. Starting with SACD and moving on to DVD-Audio, then Blu-ray Audio and now Dolby Atmos on Blu-ray I have loved multichannel mixes of some of my favourite albums over the years. And Dolby Atmos on Blu-ray is astonishing. Still niche but I'm hoping this time it will take off.
I do find Atmos on streaming disappointing so far, however.
I don't have atmos height speakers installed but the mix down to 7.1 on the only album I know of, "Point" Yello, SACD, Atmos is really fun to listen to with the sound/sound stage moving around the room. Any others you recommend?
How far can you run a ARC HDMI cable ?
You really need to check out the nvidia sheild. It is the one for all streaming device. USB Dacs work flawlessley with the shield.
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I've always got to be different lol. I use a PC as the source for all audio and video. Audio goes from usb dongle dac to old school stereo amp and the TV is just a dumb screen. Wireless keyboard with trackpad controls everything from the sofa. Windows isn't a slick interface for the living room but it's a price worth paying for the ability to access any content on any service ever uploaded to the internet.
There are times, just every now and then, when I do wanna just scrap all that I have invested in multichannel and go back to simple stereo for tv and movie viewing. Especially in the family room. No more catching up to the latest standards, no more sneaking cables over mantles or behind couches, less equipment clutter, and just less fuss overall. However, those moments fade pretty quickly and once set up, living with multi channel in the main room is fine.
I do like movies almost as much as music and since I’m not a reviewer and thus not changing out equipment all the time, the burden of living with a multi channel is all on the front end. Once set up, operation and use is easy and the rewards the extra speakers bring is worth it to me.
Mr. Darko,
My apologies if I somehow missed this in the video: On the back of my HDTV is the orange Digital Coax output. I simply select the output on my tv to Digital Coax Out, and run the coax cable to my DAC -- in this case a Schiit Modi II. Works like a charm -- plus it can play higher quality audio streams.
This is a good point for those with that option.
I wish google released a new model of the chrome cast audio device since google current chrome cast audio device works with any audio source up to 24 bit 96khz over a wifi connection instead of bluetooth.
I listen to Amazon Music using my Firestick, I like to see the album art and lyrics etc on screen, I input the Firesticks hdmi into a hdmi->optical extractor, the extractor has hdmi output to the TV, the optical toslink can go to the amplifier (in my set up it goes via an external dac then analogue to the amp), this method gets me 24bit/192khz into the amp. Great quality.
I switched from a stereo to a 3.0 "surround" setup connected to my TV (HDMI/ARC) and having a dedicated center channel was a welcome upgrade - can recommend!
Hi, in my system I use the headphone output (3,5 mm) of my Sony TV (KE-48A9 of 2020) with a simple mini jack to RCA cable to the line input of my Pass Labs XP10 pre-amp. Cheap solution and perfect sync. of sound and image of my TV. Reason: My Lumin T2 media player and PL XP-10 do not have a digital input!! (Sixth way!!!)
Great video‼️My audio-visual system is my old stereo hifi set up (including the sub) using an AppleTV to stream using AirPlay and my iPad as a wifi server. Or, of course free to air TV. Simple, fab stereo sound. Use an hdmi lead from AppleTV to TV set and phono jacks from amp to external TV input for audio ✌️🌻
Btw a correction Mr D. Netflix dumped the AirPlay applet which is why I dumped Netflix…
the films just aren't good enough to warrant the effort. There are some but not enough.
I'm the same not interested in home cinema just music out of stereo speakers
Don't even have my tv connected to my hifi
In saying that I do love how you have your tv connected to show what's playing
Brilliant
I Use toslink from my 10 year old Samsung plasma into my 20 year old sony 5.1 receiver and ENJOY 5.1 multi Channel soundtrack movies DTS. Or dolby digital are both supported via toslink
so what about Wifi?2.4gh/5gh.NFC?....upscaling hdmi cable?.......upscaling blue--ray players......2.0 to 2.1HDMI speeds?........
Wifi on 2.4 and 5GHz is basically a package system. If you are reading data and transferring files you don't notice that it glitches and fixes itself. In audio it drops the signal. WiSA is 5GHz but on different frequency to Wi-fi, has less interference but more limited range (works in a room not multi-room. HDMI eARC carries the highest digital rate needed for 8K video and beyond. The audio part is less demanding.
If you have an audio system with HDMI ARC they don't all control or transmit to surround. There are HDMI de-bedders to 8 channel line level analogue and also to stereo Coaxial and Toslink (PCM stereo or compressed 5.1). I have not found a way of getting the digital sound to separate Toslink or Coaxial output to feed 6 speakers or in pairs front l/r, centre/sub, rear l/r. I have speakers with coaxial input, a decent DAC in them but have to use analogue inputs.
My Samsung Frame (bought a few month ago) does not have the extensive list of options for Sound Settings as yours does. Why is that? Also the TV doesn't recognise when my HDMI to RCA converter is connected to the HDMI eARC socket in the tv's top box, even having set HDMI to Auto. Why is that?
Thanks! Good information. Multi-Channel does not work well for urban apartment dwellers in my opinion. It is more a single home owner format. I am blessed to have a theater room and a separate 2-channel room. So I enjoy both worlds. Though I spend most of my alone time in the 2-channel room. When our daughter comes over, we enjoy movies in the theater room.
I want to do it the other way. How do you connect your streamer so the albums art work show up on your TV, but you still get the hi-res audio to come out of your speakers. Right now I use an old 2011 Apple mini with all my music on it running Jriver media center and tidal, which has an HDMI output, so it displays my album art on the TV. But I’m thinking of getting rid of the Apple Mini, and get an Eversolo with a SSD, but how do I get my Album art on the TV with that?
If you find an answer let me know, this bloke always has the album art work in his YT videos and looks cool.
Thanks for the video. But you talk about sending audio from TV to hifi, but you don't talk about the other way you use your TV with your hifi - displaying album art (or lyrics). How do you do that?
Well that would come from your PC or external Chromecast or mi box etc that is connected to the tv or inbuilt smart tv app. That will display some album art , track listing depending on the app. I have a PC with HDMI out and that connects to my screen so I can display anything. The USB sends the audio to the dac.
Listen to the new Brian Eno album in Atmos, it’s amazing!
I'm with you on this one.
My take is that you can have a great stereo system for music, and it'll usually do an almost-as-great job with movies as well (especially the dialogue and bassy explosions) - but in most cases, in my experience at least, when playing music over even a "pretty good" home cinema setup, the music usually sounds terrible and really over-processed, and it seems to take a lot of tweaking just to get a less terrible sound out of it.
I'm done chasing the evolving audio standards of the video world, to the point that I just bought a TCL TV with a built-in "Harmon/Kardon" sound bar and called it a day since currently my TV and stereo are on opposite sides of my lounge.
Maybe I'll invest in a good value soundbar for the bedroom TV because its built in speakers are the usual average junk you find on most TV's, but that's about as far as I'm willing to invest in it right now.
I get picture and sound sync. Issues using the digital out, toslink.
Eyyyy, Chris Gore on the TV, yo.
Could you please recommend a stereo amp with HDMI arc to connect to TV?
That’s become a more and more popular choice
Bluesound Powernode or Edge are excellent. I have the Bluesound Node 2i which sadly doesn’t have HDMI but I think the new Node does but the Node needs an amplifier but is slightly cheaper.
Then there is the new Sonos Amp which is very good also.
All of the above have Apple Airplay.
Bluray is the only thing that plays poorly for me, soundbars have modes, but these nice systems just change treble and bass so when the dialogue is much quieter than the effects, i cant use my speakers :(
I always use a toslink connection. At first, many years ago, my M-audio Superdac 2496 was the device to select the sound from the tv or cd-player.
This dac I think is 20 years old and still running great. Since last year I use the dac of the cxa81. Also a great dac.
Another advantage nowadays is that we can use the streamer on modern TVs :)
Finally the video I’ve been waiting for. Thank you buddy. You and your team are the best.
Hi @Darko Audio, I would like to hear what you think about the German Budget Brand Teufel. I never heard of it before but it seems to be more up and coming where I'm from. And their combo packs just seem to be, too good to be true, considering the price level.
I use toslink out, since my amp doesn't have HDMI in. Got a Google TV dongle and programmed the included remote to adjust the volume of my hifi amp. It has replaced both my tv and hifi remotes which is a nice elegant solution for me.
Old school here, RCA out from the TV into my Rotel RA03
Apple will probably include Hi-Res to a new Apple TV and a new Airplay. No sense they wouldn't if they use it in Apple Music. Just a question of time..
Most of the television or movies I watch have a stereo sound track. I have wired my hi-fi to television and video recorders since 1980.
A growing number of feature films only have a 6 channel sound track. Some sound tracks only have left right and centre channels.
I have a good active centre channel in the Meridian M60C. and a good sub-woofer B&W PV1. If the film includes a strong 5.1 the bass kicks in. I guess if I set the system to bookshelf speakers the bass from left, right and centre would also go to the sub-woofer. As my speakers are 30-20000 they are "full range" so the sub only gets the 6th channel if anything. The best multi-channel sounds tracts are very immersive.
Is all the extra cabling (signal lead and power to active speakers) worth it? Yes on a good 5.1 sound track. Most of the time I hardly notice when everything is just from the centre channel anyway. Even if content with stereo only I would want to know if I could add a centre, rears and sub or if I am blocked from doing so because of the lag and lip sync. Some very high quality wireless speakers can't be used as front left and right but cheaper models can be used as rear speakers to a sound bar in the same range (B&W Formation). Speakers that get greater range in a smaller box through DSP don't always address the lip sync even with Toslink, wireless or Bluetooth connect to computers and televisions.
Future-fi goes to all in one streaming DSP active speakers, reduces the need for a stack of components but we then have constraints in how they are used that does not apply to analogue passive or active speakers. We are offered stereo system separate from the TV surround sound options and different for use from the computer.
That is so complicated 😁 I'm using just 3.5mm stereo jack to RCA cable, connected to AUX input. That's it 😁
Yep, I started doing that back in the 80’s when tv sound was pretty poor!
i'm primarily a vinyl and tube amp guy but wanted to use my klipsch forte iv's with my tv. figured it'd be kind of a waste to have them sitting there idly while using the tv's poor internal speakers or a sound bar.
i picked up a bluesound node, connected it to my integrated amp, and used the eARC connection between the node and my tv. i also used the node for occasional music streaming via airplay from my macbook to at least take advantage of the better sample rate over bluetooth.
this mostly worked fine, but occasionally the audio would frustratingly drop while using eARC and i'd have to toggle the audio output on my tv to fix it. not sure if it was my hisense tv or the node causing the problem, but i eventually got annoyed with it and decided it also wasn't worth burning my tubes watching tv, so i recently got a pioneer vsx-lx305 home theater receiver and a beresford tc-7210 switch.
now i have my speakers connected to the output of the switch, and my home theater receiver and 2 channel tube amp connected to both inputs, and i can switch between them as needed. not the most elegant solution, but the pioneer sounds surprisingly good and gives me access to some useful features even just for 2 channel use.
Thank you John. I love your exploring the TV and Hifi connection. I have 2 setups both with Apple TV running Plex from a NAS along with Apple Music. In the living room I am running that to the HDMI connection on the Klipsch the Fives. The main problem I had with that was the Samsung TV defaulting to the TV speakers but that has been fixed. I have not had the problems with the Klipsch EQ and Bass that you hard but the Fives were very fidely at the start especially the firmware update. I bought these specifically to be able to control volume with the Apple TV remote and that works great. To be able to scroll through Plex and play whatever I like with voice control and a big now playing screen is tremendous! In the bedroom, the set up is from pieces that I had upgraded in the living room. So an 19 inch computer monitor running Apple TV to an HDMI splitter, that gives me an optical out to a pair of Edifier powered speakers. So no volume control but I do have a Soundavo dac that my brother was not using that controls volume. After watching your video I tried using the WiiM mini AirPlay2 to the speakers but this WiiM never worked right and now the optical out is broken so I am getting a very basic Belkin soundwave AirPlay2 to see if that will be more stable. So thank you for that suggestion. All this highlights that there are not many inexpensive speakers or DACs with HDMI inputs. Keep up the great work!❤
I had this working with my Samsung TV and NAD M10 but it stopped working with a nad upgrade
Ok John. Good video. Now do one for connecting a TV in the other direction. IE for rich visuals of now playing content, album art, visuals to accompany music such as slideshows and visualisers. I have options for all of the above, but it took some figuring out and a video like this would have been very useful…
Requirements:
Smart TV
Apple TV
Roon
Roon remote AppleTV app
Radio Paradise
Plex
M1 Mac Mini connected via HDMI
The holy grail for me is a decent visualiser with no lag, like the one on PlexAmp but for a TV.
John, you mentioned an audio delay when using an R2R DAC like the Denafrips Ares II.
Does your Samsung Frame TV or the LG OLED you reviewed offer options to correct the lip sync delay?
looking to do a 2:1 set up for my TV.....moving away from a sound bar....i have narrowed it down to these 4 sets ups and i am curious about what you think and what anyone thinks would be best for my needs..
SVS PRIME WIRELESS PRO SPEAKERS / EDIFIER R2850DB's WITH SUB / EDIFIER S3000PRO's NO SUB / KLIPSCH THE SEVENS WITH SUB or NINES
which would you recommend and rate them....thx in advance....cheers from Vulcan Canada
If you use the HDMI earc output of the TV, do you also need the HDMI eArc of the soundbar? Or the HDMI arc/HDMI will suffice on the soundbar?
They both need eArc
Hi John. I've learnt a lot from you already thanks. I pay for SoundCloud Premium. Can you suggest my best option to stream rather than BT from my phone please? I'm struggling to confirm that I can do this on a TV, Projector or Smart TV box. Cheers.
Perhaps your most useful video ever. Thank you
ALL "video" content come from service VOD or BD or video file have audio at 48khz, 48khz is the standard for "video" content. ...so it's bit-perfect. Also youtube lot of content are 48khz.
I’m legally blind and I’m into audio fully but I agree with you. Nothing sounds better than a good stereo mix I don’t like these 5.1 or 7.1 set ups. They’re way too complex. I’ll have people over at the house and put on a movie or music With stereo and sometimes they’re blown away by how great it sounds.
Is the digital audio Pass-Through mode on TVs equal or kind of like 'Bit-Perfect?
Thanks John,didn’t realise I could connect my Apple TV to my Cambridge Audio CXA81 wirelessly till you got me thinking.I love stereo for music but use a separately wired soundbar for tv/movies as the dialogue is impossible to follow otherwise.Thx
I'm not an audiophile nor am I nerdy. I connect my TV to my Cyrus ONE Cast streamer. I also use the Spotify app on my tv, too. Result? Very few cables and I almost never have to use my amp's remote.
Hi John, tried most of the options you presented and if you want an upgrade in sound quality for your tv I’d recommend adding an Nidia shield pro, it has a usb audio output at 192k that sounded a whole lot better to my ears than toslink and airplay. Even better with a decent DDC converter in the signal path.
Thanks for the great content and happy listening!
Great video. I totally agree with you on all of it. I use optical out. But I will say that with Apple TV the remote does control both content selection and volume control. At least in my system.
I'm using a logitech Bluetooth, this was the only option for me as I have a late 80's technics amp. It doesn't have delay it works perfectly with the image, and also has volume control. It transformed my audio setup. The technics su-v 500 still holds up good
Does your Frame TV has a matte screen? It looks very matte. I also have a Frame TV and mine looks glossier.
When i connect hdmi arc to bluesound node the volume is very very low.
Same thing with toslink to NODE
Its dissapointing
You constantly see claims that you can't hear vocals well through a 2.1 setup and really need a centre speaker for TV/Movies. I don't understand it - I can hear vocals fine in music? Is there any logic behind this, whats going on?
I’m no expert so I’m not 100% sure about this. But I believe movies are mixed mostly with 5.1 or some kinda of audio that uses center channel for voices. That doesn’t translate very well to 2.0/2.1.
Where music is mostly recorded and mixed in stereo.
Someone can correct me but I think it’s the reason.
The only thing I don’t like about AppleTV and AirPlay is that I can’t make my Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin a default audio output.
That’s a good point.
Not a good idea! As other reviewers and as I found out for myself, metallic screen will affect your soundstage and not for the good. ask Paul has a video on this.
You are cursed with good ears! One question though, why does a TV do this, when the wall behind it doesn’t? What’s going on?
Those bang and olufsen look amazing.
What I am about to ask is probably heresy, but would this work in the opposite direction? Why would I want to do that I hear you ask? Long story short, I’m finally retired but do not have a huge amount to spend. What I do have, is a new LG 55” OLED TV and the sound from it is not bad and have (so far) resisted the temptation to buy a Sound Bar for it as well. My problem, is that I have a collection of over 400 albums, many singles, cassette tapes and music CD’s, but have not had the means to listen to them for a very long time. Even if I acquired the equipment to play all this media, would it be practical to contemplate having this play out via my TV (with a sound bar if necessary) as ‘good enough’, especially given my living room (very long and narrow) is never going to be an ideal acoustic space anyway?
I’d say get a dac that accepts toslink and use a high quality hdmi cord to carry the sound from your dvd/blu ray player converting it to toslink directly in your tv over to your dac that’s what I’m using and It sounds great with the schiit modi 3 dac going into a preamp
The dialogs in the movie sounds very feeble with respect to background or other sounds.....when viewing tv via ARC.....how to fix it....
Setup is tv-arc-marantz avr-2 chanell speakers
It sounds like you are outputting a surround mix to your stereo speakers, so some of the audio is missing. Make sure your TV is sending stereo through the ARC output. Dialogue should be panned centre in the stereo mix, but you have to have a well balanced audio system that gives weight to the voice frequencies. Some speakers focus too much on bass and high frequencies, leaving the mids thin. A good quality speaker sound should sound high quality whatever you play through it. Different music styles, old and new, games, TV, movies and talking heads. Any colourisation bias to one type of source will not sound good on the others.
CEC is a feature of HDMI not HDMI eARC…
My TV is connected via RCA. That's not one of the 5 methods listed. Am I doing it wrong?
No, nothing wrong with that, the video is really for those with TVs with no analogue audio output. Many TVs don’t these days I understand.
or just use a pc, video to the tv, audio to the sound system, done
I recently bought the Sonos Amp solely for the HDMI Arc to connect a stereo pair of bookshelves to my LG CX. I am also more focused on music, mostly streaming, but having found I can also connect Sonos speakers/subs wirelessly via WiFi, I've now got a 4.1 setup with little hassle. Great sounding music and enhanced experience for movies - best of both in my eyes.
Thanks for this content as always, love your shows
I just use the RCA Line outs (analog) of my LG OLED (you have to buy an adapter for RCA out for LG) to my preamp or integrated amp. Only if you want an as simple as possible 2-channel from your existing set up..
And how is it? Are you happy with the sound?
@@goonerinSP Yeah, especially for BluRays/4k Bliurays, Streaming movies and series it depends, and some TH-cam live gigs uploaded by users.. Pretty happy with the sound.. Although with my older (circa 2014) Sony LED 4k TV, the SQ I think is a tad better..
If my Dac had a Toslink input, maybe that’s the route I would have gone, so I had to make do with my TV’s analog outputs. Besides, it’s the “old school” way.. My Dac only has S/PDIF and USB inputs.
did not know about WISA...thank you again.
I can control the volume of my marantz amp from my Samsung TV remote control over optical - you have to go into universal remote settings
Annoyingly the universal remote setup involves testing turning the marantz amp off but I can't find a way to do this outside of the setup
I have an AV Receiver as part of my system and wondered why this solution was left out. I don't bother with the multichannel side of it just as that is left to a soundbar. The receiver is useful for its many inputs.
I’m a bit of a newbie, but I think I’ve heard that A/V receivers are jacks of all trades, and so one loses a bit of fidelity in the music output given all that is jammed into an A/V receiver as compared to a a stereo receiver. Happy for someone else to chime in here, but that’s the gist of what I’ve gleaned from having similar questions. I do like the ability to route multiple video sources into an A/V receiver though, so have personally gone that route, but I suppose one could do the same through one’s tv assuming it has multiple inputs.
@@duncanfilshie2650 Ah, didn't realise that - good point and makes sense why The Darko has never mentioned them.
What if I only want to display roon on my tv
Some Sony Blu-Ray players also play SACDs, but only out of the HDMI port, which most people plug into TVs or AV receivers. I'm guessing that your TV-out-to-Toslink would allow the playing of SACDs via an external DAC and then into a 2-channel system. Do you agree? (Why? Because I'm trying to get around buying a SACD which typically costs at least $3k.)
Brilliant video. Super clear explanation. Thank you. I’m running Apple TV into Lyngdorf 1120. Sounds great. I just picked up an hdmi splitter box with eARC built in as TV didn’t have one. Coming in at 24bit 48khz and I don’t need the TV on at all. Controlled by my phone. It’s my version of Apple connect. Hooray! 🎉
What about a Sonos Amp or Bluesound for 2.0 or 2.1 tv sound?
I went with the Sonos amp. It was cheaper and I read about lipsync issues with the bluesound powernode so went with the safest option.
I approve of your attitude as it suits your kit and your outlook. I am running a Vintage amp ( Marantz 1060 ) bought new in 1979. My hearing is probably the worst component in the system so as far as I am concerned it is death do us part. I would love to integrate the fuller sound of the old hi fi with our modern Samsung QN90CA 50 .
I just remembered I have a Logitech BT Adapter so I paired it to the tv and the results are Ok (visual to audio synching is acceptable) Would I be able to have any other stereo outputs from the tv or a sound bar that would be synched in Audio. I suspect a synch shift would be noticed if one pair of speakers are out of phase with a second pair or a sound bar.
I really need multiple BT outputs so I can listen to audio on TV at a slightly higher volume while my wife is a level or two quieter.
Thanks for your Video i was able to follow most of it. I just need to get the best solution for me without having to buy a heap of new kit. More research and experimentation are needed
Stu ( Man with a free bus pass )
John, it’s my experience that a TV connected to an AVR and Apple TV4K via HDMI ARC is a simple method to add quality stereo sound to a TV. However, if a Future-Fi solution were to include a center channel for movie dialog I would consider replacing the AVR with the intention of reducing clutter. There are many like myself with or without hearing impairments that consider the AVR center channel indispensable to the enjoyment of movies. Thank you for your Future-Fi reviews.
Don't need a centre speaker a phantom centre does great
With phantom center in a stereo recording you can to raise the overall volume or use an equalizer when experiencing difficulty understanding the lyrics. Movies and broadcast TV are multichannel hence the center channel on AVRs. This allows you to selectively raise the volume on dialog without affecting the background sound. Along with music displaying lyrics and closed captions on movies, controlling dialog with a center channel is indispensable to me.
Good video. 2.0 is the way. I had a plasma TV for 11 years and just bought an QD-OLED TV. For both I used optical out into my CD player/DAC and muted TV sound. Sensational. But I'm not sure how the Neilsen ratings box is going to pickup TV analogue audio without analogue outs... the Neilsen tech is visiting next week. 🙂