HT Basics: Connecting a Soundbar to an AV Receiver

what's going on guys here are another look at the home theater hobbyist and this week we're talking about connecting your soundbar to your a/v receiver let's get to it a few weeks ago I had a question about connecting a sound bar to an AV receiver and I wasn't really sure how to respond so I had to think about it for a while and the reason why I had to think about it was mainly because it's kind of not something I would do right but it can be done there are two things that you have to be concerned about here the first thing is that these are kind of the same thing in a certain way an AV receiver has two main components it has an amplifier to send power to your speakers or actually multiple amplifiers to send power to your speakers and it also has an audio processor to decode the audio signals from your source device and those decoding signals are like DTS X Dolby Digital dolby atmos those types of things now a sound bar has basically the same thing in it it's a self-contained unit you have your amplifiers and your audio processing all in the same box and it makes it really really simple whereas an AV receiver yes you have that in the box you have the amplifiers you have the processors but you don't have the speakers you're would need something like this so you can actually hear right and so I was like well why would you really want to do that one of the main reasons I found that most people want to add a receiver or add a sound bar to a receiver is so that they can use their receiver as the center Channel and then have to let's say this is satellite but two speakers on the left and the right and so that way they have a front soundstage and so that actually makes a whole lot of sense especially when you're first starting out but how do you do this and is it a good idea first of all let's talk about if it's a good idea I would say it's not a great idea and the reason why I say that is because your sound bar is going to sound different than your side speakers right they're gonna probably be of a different brand and have a different tonal characteristics so if you're panting if there's a pan across the front there's gonna be a difference in sound once it hits your sound bar in between your left and your right speakers so it's gonna sound a little different right but can you do it actually you can but you need to make sure that you have the right receiver to make this work so let me show you how you do it so to make this work the first thing you'll need is a a V receiver that has pre outs and these are pre US and what this means is this is the audio the processed audio signal coming out of your receiver without any amplification this receiver the Denon AVR dash X 4400 H has them there right here this is the front this is the center surround surround back and the two Heights channels and the next thing you'll need is a line level cable such as an RCA cable this Vizio sound bar actually comes with line level cables RCA cables on one end and a three-and-a-half millimeter oxygen the other with the power off these both are unplugged obviously you'd plug in the aux there and you could take the white cable or the white end and plug it into the center pre out now once that's done you can turn them on you probably have to turn the volume up a bit in your sound bar to actually match the other speakers and it is gonna sound different so this is not something that we recommend you do long term but if you're just getting started it is a good way to get something out of the sound bar that you've already purchased now one thing you may have to do is you may have to go into your AVR settings and change the amplifier settings to actually get power sent out to your pre outs but otherwise it should work hopefully that explanation answered your questions and now you know how to do it thank you guys for watching please like subscribe comment consider supporting us at patreon.com/scishow theatre hobby or use the amazon affiliate link in the description below we'll talk to you next time [Music]

Channel: Home Theater Hobbyist

Views: 162,989

Keywords: Soundbar to AVR, Soundbar, AV Receiver, Home theater, Home theatre, Home Cinema

Id: fpBTcS9y0FE

Length: 4min 9sec (249 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 12 2018