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How to Hook Up your Receiver Properly

144K views 80 replies 28 participants last post by  tonyvdb 
#1 · (Edited)
With all the activity lately on the Shack from new members who are having difficulties hooking up the receivers properly I thought it would be a good idea to have a dedicated post on how to hook your speakers and other equipment up to get the best results.

As with all home theater setups there is a plethora of wires and connections that if not connected properly you wont be able to get the full potential out of your gear.

Receivers seem to always be the biggest part of the confusion and alot of questions seem to come up about "how to get something working" or "why dont I hear this properly" so Below is a step by step guide as to how to go about this:


Although there are many manufacturers of receivers, DVD players and other components they all have alot of similarities with regards to connections on the back.

We will start with the what I call the heart of the system the Receiver.

The first thing you need to decide is what speaker connections you need to use and this seems to cause alot of confusion. Do you have a two speaker setup or a full 7.1 setup meaning 7 speakers and one subwoofer.?



1) Above I have highlighted the speaker terminals that are most commonly used,
In light Blue I have marked the Front or main speaker connections. These are to be connected to your front Left and Right speakers the red terminal is the positive and the black is the negative (do not reverse these or you can cause problems but it wont damage anything).
Now you need to know what Ohms your speaker is (this is important) look at the back of the speakers where you connect the wires and there should be a label saying what wattage and Ohms they are the Ohms symbol looks like an upside down horseshoe and will usually be 8 or 4 ohms. write this down for use later.

Now here is where the confusion starts so just follow these instructions and you will be fine:

2) With most home theater receivers that are newer they have either either 5.1 or 7.1 channels and you need to know what you intend to use, in small theater rooms (less than 180sq ft) a 5.1 speaker system will do just fine. If you have a larger space then it may be necessary to use all 7 speakers This also depends on if you have one or two rows of seating.
Here is a link to a diagram of what a 5.1 speaker layout should look like. You can also place the side speakers on the back wall as well but keep the at least 4ft apart.
Here is what a 7.1 speaker layout should look like. Again the back speakers should be spread apart at least 4ft not what the diagram shows (I will explain later why).

Ok, now that we have decided what we have for a speaker layout if you receiver is 7.1 channel and your going to use all 7 speakers skip to point number 4, if you want to only use a 5.1 speaker setup continue on to next point.

3) On receivers with 7 speaker connections you will not be using the 6th and 7th speaker terminals usually labeled "Rear speakers" or "Surround back" seen in light green in the picture. On a 5.1 channel only receiver you will use them.
The confusion always seems to be because most people have there speakers placed on the rear wall and the label on the receiver is not worded this way.
The surround channels need to be hooked up to the terminals labeled Surround side seen in Yellow. If you leave these blank and hook the speakers up to the rear surround terminals the receiver will not (in most cases) send any sound to them when listening to movies. Continu to hook up the centre channel speaker as well labeled red and finaly connect the subwoofer to the line output labled sub out shown in dark green.

4) For a full 7.1 surround experience you hook up all the speakers to the appropriate terminals shown in these colors:
Front speakers
Center channel
Surround side
Surround back
Subwoofer (connect to line out rca jack)

5) Ok, now you have the speakers hoked up. Now what. Well if your receiver has on screen menu capabilities the next step is to hook up the display.
You will need to know what your display has for a connection but for most people it will ba a flat screen with a HDMI (High Definition Media Interface) input.
If you have an older display it may only have component (Red Green and Blue connectors) or even a S-Video or composite input (Yellow).
Lets assume you have HDMI run a HDMI cable between the receivers HDMI out seen in Dark blue on the far left of the picture above and your displays HDMI input.
Select that input on the display and turn on the receiver (you will need to check the receivers manual for more detailed instructions)
Go into the receivers setup menu (at first you will have to use the display on the receiver) and select HDMI out "On" so that it will output your receivers menu through HDMI.
Now this is where you need to remember the Ohms rating on your front speakers that I had you write down earlier. Go into the Speaker settings section of the receiver and find the setting that adjusts the Ohms to match what you have. Select the closest one available in the menu sometimes it only gives you two choices 6 or 8ohms (for 4ohm speakers select the 6ohm setting if there is no 4 listed).
Note: this setting may also just be a switch on the back of the receiver.

Most newer receivers have many different surround modes (to many to list) and we will leave this for another post. what you need to understand is that some modes are more useful than others and may or may not work well for music and movies. just because you have 5 or 7 speakers set up does not mean that music will sound right if using a mode that sends it to all the speakers. It takes time to find what you will like and dont get frustrated if you dont like what you hear right away.
earlier I stated that the rear speakers should not be placed together like in the diagram THX recommends This is because the rear channels are in stereo and work better spread apart particularly now with the newest movies using them much more than ever before.
 
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#59 ·
Re: How to hook up your receiver properly

well, that really limits what you can do. The red and whit are audio left and right and the yellow is the video. are you trying to hook up the VCR and the DVD player? if you only have one set of red, white, yellow you wont be able to do it.
Sounds like you need to upgrade your receiver for sure.
 
#60 ·
Re: How to hook up your receiver properly

No, I don't want to hook up the VHS. Just the DVD/VHS combo unit That has some green red and blue ports, but also has 3 sets of red white and yellow. Two on back and one set on front.
Do I run the red/white/yellow out of the receiver into the DVD/VHS combo unit and back to the receiver?
What about the Cable box, does that play a part?
 
#61 ·
Re: How to hook up your receiver properly

Ok, first lets hook up the VHS/DVD player unit.
On the back of the combo unit you should have a video (yellow) and audio (red, white) out (it should be labelled DVD/VCR out). That goes to the receiver video input. Your cable box should also go into the Receiver if there is room but if not run to the TV.
 
#65 ·
Re: How to hook up your receiver properly

What HZ should the speakers be set to?
That depends on the type of speakers your using? If you let us know we can go from there. Does your receiver not have auto room EQ?
 
#67 ·
Re: How to hook up your receiver properly

Ok, have you run Audyssey yet using the supplied mic? make sure you use a small tripod and place the mic at ear level right where your head would be on the seat.
 
#69 ·
Re: How to hook up your receiver properly

In a perfect world, I would like to have my sofa in the center of a 7.1 surround setup. Due to space restraints, the rear speakers can be spread out away from each other, but can only be a foot or two from the back of the sofa. Is this big deal?
 
#70 ·
Re: How to hook up your receiver properly

In a perfect world, I would like to have my sofa in the center of a 7.1 surround setup. Due to space restraints, the rear speakers can be spread out away from each other, but can only be a foot or two from the back of the sofa. Is this big deal?
Not at all - in most HT rooms, the 2nd row of seating is just a couple feet from the rear wall. The issues begin when the sofa is right on the back wall.
 
#72 ·
Re: How to hook up your receiver properly

No, it does not matter. It is a known fact that you will usually get a better response by placing the sub in a corner.
 
#74 ·
Re: How to hook up your receiver properly

I would manually change the fronts and centre crossovers up to at least 60Hz (80Hz recommended). You will find that will sound better and will release the amps in the receiver of some of the load.
 
#76 ·
Re: How to hook up your receiver properly

Hi, Just bought a behringer ep2000 amplifier. My question is how do i hook up the amplifier onto my Onkyo rc270 receiver. The receiver have two sub-outs also have front, center, surround pre outs. which outs do i use and the cables to use.

thanks for helping
 
#77 ·
Re: How to hook up your receiver properly

It would depend on what channels your trying to add amplification to. Most people use the Behringer for running their subs as Behringer tend to be noisy on the high end. If your going to use it for powering your main two front speakers simply use the front L & R pre outs and run them to the back of the behringer, You will need to get some 1/4" to rca adapters like these.
 
#78 ·
After reading all 8 pages, I am more informed, but no closer to figuring out why I'm not getting sound our of my new Pioneer Elite vsx-42.

Before I brought the AVR home, the system was playing U verse tv through the box via hdmi to the LG plasma. Same for the BD.

When seting up the AVR, I wanted all sound to go through the AVR, so I sent the uverse to the vsx-42 as well as the blueray via hdmi. The video went to the plasma via hdmi as well through the output on the AVR and the sound went (or didn't go) to the 5.1 speaker setup.

The result was odd in that I was geeting great video, but no sound out of the fronts or center channels. I tried to run the mic setup, and it generated ERR for the fronts, and no for everything else. The manual setup allowed for some sound tone to come out fo the sub and the surrounds--but nothing out of the fronts or center. Although I'm a noob, I didn't seem to have any difficulties with previous receivers or 5.1 setups. The 42 is 7.1 capable, but I'm not using the "surround backs".

Any suggestions? I'm reading all I can on it, but it's been mighty frustrating!

Dan
 
#79 ·
As I posted in your welcome, have you checked to make sure that the audio output of your bluray player and other source devices are set to bitstream?
 
#80 ·
Tony,

I didn't see the response until this morning. Good call and I'll do that on Friday. I am starting from scratch in a sense since I returned the receiver out of frustration. Any suggestions of a good receiver in the midrange price point of 250-500 dollars? I'm kinda burned on pioneer vsx-42 although I'm sure the problem is me...

Dan
 
#81 ·
If you can push your budget this Onkyo 709 is a stellar deal. If not then this Onkyo 609 is also fantastic for the money.
 
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