~ Help with Cables for Denon 1507 and Consoles/Speakers ~

KILLER NADS

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I finally got the denon 1507 for £180 :D

now i need to order speakers next week, will go for Pioneer SV50 @ £140 most likely over the tannoy fx5.1 but thats purely based on looks as i have no idea how they both compare in sound quality!!

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Now what I need help with is the cables!!

Basically first of all when i buy the speakers will i get any cables with them?

These are the cables that I require i think:

speaker cables to amp (incl. subwoofer,center etc.).
optical cable for ps3
optical cable for xbox360
coaxial for hdmi dvd player
one cable(dont know which one i need for surround sound?) for nintendo wii!

Then i think I also need one component going from the amp to the tv for the video sources for xbox360, wii, ps2. The dvd and ps3 will be connected to tv via HDMI!

thanks guys look forward to hearing back from you soon.

PLEASE BARE IN MIND IM ON A STRICT BUDGET AND WOULD LIKE TO SPEND AS LITTLE MONEY AS POSSIBLE ON CABLES! BUT AT THE SAME TIME I DONT WANT BUDGETED CABLES WHICH OUTPUT POOR QUALITY I STILL WANT TO LOOK FOR GOOD CABLES!!

ALL CABLES ARE FOR A REASONABLE SIZED BEDROOM WITH DOUBLE BED. HENCE VERY LONG WIRES ARE NOT REQUIRED AND THE WIRES WILL NEED TO BE HIDDEN WHILE THE SPEAKERS ARE WALL MOUNTED!

please help me with pointing out to me the best ones to buy and where from!!!
 
i have the efx speaker package in black they are in a lovley piano black shiny finish.they are also surprisingly heavy,do not know about the pioneers but the tanoys sound very good for £180 i paid for them
 
I went for the Denon 1507 and the FX 5.1 SPEAKERS. You get 25metres of speaker cable for the satellites but you might need a coax with rca connectors for the amp if you set it up using the pre-out to the low level in on the sub.
For the rest you need you own cables.

Wolfy!!!
 
ok thanks guys.

Firstly, i didnt like the look of the tannoys efx they look as if they have a camera stuck on the top and the sub itself is pretty poor looking(looks just like a box) which is why im persuaded to go for the pioneer instead they are an awsome looking set of speakers for that price!

Any idea which cables i should go for and from which websites?

As mentioned in the inital post im looking for cheap ones but with high quality!

to tell u the truth i dont know the difference between a cheap and pricey cable apart from better control over interference, but what is the difference?

OH and not to forget the rear speakers will need a cable going from under the carpet! ALL speakers will be wall mounted and the rooms a bedroom.

thanks
 
Hi KN again,
At this level I'm thinking don't go overboard with cabling. I'd personally recommend QED Micro at about £1.50 per metre. It's Oxygen-Free copper, it's inexpensive and it's also thin enough to not be very noticeable if at all under carpet etc.
Often you can pick up long lengths of it from places like fleabay, loot, etc or the trading forums here may have someone selling some and therefore get it for maybe £1/metre.

As for what a decent cable does (or more to the point what a low quality one doesn't), then that's one that promotes heated debate from either side...

Speaker wire generally doesn't come shielded. Mainly because the signal level is higher and any noise introduced into the equation from outside sources will be almost nothing in comparison with the amplitude of the music signal.

Interconnects are a different thing though, they usually carry line-level signal which is low strength in comparison and therefore any noise introduced along the cable makes significant difference as it will be amplified along with the musicl/audio signal etc and therefore the problem of the noise being there is amplified and much more noticeable.

For interconnects, I'd probably be looking at something like the QED Qunex 1 which could be had from about £10 for a stereo pair for CD capabilities.

I'd probably use a Mark Grant digital coax lead for the DVD side of things and would be looking at spending £10 or £11 on that 2nd hand on the forums here, or take the plunge and splash out the £15 for a new one.

Dan.
 
Thanks again Dan.

Your a big help with everything ;)
You really do have a hugmangous amount of knowledge thier!!

One thing that has left me totally confused is that why do i need INTERCONNECTORS? I didnt understand the logic why i would need them? They arnt used for connecting a subwoofer to an amp are they?


OK WELL SO FAR I HAVE DECIDED TO GO WITH THE QED MICRO FOR THE 5 SPEAKERS!

Now when i buy this cable im guessing that they wont come with the end connector pins will they? (the ones to plug into an amp and speakers?) So what do i do with this then? If so how many pins will be required?

As for the optical cables for ps3 and xbox360 is thier a recommended brand? or should i just go with any cheap one i can find from a website such as petertyson etc..

thanks again everyone!!
 
Hi again KN,
Speaker cable is just the wire with the plastic sheath around it. You will need to strip back about 1cm (or 2cm and fold over on itself so is 1cm long) of the sheath.
Then twist the wire round so it spirals (hard to explain) and you follow the instruction for your amp and speakers to attach the wires (be sure to get + and - right at both ends of the cable. It'll either be marked on the cable sheath, or on QED sometimes one side of sheath has a rough edge so that wire of the 2 can be identified easily).
Interconnects are the cables that run between your sources and the amplifier. IE: Optical cable between Xbox 360 and the Denon.
I'd suggest go to fleabay for one. I paid £2.80 inc delivery and was happy with mine, but switched it for a £15 QED one when it became a spare due to an upgrade I had done.
At this price level, I'd say don't worry about banana plugs (those pins for the speaker wire cable).

Read your Denon manual when it arrives about connecting speaker wires as AV recievers manuals normally contain useful reminders if you're not familiar with connecting speaker cables (Such as how to avoid a short of a strand of speaker cable etc that could damage reciever etc).

Best of luck.

Dan.
 
Hi again KN,
Speaker cable is just the wire with the plastic sheath around it. You will need to strip back about 1cm (or 2cm and fold over on itself so is 1cm long) of the sheath.
Then twist the wire round so it spirals (hard to explain) and you follow the instruction for your amp and speakers to attach the wires (be sure to get + and - right at both ends of the cable. It'll either be marked on the cable sheath, or on QED sometimes one side of sheath has a rough edge so that wire of the 2 can be identified easily).
Interconnects are the cables that run between your sources and the amplifier. IE: Optical cable between Xbox 360 and the Denon.
I'd suggest go to fleabay for one. I paid £2.80 inc delivery and was happy with mine, but switched it for a £15 QED one when it became a spare due to an upgrade I had done.
At this price level, I'd say don't worry about banana plugs (those pins for the speaker wire cable).

Read your Denon manual when it arrives about connecting speaker wires as AV recievers manuals normally contain useful reminders if you're not familiar with connecting speaker cables (Such as how to avoid a short of a strand of speaker cable etc that could damage reciever etc).

Best of luck.

Dan.


thanks Dan.

Does that mean I dont require a Interconnect at this stage?
BEcause im gona use optical for ps3 and xbox360 and then coax for dvd!
and most likely my laptop will use phono and probably same with the nintendo wii?

I think that im still not sure about what the interconnect is used for in my situation/setup!!

thanks
 
thanks Dan.

Does that mean I dont require a Interconnect at this stage?
BEcause im gona use optical for ps3 and xbox360 and then coax for dvd!
and most likely my laptop will use phono and probably same with the nintendo wii?

I think that im still not sure about what the interconnect is used for in my situation/setup!!

thanks

Hi,
The interconnect is the connecting cable between source (PS3, Xbox 360, DVD player etc) and the reciever.
The optical cable that you'll plug between your 360 and the reciever is an interconnect.
The digital coax lead is an interconnect. An interconnect is a general term for a connecting cable that isn't speaker wire.
The small 3.5mm jack (headphone plug) to dual phono lead that you'll need for your laptop to reciever is also an interconnect.
It's just a generic term for a cable with plugs etc.

Hope that helps.

Dan.
 
Hi,
The interconnect is the connecting cable between source (PS3, Xbox 360, DVD player etc) and the reciever.
The optical cable that you'll plug between your 360 and the reciever is an interconnect.
The digital coax lead is an interconnect. An interconnect is a general term for a connecting cable that isn't speaker wire.
The small 3.5mm jack (headphone plug) to dual phono lead that you'll need for your laptop to reciever is also an interconnect.
It's just a generic term for a cable with plugs etc.

Hope that helps.

Dan.


thanks Dan I get it now!!
Sorry for being a trouble.

Lastly, is there any optical cables which you would recommend for both the ps3 and xbox360? Which are cheap but good!

thanks
 
Hi, no trouble at all there KN:)

I'd personally search up 'optical cable' on fleabay, and there's one seller who sells blue ones at £2.80 buy it now inc delivery.

I used one of those for quite some time. They're ultra-cheap and do the job well and I'm sure they would more than suit your needs:thumbsup:

Unfortunately I cannot access fleabay from work so cannot provide a direct link, at least at this time.

Dan.
 
Dan is fleabay the same as ebay? Because i cant find flebay!

I had a look on ebay, there was plenty of optical cables such as TOS etc. but not the blue one at £2.80 that you mentioned!

Am i looking at the right place?


thanks
 
Dan is fleabay the same as ebay? Because i cant find flebay!

I had a look on ebay, there was plenty of optical cables such as TOS etc. but not the blue one at £2.80 that you mentioned!

Am i looking at the right place?


thanks

By fleabay, yes I mean ebay. Sorry. t's a common term on the forums. I use the trading forums here as much as I can, but sometimes have to go to that auction site for other items.

TOS is short for TOSLink, which is the standard of Optical cable format. I'll have a look at 5:30pm for you and find something normally that seller I used has listings open all the time for them. Hold off and I'll suggest a link to you at 5:30/6pm.

Dan.
 
By fleabay, yes I mean ebay. Sorry. t's a common term on the forums. I use the trading forums here as much as I can, but sometimes have to go to that auction site for other items.

TOS is short for TOSLink, which is the standard of Optical cable format. I'll have a look at 5:30pm for you and find something normally that seller I used has listings open all the time for them. Hold off and I'll suggest a link to you at 5:30/6pm.

Dan.

thanks mate.

Dont worry you can take your time, im in no hurry as i have until end of april to get everything togather!

thanks again for being such a big help! If possible could you also link for a coax cable as i will need one for the dvd player as amp only has 2 optical inputs!
 
thanks mate.

Dont worry you can take your time, im in no hurry as i have until end of april to get everything togather!

thanks again for being such a big help! If possible could you also link for a coax cable as i will need one for the dvd player as amp only has 2 optical inputs!

Here's the same seller's current items:
http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQfgtpZ...yhydeQQssPageNameZADMEQ3aBQ3aEOIBSAQ3aUKQ3a46

Found the receipt in my email :thumbsup:

Slightly more but only a little.

As for digital coax lead, I'd probably go for a £15 Mark Grant one, but would probably think something like
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HQ-GOLD-PLATE...QQihZ001QQcategoryZ116850QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
...would do just fine. (Just under £6 inc postage).

Dan.
 
-- As an eBay Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases --
Here's the same seller's current items:
http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQfgtpZ...yhydeQQssPageNameZADMEQ3aBQ3aEOIBSAQ3aUKQ3a46

Found the receipt in my email :thumbsup:

Slightly more but only a little.

As for digital coax lead, I'd probably go for a £15 Mark Grant one, but would probably think something like
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HQ-GOLD-PLATE...QQihZ001QQcategoryZ116850QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
...would do just fine. (Just under £6 inc postage).

Dan.


thanks alot Dan I will order those right away!!

Thanks for all the help you have provided me with. Without you i would have been stuck in the initial stages of getting my home cinema setup!

One thing i wanted to ask you about the Laptop connectivity was that:

On my laptop i have many divX movies which have been encoded with dolby surround sound, at the moment to watch these in my downstairs sitting room I have to copy the films onto an external hardrive and then plug the hard drive into my all in one home cinema dvd player, which then plays the movie in surrond sound!

What i wanted to know is that now for this new setup im getting done in my bedroom, how can i use the films from the laptop to watch with the surround sound audio? I will probably have the picture hooked up to amp or tv via VGA or DVI! At the moment i also have a headphone to phono lead which i used to use before to get sound onto the tv from the laptop. But im sure that if i connect this to my amp now instead of the tv it will only give me stereo sound and not 5.1 surround sound like i get downstairs!
Is there a solution to this?

thanks
 
-- As an eBay Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases --
thanks alot Dan I will order those right away!!

Thanks for all the help you have provided me with. Without you i would have been stuck in the initial stages of getting my home cinema setup!

One thing i wanted to ask you about the Laptop connectivity was that:

On my laptop i have many divX movies which have been encoded with dolby surround sound, at the moment to watch these in my downstairs sitting room I have to copy the films onto an external hardrive and then plug the hard drive into my all in one home cinema dvd player, which then plays the movie in surrond sound!

What i wanted to know is that now for this new setup im getting done in my bedroom, how can i use the films from the laptop to watch with the surround sound audio? I will probably have the picture hooked up to amp or tv via VGA or DVI! At the moment i also have a headphone to phono lead which i used to use before to get sound onto the tv from the laptop. But im sure that if i connect this to my amp now instead of the tv it will only give me stereo sound and not 5.1 surround sound like i get downstairs!
Is there a solution to this?

thanks

No problem at all KN,
You've been a pleasure to help.

Please let me know what laptop you have. We can sort this out for you. ALso let me know if on the headphone port there are the markings 'SPDIF' or digital out etc.

Dan.
 
No problem at all KN,
You've been a pleasure to help.

Please let me know what laptop you have. We can sort this out for you. ALso let me know if on the headphone port there are the markings 'SPDIF' or digital out etc.

Dan.

thanks Dan.

Unfortunetly ive had a look at the headphone port on the laptop and its not marked with anything apart from the headphone symbol?!

I have a DELL INSPIRON 6400. Below is the link from the dell website of the laptops manual:

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6400/en/index.htm

although im not sure if its of any use?
Any other questions please ask me and i will try to get the information.

thanks
 
from a brief look it would appear your s-video out port allows you to output digital, i'd assume its digital coaxial as it uses an adapter.....cant see it being optical......

did the laptop come with some adapters? if not you might have to get them from Dell......i didnt read everything but i can only assume it allows 5.1, however there is a possibility it only allows stereo.....

your other option if it only allows digital stereo is to get an offboard soundcard from the likes of Creative which plugs in to a USB socket....you should then be able to pass through to the Creative box which should have a choice of optical or coaxial digital output...
 
from a brief look it would appear your s-video out port allows you to output digital, i'd assume its digital coaxial as it uses an adapter.....cant see it being optical......

Certainly does look like you need the special TV out adapter cable as per KB. Contains SPDIF out which I'm pretty certain will require a digital coaxial cable.

That connects to your av reciever so with a little luck should be happy at outputting 5.1 - Something which the manual doesn't make very clear either way. You will need to tell windows to enable digital ouput on your soundcard (A tickbox) when you get the digital coax cable connected.

Dan.
 
thanks guys!!

So what exactly do i need? one coaxial cable and which adapter? I have on coaxial cable arriving soon anyway for the dvd player so can use that to test it with laptop before purchasing another! But what is the adapater that i need? All these annoying accessories :( I was hoping to plug the cable straigt in and it would work!

Please also let me know where i can get the adapter from or what it is exactly!

thanks
 
thanks guys!!

So what exactly do i need? one coaxial cable and which adapter? I have on coaxial cable arriving soon anyway for the dvd player so can use that to test it with laptop before purchasing another! But what is the adapater that i need? All these annoying accessories :( I was hoping to plug the cable straigt in and it would work!

Please also let me know where i can get the adapter from or what it is exactly!

thanks

That adaptor that you need will probably be from Dell. It's a proprietary one made by them by the looks of it as I've not seen one before. It basically takes a connector on your laptop and plugs in there and gives you 3 different connections, one of which you'll need to plug the coax cable to.

Phone Dell and if you can't get anywhere about locating the right cable, drop me a pm between 9am and say 2pm and I have a likely route to tracking this down for you.

Dan.
 
thanks alot Dan.

will give them a call soon. not sure when i will get the chance though. Im going back home today and ive recieved a call from home saying weve got internet problems!

So not sure when i might be back online, i hope its just a simple problem :(

thanks for the help will get back to u soon!

byee
 
Ok guys finally got around to phoneing dell!

The bad news is that the guy on the phone told me that it is not possible for laptops to support 5.1 surround sound as they all have built in sound cards without any options to change settings to digital!

He also told me that my laptop has support only for 2 speakers :(

He finally also said that they do not sell adapters for coaxial cables unless u order it when buying a new laptop.

He told me to go to PC world with my laptop and ask for a USB sound card with 5.1 which would i guess also have input for a coaxial cable?

Any other helps guys would be greatly appreciated!! Im not really wanting to spend money on buying a new external sound card as im sure it would cost me another like £50.

thanks
 
Ok guys finally got around to phoneing dell!

The bad news is that the guy on the phone told me that it is not possible for laptops to support 5.1 surround sound as they all have built in sound cards without any options to change settings to digital!

He also told me that my laptop has support only for 2 speakers :(

He finally also said that they do not sell adapters for coaxial cables unless u order it when buying a new laptop.

He told me to go to PC world with my laptop and ask for a USB sound card with 5.1 which would i guess also have input for a coaxial cable?

Any other helps guys would be greatly appreciated!! Im not really wanting to spend money on buying a new external sound card as im sure it would cost me another like £50.

thanks

This sounds a bit fishy to me to be honest...

Firstly, let me know what Operating System you have installed.

Then go to:
Start, settings, Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager. List devices by type and double click the 'Sound, Video & Game Controllers' icon and list what items it lists within that category.

Post the info here and we'll look into further. The info given doesn't sound right to me.

Dan.
 

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