Onkyo TX SR706 with Kef egg speakers advice??

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Onkyo TX SR706 with Kef egg speakers advice??

simplenz

5 posts

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#245605 12-Feb-2019 21:15

Hey guys,

Firstly I want to apologise if this has been posted somewhere else first, I had a look but couldn't find anything so thought I would put it out there in case someone out that can offer me some advice!

I managed to get an Onkyo 706 with some kef 1001.2 speakers... Now I realise this is is a pretty old system and it was pretty cheap so was planning on putting in the workshop if all else fails but I was wondering if this is still a decent enough setup for my home theatre system?

I would say that I am about a 3/10 in terms of knowledge in the field but my main area of question would be around the 4k etc... Does anyone have any knowledge of this kind of setup?

I am hoping to run the android 4k tv for netflix, plex etc and a ps4 .... My plan was to just use optical cables to the Amp as I cant see any other way of getting the sound to work without ruing the 4k of the tv and ps4 as the reciever was built before this tech... Am i on the right track??

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Tzoi

424 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2177361 12-Feb-2019 21:19

I used to have a very similar setup and used an optical cable for the audio and it worked fine

simplenz

5 posts

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#2177363 12-Feb-2019 21:24

Thanks mate,

Did you find that it worked quite well? can I use the tv ARC hdmi for the audio of both do you think?

richms

28192 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#2177374 12-Feb-2019 21:40

Not all TVs will pass 5.1 from the HDMI inputs out to the optical. Its been hit and miss I have found. On some devices you can go into menus to set it to bitstream output and make it do 5.1, but if that makes it thru the TV is another matter entirely.

Otherwise there are now quite cheap 4k HDMI audio extractors and switches with an optical output around the usual places for cheap electronics, just carefully read and check their idea of 4k isn't the low framerate chroma subsambled stuff of the broadcast world, you want to see real 18gigabit support.

Richard rich.ms

simplenz

5 posts

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#2177378 12-Feb-2019 21:58

Thanks for that, I dont really understand what it means however its a place to start some googling! would the Arc hdmi work? I could run ps4 straight to tv and then use hdmi arc to the Amplifier? I was hoping for 7.2 also!

richms

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#2177387 12-Feb-2019 22:27

Some TVs will mute the optical output when they get a non stereo input. Others will pass it out unmolested and just mute the internal speakers.

If it wont pass the bitstream out to the old reciever, you will not get any 5.1 output.

Richard rich.ms

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#2177412 13-Feb-2019 04:47

Basically...

With all the copy protection involved in HDMI the signal needs to obey EDID (Electronic Display Information Data).

This is determined by your source (PS4's can produce lossless multi-channel audio - yay!) and the sync... which is a fancy word for your TV.

Basically, the two products will communicate via HDMI.

The PS4 will say 'I'm capable of 1080p Full HD video at a certain frame rate, with 7.1 lossless audio'.

The TV will say 'I'm capable of 4K video at a certain frame rate, with stereo (2.0) audio'.

The two products will then work together to find the highest common denominator they can handle (Full HD with 2.0 audio).

So any time you plug an HDMI based source (PS4 / XBox / Apple TV / Chromecast etc) the TV will identify itself as a 2.0 audio product. To ensure the HDMI copy protection handshake will work, it will only output 2.0 audio from its speakers AND 2.0 (lossy) from its optical port.

The audio will be lossy (compressed) as optical cables can't carry lossless audio streams like Dolby TrueHD / DTS Master HD / ATMOS / DTS:X etc.

Which, in your scenario, is the catch.

You could simulate surround sound via your amp (make pretend surround can be quite good, depending on the product being used, or it can be rubbish... take your pick), or you could look for some sort of audio extractor that allows you to trick the TV into splitting the sound to your AVR outside of the HDMI handshake. However, with these products results do genuinely vary.

HOWEVER, you may get lucky as some newer TV's do trick EDID and tell the source device that they are a multi-channel amplifier-like device so they will be sent a multi-channel audio stream by the PS4 etc.

Is there a definitive list of the TV's that do this?

Noooooooooooooooo, goodness me, nooo.

Is it easy to tell if it'll do it by reading the specs?

Nope. Sadly, nope.

Is it a minefield of 'why is this so darned hard when really it should just be simple'?

Yep.

Note: None of these HDMI audio restrictions matter if you're watching free-to-air TV or a source that comes directly off the TV (streaming apps like Netflix etc) as there is no HDMI handshake involved! Yay!