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Can I connect a Resound TV Streamer directly to an A/V Receiver?

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I have my first appointment on Monday at the local Costco. The Usual Reasons and years of procrastinating apply. No audio-gram yet, but I have severe hearing loss and have relied on closed captioning for way too long. I’m 64, mostly retired (still do some consulting from home), married - and my wife is still working. She loves streaming Netflix and Hulu for Brit and Ausie TV. (OK, I really like streaming Netflix as well, just not the Brit stuff so much.)

We run our TV and all other devices, (including a WD Box for Netflix and Hulu Streaming, Direct TV DVR, and a DVD), through an Audio/Video Receiver. Both for the improved sound quality and so we can use a single programmable remote.

I have searched to see if a device like the Resound TV Streamer can be hooked up directly to an A/V Receiver - to catch sound from all the input devices. No luck in seeing examples of this - just examples of connecting directly to the TV’s audio out connectors. As far as I know all the Audio Outputs from my various devices bypass the TV completely and go directly to the A/V Receiver (and only to it’s dedicated speakers).

Am I out of luck with my current system - or can you connect a Resound or similar TV Streamer directly to an A/V Receiver (assuming it has a free audio-out of some type)?

Any help or suggestions here are greatly appreciated - including receiver brands that might work. Mine is pretty old and I’m pretty certain it does not have any open outputs.

8 people in this conversation16 min readJump to latest

  1. What make and model is your AVR? 2. What make and model is your TV?

  2. Depending on how old it is, your AVR might have a tape monitor loop which you could use as an analog audio output. It might also have a digital audio output that could be connected to the Streamer. Finally, you could use the headphone jack as an output if it doesn’t mute the speakers (check menu settings).

  3. Many TV’s have an audio output on their back panel - analog, TOSLINK, or both. If you are running audio from your AVR to your TV then you could connect the Streamer to the TV’s audio output.

Edited

Palmfish,

The A/V Receiver’s manual does show analog “Tape In/Out” connectors, so that will be worth a try before I explore anything else. So thanks for that!

The AV receiver is a fairly low end Onkyo, with the manual showing: “5.1ch Home Theater/ HT-SR600 / AV Receiver (HT-R340)”. Probably 8ish years old and purchased on a close out deal back then. A significant improvement over the TV’s speakers, yet probably already obsolete. Looking at the back of the unit (as well as the manual), I see no other audio outputs (just the speaker wires). The headphone jack does mute all speakers (and no overriding menu instructions that I can find). It has zero HDMI ports, btw.

The TV is a 5 or 6 year old Panasonic 720p Plasma: -P50X1. It does have an Optical Digital Audio Out, however no sound is currently reaching the TV’s speakers. Those speakers show as “On”, but no sound is present even when they are ramped way up with the TV’s remote.

My older son is the IT tech in the family and keeps us up and running. He seems to think some of the newer AV Receivers have a HDMI “Audio Return” that could pipe all audio back to the TV if desired. If that’s correct it might be a better solution down the road - allowing for a cleaner hook up for the Resound (or similar) streamer. Any thoughts on that angle?

ETA: My IT guy (son #1) thinks we tried the Analog Tape-Out with wireless headphones at one point - with no joy. It seems they only work if the input from the sending device(s) is Analog. [I’m probably doing a poor job of relaying his comments - I’m hard of hearing, after-all. :]

@shootist said:

Palmfish,

The A/V Receiver’s manual does show analog “Tape In/Out” connectors, so that will be worth a try before I explore anything else. So thanks for that!

ETA: My IT guy (son #1) thinks we tried the Analog Tape-Out with wireless headphones at one point - with no joy. It seems they only work if the input from the sending device(s) is Analog. [I’m probably doing a poor job of relaying his comments - I’m hard of hearing, after-all. :]

Your son is right - only sources (WD Box, DVD Player, etc.) that are connected to your AVR via analog RCA are able to be output via the tape monitor. The good news is most sources have both digital and analog audio outputs and send audio simultaneously through them all so you could leave the digital connections intact for multi-channel speaker listening and also connect stereo RCA cables between your sources and the AVR.

@palmfish said:

Your son is right - only sources (WD Box, DVD Player, etc.) that are connected to your AVR via analog RCA are able to be output via the tape monitor. The good news is most sources have both digital and analog audio outputs and send audio simultaneously through them all so you could leave the digital connections intact for multi-channel speaker listening and also connect stereo RCA cables between your sources and the AVR.

Another great idea, palmfish.

I fear the weak link for my current system will be the WD controller box. Since we also use it for a hard drive, every port is tied up - and I think they may all be digital, though I’m not certain. The wire going from the WD box to the A/V Receiver is optical. But after I finally get into the 21 century with and accessories, I should be able to at least test the DVR and DVD using RCA cables from those two devices in an attempt to verify I can get multiple input sources into one streamer device. I will explore more with my son when he’s over here tomorrow.

Audiogal - Before I forget I want to thank you for the article I read on your site dealing with Regal Theaters offering neck loops for HA users that are so equipped. This could be a big deal to me as my Movie going days have really slowed down due to my hearing issues - even with wireless headphones. Here is the link for anyone interested in the article, which also covers closed caption glasses.
http://www.hawkinshearing.com/blog/index.php/2012/12/10/dont-miss-any-of-the-movie-closed-captioned-glasses-are-here/

@shootist said:

Another great idea, palmfish.

I fear the weak link for my current system will be the WD controller box. Since we also use it for a hard drive, every port is tied up - and I think they may all be digital, though I’m not certain. The wire going from the WD box to the A/V Receiver is optical. But after I finally get into the 21 century with HAs and accessories, I should be able to at least test the DVR and DVD using RCA cables from those two devices in an attempt to verify I can get multiple input sources into one streamer device. I will explore more with my son when he’s over here tomorrow.

Audiogal - Before I forget I want to thank you for the article I read on your site dealing with Regal Theaters offering telecoil neck loops for HA users that are so equipped. This could be a big deal to me as my Movie going days have really slowed down due to my hearing issues - even with wireless headphones. Here is the link for anyone interested in the article, which also covers closed caption glasses.
http://www.hawkinshearing.com/blog/index.php/2012/12/10/dont-miss-any-of-the-movie-closed-captioned-glasses-are-here/

You can always get an RCA splitter to add more jacks to those that are available. Fry’s Electronics or Radio Shack have them.

@seb said:

You can always get an RCA splitter to add more jacks to those that are available. Fry’s Electronics or Radio Shack have them.

Right. My son mentioned splinters as a possibility, also. But I think he was talking about running multiple direct connections to the Streamer. However, a Resound link (or .PDF file) I came across indicated that a streamer should only be hooked up to one device at a time (TV, Stereo, etc). But it clearly did not bring up anything at all about A/V Receivers (naturally).

I’m still hoping to hear from someone who is actually running their Streamer (Resound or other) by using an Audio Out from an actual AVR. Sure seems feasible, but possibly also a little rare.

I’m very open to upgrading my system at some point in the future if it seems feasible.

@shootist said:

Right. My son mentioned splinters as a possibility, also. But I think he was talking about running multiple direct connections to the Streamer. However, a Resound link (or .PDF file) I came across indicated that a streamer should only be hooked up to one device at a time (TV, Stereo, etc). But it clearly did not bring up anything at all about A/V Receivers (naturally).

I’m still hoping to hear from someone who is actually running their Streamer (Resound or other) by using an Audio Out from an actual AVR. Sure seems feasible, but possibly also a little rare.

I’m very open to upgrading my system at some point in the future if it seems feasible.

I pretty sure if your A/V receiver has the correct output for your Streamer you will get the audio of whatever your listening to with the receiver at that time. I have my Oticon TV adapter hooked up to my DVD audio out with a RCA splitter and also have a patch cord hooked up to the same TV, also with a splitter that I use when watching that TV with my wife and we both listen to the audio by cable; she plugs her Phonak Icom into one cord and I plug my Streamer into the other. What this does is increase the battery life of the two streamers since we aren’t transmitting by Bluetooth. I think if you try hooking into the AV receiver audio out it will work. Good luck!

In reply to @shootist

@shootist said:

Right. My son mentioned splinters as a possibility, also. But I think he was talking about running multiple direct connections to the Streamer. However, a Resound link (or .PDF file) I came across indicated that a streamer should only be hooked up to one device at a time (TV, Stereo, etc). But it clearly did not bring up anything at all about A/V Receivers (naturally).

I’m still hoping to hear from someone who is actually running their Streamer (Resound or other) by using an Audio Out from an actual AVR. Sure seems feasible, but possibly also a little rare.

I’m very open to upgrading my system at some point in the future if it seems feasible.

The tape output on your AVR is a standard analog audio output just like those found on any component.

The WD Box has no analog out, but you can connect its optical digital out to this:

http://www.amazon.com/D3-Digital-Converter-Optical-Toslink/dp/B005K2TXMO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1394351230&sr=8-4&keywords=Dac+wireless+headphone4

The above unit (it’s a DAC) takes a digital audio signal in and converts to analog audio, which you can then connect to your AVR.

OK, now I see the WD Box does have an analog out port available, afterall. It’s marked AV out. So hopefully I can rethink the issue of getting analog into the AVR so the Tape Loop out could be used for a Streamer. (Hopefully without loosing my digital connections.)

My son is of the opinion that adding analog (in addition to the existing digital ones) to the AVR won’t enable the AVR’s Tape Out port. Says it’s only going to accept analog Or digital - not both at the same time. So it’s probably going to take a new AV Receiver. And one with an HDMI-Out that goes back to the Panasonic TV. This will allow the TV’s Optical Out port to have audio from all devices.

He did some testing tonight by changing the cabeling around with the WD Box and did get sound from the TVs speakers, so maybe this will be the best solution (for this TV). As a reminder the only known way to get audio from this TV is from the Optical Audio Out.

My only concern - reading the Resound Streamer 2’s setup instructions - is it shows use of the TV’s Optical Audio Out requires a Digital to Analog converter box. So I guess that will reduce the quality of the Streamer’s sound somewhat?

Thanks again for all the help.

No, the DAC will not reduce the sound quality at all. The Fiio (and other similar DACs) I linked above outputs a high quality analog stereo signal.

In reply to @shootist

@shootist said:

My son is of the opinion that adding analog (in addition to the existing digital ones) to the AVR won’t enable the AVR’s Tape Out port. Says it’s only going to accept analog Or digital - not both at the same time. So it’s probably going to take a new AV Receiver. And one with an HDMI-Out that goes back to the Panasonic TV. This will allow the TV’s Optical Out port to have audio from all devices.

He did some testing tonight by changing the cabeling around with the WD Box and did get sound from the TVs speakers, so maybe this will be the best solution (for this TV). As a reminder the only known way to get audio from this TV is from the Optical Audio Out.

My only concern - reading the Resound Streamer 2’s setup instructions - is it shows use of the TV’s Optical Audio Out requires a Digital to Analog converter box. So I guess that will reduce the quality of the Streamer’s sound somewhat?

Thanks again for all the help.

The way I have mine set up is everything goes to the surround sound receiver (dish receiver, Blu-Ray player, ipod base), and only one HDMI cable goes from the surround sound to the TV, just to carry the video to the TV. You COULD go to the TV with the sound and then connect to the TV Toslink, but you might have more of a delay than if you catch the sound further upstream. My Dish receiver has a built in Bluetooth transmitter and that works pretty well with the Resound Phone Clip, so I never bought the TV transmitter. I have a Sony wireless headphone that I connect to the audio out of the Dish receiver, so I’m getting the sound as far upstream as I can.

If going through the TV toslink doesn’t work you may need to upgrade the AV receiver. If you split the incoming sound from multiple devices you would probably need to use an A-B-C box, so you are isolating the signal, or power off all source devices except the one you want to use right then. But, I have my doubts an A-B-C switch box would even work right, if you have to DAC it first, then split it.

@Don said:

The way I have mine set up is everything goes to the surround sound receiver (dish receiver, Blu-Ray player, ipod base), and only one HDMI cable goes from the surround sound to the TV, just to carry the video to the TV. You COULD go to the TV with the sound and then connect to the TV Toslink, but you might have more of a delay than if you catch the sound further upstream. My Dish receiver has a built in Bluetooth transmitter and that works pretty well with the Resound Phone Clip, so I never bought the TV transmitter. I have a Sony wireless headphone that I connect to the audio out of the Dish receiver, so I’m getting the sound as far upstream as I can.

If going through the TV toslink doesn’t work you may need to upgrade the AV receiver. If you split the incoming sound from multiple devices you would probably need to use an A-B-C box, so you are isolating the signal, or power off all source devices except the one you want to use right then. But, I have my doubts an A-B-C switch box would even work right, if you have to DAC it first, then split it.

Don,

If I understand correctly, you are:
Receiving the DISH Receiver’s Bluetooth direct to your Resound Phone Clip. That would be cool. And then
You also have wireless headphones hooked to the Dish Receiver’s Audio Out?

ETA - Yes we are almost surely going to be upgrading the AVR. My son thinks he can get sound back to the TV’s Optical Out this way. (And thinks he proved that last night when he pull sound out of that port.) The upstream/downstream issue you mention is a concern, however.

Palmfish - Would this the a better DAC unit? It supposedly also converts/supports Dolby to analog, where the little FiiO unit you suggested only supports PCM. (I’m not sure all outputs will be in PCM.)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0021QBIBQ/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2PPY0S99RTRO6&coliid=I3HPHG43K0HOFI

@shootist said:

Don,

If I understand correctly, you are:
Receiving the DISH Receiver’s Bluetooth direct to your Resound Phone Clip. That would be cool. And then
You also have wireless headphones hooked to the Dish Receiver’s Audio Out?

ETA - Yes we are almost surely going to be upgrading the AVR. My son thinks he can get sound back to the TV’s Optical Out this way. (And thinks he proved that last night when he pull sound out of that port.) The upstream/downstream issue you mention is a concern, however.

Palmfish - Would this the a better DAC unit? It supposedly also converts/supports Dolby to analog, where the little FiiO unit you suggested only supports PCM. (I’m not sure all outputs will be in PCM.)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0021QBIBQ/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2PPY0S99RTRO6&coliid=I3HPHG43K0HOFI

Yes. It works pretty well, but the Dish Receiver to Phone Clip+ drops out sometimes. The Resound TV transmitter would probably work better. I just didn’t want to spend the money.

A new AVR might have its own toslink or other audio out and you would not have to mess with getting sound down to the TV.

All these Yamaha’s seem to have analog audio out. http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-RX-V375-Channel-Theater-Receiver/dp/B00B981F38/ref=zg_bs_3213035011_110

In reply to @shootist

@shootist said:
Palmfish - Would this the a better DAC unit? It supposedly also converts/supports Dolby to analog, where the little FiiO unit you suggested only supports PCM. (I'm not sure all outputs will be in PCM.) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0021QBIBQ/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2PPY0S99RTRO6&coliid=I3HPHG43K0HOFI

Well Shootist, you’re getting into slippery slope territory now…lol

If you want to decode Dolby Digital 5.1 then you will indeed need the $90 Geffen DAC. However, it really is a jury-rigged solution. Honestly, a much better solution is to pony up $200 and get a new AVR.

You have a nice TV, but your receiver is horribly obsolete. With what you are trying to do, I think it’s time to replace it.

Look at the Pioneer VSX-523, Denon AVR-1512, and Onkyo TX-SR313

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