Novice with a inherited setup

[KingMinger]

Hey all, I would like to preface that I have only just gotten back into physical media collecting in 2021 and since then I've acquired the necessary equipment being the 4k player, 4k TV and small collection of awesome movies.

Now onto the sound system itself. Ive inherited an entire sound 5.1 surround sound system and a Pioneer VSX-520 receiver. They have both been collecting dust in boxes for 10 years, I just finished dusting up the receiver and plugged in to see if it would even work and lo and behold it does. All buttons seem to work fine and I will eventually get around to test the speakers themselves.

Speaking of speakers the brand they are is called Dream Acoustics, which seem to be a now defunct(They don't even have a website, just an eBay page) Australian brand but Chinese made Audio/speaker manufacturing company. I assume the quality may or may not be the best but that is no issue for me, as I have never had such a system before.

I got 5 speakers in total, two towers, one center and two bookshelf speakers. My current room is not the biggest so I will just be using the towers and center speaker for now.

So I have some questions:

1) Will this old receiver work drama free with a 2021 Smart TV

2) I assume I will not be getting the Dolby atmos experience since you need Dolby atmos specific speakers and receiver IIRC

Also, does anyone on here not use Dolby atmos and just have a regular home theater set up of sorts? I assume the sound is still awesome when watching movies
Thanks in advance

[cgpublic]

Originally Posted by KingMinger

Hey all, I would like to preface that I have only just gotten back into physical media collecting in 2021 and since then I've acquired the necessary equipment being the 4k player, 4k TV and small collection of awesome movies. Now onto the sound system itself. Ive inherited an entire sound 5.1 surround sound system and a Pioneer VSX-520 receiver…

So I have some questions:

1) Will this old receiver work drama free with a 2021 Smart TV

2) I assume I will not be getting the Dolby atmos experience since you need Dolby atmos specific speakers and receiver IIRC

Also, does anyone on here not use Dolby atmos and just have a regular home theater set up of sorts? I assume the sound is still awesome when watching movies
Thanks in advance

Congrats all around! Regarding the TV, it depends on the HDMI connection with your receiver. I’m not sure what version of HDMI your receiver features, but that’s where you need to start by securing or purchasing the appropriate cable. If it works, great, otherwise you can get by with your TV speakers for the interim or consider the purchase of an HDMI 2.X capable receiver. In regard to an Atmos mix, you may be better off selecting a 2.0 mix until you have set up a proper 5.1 or 7.1 configuration.

Good luck!

[KingMinger]

Originally Posted by cgpublic

Congrats all around! Regarding the TV, it depends on the HDMI connection with your receiver. I’m not sure what version of HDMI your receiver features, but that’s where you need to start by securing or purchasing the appropriate cable. If it works, great, otherwise you can get by with your TV speakers for the interim or consider the purchase of an HDMI 2.X capable receiver. In regard to an Atmos mix, you may be better off selecting a 2.0 mix until you have set up a proper 5.1 or 7.1 configuration.

Good luck!

Thanks man! I spent all evening trying to set it up, receiver works fine but I could not get the speakers going, I will stick with 2.0 and get it working that way somehow. The speakers and wires for them have been in boxes for a decade. Im no tech head by any means but I assume the wiring or even the speakers themselves may have died over time? I will keep learning and experimenting.

[RFK]

Looks like the receiver is from 2009 and has HDMI along with rca inputs. As cgpublic mentions I wouldn't be concerned with dolby surround or Atmos. I'd want to know if it can produce sound from your speakers. If you have a cd, dvd or Bluray player connect it via rca connections since various receivers HDMI can have issues. When connecting speakers always keep the wiring for red and black the same on receiver and speakers. You should probably download a copy of the manual for more info also. Best of luck.

[umich08]

Something to consider: you asked if it will work drama free. Not exactly. If it's from 2009, it does not have the ability to pass the video along from your 4k source through the receiver to your tv. You will need to connect your player directly to the tv and if your player has a seperate audio out, connect that to the receiver, otherwise connect an optical cable from the tv to the receiver in order to get surround sound. It doesnt look like the receiver supports ARC with HDMI 1.4 so its going to be tricky depending on what sources you want to use.

[KingMinger]

Originally Posted by RFK

Looks like the receiver is from 2009 and has HDMI along with rca inputs. As cgpublic mentions I wouldn't be concerned with dolby surround or Atmos. I'd want to know if it can produce sound from your speakers. If you have a cd, dvd or Bluray player connect it via rca connections since various receivers HDMI can have issues. When connecting speakers always keep the wiring for red and black the same on receiver and speakers. You should probably download a copy of the manual for more info also. Best of luck.

Yeah I had a spare older TV and DVD/VCR player laying around so Ive decided to try and make it work through them.

Originally Posted by umich08

Something to consider: you asked if it will work drama free. Not exactly. If it's from 2009, it does not have the ability to pass the video along from your 4k source through the receiver to your tv. You will need to connect your player directly to the tv and if your player has a seperate audio out, connect that to the receiver, otherwise connect an optical cable from the tv to the receiver in order to get surround sound. It doesnt look like the receiver supports ARC with HDMI 1.4 so its going to be tricky depending on what sources you want to use.

Damn. Oh well I had plans on getting the whole Atmos speaker set up going eventually anyways. Im just hoping to get them working for the main lounge room and keep the atmos setup for the man cave.

[RFK]

Here's the manual for your unit.

https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/S...ctions0302.pdf

[KingMinger]

I got the speakers and the receiver working through an old TV! Everything seems to be in working order, tried a different bunch of movies with action scenes, etc. I am yet to get my 4k TV and 4k player set up properly. Can't wait to see if it all works out. Fingers crossed!

[KingMinger]

Gentlemen, I happy to report that everything is in working condition! The speakers are fine and I even trialed action scenes and other parts of different movies from different decades both 4k and Bluray! I am impressed and cannot even imagine how Dolby Atmos sounds, but this is my set up and it will do for the time being. I used the Optical Audio cable for the TV and receiver. I might post pictures of the set up at some point. Thanks for all the help guys!

[PUsokrJosh305]

Out of curiosity, what 4K player do you have? I ask this because if it has 2 HDMI ports in the back, you can connect 1 of those to the TV and the other HDMI port to the receiver. That way you get your full 4K picture and get uncompressed audio compared to just getting compressed audio from the Optical Cable. I had this setup like this for years because my older receiver was from 2008.

[KingMinger]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

Out of curiosity, what 4K player do you have?

I have the LG UBK90

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by KingMinger

I have the LG UBK90

Awesome! I noticed when looking at the manual of the LG UBK90 player that you have 2 HDMI Ports. 1 for the Video/Audio that goes to the TV and one just for the Audio that can go to the receiver. Take the Optical Cable out of your setup and plug in a HDMI cable to the Audio Only HDMI port to one of your ports on your receiver. That way you can get Dolby TruHD and DTS: HDMA audio. Also in the settings of your player, make sure the Digital Audio Output is set to "Auto" and that the HDMI Port 2 is also turned on.

Even if the audio track from a movie is in Dolby Atmos, the core of that track is in Dolby TruHD. As to DTS, DTS: X tracks also is backwards compatible as well. But I have noticed though it's harder for an older receiver to interpret DTS: X tracks vs. Dolby Atmos Tracks.

[KingMinger]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

Awesome! I noticed when looking at the manual of the LG UBK90 player that you have 2 HDMI Ports. 1 for the Video/Audio that goes to the TV and one just for the Audio that can go to the receiver. Take the Optical Cable out of your setup and plug in a HDMI cable to the Audio Only HDMI port to one of your ports on your receiver. That way you can get Dolby TruHD and DTS: HDMA audio. Also in the settings of your player, make sure the Digital Audio Output is set to "Auto" and that the HDMI Port 2 is also turned on.

Even if the audio track from a movie is in Dolby Atmos, the core of that track is in Dolby TruHD. As to DTS, DTS: X tracks also is backwards compatible as well. But I have noticed though it's harder for an older receiver to interpret DTS: X tracks vs. Dolby Atmos Tracks.

I'll have to try it out some time in the future and experiment for sure. I am impressed with the standard Optical Audio for now.