Digital Audio

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NYHal

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Mar 12, 2011
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Just set up my Starmate 5 Radio and have it running through my home theatre system using a stereo jack plugged into the back of the radio and converts to left/right audio in when plugged into the home theatre system.

My home theatre system has a digital audio input in as well. I was wondering if there is a way to take the stereo output from my Starmate 5 and use a converter cable to plug it into the digital audio in on my home theatre system.

If this is possible, where can I get the converter plug and will this improve the sound quality?
 
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Kryptonite

Kryptonite

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Oct 21, 2008
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NYHal said:
Just set up my Starmate 5 Radio and have it running through my home theatre system using a stereo jack plugged into the back of the radio and converts to left/right audio in when plugged into the home theatre system.

My home theatre system has a digital audio input in as well. I was wondering if there is a way to take the stereo output from my Starmate 5 and use a converter cable to plug it into the digital audio in on my home theatre system.

If this is possible, where can I get the converter plug and will this improve the sound quality?
Click to expand...

You may want to visit SIRIUS Radio, SIRIUS antennas, SIRIUS accessories | TSS-Radio and call them. If they don't have it in stock, they may be able to track one down for you.
 
limegrass69

limegrass69

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I don't think taking the analog output of the Sirius tuner and converting it to digital for playout through your receiver is going to make any difference in sound quality.

If anything, it will degrade it. You are taking a digital signal from the satellite, your Starmate receiver converts it to analog, then you will convert it back to digital into your receiver. Some degradation will occur.

Unless you have decent equipment, and know what you are doing, the less processing you do to a signal the better. Having said all of that, a lot of this stuff is subjective, and a lot is placebo effect.

If you are looking to improve sound quality from your Sirius subscription, look into Sirius Internet Radio. I find the sound quality to be dramatically better than the satellites. The bitrate is much higher over the Internet. Again, different ears hear different things...it sounds much better to my ears, but it may make no difference to your ears. I do it using Sonos, but there are other (less expensive) solutions though. There are several Internet radios that will handle Sirius. My new Onkyo receiver has an Ethernet jack that can stream Internet radio, including Sirius and Rhapsody. I did not bother setting that up since I already had a Sonos setup.
 
TSSMario

TSSMario

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There are also a few Sirius tuner options (mainly the SCH1 and SRH2000) which offer digital input into stereo receivers that are equipped.

Honestly though, being that the Sirius satellite stream consists of varying degrees of compressed audio, I dont think using toslink or optical connections will really do much for the sound other than preserve the original amplitude of the signal and allow the quality of your receiver's D/A converters to determine the signal to noise ratio.

The frequencies that digital inputs generally allow the receiver to reproduce are already lost due to the compression methods. You can never "upconvert" source audio despite what some sales specs might have you believe.

Save those digital ins for a high end CD/BluRay player or hard disk storage full of .wav and .flac files.
 
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NYHal

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Mar 12, 2011
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5.1 Surround Sound

What I actually want to do is get the music to play through all five of my speakers (plus the subwoofer) on my home theatre system.

My home theatre system only has two audit inputs: a left/right input and a digital audio input.

Does anyone know what type of hookup I would need to get surround sound playing out of all my home theatre system?

Any advice will be helpful!
 
limegrass69

limegrass69

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You can use the left/right (red/white) cables. Most home theater receivers have a Dolby ProLogic IIx or "5 channel stereo"setting that will attempt to upconvert two channel content into a 5 channel output.

Tinker with the settings on your receiver.
 
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NYHal

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Mar 12, 2011
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Unsure

My other home theatre system (in another room) as the Dolby ProLogic settings but not this one (it's a Samsung and was decently expensive as it has has a 3D blu-ray player included).

I will check again, but I don't think it has the Dolby ProLogic. Assuming that it doesn't, is there some way to use the left/right audio in or digital audio in so as to have the music play through all five speakers and subwoofer as a pseudo-surround sound?
 
limegrass69

limegrass69

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Oct 12, 2008
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Post the model # of the receiver (or a link to the PDF for the instruction manual--Samsung has them all online) and I can try to help you find the right setting. There has to be a way to do that. Just about all home theater receivers have some sort of Dolby ProLogic mode.
 
limegrass69

limegrass69

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Check out page 55 of the manual. It says that you should be able to plug a 2 channel source into the audio input jacks. Then hit the "PL II" button. That should allow you to select one of the ProLogic modes to get muti-channel sound.
 
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NYHal

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Mar 12, 2011
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Many Thanks!

Thank you!!! I'm getting surround sound in all five speakers!

I assume that I should choose PROLOG and not MUSIC, MOVIE, MATRIX, or STEREO?

I set it to PROLOG and it sounds great!

Once again thank you!
 
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