Hooking PC speakers to a TV

[RPGWiZaRD]

I bought a new plasma TV for my parents, Panasonic G10, but we're a bit dissappointed with the internal speakers and I was wondering if it would be possible to connect this Logitech X-530 5.1 set I don't use anymore to the TV, I'm sure it should be possible to using some cables/converters. Like say using RCA Y-cables or other cables but I was also thinking of testing simply connecting the green (front right & left) connector directly to headphone jack to get the front speakers working at least (ofc I'm not looking into getting a working 5.1 sound to work, 2x speakers and possibly the sub which is not a requirement for my parents). However could I possibly damage the TV's sound system by doing this? The X-530 have built-in amp in the subwoofer. The front-right speaker has those 3 pins that you plug to your soundcard and it's connected to the subwoofer like all the other speakers are like in the pic below. I'm not really familar with how the headphone jacks vs pc speakers differs like in terms of supported impedance, frequency range etc. The TV has separate volume control for headphone jack. I wouldn't wanna cook the TV's sound system on a new 1000€ plasma TV. :p:

http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2004/12/17/5/x530_3.jpg http://agcomputers.com.au/images/530.jpg

Specs:

Total RMS Power: 70.1 Watts

* Subwoofer: 25 watts RMS into 4 ohms at 100Hz at 10% THD (total harmonic distortion) clipping
* Satellites: 45.1 watts RMS (2x7.4w Front; 15.5w Center: 2x7.4w Rear) into 4 ohms at 1 kHz at 10% THD clipping
* Total Peak Power: 140Watts at <10%THD
* System THD: Better than 0.07% THD before clipping

Signal to noise ratio: >99db

Frequency response: 40Hz – 20 kHz

Driver Size: 2” high excursion satellites, 5.25” high excursion subwoofer

[psyconut713]

That is a picture of the outputs from the sub, are their any more inputs other then the headphone connection? Panasonic has almost always had stereo out, which would be the best sound quality output. But if all your looking for is "better" audio, it should work, impedance should not be an issue.

[RPGWiZaRD]

That is a picture of the outputs from the sub, are their any more inputs other then the headphone connection? Panasonic has almost always had stereo out, which would be the best sound quality output. But if all your looking for is "better" audio, it should work, impedance should not be an issue.

Yea I didn't take any pics of the outputs of the TV but ofc there exists the usual "audio out" RCA plugs which would provide the best result but I'm not looking for the best possible result, I was just wondering if I could cause any damage to the TV if using the headphone jack on the TV to connect the PC speakers. This way I would be able to try it out right away tomorrow when I go to my parents place without having to buy any cables (in order to get the computer speaker's 5.1 3-pin connectors converted to RCA). Whatever that produce better clarity than the built in speakers is fine (they are the standard behind / face-down type you find in most LCDs/plasmas these days) and sound far from optimal, the old 28" CRT TV speakers beat the crap out of them and I thought the satellites on the X-530 set were really nice for the price so I'm not worried about the sound quality if using headphone jack, I was just a bit worried about if it could cause any dmg to the TV's sound system.

Note I will have to connect the front speakers to the sub for it to work but since the sub is powered from the standard 50Hz/220V I doubt it should put any stress on the TV right?

[Jamesrt2004]

no you wont cause any damage using headphone output, i do that on mine :)

[Jamesrt2004]

no you wont cause any damage using headphone output, i do that on mine :)


ps panasonic normally have the best/better speakers out of the tv manufacturers :O

[RPGWiZaRD]

no you wont cause any damage using headphone output, i do that on mine :)


ps panasonic normally have the best/better speakers out of the tv manufacturers :O

Well this is the first non-CRT TV purchase for us. CRT TVs used to have the speakers on the side which is a lot better solution. It's a shame when things have gone that far so design is prioritized over functionality/performance these days so audio is really one thing that suffers, the sleeker the TVs get the crappier the sound gets. But ofc the companies want you to buy a proper speaker set anyways and maybe we will even see TVs offered without speakers alltogether in future. :p:

Anyway good to hear it works fine. I just hope I will be able to easily change volume on the TV remote rather than having to go through the menu to change the headphone volume all the time and the Logitech X-530 set doesn't have any remote either so, only the volume knob on the speaker itself. I'd hope it works so that when you plug something into the headphone jack, the "normal" volume control changes to headphone volume control but perhaps u can manually change that as well, which should be the 1st priority.

[psyconut713]

I don't know the menu functions of the newer Panasonic's, but i doubt it would be as simple as switching automatically. But as James said, it shouldn't cause a problem as far as damaging the on-board audio, the speakers should act just like headphones.


TO your aside: There are TV's sold without speakers, and tuners for that matter, usually called monitors, as the term "TV" requires a tuner. With the decline of sound quality in flat panels Vs CRT's, less air=less sound, to put it simply. And yes, TV salespeople at the very least, want you to buy aftermarket speakers, amps, receivers and cables, cause thats what they get paid on.

[coyotetu]

I don't believe you will be able to output anything beyond stereo directly from the television, even with adapters.

[EniGmA1987]

It's a shame when things have gone that far so design is prioritized over functionality/performance these days so audio is really one thing that suffers, the sleeker the TVs get the crappier the sound gets.

People who have a nice TV more often than not also have a decent speaker setup with a receiver of some sort (be it built into a HTIB setup or a standalone receiver). People who make TVs can get away with sucky speakers because very few people complain about it.



As Coyotetu said, with adapters or splitters all you get is a different connector or more of the same channel. You cant magically make a new channel of sound that way. Almost all TVs on the market can only output stereo sound from them, even most of the ones with an optical output. The only way to "magically" add more channels would be to take that stereo signal and feed it into something that can apply Dolby Pro Logic 2 or DTS encoding to it to do some special algorithms and add fake surround channels.

[RPGWiZaRD]

I'm perfectly aware of that I'd only be able to get stereo sound and that's my intention too, to only use 2 satellites from the 5.1 set.

[BigDK]

You should just be able to use a twin rca pin type cable, left and right channel and connect from the rca ports on the back to those on the input of the x530.

Later on they could upgrade to a device with optical input and use the optical out on the TV and get the PCM/Dolby Digital option.

With that unit though, you just turn the sound down on the TV and use the Logitech volume control instead.

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well it worked just fine connecting to headphone jack really and it's a very noticable improvement in audio quality (and at least get SOME bass, parents usually turn bass lower even with internal tv speakers to get "clearer speech" but with this bassy 5.25" unit it's unavoidable to completely mute it :p) but it's a bit PITA to always have to go menu -> sound -> heapdhone volume to adjust headphone jack volume or adjust it on the speaker's volume knob itself so that's why I'm gonna try connecting to RCA plugs instead.

I could use a cable like this right? since I only need the 2 front satellites (basicly the green 3.5mm plug).

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A1720011&cs=04&c=us&l=en&dgc=SS&cid=52102&lid=1342490

[BigDK]

I would have thought that this would do, you should have 2 RCA female inputs on the sub box, and the same female connectors on the TV marked as output, both will be red/black.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Cables/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=A0651324

The same cable should be available a lot cheaper than this one on the link (length dependant)

[RPGWiZaRD]

I would have thought that this would do, you should have 2 RCA female inputs on the sub box, and the same female connectors on the TV marked as output, both will be red/black.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Cables/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=A0651324

The same cable should be available a lot cheaper than this one on the link (length dependant)

No that won't work, take a look at the pic of the sub, the front right uses another kind of connector. Since power button and the speaker volume knob (so I can adjust the volume relative to the internal TV speakers) is located on that speaker I'd rather make use of that speaker instead of the rear speakers for example as I'm unsure if the sub would be used at all then as well and the volume on the pc speakers might be a bit low compared to the TV's as when using RCA plugs the volume is adjusted from the "normal" volume control as opposed to the headphone volume control I've used so far. So yea I think buying a stereo 3.5mm female to 2xRCA male cable is the best solution in this case. Besides the cable costs like 3 - 4 EUR around here.

[BigDK]

I was asuming you were using this adaptor, I just looked at the online manual, I don't have these speakers.

If you've got it sorted that's good!

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q3/BigDKPB/logitech.jpg

[RPGWiZaRD]

Yea I wish I HAD that part... it might have been included in the package but I haven't ever seen it. :D

Oh well it will work just fine with the stereo to RCA cable.