Complele Noob, need help to hook up new R300's

wxw30

Hey Folks. Just bought myself a pair of R300s yesterday. Haven't received them yet, but am doing research on how to set them up when they get here.

I apologizes in advance for my lack of knowledge with setting up speakers, so please bear it with me with my questions.

1. so I see that the speakers come with 5-Way Binding Posts, so does any bare speaker wire do? is there a difference between like a 16 or 14 gauge wires?

2. Is there a way to hook up the speakers to my tv, a Panasonic 54inch plasma, without a receiver? I have an old shelf stereo, will it work if I hook up the R300s to the stereo and route that to my tv?

http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/shop/Televisions/All-VIERA-Flat-Panel-HDTVs/model.TC-54PS14.O_11002_7000000000000005702

3. After checking my tv, a Panasonic 54inch plasma, I only saw a Digital Optical Audio output, does this mean I have to get an A/V receiver to get the speakers to work?

Thank you guys for all the help, and happy New Years, and Can't wait to get the speakers.

tonyb

Yes any good quality 12 ga or 14 ga wire will work.
Do not hook up to a shelf system, and yes, to hear your speakers from your tv, you need a receiver. You have to have something with an amp, like in a receiver, to drive the speakers.

wxw30

tonyb wrote: »

Yes any good quality 12 ga or 14 ga wire will work.
Do not hook up to a shelf system, and yes, to hear your speakers from your tv, you need a receiver. You have to have something with an amp, like in a receiver, to drive the speakers.

Thanks man!

So I was looking at the manual of my tv, it only comes with a Digital Audio Output, so does that mean I have to buy a receiver with a Digital Audio Input?
Or do you guys have any suggestion for a good/relative cheap receiver?
Would something like this do?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882105281&cm_re=receiver_home_theater-_-82-105-281-_-Product

Appreciate the help again!

tonyb

No, thats just an amp, you need a receiver to also process the sound. Just about any receiver these days has digital inputs. Check out Pioneer, Onkyo, Harmon Kardon, etc.

Do you have a cable box and does your tv have HDMI inputs ? Bluray player ?
I see your TV does have HDMI and is 1080p, look for a receiver with HDMI inputs.

wxw30

tonyb wrote: »

No, thats just an amp, you need a receiver to also process the sound. Just about any receiver these days has digital inputs. Check out Pioneer, Onkyo, Harmon Kardon, etc.

Do you have a cable box and does your tv have HDMI inputs ? Bluray player ?
I see your TV does have HDMI and is 1080p, look for a receiver with HDMI inputs.

yeah the tv def has 3 hdmi inputs.

So basically buy some speaker wire and hook the R300 speakers to a receiver, and then use a HDMI cable to hook up the receiver to the HDMI Input to the tv right?

But I am little confused; if I hook the receiver to HDMI Port 2 on my tv and my cable box is through HDMI Port 1 and my Xbox is through Component input 1, will the speaker work with all the different inputs from my tv?

And thanks again for the help.

tonyb

There are a few different ways to do this. You can run the cable box into the receiver, then out to the tv, or leave it connected to the tv by hdmi and run an optical cable to the receiver from the cable box.
The xbox you can run into the receiver too.

Your tv has x amount of inputs that you can switch between, the receiver takes that place and can switch inputs between all things connected to it.

wxw30

So just bought bought a ONKYO TX-SR308 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882120164

and I have 2 spare HDMI cable and also a Digital Optical audio cable.

And with some 12 gaguge speaker wires, do I need anything else for the system? the R300 speakers will be powered through the receiver or does it have a stand-alone power unit?
Appreciate the help once again.

David

tonyb

No, the r300 needs to be hooked up to the receiver.