Cambridge Audio 840 E (anyone have a TV Cable Box in the mix)

I am getting one here soon and am hoping I can hook my cable box up to it?? If anyone here that owns one and is, or has ran TV sound through the unit, please chime in and tell me if it works out okay! Thanks
"if it's not fun, it's not worth it & remember folks, "It's All About The Music"!!
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Best Answers

  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,967
    Answer ✓
    What kind of TV do you have ? What kind of cable box ? They are all different. Your TV and or cable box needs left and right analog outputs as I don't believe that pre has any digital inputs. Either way...what you'll be missing is the DD sound from cable but otherwise as long as you have analog outputs in either one, you should be fine.
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  • EndersShadow
    EndersShadow Posts: 17,590
    edited September 2014 Answer ✓
    You have options like @tonyb‌ said. Couple thoughts.

    1. Your box has RCA outs - no explination needed. Your good but you will get stereo sound only. May need to check the settings on your box to make sure its setup to do Stereo out rather than multichannel.

    2. Your box has NO RCA outs, but your TV DOES - connect your TV to it and then you should be good...

    3. Connect your box to your STREAMMAGIC via optical/coaxial output.... This would be the "best" setup for stereo. You may still need to tell your box its sending out stereo (dont know haven't done this part) over optical, or the DacMagic may be able to convert it to 2 channel... dont know, never screwed with it...

    4. Connect your TV via HDMI, take optical from your TV to the StreamMagic - this may be a good way if 3 doesnt work as your TV should be able to take the multichannel signal and downsample to stereo (via the settings) and then send to the DacMagic to your TV.... clustermuck of cables though....
    "....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963)
  • Msabot1
    Msabot1 Posts: 2,098
    Answer ✓
    Yea...those converters are different....When I used CATV..their offering of High Def was very limited...and the sound wasn't HD at all...might have changed though..anyway I would be leery about integrating any CATV in my home system due to their grounding issues....
  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,967
    Answer ✓
    That's fine, use your BJ cables, connect to any input on the pre. You may have to go into your TV's menu and tell it how to output the audio though.
    HT SYSTEM-
    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

    Sonos zp90
    Grant Fidelity tube dac
    B&k 1420
    lsi 9's
  • EndersShadow
    EndersShadow Posts: 17,590
    Answer ✓
    Yup, agree with tony.

    Plus no point in getting good IC's for it, the cable box DAC is probably "Eh" at best.
    "....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963)
  • EndersShadow
    EndersShadow Posts: 17,590
    Answer ✓
    Talked to a tech guy at high end audio store in Columbus Ohio that was very helpful. I learned that I will only have to connect my Stream Magic 6 to the pre and run the optical cord from my tv to the optical in on the stream magic and I'll be good to go! How easy was that?? sounds too easy, I'll let ya know when I get it all running.

    That sounds about right. However you may still need to tell your cable box to send out the signal in stereo via the optical cable, if thats even possible.

    I'm not totally up to snuf so I dont know if the Stream Magic can take a 5.1 signal and convert it to 2 channels. If it can, then no setting changes needed.

    That would be my only concern with that setup.

    And the StreamMagic will upconvert it and make sound MO BETTA!

    "....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963)

Answers

  • tonyb wrote: »
    What kind of TV do you have ? What kind of cable box ? They are all different. Your TV and or cable box needs left and right analog outputs as I don't believe that pre has any digital inputs. Either way...what you'll be missing is the DD sound from cable but otherwise as long as you have analog outputs in either one, you should be fine.
    oak16odtevw1.jpg

    This is the back of my cable box, and if this is a go, will I be again on the hunt for better quality RCA's?? I have a reg set here or could I use the blue jean interconnects I used to have between my amp and the Onkyo??
    "if it's not fun, it's not worth it & remember folks, "It's All About The Music"!!
    *****************************
  • tophatjohnny
    tophatjohnny Posts: 4,182
    edited September 2014
    Talked to a tech guy at high end audio store in Columbus Ohio that was very helpful. I learned that I will only have to connect my Stream Magic 6 to the pre and run the optical cord from my tv to the optical in on the stream magic and I'll be good to go! How easy was that?? sounds too easy, I'll let ya know when I get it all running.
    "if it's not fun, it's not worth it & remember folks, "It's All About The Music"!!
    *****************************