Connecting sound bar to Sony Bravia

CPU

11-04-2012

I've been trying to connect a Sharp soundbar to my Sony Bravia using 2 RCA cables to the connectors at the back of the set. Complete silence was always the result, until I used an RCA/headphone adapter and used the headphone socket at the side of the set. Same results whether I used SCART or HDMI device connected. The RCA worked great on my Panasonic Quintix.

I have no idea why the connectors at the back didn't work (the Sony support centre concluded that my soundbar must be incompatible with the set

). I'm happy enough using the headphone connector - provided that I'm not losing out on sound quality.

Will I lose anything (quality, stereo) doing this (RCA<->headphone) compared to using RCA/RCA?

Sorry if it's a dumb question ....

Nigel Goodwin

11-04-2012

Originally Posted by CPU:
“I've been trying to connect a Sharp soundbar to my Sony Bravia using 2 RCA cables to the connectors at the back of the set. Complete silence was always the result, until I used an RCA/headphone adapter and used the headphone socket at the side of the set. Same results whether I used SCART or HDMI device connected. The RCA worked great on my Panasonic Quintix.
”

You don't mention what Sony model you have?, but no recent ones have phono audio outs any more, only optical. As you've already found, the analogue audio output is via the headphone socket.

Quote:
“
I have no idea why the connectors at the back didn't work (the Sony support centre concluded that my soundbar must be incompatible with the set ). I'm happy enough using the headphone connector - provided that I'm not losing out on sound quality.

Will I lose anything (quality, stereo) doing this (RCA<->headphone) compared to using RCA/RCA?”

No, it will work fine - it's intended as audio output - but post your model number and I'll check for phono outputs (only the yanks call then RCA).

CPU

11-04-2012

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin:
“You don't mention what Sony model you have?, but no recent ones have phono audio outs any more, only optical. As you've already found, the analogue audio output is via the headphone socket.”

As I suspected, it was a dumb question then

It's a Sony KDL-32EX724, and I was trying to connect to the two lowest of the five sockets at the back marked "Audio Out".

Quote:
“No, it will work fine - it's intended as audio output - but post your model number and I'll check for phono outputs (only the yanks call then RCA).”

That's great news, and many thanks for responding.

chrisjr

11-04-2012

Originally Posted by CPU:
“As I suspected, it was a dumb question then It's a Sony KDL-32EX724, and I was trying to connect to the two lowest of the five sockets at the back marked "Audio Out".”

What Audio Out sockets? According to the manual there are none. As far as I can see the only Audio phono sockets are the two associated with the Component Video Input.

The only Audio Out mentioned is the headphone jack.

CPU

11-04-2012

Originally Posted by chrisjr:
“What Audio Out sockets? According to the manual there are none. As far as I can see the only Audio phono sockets are the two associated with the Component Video Input.

The only Audio Out mentioned is the headphone jack.”

There are 5 sockets in a vertical row, next to the SCART socket. They are mentioned on page 11 of the "Operating Instructions" manual (is there a more complete one, by the way, this one's not exactly overflowing with detail). I had noticed by that they were marked on the set as Audio Out - on checking again I see that it actually says ("Digital Audio Out (Optical)", which I guess answers it all

(well, it is only there in black-on-black relief and I was looking at it upside-down).

Oh well, moving swiftly on. Thanks again for the replies, I am glad it's working.