Select Cost Effective Sound Surround System or sound bars for TVs

4 October 2018

Most Smart TV allow a source device such as blue-ray player to be connected to a TV using HDMI cables and have the TV pass the 5.1 or 7.1  sound surround signal to a sound surround receiver/player using HDMI ARC or digital co-axial or optical SPDIF cables.  However,  not all sound surround receiver/player can receive such raw 5.1 or 7.1 sound surround signal.  This article will explain why.

 

 Why?

For the sound surround receiver/player to be able to receive the raw 5.1 or 7.1 Dolby surround sound,  the receiver/player must have processors that can process and decode the compressed digital  bit-stream audio signal sent by the TV.  The cheaper and common receiver/player usually do not have this built in  function.  They simply receive stereo or 2 channel signal and have a Digital Signal Processors (DSP) to convert the stereo into 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound.     It is not a true 5.1 or 7.1 but a simulated  surround sound.

Which is better,   True or Fake?

The commoners  would invariably say the true 5.1 or 7.1 system is better;  however,  it is understand that not all movies are producing or the content providers are providing true surround sound.  Then the next question is whether one should choose the more expensive set that use patented Dolby Prologic signal processor to decode the raw Dolby surround sound  or just any DSP processor that just produce simulated surround sound.

What is Dolby Prologic or DSP?

Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround.  DSP is a  microprocessor that is often used to simulate sound surround.   Whether one should choose a more expensive sound surround system will depend on the design and the quality of the soundbars and more importantly,   the "taste" of the users.  Some claimed that DSP produced better sound effect than Dolby Prologic. Therefore,  it is always better for one to listen to the sound system as everyone’s “taste of sound”  is different.

Why so much Cost Difference?

One would notice that there are a lot of cost differences between the cheaper and the more  expensive audio receivers or soundbars.    Actually,  if one were to strip the set down to its bare bones,  one would notice that all of them have similar major components such as power amplifiers,  signal processors and control  except that the more expensive ones might use better components such as thyroid transformer instead of ordinary laminated iron core transformers.   The more expensive ones usually have  much higher music power for better sound quality at lower sound volume.

Can MiTV4 Provide 5.1 Surround Sound?

Most MiTV can provide 5.1 sound surround sound but only the ones with external sound bars have specifically mentioned that it can provide Digital Audio Atmos digital surround sound.   Most MiTV can only provide simulated or virtual  surround sound

A Cost Effective MiTV Sound Surround System

This article will examine some of the popular and cheaper soundbars that have been used for Xiaomi and other televisions.  Among them,  the most common one that has been sold well  is the 33” Xiaomi TV soundbar as shown attached. 

The other soundbars that have been sold well in China is the JY Audio soundbars that have similar or better specifications.  

 These soundbars are tabulated and compared here for information (Note: scroll table to the left to read).  Note that these cheap sound bars have only DSP simulated sound surround output.

	Xiaomi 33-inch	万音 JY A1S	万音 JY A9S
Price	CNY399	CNY218	CNY358
Power	15 Watts,  6 ohms	30W+30W RMS	80W
Sound Channel	ATS2825/TAS5731M DSP	DSP sound surround	DSPS/SRS sound surround
Frequency	50 Hz - 25000Hz (-10dB)	20 Hz - 20000 Hz	40 Hz -18000 Hz
Channel Separation		>=65 dB	>=60dB
Sound to Signal		>=75 dB	>=70dB
Idling Power		<=0.5 Watts	<=0.5 Watts
Speakers	8 speakers	8 Speakers	8 speakers
Built-in
Tweeter	2 Nos of 35 mm Dome		2 Nos 2"
All Frequencies		2 Nos  2.5"	2 Nos 3"
Sub Woofers	2 Nos of 65 mm sub-Woofers
Mid range	4 Nos of 70x55 mm passive	2 Nos passive radiator	4 Nos 3" Bass radiation
External Woofer		60 Watts Bluetooth or Cable	60 Watts Bluetooth or Cable
Input Output	1x Co-axial SPDIF 1xFiber SPDIF 1x Stereo RCA 1x Aux in	1 x Sub woofer out 1 x Co-axial SPDIF 1 x Audio input Bluetooth for most TV	1 x Sub woofer out 1 x Co-axial SPDIF 1 x Fiber SPDIF 1 x Audio input Bluetooth for most TV
USB Thumb		Yes	Yes
Card Reader		TF card	TF card
Bluetooth	4.2	4.2	4.2
Power Supply	16 Volt 2.5 A	220 Volts	DC 24 V 3 A
Casing	Plastic Material	Wood with metal surface control panel	Wood with metal surface control panel
Dimension	83 x 7.2 x 8.7 cm	100 x 7.5 x 6.5 cm	98 x 10.2 x 7.1 cm
Weight (kg)	1.925 kg	3.2 kg	3.14 kg
Accessories	Co-axial SPDIF cable Manual	3.5 mm RCA Co-axial SPDIF Infra-red Remote Control Manual	3.5 RCA Coaxial SPDIF Fiber SPDIF Infra-red Remote Control Manual
	https://news.znds.com/article/32629.html		https://cn.made-in-china.com/gongying/jyav2013-ZeYJzxuGvjWm.html
Speaker System (Click to enlarge pictures)
Input Output (Click to enlarge pictures)
Control Panel (Click to enlarge pictures)
Accessories (Click to enlarge pictures)
Pthers (Click to enlarge pictures)

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Xiaomi TV4 Audio Connection (ARC)

28 Sep 2018

https://tinyurl.com/ycba5gg5

1) Audio Connection Options

2) What if Audio Receivers don't have digital input?
3) What if Audio Receiver has only Digital Coaxial Input
4) What if the Receiver only has Toslink Optical connection?
5) What if the Audio Receiver only has Blue Tooth?
6) What if the Audio Receiver only has HDMI (ARC)?
7) How to connect HDMI(ARC), SPDIF and/or BlueTooth?
8) Can We use Ordinary 2 Wire RCA cable as SPDIF cable ?
9) No Sound Output for HDMI ARC Connection
10) Only Stereo Sound Heard
11) What if Everything failed to Work?
 
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Audio Connection Options for MiTV4

Xiaomi TV4 has no analogue audio output connections e.g  RCA A/V connection.  It has only a digital Co-axial SPDIF and a HDMI with ARC (Audio Return Channel) for audio connection.    It has also a Bluetooth 4.2 connection but not all audio receivers or sound boxes have such advanced facility.  This article will discuss the following type of sound connections in Xiaomi TV

1.  Co-axial SPDIF   

    a)  Use Co-axial SPDIF to RCA audio converter   
    b)  Direct connection using Co-axial SPDIF cables 
    c)  Use Co-axial SPDIF to optical SPDIF convert 

2.   Bluetooth

3.   HDMI ARC 

     a)  Direct connection using HDMI version 1.4 cable
     b)  Use HDMI ARC to co-axial/optical/RCA converter  

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What if Audio Receiver does not have HDMI ARC or Digital Inputs ?

These receivers would have only analogue stereo inputs using  RCA cable connection or 3.5 mm jacks.   As Xiaomi TV4 does not  have any analogy outputs,  one would need to use audio converter described here (link)

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What if Audio Receiver has only Digital Coaxial Input ?

The connection will be straightforward using a  digital audio coaxial cable which looks like ordinary RCA cable but of better quality for digital signal transmission as shown below

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What if the Audio Receiver only has Toslink Optical connection?

a)  A HDMI or SPDIF converter would be required.  The following shows a setup using TV's HDMI with ARC to connect to the Audio Receiver's Toslink Optical port using a HDMI converter.   

b)  If audio receiver has HDMI with ARC input,  just use a HDMI cable for direct connection to TV’s HDMI3 that has ARC.

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What if the Audio Receiver only has Blue Tooth?

The connection will be straightforward by pairing the Audio Receiver directly to the MiTV using Bluetooth 4.2

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What if the Audio Receiver only has HDMI (ARC)?

What is ARC?

ARC stands for Audio Return Channel.  ARC was introduced in 2009 and it is now a standard in most smart TV.   The operation will  require the use of devices and cabling system that comply with HDMI 1.4 and above. Using ARC,  one would not need to have additional audio cable  as ARC can  use some of  the HDMI internal cable for sound transmission.  Usually,  TV has only one HDMI with ARC and is always labelled accordingly.   Connection using non-ARC HDMI outlets will not produce any sound.

Why need HDMI ARC? 

SPDIF,  whether co-axial or otherwise,  supports  only up to Dolby 5.1 but does not support Dolby 7.1;  only HDMI can support Dolby 7.1.  Ordinary audio system and many TV soundbars/receivers that produce simulated surround  support only stereo.. However，most Xiaomi TV have only Dolby 5.1 except for  65" Xiaomi TV4.  It has an external soundbar that support Dolby Atmos,  which is an equivalent to  Dolby 7.1.

Connections Using ARC

ARC let users send sound from a source (output)  to a sink (input) through a HDMI cable .  In the case of  connection between a TV and a audio receiver,   the TV is sending audio signal to the audio receiver through ARC.  In the case of the a TV and a video player,  the video player will be sending the video signal to the TV and if the video player's HDMI output  has an ARC,  the TV can send audio signal to the video player or vice versa using the same HDMI cable.

 

Not all ARC transmissions are perfect.  Having established a proper connection does not mean the system will produce proper sound.   It will depend much  how the TV can decipher the content providers' signal information and send the correct signal to the audio receiver or video player.  Therefore,  it is possible that one can only hear stereo sound (2 channels) while playing video contents known to have Dolby 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound.

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How to connect HDMI(ARC), SPDIF and/or BlueTooth?

The sound connection is not plug and play.   It requires proper setting up in the TV and the devices such as soundbars and audio receivers

a)  TV and Receiver Settings for HDMI ARC or SPDIF

To connect up the HDMI ARC or the SPDIF cable for sound output,  one would have to activate the control setting on the TV so that  the TV will direct the sound output to the respective HDMI or SPDIF output. 

On MiTV4,  there are 4 possible settings in the Sound Output Section

1. "自带扬声器"   TV’s own speaker system with Stereo (most people use this option)

2.  "HDMI(ARC)"   Sound connection using HDMI cable through ARC outlet

3.  "SPDIF"   Sound connection using SPDIF coaxial cable

4.   "小米家庭音响"   Using  Xiaomi’s Home  Sound System connected through coaxial cable

Select 2 if one is using HDMI ARC output

If one selected S/PDIF,  one would also have to set the decoder to  "RAW DATA" so that the sound system will output 5.1 surround sound.  If one were to select the decoder to "PCM" as shown, only stereo or two channel sound will be heard.

After that One would also need to consult the manual or seek manufacturer's advice on how to set or activate the control setting of the audio receivers or video players so that they can receive audio signal through ARC or send video signal through the HDMI connection.

b) BlueTooth

Connecting the Bluetooth device is relatively easy.  All one has to do is to pair up the devices.  To pair up,  fire up [Setting] and select [Device and Bluetooth],  MiTV will search for available Bluetooth device in the room.  If the Bluetooth device does not show up,  try turning on the Bluetooth device as it may be switch off by default.

Testing

After having connected up all the cables and done with the setting,  one can download the various sound test files available from here for testing

FAQs 

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1.  Can We use Ordinary 2 Wire RCA cable as  SPDIF cable ?

The SPDIF cable or the Digital Audio Cable used for SPDIF sound transmission is actually a better designed co-axial cable that looks exactly identical to the ordinary 2 wire RCA cable we used to connect up analogue stereos in the olden days.  They all have a centre copper wire,  braided wire mesh,  external PVC shield and a RCA header as shown below

Therefore,  they should all give a working audio digital  signal although many users claimed the specially designed SPDIF cable is of better quality and hence,  providing a better working audio sound.

One can easily test if the cable is faulty just by measuring the the electrical continuity of the cable using a multi-meter.

If there is no sound when SPDIF cable is connected and before starting to complain,  

1.  Make sure that MiTV's sound output and the audio receiver's sound input is set properly to the correct setting as shown below. 

2.  Make sure one has plugged the cable in the right RCA socket using only a co-axial cable.

 .  The co-axial socket is the 2nd one on the right and next to TV aerial socket when one faces the TV.

3.  Turn up the volume as high as possible.  For some designs,  3/4 of full volume for the TV and the sound bar is not uncommon depending on the signal input and the quality of the cable.   For some reasons,  the SPDIF output from devices by specification is always lower than the  other kind of sound devices

souce:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF...specifications

 

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2.  No Sound Output for HDMI ARC Connection

Please refer to this link for more information.

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3. Why Only Stereo Sound Heard

1.   Make sure that the setting in the TV and the Audio receiver have been set correctly  to HDMI ARC

2.   Try some other TV channels to find out if the TV is compatible to receive proper sound signal information  from the content provider. Sometimes,  the internet transmission might affect the transmission of ARC signals.

3.  Refer to this link for more assistance

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4.  What if Everything failed to Work?


If everything failed,  just connect the audio system using HDMI converter as shown in para 3 or the type as shown below.   May be the audio system does not accept the ARC connection.

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