Sky Q sound through external speakers with digital optical.

[DW424]

Hello, can someone help me to boost the sound in my Sky Q set-up. Sorry for the long description.

I have an LG TV and a Cambridge Audio amp and speakers. Richer Sounds advised and supplied me with a converter and leads connecting the amp (with 2PH audio cables from Aux to a Digital Audio Converter, which has choice of optical or coaxial) to the TV using the digital optical port in the TV. For years this worked brilliantly but recently the sound started cutting out and eventually stopped working. The digital optical lead has been checked and is working so it probably means that the port in the TV is faulty. So I have tried to find another way to connect. The amp does not have a HDMI connector, only  2PH audio ports. The Sky Q only has one HDMI, used to connect to the TV. The only thing I could think of is to connect the amp to the Q box using the digital optical port and then connect Q to the HDMI ARC port on the TV. The TV only has one other OUT coaxial for headphones and amongst the IN ports are AV and Component. The Q box is set to receive sound from other sources and I thought that ARC returned sound.

This has not worked and I can't think of a solution other than trying a digital optical to HDMI converter to plug in to the TV but I am not sure what devices to connect and which HDMI ports to use..

It's complicated but I hope someone can suggest a solution in simple terms please. Thanks

[BenJoBanjo]

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@DW424 wrote:

Hello, can someone help me to boost the sound in my Sky Q set-up. Sorry for the long description.

I have an LG TV and a Cambridge Audio amp and speakers. Richer Sounds advised and supplied me with a converter and leads connecting the amp (with 2PH audio cables from Aux to a Digital Audio Converter, which has choice of optical or coaxial) to the TV using the digital optical port in the TV. For years this worked brilliantly but recently the sound started cutting out and eventually stopped working. The digital optical lead has been checked and is working so it probably means that the port in the TV is faulty. So I have tried to find another way to connect. The amp does not have a HDMI connector, only  2PH audio ports. The Sky Q only has one HDMI, used to connect to the TV. The only thing I could think of is to connect the amp to the Q box using the digital optical port and then connect Q to the HDMI ARC port on the TV. The TV only has one other OUT coaxial for headphones and amongst the IN ports are AV and Component. The Q box is set to receive sound from other sources and I thought that ARC returned sound.

This has not worked and I can't think of a solution other than trying a digital optical to HDMI converter to plug in to the TV but I am not sure what devices to connect and which HDMI ports to use..

It's complicated but I hope someone can suggest a solution in simple terms please. Thanks

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If I've read all that correctly, it sounds like your amp only has analogue inputs. You have a DAC (Digital Audio Converter) which is taking the digital audio output of your TV via the optical port, converting it to analogue and sending it to the amp. 

Sky Q will only output digital audio either via HDMI or via optical. Have you tried connecting the optical cable directly from the optical output on the Q box to your DAC, rather than from the optical output on the TV? The DAC will then convert the audio direct from Q to analogue and send it to your amp. 

You'll still need to connect the Q box to the TV via HDMI in order to get a picture. 

ARC (Audio Return Channel) only sends digital audio between two devices which are ARC compatible. A Q box cannot receive audio in this way, it can only output audio. If your amp had ARC then you would connect an HDMI cable between the HDMI ARC port on the TV and the HDMI ARC port on the amp. This would send audio from the TV, and any device connected to the TV, such as Sky Q, to the amp.

[DW424]

Hi BenJoBanjo,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear but what I did do was, as I think you are suggesting, connect digital optical from Q to the DAC and then onwards to the amp. There is no optical connection to or from the TV. Then HDMI from Q to the TV. However this has not worked and I don't know why. I would be very surprised if the leads are faulty. Any other suggestions?

[nigea99]

Hi @DW424 

It sounds like the optical to phone converter is the bit that is failing

[DW424]

Hi  nigea99,

Please clarify which cable you mean. By phone do you mean the DAC?  I have digital optical from Q to DAC and 2 coaxial cables from DAC to amp (aux). The optical was tested in a shop and worked. Any other ideas?

[nigea99]

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@DW424 wrote:

Hi  nigea99,

Please clarify which cable you mean. By phone do you mean the DAC?  I have digital optical from Q to DAC and 2 coaxial cables from DAC to amp (aux). The optical was tested in a shop and worked. Any other ideas?

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I meant to say phono aka RCA - I didn't check the auto correct. I was assuming that the coax into your amp uses those.

 I think it may ne the DAC itself that may be failing

[DW424]

Hi nigea 99,

Thanks, I'll see if I can get the RCA leads and the DAC checked in a store. You seem to be sure that this is the right method if I can get it functioning correctly.

[Chodley · Accepted solution]

Yeah. Make sure the audio optical out on the sky box is not set to dolby digital. I bet the DAC can't handle that.

you don't need to use the ARC port on the TV. Any HDMI port will take the picture from the Q. There is no way with this setup to get audio from non-Sky content to the amp.

I also would suspect the DAC is much more likely to have failed than the TV's optical out.

[DW424]

Thanks Chodley,

I checked that the audio optical is set to Normal. The optical cable makes a very loose connection to the TV's optical output port (wear and tear) so this is why I have connected the optical cable to the Q's optical port. I understand this  should also work. I then tried a spare set of RCA leads and unfortunately the sound is still not going through the amp. This only leaves the DAC, which you suspect might be faulty.

Any ideas on a good DAC to buy?

[Chodley]

This would do the job

https://amzn.eu/d/8Z5qMcS

needs a nearby USB socket for a power source.

[DW424]

Thanks Chodley, I shall consider this, it seems quite cheap. Can I get your opinion on replacing my current DAC with the same model:

CYP AU-D3-192 digital audio converter, much more expensive at £44. It uses DC power. I know it's a risk if neither of these models solve the problem. Thanks .

[BenJoBanjo]

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@DW424 wrote:

Thanks Chodley, I shall consider this, it seems quite cheap. Can I get your opinion on replacing my current DAC with the same model:

CYP AU-D3-192 digital audio converter, much more expensive at £44. It uses DC power. I know it's a risk if neither of these models solve the problem. Thanks .

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It might be worth trying one of these instead and get rid of the optical connection completely. This will take the audio via ARC from the TV and convert it to analogue for output to your amp. 

So you'd connect the Q box to the TV via HDMI, then the DAC to the TV via the HDMI ARC port on the TV, then your analogue phono jacks to your amp. There's an optical input on the DAC as an alternative if you can't get ARC to work. 

[Chodley]

Oh, good idea

[DW424]

Thanks guys, you've given me something to think about. Will keep you posted when I succeed.

[DW424]

Thank you both for taking the trouble to help me.

The DAC arrived today and I am happy to report success in getting TV sound to my external amp and speakers.

I tried the ARC HDMI connection first but I couldn't get sound out of the TV, only through the external speakers. In my LG TV sound settings there is a Simplink (HDMI-CEC), which has to be turned on for sound to the external speakers. I switched Simplink off and decided to try the optical connection instead. I had to select Internal TV speaker + Audio Out Optical. This way I can get sound out of the TV and then switch external speakers on only when I want to get better sound. It's a good job the DAC recommended had choice of connections.

I hope this solution will help others.