The easiest way to connect a sound bar to a TV is with an optical cable.
Start by finding the optical port on the back of your TV and plug in the cable – the cable head can only be plugged in one way, so make sure you line it up correctly. And if your cable has rubber end caps, please remove them. Then, locate the optical port on your sound bar and repeat the process.
To listen to sound from your TV, simply select the ‘TV’ or ‘Optical’ input on your remote control and increase the volume… It couldn’t be easier!
With the use of a single HDMI cable you can bring sound back from your TV. Simply plug the HDMI cable into your HDMI output port on your sound bar, then connect the other end into the HDMI port on your TV that’s marked as ‘ARC’.
Then turn on the CEC functionality of your TV (this is done using the TV menus) and then turn on the CEC function on your soundbar.
Harvey Norman New Zealand stocks both Klipsch and Yamaha sound bars. If your local store doesn’t have the model in stock, they can place an order and have it to you in next to no time.
Yamaha does give the option of adding a subwoofer to the YAS-109, it will utilise both the on-board woofers in the bar, as well as the extra powered subwoofer. The YSP-5600 does not come with a subwoofer, but you can easily plug one into the bars subwoofer pre-out, you can then add a further subwoofer by adding a simply ‘y-splitter’ to the subwoofer pre-out.
Klipsch allows you to plug a powered, wired subwoofer into both the Bar 40 and Bar 48 AND at the same time, use the wireless subwoofer that comes with the bar.
With Yamaha, you can update all the bars via a USB stick update – head here for the update files.
For the YAS-109 / YAS-209 you can also use the firmware update feature of the Soundbar Controller app that is available for iOS and Android devices.
For the MusicCast models you can also use the MusicCast app for both iOS and Android to update the sound bars firmware.
For Klipsch’s Bar 40 and Bar 48 you can update the bars via a USB stick – head here for the update files.
Some audio played through a TV may come through as a format that isn’t compatible with the DAC (Digital Analogue Convertor) in the sound bar. In these situations it’s a case of changing the ‘digital audio output’ settings on the TV to PCM, rather than ‘Auto’ or ‘Bitstream’.
However, both Klipsch and Yamaha offer Dolby and DTS decoding, so a vast majority of audio codecs will play happily.