How do I hook up an old 5.1 surround sound stereo to my wireless devices?

[Migliores]

I have an old wired Sony STR-K840P that I would like to hook up to steam audio from both my PC and phone. I assume this can either be done through my WDR3600's USB port or with the stereo itself with a bluetooth connector off of an RCA plug. Although from reading a few forums I don't think bluetooth and achieve 5.1 audio. Someday I would also like to hook it up to my TV as well. Any suggestions on the best way to achieve this?

The back looks like the top hardware unit in this google photo.

 

[luketexas]

A Bluetooth adapter won't support 5.1. Just stereo. Your receiver has to emulate 5.1 surround. And the only way to achieve 5.1 surround out from your TV is to run either a Digital Coaxial cable or Fibre Optic cable, if your receiver doesn't have one of these then you'd have to upgrade.

 

[Rogue Leader]

You are correct in being unable to stream 5.1 over bluetooth.

Your best quality bet to stream audio from your phone would be to use something like the Sonos Connect, which has RCA outputs which you can plug into for example the plugs in back marked CD. The problem of course is that its $350.

You can get for $30 a BT adaptor like this to stream audio, and use the RCA plug setup to plug it in. A lot cheaper, quality is a little lower, and you're limited in range to about 30 feet.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IL7BWGA/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687522&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0047T79VS&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1FFTARCSXM8J2W0ASZXH

Your router's USB port won't help you.

Now that does music, but how about 5.1 sound? Well your receiver can take optical or digital coax, and in reality the only way is to run a cable. There are wireless transmitters that claim to do 5.1 audio, they are trash. In the end you will spend a lot more than its worth to do this, vs just buying a really long cable.

 

[boosted1g]

To wirelessly stream you will need something that accepts a dlna/miracast stream that can then plug into your old receiver with spdif cable. All other avenues of connection will only result in stereo. Now for music only there is nothing really to gain out of 5.1 over strereo (2.0) over the 5 speakers.

So you will need some network connected device like a TV, game console, some Blu-ray players, computer, or other streaming box.

 

[Migliores]

I appreciate the quick responses guys. They're very helpful. Ill look into that BT audio adapter. Also I didnt think my router would be any help unless there was some sort of flash based solution that I could do to the USB port or a setting in DDWRT that I might be able to change/unlock.

The receiver has both coaxial and fiber optical which is how Ill hook it up to my TV up in the future for 5.1. I think I may just attempt to wire the system into my PC for the time being to try and get 5.1 out of it (if possible with my ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3 MoBo) and leave the BT for my phone.

for now if I just take one of those RCA red white audio cables that go to a 3.5mm jack would my pc be able to simulate the 5.1? or will I have to find conversion cables for all those HD audio inputs in the back of my MoBo?

 

[Rogue Leader]

I appreciate the quick responses guys. They're very helpful. Ill look into that BT audio adapter. Also I didnt think my router would be any help unless there was some sort of flash based solution that I could do to the USB port or a setting in DDWRT that I might be able to change/unlock.

The receiver has both coaxial and fiber optical which is how Ill hook it up to my TV up in the future for 5.1. I think I may just attempt to wire the system into my PC for the time being to try and get 5.1 out of it (if possible with my ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3 MoBo) and leave the BT for my phone.

for now if I just take one of those RCA red white audio cables that go to a 3.5mm jack would my pc be able to simulate the 5.1? or will I have to find conversion cables for all those HD audio inputs in the back of my MoBo?

Your receiver's only 5.1 inputs are optical and coaxial, so even if that did work (it won't) there aren't the inputs for it. You can't simulate the 5.1 sound, but you can use a 3.5mm plug to get stereo audio out to the receiver.

Now that said, your motherboard has an optical output on the bottom left of your audio connectors, plug that (with an optical cable) into the optical input of the receiver and that will give you 5.1 sound. No conversion necessary!

 

[boosted1g]

As stated your router has no ability to interface with your stereo in any way shape or form. There is nothing you can do with usb to get sound to your receiver.

The only way to get 5.1 from your PC to the receiver is via an optical spdif cable. RCA has 2 channels. There is absolutely no way for you to send 6 (including subwoofer) separate audio streams over a cable designed for 2.

Now your stereo may have dolby digital or outer sound processors that can "fake" a 5.1 signal from a stereo source. What this is does is takes the sound from your 2.0 sources and uses its audio processor/codecs in order to guess what sounds are front, center and surround sounds and then splits it to the speakers.