My new Sony 49” TV is settling in well, and I now want to tweak its performance up a bit. Comments & advice please on any or all of these options:
It’s currently cursed with a very weedy captive mains lead. Option here is to cut most of it off, wire a male IEC plug onto the end and use one of my existing good quality power leads.
Only audio output from the TV is Toslink optical. From a search on the forum, it seemed there was a small consensus for not spending lots on optical cables. I was looking at a Kimber OPT1 for £50-100 (depending on length), but would this be unlikely to be better than a £10 job from Amazon?
TV is currently connected to our home network wirelessly. Would wiring it bring noticeable improvement? If so, how much should I spend on a (say) 3m cable for it?
Hi Mark, I too have a Sony TV, it’s up to you but I don’t think any of your suggestions will bring much bang for buck.
The power lead is as good as it needs be, it’s feeding an internal SMPS & the TV pulls very little power.
The optical connections are limited by the Toslink ends, you might find marginal changes, but when I tried various brands & prices, I found little if any difference, I have a 7.5m long ‘deleyCON’ £10’er from Amazon, plus a 90 degree angled Toslink outlet adaptor in the back of the TV to better dress the ‘cable’
I have my TV ethernet connected, but it works just the same with wi-fi.
I have a 49XG9005 which is very good. I can’t see the benefit of changing the mains lead unless you can take it back to the board in the TV, which is most probably not a thing to do.
I use an optical cable (qed) which is about 5mtrs long, works well. Sadly these optical cables seem very feeble in the connectors they use. I find it impossible to get a solid connection either into the TV or the UnitiLite. I have been wondering about using phono leads, but if there is no option on the TV (I’ve not looked) then that’s out.
I have used wired and wifi. I can’t tell the difference in picture/sound quality, and in order to ditch a cable, I went to wifi only. It’s very stable and always seems to connect flawlessly (famous last words).
Overall, the XG9005 is a really good TV, and wasn’t silly money when I got it, although others may say it was too much.
Thanks for those - looks like the advice isn’t going to cost me a lot, which is surely a first for this forum.
Mine’s the 49XH9505 which is basically this year’s model. I don’t think it’s got a 3.5” audio output, but I’ll check when I’m next in the same room as it. I wonder if the TV’s onboard DAC + 3.5” cable will sound better than a Toslink into the (10YO Denon) AV amp’s DAC.
I have the same 3.5 jack on my Sony, its marked as a headphone & is analogue.
No good for me, see my previous post, I use optical (digital) to my NDX internal DAC
SQ is as good as the TV can give.
I am still left wondering whether delaying the DAC stage until the signal is in the amp might yield better SQ. You say that you use optical - have you found it better than the 3.5” analogue output?
Wirelessly is the worst way to connect. Yes, spending more on a good optical cable like Audioquest does make a difference. Yes cutting the captive lead and adding a good plug like Furutech does make a difference. I found the analogue out 3.5mm jack was the best quality for sound by a large margin.
My older model Sony used to be connected by Toslink into a NDS; now its audio output is fed into my network where it feeds into my 52. I think there are specific RJ45 socket modules that facilitate this type of connection, but I’m not sure.