Digital Dilema Home Surround

[Scott_119]

Hi All,
I have my TV currently plugged into my home cinema amplifier via Optical Audio cable.

I have recently purchased an Amazon Echo Dott which is fantastic, it will play music on request etc etc, however its not very loud. I wish to plug this also into my surround amplifier however it only has one optical input.

I'm aware that you cant simply just split digital audio, however I'm after some sort of switch which can prioritise a specific source.

So for example, both my tv and amazon echo dott are plugged into a splitter, if I play the tv, the sound comes through, however if I decide to activate the amazon echo dott by using a voice command, it will automatically switch over the sound source.

Is this possible?

Any other alternatives?

Thanks

 

[Natsukage]

Hello.

As far as I know, the Echo Dot doesn't have an optical audio output? Which model do you have?

You can only connect the Echo Dot directly to your Home Cinema using a 3.5mm to RCA adapter, directly in the rear RCA inputs of your Home Cinema?

 

[Scott_119]

Hello.

As far as I know, the Echo Dot doesn't have an optical audio output? Which model do you have?

You can only connect the Echo Dot directly to your Home Cinema using a 3.5mm to RCA adapter, directly in the rear RCA inputs of your Home Cinema?

No, it doesn't have an optical out, I got a 3.5 jack to optical converter so everything was the same.

In terms of quality, if I plugged my TV into the rca on the home cinema compared to optical how would the quality be? Would I still get surround sound when watching hd movies etc?

If I had both in rca/3.5mm jacks I could easily mix them together with a cable splitter, but I don't want to reduce the quality of my sound I get for the movies.

 

[madmatt30]

No you wouldn't get surround via rca from the TV , maybe fake psuedo surround if the av setup does pro logic.

Why do you not just keep the tv as is , remove the optical adapter & plug the echo from 3.5mm to rca ????

Far more sensible.

 

[Natsukage]

You should plug directly your Echo Dot in your Home Cinema using 3.5mm to RCA. The reason it is not very loud is because of your optical converter.

Also, you currently have no surround at all for the Echo, even with the optical converter. The Echo is strictly stereo. Any conversion to surround is done using the Home Cinema.

 

[Scott_119]

Either way I do it, ill either loose proper surround sound, or ill have to press a button to switch inputs before I can use either - never at the same time .

How about a buy a 2nd amplifyer and wire them both to the same speakers?

 

[Natsukage]

If you don't mind the audio not being loud, you can actually use an optical splitter/switch. Some models are supposedly "automatic", so if there is sound from one, it will switch to it directly:

Amazon

Just to be exact, you never had proper surround sound with the Echo Dot. It does not have surround sound at all. Your amplifier converts the 2-channel audio from the Echo into surround, but it is still 2 channels. Stereo.

And also, you can't connect another amplifier to your speakers. This will break your amplifiers.

 

[madmatt30]

You won't 'lose' surround sound on the echo because it only outputs in stereo anyway!

2 amplifiers to same speakers ?? No definitely not mate , a terrible idea .

I know society is all about convenience nowadays but is it really that much work to switch an input manually??

 

[Scott_119]

Its not that much of a problem to switch the source, but the idea of the echo is to be able to ask it to do things even when your at the other side of the room, maybe I'm watching tv or cooking dinner and decide I want to add a reminder etc etc, It would mean walking across the room, or downstairs (yes it can hear me upstairs with the far field technology) to change the source over on the sound then ask it - I may as well just get a notebook and pen lol.

My TV/Kodi box is currently plugged in with TOSLINK into my home cinema amplifier so I get the digital sound, I can plug the echo into the auxiliary slots but I have to switch sources.

I could plug the tv/kodi box into auxiliary too, and have them both into the same slots with a splitter, which would work but I would loose the quality of sound for movies etc.

My solution is going to be to buy a 2nd 2.1 system for the living room, its the only way by the sounds of things its the only way I can do it.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

 

[madmatt30]

I can absolutely understand the reasoning of what you want to do mate ,unfortunately not possible , optical splitters/switchers rely on one source being completely dead to enable the other meaning you still couldn't automate it properly.

There are 3rd party solutions like the anymote which is a Bluetooth enabled ir blaster but its kindnof a sketchy solution at best
Really the dot being the 2nd gen of this device should have had an ir blaster built in or the option of a native one being offered seperately.

Amazon missed a trick there big time.