How to Connect Speakers to Your TV [5 Easy Step-By-Step Guide]

A speaker system is a great way to bring audio to your home, but you need to know how to connect speakers to your TV to get the best results. There are several options to connect your external speakers to tv but we will walk you through the best and easiest process here. If you don’t know how to connect a speaker with tv, we got your back. Just let’s follow the steps and it would be done. 

Some of us may ask, why do you need to connect additional speakers to your tv? Well, that is a fair question, I think. Yes, any TV you buy will have built-in speakers that will be ok to run your daily work. But, connecting bigger, maybe, 5.1 or 7.1 speakers would make the room like a theater.

So, if you are going to connect any more speakers with your TV, you need to know some basic ideas about it. Well, let’s get the job done connecting the speakers’ wire to a tv.

We will show here 5 easy step-by-step guides so that you even being a new one don’t feel any difficulty setting the process.


Connecting Speakers to Your TV

To improve sound quality, connecting an additional speaker to your tv is necessary. In this case, if you are quite reluctant to hire a professional, you can do this job by yourself with some help from the internet. Since this is not any rocket science you can follow the steps and the job would be done.

Now follow the steps carefully.

Step 1: Observe the back of your TV

Observe the back of your TV

The first thing you need to do to connect speakers to your tv is looked at the back of your TV. I think you may be intrigued by a question, why should you look at the back of your tv? Well, you need to identify the TV’s inputs and outputs so that you can match them with the speakers’ inputs and outputs. Without proper matching, the system won’t work. 

Now, if your tv is hanging on a wall, it would be really tough to inspect the back. In this case, either you have to unmount the tv or can have help from the manual you got at the time you purchased the tv.

In case you didn’t find the manual, you will have one option left which is to unmount your tv to have a closer look. You must have to apply some tips while bringing down your tv. First, grab a blanket, hold the tv gently, and then put it down on some soft towel or bed, or find an area of clean carpet so that it doesn’t get damaged or broken. Once you unlatch the tv from the wall mount, place its face down and take a closer look at all the ports it has.

Step 2: Identify your audio output options

Identify your audio output options

What do I need to identify? Well, you will look for some ports that are known as “audio out” back at your tv. What you are trying to find can be an HDMI, optical, coaxial, RCAs, or a 3.5mm socket. They could be an output port that just matches the output port of your receiver or speaker.

The types of ports can be:

Digital audio: HDMI, optical, or SPDIF (single coaxial RCA)

Analog audio: “Line Out” RCAs, “Aux Out” (3.5mm TRS), or a “Headphone Out” (3.5mm TRS)

Remember, when you are going to connect the output to your TV and external audio system you may find multiple same ports. Okay, don’t worry because they could be. In this digitalized era, if you find any digital connections, you must choose that over analog connections. A digital connector can transfer a cleaner signal as well as your external sound setup can better handle audio processing.

Unfortunately, if you are using an old TV, you might need an analog connection.

Step 3: Connect the cables

Connecting the cables

Now is the time to connect your TV to your speaker with the cables. There are some options here such as optical cables, HDMI ARC, or others.

If you are using optical connections, make sure that you plugged one side of the optical cable into the TV’s output while the other side which is the input will have to be inserted into your soundbar or amps.

Well, if you are using an HDMI ARC, you need to connect the cable to the TV’s HDMI port labeled ARC while another end of the HDMI should be plugged into the HDMI connector on your speaker system.

If you don’t understand which cable is which or which port is which, you should check your manuals to find it out.

Remember, you must need a coaxial digital audio cable. This cable connects the TV’s coaxial output to the input on your amplifier.

Step 4: Check the audio out in the TV’s menu settings

Check the audio out in the TV’s menu settings

In most cases, the audio output is set to active by default. You don’t have to do anything except the volume part. Turn the volume down for the TV’s internal speakers. If you don’t do that, well, it may produce some awkward sound through the TV and external audio source.

At this stage, hopefully, the connection between your TV and speakers has been established successfully. Now, you need to check everything to make sure that it is working properly.

So, you can go to the next step. It is time to test the audio.

Step 5: Test the Audio

Test the Audio

In case your TV doesn’t send any audio signal to your external device, you have to fix your TV’s audio settings. To set the settings, you need to find the “menu” button on your remote. Press the menu button, go to the “sound options” or “sound” menu, and select “sound output,” or just “output.” At that stage, you will be able to change the option you need to fix the problem.

After testing the audio, it is now time to try whether it is working or not.

Well, if the settings are okay, you can now volume up slowly. If everything is alright, you are good to go.


Read Related Articles:


Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can you connect speakers directly to a TV?

No, you cannot connect speakers directly to a TV. You’ll need an AV receiver, which is a set of components that will turn the HDMI output of your laptop or PC into a signal compatible with your TV. There is no reason why you should need to buy a separate sound system for your TV.

Most TVs have audio outputs that let you connect them to speakers. You may need to invest in an amplifier if you want to use them with a sound system. A small external amplifier or a home stereo receiver is a great option.

Depending on the model of your TV, the speakers in your home theater will need specific cables and electronic components.

2. Can you connect the sound bar to your TV?

Most soundbars require one wired TV connection. Some televisions can stream content through an HDMI or optical cable, and many provide analog stereo RCA connections. Most soundbars are either long or short, so you can place them on tables or other flat surfaces. If you want to watch movies with the best surround sound, then get a portable subwoofer.

3. How to connect speakers to my TV with speaker wire?

You can’t connect speakers to your TV by using a speaker wire directly because connecting a speaker directly to a TV with a speaker wire is a bad idea. You could damage the equipment or risk serious electrical shock.

Connecting passive speakers to television requires you to first send the TV’s audio output to an amplifier. So, if you want to connect speakers to your TV, you need to use an amplifier that will work with your TV. Speaker wire connects passive speakers to an amplifier, and they won’t work if you try to connect them directly to a TV.

The only type of speakers that are meant to connect directly to a TV is active speakers, such as a soundbar.

4. How to connect external speakers to a TV without an audio output?

TVs usually have audio output, but it’s unusual for a TV to not have an audio output. Analog audio outputs have been replaced in modern audio equipment by digital audio outputs such as optical and coaxial connections.

You can use these to stream music to a home stereo or audio receiver. If you have a very old television, your only options are to either get a new one or connect it to speakers.

The best solution would be to use an external box like a cable box or media streamer to get content to the TV. You can use the outputs from these HDMI cable boxes to play your favorite songs to your speakers. Read more.

5. How to connect speakers to your TV without a Receiver?

Connecting speakers to your TV with a receiver is standard and easy to set up but without a receiver connecting speakers is tough. You need to apply a different method here.

There are two ways to connect your TV’s audio to a home theater system: you can use an AV receiver or you can use a simple analog audio cable.

A surround sound system is definitely more complicated than a standard stereo, and it will require an AV receiver, but with an amplifier or soundbar, you get surround sound without all the wires and fancy speaker boxes.

In order to connect a stereo amplifier to your TV’s audio output, you can use coaxial, optical, or stereo analog connections. Read more.

If you want to add a digital receiver or satellite radio directly to your HDTV, then you need to hook up an HDMI cord to your cable box.

Connect your TV to a Bluetooth speaker if your TV supports Bluetooth. If you’re not sure, take some help who has knowledge of it.


Final Words

In conclusion, in this article, we have tried our level best to make you understand how to connect speakers to your TV. There are many ways to connect speakers to your television. The best way to connect speakers to your television is to use an HDMI cable. But, they all have one thing in common: they all require a cable or wireless connection. So, how do you get a speaker to work without a cable? The audio from the speaker will be sent through the HDMI cable and then displayed on your TV screen. If you have any questions, you are welcome to reach out to us.


Leave a Comment