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Hey guys, I'm new here! How do you do?

So there's this girl, man she's a keeper. Anyways, she's got this old home theater system, but she's pretty happy with it, and it works well enough. I don't think she wants to spend thousands of dollars getting top shelf gear, and I don't want to spend thousands of dollars getting top shelf gear, especially when this seems to work well enough for her.

She's got a Samsung HL-T6156W widescreen DLP HDTV, and this old Kenwood KR-A46. The two are totally distinct, and as far as I know are not hooked up to each other. I know all I'd need is an RCA stereo cable (I'm thinking this or this - critiques? recommendations?) to hook them up so that the TV's sound comes through this receiver. Really, though, my main concern is to get her a good set of antennas for her receiver - since right now she's using twisty-ties. Yes, you read that right - twisty-ties. I'm legitimately not joking. She loves to listen to NPR on this thing in the mornings, and more often than not (even on clear days) the broadcast gets interrupted by a ton of static. I suspect actual antennas standing in for the twisty-ties might help in some way, but I make computers and software work with each other. I'm lost in the world of audio.

Can you pros give me a hand with what I'd need here?

A_Pickle wrote:

Hey guys, I'm new here! How do you do?

So there's this girl, man she's a keeper. Anyways, she's got this old home theater system, but she's pretty happy with it, and it works well enough. I don't think she wants to spend thousands of dollars getting top shelf gear, and I don't want to spend thousands of dollars getting top shelf gear, especially when this seems to work well enough for her.

She's got a Samsung HL-T6156W widescreen DLP HDTV, and this old Kenwood KR-A46. The two are totally distinct, and as far as I know are not hooked up to each other. I know all I'd need is an RCA stereo cable (I'm thinking this or this - critiques? recommendations?) to hook them up so that the TV's sound comes through this receiver. Really, though, my main concern is to get her a good set of antennas for her receiver - since right now she's using twisty-ties. Yes, you read that right - twisty-ties. I'm legitimately not joking. She loves to listen to NPR on this thing in the mornings, and more often than not (even on clear days) the broadcast gets interrupted by a ton of static. I suspect actual antennas standing in for the twisty-ties might help in some way, but I make computers and software work with each other. I'm lost in the world of audio.

Can you pros give me a hand with what I'd need here?

Either of the cables would be fine. As would something like this. For what you are looking at, cheap is fine.

As far as an antenna goes... If twisty ties come close to working then your basic dipole should be plenty. If you want something a little more compact you could go with this or this. Both are amplified, which means they have a power adapter that you have to deal with. Assuming you have somewhere you can put the dipole that is out of the way and not visible, I'd probably start there.

A dipole works best if stretched out straight, bug you could probably tape it to the back of the DLP and get decent enough reception, especially compared to twist ties.

--SS

Thanks so much! That helps a lot, thank you!