Unitiqute Played Through a Soundbar

Posted by: Bryce Curdy on 24 July 2016

Apologies if this should be in the Streaming Audio forum.

We're moving  in a couple of months and are lucky enough to be moving into a house with a decent sized room that will be dedicated for music and film etc as well as a 'normal' lounge.  The posh equipment will be placed in the dedicated room.  We'd obviously still want to be able to listen to music and watch film etc in the lounge and enjoy good (if not exceptional) sound quality.  A soundbar is appealing for film etc while the Unitiqute is gorgeous and gets round the problem of my CDs being in the other room.  But would even the best soundbar do justice to the Unitiqute?

Posted on: 24 July 2016 by ChrisSU

Why not just get a Muso?

Posted on: 24 July 2016 by Javi A.

I think it will be difficult to find a Soundbar with the UQ quality. Recently I hear some good ones... but the full size speakers give much more than a sound bar. For a temporal setup is not a bad idea... but to get all from the UQ you need pair of good speakers.

Posted on: 24 July 2016 by Brubacca

I run my Qute at my TV and just use a pair of bookshelf speakers. It sounds really good for TV and movies. 

I have never given a sound bar a listen , but I can't imagine that they would image well. 

Posted on: 24 July 2016 by Erich
Brubacca posted:

I run my Qute at my TV and just use a pair of bookshelf speakers. It sounds really good for TV and movies. 

I have never given a sound bar a listen , but I can't imagine that they would image well. 

+1.  I do the same with my second kit.  I have never tried a sound bar.

Posted on: 24 July 2016 by cdboy

I also use a Qute in the second/TV space. Into in-wall Totem speakers. Hidden, elegant and sounds great.

Posted on: 24 July 2016 by Bart

My Qute2 is the heart of a second system.  Bookshelf speakers, on stands, on either side of the TV.  For movies, I use both the Qute / bookshelf speakers, and let the tv speaker run too.

Posted on: 24 July 2016 by MangoMonkey

@Bart - what do you do for HDMI inputs?

Posted on: 24 July 2016 by Bart
MangoMonkey posted:

@Bart - what do you do for HDMI inputs?

Maybe not optimal, but I go optical out from the TV to the Qute.  HDMI into the TV from my cable box and Apple TV and blue ray player.  Seems to work just fine!

Posted on: 24 July 2016 by Javi A.
Bart posted:

Maybe not optimal, but I go optical out from the TV to the Qute.  HDMI into the TV from my cable box and Apple TV and blue ray player.  Seems to work just fine!

I did the same (optical from tv to Unitiqute2) and the audio quality is really good for watching movies.

Posted on: 25 July 2016 by nickpeacock

I used to run my TV into UQ with Neat Iotas - fabulous small speakers; big sound, small footprint.

(Just like Bart I ran HDMI from my blu ray player to the TV and optical out from the TV into the UQ. Worked for me...)

Posted on: 25 July 2016 by Bryce Curdy

Very helpful advice.  Many thanks.

I have a potential issue.  My Pioneer plasma is a display only has no TV tuner and no audio outs but does have 2 HDMIs.  I'd want to connect a Sky Silver Mini which has digital optical out and my old Pioneer DVD player (BD upgrade later) which has coaxial and optical connections.  So I'm pretty sure I have the connections to go HDMI to display for video for both sources and digital audio out from both sources to the Qute.  Should that work well?  Might I run into bother with lipsynch issues?  Not sure what audio or video delay options I have, if any.  I'm assuming the Qute doesn't have anything like this.

Posted on: 25 July 2016 by Bart

It should work.  For the price of an optical cable (two I guess), you can try it out.  My guess is that you won't see any synch issues.