What You Need to Set Up an AV Receiver

As any DIYer knows, having all the equipment and tools you need can be the difference between a slam dunk success – and a weekend of frustration and misery. It’s the same when you’re setting up your AV receiver. Preparation is the key to success!

First, ask yourself a few questions:

• What are you connecting to your AV receiver? TV, speakers, subwoofer, Blu-ray Disc™ player, cable box, CD player, turntable?
• Is your AV receiver going to be connected to the internet?
• Are you going to listen to AM/FM radio through it?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you can start gathering equipment. Here’s a simple checklist of what you need to connect all these devices:

AV receiver

Remote control for your AV receiver - and make sure it has batteries.

TV

HDMI cable long enough to go from your AV receiver to your TV.

Remote control

Remote control for your TV.

Internet

Network cable long enough to go from your AV receiver to your router. Note: You can connect to the internet wirelessly, but a wired connection is more stable and faster.

Blu-ray Disc™ player

HDMI cable long enough to go from your AV receiver to your Blu-ray Disc™ player.

Remote control

Remote control for your Blu-ray Disc™ player.

Cable box

HDMI cable long enough to go from your AV receiver to your cable box.

CD player

Analog (red and white RCA), optical, or digital coax cable long enough to go from your AV receiver to your CD player.

AM/FM radio

Push pins (thumb tacks) to pin the antennas to a wall.

Subwoofer

Analog (red and white RCA) cable long enough to go from your AV receiver to your subwoofer.

Turntable

Analog (red and white RCA) cable long enough to go from your AV receiver to your turntable.

Speakers

Speaker wire long enough to go from your AV receiver to your speakers (one for each speaker) plus a little extra. Here's an article that shows you how to connect speaker wire.

Banana plugs

If you’re going to terminate your speaker wire with banana plugs, you’ll need four banana plugs for each speaker wire. Here's an article that shows you how to connect them.

Wire strippers

And last - but not least - wire strippers to make it easier to remove the coating on the ends of the speaker wire.

Now that you have everything you need, see your AV receiver’s owner’s manual for instructions on how to connect everything – and start enjoying your music and movies!