How to Hook Up a Coby 5.1 Surround-Sound System

By Erick Kristian

Surround-sound home-theater systems help enhance the audience's experience.
i Gary Cornhouse/Photodisc/Getty Images

Coby is an electronics manufacturer based in New York. The 5.1 surround-sound system is designed to be used for home theaters. The "5" refers to the five-speaker channels: front, front left, front right, rear left and rear right. The ".1" refers to the subwoofer. The user needs speaker wire to install the system. The gauge of wire varies on the distance of the speakers and power output of the model. A 16-gauge wire should be sufficient for most installs.

Select locations for each of the Coby 5.1 speakers. Place the correct channel speakers in the best location possible. For example, a right-rear speaker should not be placed to the front left of the TV.

Measure and cut lengths of speaker wire that run from each speaker to the Coby receiver. Include a few extra feet for mistakes. The speaker wire has two color wires, a red (power) and black (ground).

Attach the red wire to the positive (+) terminal for each speaker. Attach the black wire to the ground (-) of each speaker.

Make sure the receiver is unplugged. Examine the back of the receiver. There are speaker terminals for each of the speakers. Plug each speaker wire into its respective terminal. For example, plug the right-rear speaker into the right-rear terminal. Each terminal is clearly labeled.

Plug RCA cables into the appropriate input ports on the receiver. For example, there are RCA ports for the TV and DVD player. Plug the other ends of the RCA cables into their appropriate devices. For example, the DVD input on the receiver plugs into the audio output port on the DVD player. RCA audio cables are red and white, make sure to match the colors correctly: red with red, white with white.

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