I finally figured this out after searching everywhere online and seeing people in similar situations but no solutions. I was getting 2 audible relay clicks but no power to the surround sound unit. After some experimenting this is what worked for me:
Remove all wires to the unit including the ac power cord, plug in all the cables you need THEN the power cable after. In my case I had a Panasonic sa-pt770, I plugged in the speakers to the respective colors, then my HDMI, then the power cable.