Q: What’s flat and sounds like a tin?

NOT everybody has a HI Fi system.
My elderly father needed a new TV to replace his old CRT tv. The picture quality is brilliant on the new TVs but, a big BUT. He could Not hear the sound.
His comment was I want my old TV back. I had to agree with him.
If the speakers are now going to be the largest components in a modern TV, cant the design start with a bulge at the base of the TV. After all if you are going to end up with a VERY LARGE BULGE ANYWAY, in the form of a so called Sound Bar. Yes I am angry.
Extra clutter, power and expense.

Duncan – The most common cause of poor sound quality is small speakers. My 1967 transistor radio delivers better sound than some current TVs and radios, simply because it has a decent sized speaker. Since the days of early black & white TV it’s been known that speakers need to face forward. My early flat-screen TV does have forward-facing speakers, but you can’t have that with modern sets where the screen is as wide as the case.

With digital radio, part of the problem is that we have so many DAB channels shoehorned into the limited bandwidth. I agree that some of the hardware is very poor, but much of the criticism of DAB radio relates to poor reception rather than sound quality. If I want to listen to music on Radio 3 at home I will use my 1980s FM tuner with an external aerial, but for use in the car and for portable sets, DAB is fine and provides useful information about programmes.

Wave-change read my first post the first thing I say is Small speakers can never take the place of larger ones . You mention speaker need to face forward I said speakers need to face forward putting a speaker in the back of the tv muffles the high frequency sound and no I am still not convinced about the “superior ” quality of digital radio .

Sorry Duncan, I missed your earlier post. I’m certainly not claiming that digital radio has better sound quality, but having the choice of DAB and FM gives us choice. That’s important if you are dependent on a built-in aerial and reception could be a problem. I won’t pursue this further because our topic is the poor sound quality of flat-screen TVs. When so much effort has been placed on improving picture quality, it’s really disappointing that sound quality has been sacrificed.

I think the manufacturers should continue to offer a range of different formats at prices in each bracket of a diverse market. Not everybody wants or can afford to have [or has room for, even] a state-of-the-art multi-functional entertainment system and complex interconnexions. The TV picture is only ever going to be as good as the cameras used to make the programmes and most of those are not HD or anything near it. On top of which, as illustrated in a parallel Conversation, the quality of the camera work itself and the editing can ruin a good programme or film. I am pleased that we can still buy a good quality medium-sized general-purpose TV with decent sound for secondary use in homes; theyare needed in workplaces, hotels, and lots of other places. It is disappointing that it has not been possible to match the sound quality to the picture quality with the popular flat-screen sets but we would much rather thave a thinner TV than the top-heavy and bulky boxes that the last generation of CRT sets migrated to. Apart from any other considerations you can now choose whether you want to mount your TV on the wall out of the way or stand it on a piece of furniture. With soundbars coming down in price I think that is a good accessory for those who need better sound. It largely depends on people’s viewing choices and it seems to me that in this case the market does actually respond.

I would like to see some TVs that offer respectable sound without adding sound-bars or cinema sound systems.

As John says, not everyone wants a complex system. One of my friends has a large Panasonic TV and purchased a cinema sound system, more because the sound quality was so poor than because he wanted cinema sound. Following the change of one of the various boxes he has connected to the TV, he was stuck with the built-in TV speakers for many months despite his own efforts at rearranging leads. I could not see the problem and the manuals were perplexing, so I unplugged everything and got everything working again without much need for experimentation.

Let’s get rid of TVs with very poor sound quality. If manufacturers want to sell TVs that need connection to an external sound system (as a radio tuner needs connection to an amplifier and speakers), that’s fine.

‘Cinema suround’… in my tiny terrace sitting room? I think not… Similarly, a huge screen and soundbar etc would be quite ridiculous even if I had enough space.
On the other hand we CAN appreciate the quality of an HD picture but want better sound than a 32″ set provides. We use the same solution that was mentioned above. We have connected the TV to our small hifi system the speakers sitting beside the set. No cost involved and the sound quality is a vast improvement over the output thought the TV itself.

There was report in November 2014 Which? on soundbars. Worth checking to see whether it covers your requirements.

I think there is merit in offering TVs with built in amplifiers for connection to external speakers.

I’m not sure about 50W RMS output. I hope they would be provided with decent ear defenders. 🙂

Small speakers tend to be inefficient which is why 50 W is reasonable. As there’s a volume control, 50 W opens it to a wide range of suitable speakers.

If your TV has a digitsl output (sp/dif or coaxial) then the ultimatd solution is one of the highend BT headphones like Sennheiser RS220. The sound is sublime and will improve your listening enjoyment.

T ward-the problem is that consumers want rimless LCD/LED TV,s older ones with bigger borders had room for small speakers but as the trend is for rimless TV,s they either came with speakers in the rear of the TV or not at all hence the rise of sound bars . Instead of setting a standard of hi-fidelity in sound engineering concentration is on picture quality and size audio is an after thought . What is provided now are sockets for attaching to amplified speakers if you want reasonable audio but it still aint top end hi-fi unless it is connected to a high quality system ,which i have with floor standing Tannoy speakers and quality pre/power amp.