newb question on AV Amps and TV's

Hi,
At the risk of showing my old fart ignorance, I am soon to buy a smart TV so that I can watch YouTube on it. If I get a AV amp and some decent speakers, could I play You Tube in decent quality stereo through them?
I like to listen to classical music on YT at the mo via an xbox, but the quality of the stereo is crap as, like many flat screen TV's, the speaker quality is pretty poor.
All advice gratefully received.:)

Comments

  • juliancarswelljuliancarswell Posts: 8,896
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    Ignore the 2.6K posts.
    When I say newb I mean new to TV and Home Entertainment Technology and all that jazz.:o
  • Chris FrostChris Frost Posts: 11,015
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    Compared to the TV's speakers, an amp and speakers will improve the sound quality by a large margin. If you are listening via gaming headphones from the XBox then the sound quality will still be better from proper speakers but the quality jump won't be as significant.

    There is still one bottleneck to quality though. It's nothing to do with how much you spend on the amp and speakers. It's the quality of the source files on YouTube.

    The audio conversion done by YouTube is pretty poor; very lossy. That, on top of whatever compression format was used to rip the original means that the sound ends up quite mangled. It's still worth getting a better amp and speakers. This will improve general sound quality for sure. But it can't restore what has been lost in the rip process. Play a classical track off CD and compare it to the versions you find on YouTube. The difference will be obvious.
  • juliancarswelljuliancarswell Posts: 8,896
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    Many thanks Chris.:)
  • MenoetiusMenoetius Posts: 1,138
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    I have treated myself to one of these. It's a compact class D amplifier with optical, coaxial and usb digital inputs. There's an analogue input too.
    Mine is mainly used with my PC via usb and a cd player connected via optical. Speakers are Q Acoustics 2010i's.

    Sound quality is top notch. Here's a review.

    You can connect your Xbox or TV via optical.
  • juliancarswelljuliancarswell Posts: 8,896
    Forum Member
    Thank you Menoetius, I shall look into that.:)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 36,630
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    Any decent hifi amplifier will give you much better sound than your TV speakers. If you are happy with just stereo, then pretty much any decent make will be fine, if you pair it with good speakers.

    Most modern TVs have stereo outputs too, so you don't need to spend a fortune on a proper AV amp with a wealth of digital inputs etc.

    The Brunco linked to looks good, is compact and will probably do the job nicely given it's quality.

    But at £500 it's a bit expensive for what you want it for.

    If you are really only going to use it for the likes of YouTube, then a better bet may be to save £400 and consider something like a good, but basic, standard hifi amp from somewhere like Richer Sounds. They currently have the Cambridge Audio Topaz AM1 going for £80 and it run rings around the sound quality of your TV with decent speakers.
    http://www.richersounds.com/product/amplifiers-receivers/cambridge-audio/topaz-am1/camb-topaz-am1-blk

    If you have a decent DVD or BluRay setup, then consider also some of the better proper 5.1 or 7.1 AV amplifiers. Although mainly designed for surround sound from these sources, most of the better makes do a very, very good job of music too. Richer currently have some complete systems on offer (they are last years models, but still sound superb).
    Yamaha complete system (amp and speakers - £149)
    http://www.richersounds.com/product/home-cinema-systems/yamaha/yht196/yama-yht196

    Pioneer complete system (amp and speakers - £199)
    http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packages/pioneer/htp071/pion-htp071

    If you have a Richer Sounds near you, and call them in advance with what you want, they'll generally (in the larger stores anyway) have an AV room and they can set up a system or two for you to test out.
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    Analogue outputs on TVs are becoming rarer by the day. Certainly in the form of a pair of phono sockets on the back of the telly. I recall a thread on DS where the poster wanted to know how to connect up an amp to his TV and after looking up the TV manual online it turned out there was no analogue output of any kind on the thing! No phono sockets, no headphone socket and the SCART wasn't wired for output either! Think it was a Samsung TV off the top of my head.

    If the TV has a headphone socket then that could be used in place of dedicated phono sockets. One issue I have come across with SCART sockets is that some TVs don't output everything over the SCART. Some just do the built in tuner and others won't do things connected via HDMI for whatever reason. So you can't always rely on SCART as a source of audio.

    Not that a lack of analogue output necessarily makes it impossible to hook up a stereo amp with no digital inputs. You just have to use a simple digital to analogue converter unit such as this...

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/LINDY-Digital-Analogue-Stereo-Converter/dp/B002AKXG5E/

    A load cheaper than the unit linked to in post 5 if you hook it up to something like this

    http://www.richersounds.com/product/amplifiers-receivers/cambridge-audio/topaz-am1/camb-topaz-am1-blk
    http://www.richersounds.com/product/standmount-speakers/wharfedale/diamond-9.0/whar-9.0-blk
  • juliancarswelljuliancarswell Posts: 8,896
    Forum Member
    Excellent. Thank you chaps. :)
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