Hi,
I have a Toshiba 32" tv, Sony BD player, a Humax freesat box and TUTV recorder.
I am considering a A/V amp and seeing some variations in connections was wondering what the best (read easiest) connections are before I get one. I've seen some with HDMI, some without so can I get some guidance please. I just want clearer sound as going a bit deaf.
Many thanks.

Any decent modern AV amp will have a wide variety of input connections. Any that do not have HDMI should be ignored.

The usual way to connect up the kit is to plug the HDMI leads from the various sources to the amp and a single HDMI cable to the TV. The amp sucks out the audio data from the HDMI and processes that and just sends the video on to the TV.

If you can still get one this system is stupidly good value for money.

http://www.richersounds.com/product/...ky-hts3405-blk

It is not the most recent version but still a very good system. 230 quid for a decent amp and speaker package is very hard to beat. The current version is this

http://www.richersounds.com/product/...ky-hts3505-blk

But it's 400 quid.

Just a couple of examples of what is out there.

Thanks Chris,
It was the HDMI connections I was concerned about and as that is the easiest way I'm now happy to go ahead and get an amp.
I nearly went for the Nikkai at Maplins (but no HDMI) as I have the speakers I need but thanks for putting me right
Rob

I've had a Sony STR-DG910 for a number of years and it has served me well. I think I paid about £150 for it. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend whatever the equivalent Sony currently is.

Was looking for an AV receiver (amp) & two small external speakers for my new Panasonic TV, but everything seems so expensive - well for my pockets at least. (Now that I've just bought a new TV.) Is there anything on the market for around £100 or less, that could at least improve things, that anybody knows of?

If you have a decent set of speakers (not some you've salvaged from some cheap and nasty all in one pile of poo ) then you could do a whole lot worse than this.

http://www.richersounds.com/product/...ky-txsr309-blk

You will struggle to find anything half way decent for 100 quid. And a full blown AV amp would perhaps be a bit over the top if all you want is a simple pair of speakers. Most AV systems being designed to work with multichannel surround sound.

The best option for half way decent sound would be a HiFi amp and speakers. This system comes in at £130 but you can shave 20 off that by ditching the iPod dock

http://www.richersounds.com/package/...stems/patwh254

You would use a simple stereo phono lead to connect to the TV.

The other alternative would be a decent pair of self powered speakers such as would be used with a PC. That would save on the number of boxes. Not quite PC speakers but these are ones I have used a lot and like.

http://cpc.farnell.com/behringer/ms1...air/dp/LS02108

They sound far better than the price would suggest.

Thank chrisjr. That CAMBRIDGE AUDIOTOPAZ AM1 at £80 and the Tibo EDGE MINI speakers at £20 - seem very very interesting.
Thanks so much for your advice.

I've been looking also to improve the sound of my Panasonic TV but find Sound bars way to expensive and Home theatre systems too much in terms of cabling etc. as I don't have the room to put much by way of speakers at the side for example.

I did a bit of searching and found "this". I'm not looking for any special surround sound capability, just something to improve the sound.

I would be very grateful if someone would like to comment. For or against.

If you have a music system in the same room as the TV then connect the TV to that?

And as and when finances permit the amp is quite capable of being paired with better speakers. Plus of course you can hook up a disk player and use it without the telly for listening to CDs.

It is a sub woofer. It will extend the low frequency response of your TV sound but that is all. The majority of the sound you hear will still be coming from the TV.

So if that is distorted or poor in whatever way the sub will make zero difference to that. Plus it's not clear just how you would control the volume. Most TVs have fixed level audio outputs, ie they don't change with the volume control. So you would have to get up and adjust the control on the back of the sub all the time to match the volume setting of the TV.

To be honest it is not something I would buy as I don't think it is the right way to improve the sound of the TV. A separate amp and speaker system (or powered speakers similar to those you would use with a PC) to completely replace the TV speakers would be the better way.

Thanks Chris, I understand what you're saying, but it's just the bass that's lacking on these flat panel TV's. Surely the volume is controlled still by the TV, as the speakers are still active. All I was concerned about was having to switch the power to the Sub. on/off manually.

The sub does not connect to the speakers in the TV, there is no way it could anyway. So it can only connect to some form of external audio output on the back of the set.

The output signal level from these outputs on the majority of TVs is fixed in volume level. It does not vary with the volume control on the remote control. So it will not control the volume of the sub relative to the TV's speakers. In other words if in the late evening you turn down the volume of the TV speakers to avoid waking the kids upstairs in bed or annoying the neighbours, or whatever other reason, the TV speakers will get quieter but the sub will still be rattling the rafters.

The only way the volume of the sub could be controlled by the TV's remote is if you used a headphone socket. but that is also likely to mute the internal speakers.