We have a 50" Panasonic TV, which, since we purchased it, has had rather woolly acoustics- even turning the volume up leaves us struggling to listen to some programmes.

I am on the point of purchasing a Panasonic SC-HTE80 soundbox, that would sit under the telly, and hopefully give clearer sound. However, I wondered whether I can obtain the same better sound effect by hooking up our old Yamaha CR620 tuner/amplifier, with a pair of Celestion UL6 speakers,(all still in perfect working order) which have given many happy hours of pretty high quality sound reproduction, from turntable and cassette tape? The tuner/amp can take four speakers (obviously no sub woofer channel), but I am mainly looking for more audio clarity.

Interestingly, as another query, whilst I have always been happy with the audio quality and volume from the Yamaha/ Celestion setup, the specs for the Yamaha mention 50 watts per channel RMS. Modern surround sound systems seem to be as high as 500-1000 watts. Are these measurements RMS? It seems an incredible leap upwards in power!

Your existing Yamaha/Celestion system will sound better than a budget soundbar and even be more than a match sonically for a mid-range modern full on AV system.

All you need to do is find a suitable line level output from the TV. Either a standard red and white RCA pair or possibly from a SCART connection. Failing that you can use the headphone output if the TV has one.

It all depends on what options the telly has for connecting to external audio gear as to how cheap and/or easy it will be to connect up.

If the telly has a headphone socket then a simple 3.5mm stereo jack to two phono plugs lead will do the job and probably still allow the TV remote to control the noise level.

If however the telly only has an optical digital audio out you will need a digital to analogue converter, for example

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LINDY-Digita.../dp/B002AKXG5E

to interface TV and amp.

The TV may have an output from the built in tuner available on one or other SCART socket. This could be used with a suitable SCART plug adapter or lead. But could be restrictive if you want to view something on an external device such as a recording on a PVR, a DVD or satellite receiver. A lot of SCARTs don't carry audio from external devices.

The latter two options also won't be affected by the TV remote volume, the outputs are fixed level so you'll have to use the amp volume to control the noise level.

As for wattage. Don't believe the specs on a lot of this kit. Even the better makes lie through their teeth about how powerful their kit is. I have seen an all in one system (DVD and amp combo + speakers) that claimed it produces 1000W. Yet only takes 100W out of the mains. Which if you were paying attention in Physics classes at school you would know breaks some pretty fundamental laws of physics!

A common trait is to drive just one channel to the max and then multiply that by however many channels there are. So a surround amp may spec as 200W single channel driven, making a total (they claim) of 1000W. But they fit a 300W power supply so there is no way on earth in real life with all the channels going that it is going to hit that magic kW spec.

In any case you would be really surprised just how little power your amp is poking into the speakers most of the time. Unless you turn it up to 11 all the time that is. But if you run the volume control at no more than halfway between off and max then the amp is producing under 5W a channel in all likelihood.

No, they aren't RMS - they are purely 'imaginary' - and no decent manufacturer would claim such stupid figures. If you check the specs you will probably find that the maximum mains input is only 100W, so maximum total output is only going to be 60 or 70 watts (if you're lucky).

Decent HiFi and PA always quote RMS, PC systems and InCar are almost completely imaginary, and unfortunately the lower end surround sound systems have gone that way as well

Many thanks for the prompt and helpful replies!

We do indeed have a pair of red and white RCA output sockets on the rear of the TV. On the rear of the amp, there are, respectively, pairs of input sockets for, respectively, Phono, Aux, Tape 1 and Tape 2. Which of these should I choose for my connection?

However, I've just thought of a downside- since there are no remote controls on the amp, presumably I would have to adjust its volume by getting up from where I'm sitting, going over to the TV, and manually adjusting the volume??

Use Aux Tape 1 or Tape 2. The phono input may be for a magnetic cartridge.

Check the TV menus, sometimes you can elect to volume control the analogue audio outputs. If not an option the headphone out will be controlled by the TV volume.

Any input on the amp except the Phono (which is expecting a much lower lever signal from a record deck pick-up cartridge and equalises and boosts the level to feed to the pre-amp stage). As for the remote control issue then using the headphone output from the TV could be used with the TV remote control.

Are you certain they are OUTPUTs? Analogue audio outs are becoming increasingly rare on TVs these days. There will be one or more inputs however for Composite and maybe Component Video sources so make sure you are not confusing those with outputs.

If you have any doubt post the exact model number of the telly and we can double check for you.

Nothing wrong with using vintage tuner amps and speakers for your TV.

I use a 1980 Leak 2000 tuner/amp and 1972 Goodmans Havant speakers, for my Panasonic Viera TV, (it's own speakers are backward-facing and rubbish) and before that a 25 year-old LG TV,

Also for my PVR, DVD/CD player, video recorder, cassette deck and record player and more recently for these.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXFX8TK3tjU

A combination of an auto-selector and an audio selector, sorts out the nine different options and no wires can be seen as I put them all in trunking.

The audio out from the TV is via RCA plugs to the auto selector, then to the three-way Realistic selector seen in the video.

Using the individual remotes for the TV, PVR, DVD/CD and video player, switches them automatically.

I get fantastic sound reproduction.

Thanks again to all who have replied.

chrisjr- My TV is a Panasonic TX-P50G20BA. Page 92 of the manual certainly seems to indicate an RCA cable leading to speakers, from an audio out L&R pair of sockets, as an option to the optical connection also shown.

The spec. at Panasonic confirms it as well, but it's fairly rare now - most sets dropped it a few years back in favour of optical audio.

It looks like the TV may be old enough to have analogue outputs, a quick look at the Panasonic website suggests it's modern equivalent might not.

Having scanned the manual on the Panasonic website it isn't specified whether these outputs are variable or fixed level. I would not be at all surprised to find they are fixed level. So don't vary with the TV remote volume control. Which may be a problem if your amp does not have remote volume control.

If the amp does not have remote volume control, (and you can't be ar5ed to get up out of your seat every time you need to turn the noise up and down), an alternative might be the Headphone jack on the side.