Dear Group, I've had my new all singing all dancing Samsung TV for a week or so now and I love it. I thought the sound was great on it, until....

This morning i moved my 25 year old Pioneer hi-fi over near the TV and connected it up with the Pioneer speakers. Wow, what a difference it made, the sound just came to life! It was richer and "fuller" if you know what i mean.

So, with that it mind I'm sold on the idea of buying a separate amp and 2 speakers. The amp will go on the bottom shelf and 2 "bookshelf" speakers will fit in laying flat on the top shelf under the TV.

So, what type of amp should I get, what type of connections should it have? I want to be able to connect my new DVD recorder/player to it as well as the TV. I don't mind buying 2nd hand if it represents good value for money, same with the speakers. What are good makes that I should be looking for chaps?

Many Thanks

You would expect it to make a huge difference, on any LCD/Plasma, because they don't have room for decent speakers - and Samsung are usually particularly poor - but the sets are really intended to be used with a surround sound system.

You should probably be looking at 'home theatre' / 'surround sound' systems intended for such use - they use small satellite speakers, but a good size sub-woofer, and make films in particular sound great.

Well i did look into that Nigel, but for various reasons it didn't suit my other half. So all i want is an amp and 2 speakers.

Know what you mean!

An obvious 'problem' is that you've now tried your existing amp, and (presumably?) decent sized speakers - moving to small speakers is likely to reduce your bass response. This is the advantage of a sub-woofer, just one large speaker which you can hide anywhere out of the way, and small satellite speakers which are unobtrusive.

Really a little stereo amp isn't a problem, assuming you can find such a thing - most tend to be covered in 'bells and whistles' these days. It's mainly the speakers which will affect your sound - you might try looking at Wharfdale?, they make some pretty reasonably sounding small speakers. Don't forget, as it's not a CRT TV, you don't need shielded magnets.

I see, thats for that Nigel. Actually the Pioneer speakers i tried are only slightly to big to go on the shelf, and having looked at the specs of many bookshelf speakers i think they'd fit in nicely. Now then, speakers. i realise that in an ideal world i'd be able to spend a fortune on the amp and speakers, but i can't. So, would buying a new set of speakers for say £50 be a worse option than buying a 2nd hand pair for the same amount? Do speakers wear out?

many thanks

They don't really 'wear out', but they do go wrong - one common problem is obviously too much power through them, but a major concern is speakers with foam surrounds, over time the foam disintegrates, ruining the speaker.

If you're buying second hand, make sure you listen to them first.

Ive just bought a Samsung 40" LCD, and the sound out the main speakers is frankly awfull.

Before with my old tv I ran my Sky + and Dvd player through my Hi Fi system. But when I try to listen to my Samsung now throught the hi fi with the tv speakers still on, it sounds like a really bad echo chamber. I

I then tried to run the hi fi speakers straight from the new LCD (again with the lcd speakers on) and the sound is worse than before more echo.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a way of running the Hi Fi speakers and the samsung speakers together.
I really dont want the hassle of having to use 2 remotes every time I want to mute the sound etc.
And I dont really want to run a cinema system unless I really need to.

Cheers for any help.

You should be able to pick some decent speakers from somewhere like Richer Sounds. A cheap pair of Kefs or Missions would do the job

I have a Cambridge Audio A5 amp and Q-Acoustics 1010 bookshelf speakers, you'll not get any better for the money!

Thanks for all the info chaps, much appreciated. Can i just ask one other thing/
My new TV and new DVD recorder are connected together by a HDMI lead.
When i tried my Pioneer amp and speakers i simply connected a red and white phono lead to the side panel of the TV and connected them into the back of the amp on 2 plugs labelled LD/VCR and the TV sounds came out of the speakers as did the DVD when i played it.

Is that all there is to it or should the audio out signal from the DVD go to the amp as well?

What i'm getting at chaps is this, what outputs do i need on an amp to connect the TV and DVD to their best advantage?

Many Thanks

You may need to connect phonos from the DVD recorder to the amp as well? - it's not guaranteed the HDMI audio will come out of the phono sockets on the TV.

How about these... http://www.richersounds.com/showprod...TANN-CUSTOM-F1
Make sure whatever you get they're magnetically shielded so the magnets don't affect the TV screen.

Sorry Nigel, i'm probably being a wee bit slow. so what connections do i need to be looking for on an amp to connect the TV&DVD please. I assume that if i buy a new amp, say a more budget priced one from somewhere like Richer Sounds it'll have all the necessary connections on it. I'm fearful of buying the wrong item you see!

Maybe something like this would do?

http://www.richersounds.com/showprod...id=TANG-AMP100

That looks fine, use phonos from your TVV to one line input, and if your DVD doesn't come through at that, then use another phono lead to connect the DVD directly to another line input.


Go to the bottom of the class! - that only matters on CRT, it doesn't affect LCD or Plasma

Excellent! Thanks Nigel, i appreciate your advice

Sorry Mr Goodwin.
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