I need a TV with excellent sound quality ?

Missmarple · 20 June 2011 at 12:01PM

Hi Guys,
I have a minor hearing problem and my husband a major one. We need a new TV that above all has the best sound quality even above picture quality. We have tried the theatre sound system to go with our tv but that makes it worse. Our old tv's in the kitchen and bedroom with the big backs have a better sound quality than our HD tv (about 7 years old now a Phillips)

Those with a hearing problem will know that is is not always the volume that is necessary but the quality of the sound coming out mainly to hear people talking.

Can anyone recommed anything ?

Thanks Missmarple

fwor · 20 June 2011 at 12:23PM

You're right that the old-style CRT TVs generally had much better sound output. The last generation of Philips CRTs were really good - mine has five speakers with a graphic equaliser, which means that you can increase the upper frequencies, making dialogue easier to hear.

You can still buy good secondhand ones on eBay for almost nothing, but you need to find something local so that you can pick up - and they are really heavy and difficult to transport.

If you have a home theatre system, one thing to do is to see if you can set the levels for each speaker individually. If you can (most have the facility) then turn up the level of the centre channel, as that's where almost all of the dialogue is present, and you should then find that the effects on the other speakers don't drown out the speech.

wba31 · 20 June 2011 at 12:30PM

Have you tried a soundbar? I used to have a 5:1 cinema system and struggled to hear vocals, have invested in an Orbitsound T12 soundbar after trying one out at John Lewis. is a great speaker system

Missmarple · 20 June 2011 at 3:10PM

wba31 wrote: »

Have you tried a soundbar? I used to have a 5:1 cinema system and struggled to hear vocals, have invested in an Orbitsound T12 soundbar after trying one out at John Lewis. is a great speaker system

I will have to google that to see what it is, thanks

moonrakerz · 20 June 2011 at 3:54PM

Missmarple wrote: »

I have a minor hearing problem and my husband a major one. We need a new TV that above all has the best sound quality even above picture quality.

I am afraid you are in danger of throwing good money away.

If you have hearing problems, spending a lot of money on good "quality" sound is pointless.

A really good quality sound system will produce sounds across the widest possible frequency range to give the best effect.
As people get older the width of this frequency range narrows, not helped by damage to the hearing organs caused by excess sound from things like ipods, etc, etc.

You need to find exactly what your hearing response is, then try and find a TV sound system that can produce the best sound frequencies at the range your hearing is best at.
If your hearing functions best at higher frequencies and your OH at lower frequencies - you have another problem !

Missmarple · 20 June 2011 at 4:54PM

It is the higher pitch that we struggle with.

Just having a look on the internet and it seems that most people have some sort of sound system to go with their flat screen TVs as they are not finding their small or lack of speakers enough on their own. I do see your point though but feel something is worth a try as the older TVs in the house are easier to hear.

Wba31 the reviews on the orbitsound are really good but the downside is the large sub woofer that can't be turned down and lots say boomy (just like my theatre sound system) It says sounds great with games/films and music but nothing about broadcast TV. How are you finding that on Corrie and Emmerdale

?. I'm not really as old as Miss Marple.....but love the soaps. This may be a cheaper option than buying a new TV.

Anyone know how to subscribe to a thread ??

Thanks

bungle4by4 · 20 June 2011 at 4:57PM

go to richer sounds and buy a little amp and a pair of speakers, they will sort you out within budget, and you can hear a few different systems to see what suits you best.

aliEnRIK · 20 June 2011 at 5:39PM

A soundbar is a pretty good idea
Personally id buy a decent 2 channel amplifier (preferably with tone controls), wire a cable to mix both left and right channels into mono and buy a good quality center speaker (probably off ebay)
Then everything can be made to come out of that one center speaker and if required you can 'up' the treble a little.
If that doesnt work the only other thing I could think of is to then buy a graphic equaliser so you can up the 1kHz frequency (Or whichever is required)

prowla · 20 June 2011 at 6:30PM

We play our Sky box through the hi-fi; it sounds very good.

googler · 20 June 2011 at 6:34PM

If you're happy with the picture quality of the current TV, then invest in a HiFi system, possibly with a graphic equaliser. If all you want to do is improve the sound, replacing the whole TV seems the wrong approach. What do you have at the moment?

Since you both have radically different hearing, you may want to consider using headphones rather than speakers. You could consider using two separate systems, one for each set of headphones, then each of you could tailor the sound to suit yourselves.

Enterprise_1701C · 20 June 2011 at 7:07PM

If you get a new TV, I would suggest getting one with an "optical out" connector,it is a fibre optic connector that you would be able to connect to most theatre systems and the sound from this connection is a lot purer than other connections (that's what we find anyway, but we do not have hearing problems).