I need a TV with excellent sound quality ?

googler

flashphoto85 wrote: »

Would defo say you want a TV and then a surround system with speakers

Why on earth would the purchase of a 'surround' system benefit two individuals, one with major and one with minor hearing loss?

OP, do you have a music / HiFi system at the moment, in the same room as the TV?

clivejohnson

First off, graphic equalisers dont improve the sound- they alter it for the worse so ditch the graphic!

Second, I think it is Sennheiser who make an exellent set of wirelss headserts aimed at the hard of hearing. Basically they bypass the speakers on the tv, and remotely send sound waves over to the user.

My dad uses them and swears by them. I'll ask him next time i see him....

P.S . Totally agree with the others re. surround sound. Dont bother. your throwing loads of dosh and not solving the issue.

aliEnRIK

The reason I mentioned a graphic equaliser (Which for the record, I also wouldnt ever use) is because the OPs ears are not perfect. Therefore they already induce 'phase shifts' before they register what theyre hearing (in other words, what they think theyre hearing isnt what the actual sound is)
I suggested a mono center speaker as theyre (generally) designed specifically for voices, which should be better than using a standard hifi speaker (or worse).
But ALL speakers also induce phase shifts. A drop of just 3dB is technically halving the signal. Many speakers do have drops around the 1kHz range, which will affect voices. So if the center speaker didnt work the only thing I could think of then would be to introduce a graphic equaliser to try to put the frequencies back to how they should be 'for the users' (Amp, speaker AND user induced). DVDs and Blurays in particular with dolby digital and/or DTS sound have huge dynamic range. Sounds awesome through a decent system. But would be very confusing for somone who has hearing problems as the surround sound would never work, and the big variances in pitch would be bad for them.

My hifi cost quite a bit of cash (Probably far more than most would be willing to pay, but also far less than some people pay). Its capable of truly staggering sound. But even now, there can be some speech in dvds, blurays or whatever that I struggle to tell what was said at some point. (I am looking into modifying my speakers to hopefully improve that small defect, along with making them sound far better overall)

Missmarple

Alienrik. When I posted the equlizer adjustments I did what you said and I must say much has been improved for me. I think that possibly my husbands hearing is not going to be helped without hearing equipment from RNID,so he insists on subtitles (drives me mad). So for me on my soaps things have improved but not perfect but better than they were. Sound volume for me and still not hearing everything was 62 now is 42 so that shows it is not the volume that matters. From a very selfish point of view I am thinking of improving it more for me as hubby realises that his problem is possibly beyond adjustment of the set etc. This time I don't think we can kill 2 birds with 1 stone which I think everyone has pointed out.

For us/me the subwoofer on the sound systems without adjustment kills everything. All you can hear is the fight but no idea what they are fighting about, it seems that people of normal hearing have this as a problem at times. When the loss is at the higher end I think speech must be affected the most.

I do appreciate the comments and advice as it really is helping. Thanks all :beer:

aliEnRIK

Well its entirely your call Missmarple

I do recommend something like what Toxteth posted -

Dont judge all 'sound systems' the same. A lot of the cheap cr*p do have 'enhanced' bass which sounds awful
But something like the above speaker wired to a half decent amp would sound pretty good (certainly far better than your tvs speakers)
A decent system wont 'enhance' anything. It will simply try to reproduce sounds as they sound in real life. Now no system manages this exactly, but a decent center speaker and amp will definitely sound far more natural than your tv ever would.

My only concern is you may also need to adjust the frequencies (meaning an equaliser may also be needed)

Toxteth_OGrady

I have that speaker. The speech clarity is stunning.

googler

The other thing for the OP to consider is that TV makers aren't making sets with sound quality in mind - they're making video panels which they expect will have a separate sound system.

Can I suggest that the OP seems to need a totally separate audio feed for husband, and restate that one option to be considered is for one or both of you to use headphones?

Audio Out from TV to HiFi Amplifier
HiFi Amp feeds speakers for general listening.
Line out from amp feeds wired or wireless headphone amp for husband

OR

Audio Out from TV to headphone amp with two headphone outputs, and you both use phones.

prowla

We play our TV through a Naim hi-fi with Linn speakers - the sound is rather good!

closed

you don't need to use a subwoofer, the centre speaker is the most important for speech

aliEnRIK

closed wrote: »

you don't need to use a subwoofer, the centre speaker is the most important for speech

I could be wrong, but I assumed they were talking about 2.1 or 5.1 channel systems that have subs built in as a part of the system and they cant be omitted