Soundbar buying advice needed

nobile

I now accept that the new TV I have requires a bit of a boost in the sound department.

TV speakers have 20 watts total.

What sort of thing should I be looking for? Seems very complicated.

I just want to avoid tinny sound. Not into sound in a big way so a fancy system costing half the price of the TV is not for me.

I saw a Goodmans one on Amazon for £22 but that was also 20 watts:D

Owain_Moneysaver

"Watts" on their own are meaningless. Most TV speakers are pretty tinny because TVs are the wrong shape to be a speaker cabinet.

If you have a Richer Sounds near you they do soundbars and you can usually listen to a few with your own MP3 player to compare them.

keith1950

If you want half decent sound you should be looking at prices over £100 unless it is being highly discounted.
You should be looking at the quoted watts in RMS. Anything else is totally meaningless.
A low wattage amp with an efficient speaker can give higher sound level than a high wattage amp with an inefficient speaker.
What matters is the quality of the sound.
Stick with good makes and stay away from cheap !!!! like Goodman's.
You can usually find a good soundbar for less than £150 from the likes of Pioneer, Panasonic,Samsung Yamaha etc.Dont rush into buying one , keep an eye on prices and you shuld be able to find a bargain.
Last year I managed to find a Pioneer bar for £110 that had been selling for £190.

Gillor

The cheapest Best Buy in the latest Which?magazine report is the LGLAS350B at around £99.

Anything less than this and you may find the sound is actually worse than the tv.

Bigphil1474

I got an LG sound bar a couple of years ago (can't remember the model no.), and it's great. Paid a bit extra for wireless connection (and my TV is an LG) so cost me about £180 with vouchers. Unfortunately, the tv to soundbar wireless connection is iffy so I use an optical cable, but the wireless sub woofer works well. Because I've got an LG soundbar and TV, the bar sits under the front of the TV perfectly.
I'd definitely recommend spending as much as you can afford, and the difference in sound quality is major. I'd second going to Richer Sounds for a demo, plus they've always given me good advice when needed.

droopsnoot

Also check what options your TV has for connecting to a sound bar. My parents bought one to boost their TV sound, only to find that the TV only has one type of sound output that the bar didn't accept. So we needed a further adapter for another £20 to join them up.

letsbehonest

Hi there.
I have tried a few sound bars on my tv, as said in another reply you can't do it on the cheap really. I ended up buying a Denon sound base DHT T 100 And it is very good indeed. It has been superseded buy a newer model but you can still get it on Amazon for £139 check it out it really does deliver a good sound and has 4 sound stages and bluetooth, also night mode.

knightstyle

It doesn't have to be a sound bar, you can connect your TV to an Aux input on your stereo or CD player etc. as long as it has an Aux in. will be cheaper to buy a lead than a sound bar.

nobile

Thanks to all who replied

John_Gray

Perhaps TV manufacturers will find a way of including decent speakers in/on/under their products, instead of requiring users to pay another £100+ to hear what the pretty pictures are about.

googler

nobile wrote: »

I now accept that the new TV I have requires a bit of a boost in the sound department.

Do you have any kind of music replay system in the same room?

If so, arrange the speakers each side of the TV, and feed an audio output from the TV to this replay system.

This will give much better results than a soundbar

Option 2 here