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Home Sound - Surround Sound - Subwoofer

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  • neilmcl
    neilmcl Posts: 19,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 29 January 2021 at 9:23AM
    dranzer01 said:
    RumRat said:
    dranzer01 said:
    Looking to get home surround sound for my living room... probably 2.1 (one on either side of the sofa, and then a subwoofer).

    Does anyone have any recommendations they use? Not looking to break the bank particularly... Something very powerful yet money friendly :)

    Many thanks,
    Anyway back to reality....Money friendly? What is you budget?
    2.1 will not give you surround sound, so, what is it exactly you are after?
    i want high standing speakers 2.1 or greater around the sofa to create the surround sound effect in the living room - thats all. However, I want a crisp sound effect.
    probably budget £200 give or take
    You're not going to get this by simply putting the speakers at the side of your sofa. Any speaker system requires front facing speakers. Get a soundbar or soundbase, it'll be a compromise and not true surround sound but some can give a decent sound stage. 
  • Sandtree
    Sandtree Posts: 10,628 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    dranzer01 said:
    i want high standing speakers 2.1 or greater around the sofa to create the surround sound effect in the living room - thats all. However, I want a crisp sound effect.
    probably budget £200 give or take
    A 2.1 system is stereo with extra base support and the two speakers go either side of your TV.

    What I am guessing you mean is you want to use the TV's own speakers for the front and use the new speakers for the rears and therefore you will actually have a 4.1 system. The problem is that this isnt a normal setup and to do it "properly" you'd need more expensive kit that is designed for those that know what they are doing.  Any attempt to bodge it is going to cause you problems with keeping the volume of the front and rears aligned.

    TV speakers tend to be poor quality and so anyone buying external speakers normally wants to replace the TV sound first of all and then consider adding additional channels, it would be odd to have poor fronts but, relatively speaking, much more expensive rears. 

    If you want surround sound then you are really going to have give up on the idea of using the sound from the TV as your fronts and buy a 5.1 system (or above) either with satellite speakers or virtuals (which bounce the sound). This can be in the form of a soundbar/base or not... the former is more likely to be better value as less boxes etc which all add cost.
  • sound bar it is then i believe!!
    what soundbars with crisp sound and mega bass kick would you recommend?
    (until i save up a few more hundreds, ill just get a sound bar with punch!)

    thanks for the help
  • RumRat
    RumRat Posts: 5,005 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    If your budget is tight and you want some Bass.....   Soundbar JBL Bar Studio 2.0: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics
    Drinking Rum before 10am makes you
    A PIRATE
    Not an Alcoholic...!
  • neilmcl
    neilmcl Posts: 19,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    dranzer01 said:
    sound bar it is then i believe!!
    what soundbars with crisp sound and mega bass kick would you recommend?
    (until i save up a few more hundreds, ill just get a sound bar with punch!)

    thanks for the help
    Have a look over on Richer Sounds - https://www.richersounds.com/tv-home-cinema/soundbars.html
  • Sandtree
    Sandtree Posts: 10,628 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    dranzer01 said:
    sound bar it is then i believe!!
    what soundbars with crisp sound and mega bass kick would you recommend?
    (until i save up a few more hundreds, ill just get a sound bar with punch!)
    What model of TV do you have?
    What do you currently play music etc on? ie do you have a hifi system or such?
  • I used to have a JBL soundbar with a bluetooth subwoofer. This was good but the woofer was big. I now have a SONY HX8500 which I prefer as I don't need the subwoofer cluttering up my small lounge. The SONY sound is excellent but some folk don't like the lack of on-screen display.  Worth a look IMHO
    Sony HTX8500 Black | Dolby Atmos Soundbar | Richer Sounds
  • Sandtree
    Sandtree Posts: 10,628 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    The advantage of a true subwoofer is that it can be placed anywhere... our ears are bad at determining the direction of low frequency sounds which in principle is how we get away with a 5.1 type system rather than needing a 5.5 system. This can mean you can potentially hide the subwoofer away 

    However... many all in one systems or systems with very small speakers actually have a subwoofer that goes much higher than than the recommended 80hz to deal with the fact that physics means a 2" woofer simply cannot move the volume of air required to get big low end noises. My old all in one from my teenage years the sub went up to 150hz which is well into the range of directional hearing that means both a) the illusion of a 5.1 system doesnt work as well and b) placement of the sub is much more limited and ideally would be very close to the screen. 
  • Boxman
    Boxman Posts: 199 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    + 1 for the HT-X8500.
  • oh_really
    oh_really Posts: 907 Forumite
    500 Posts First Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    Keep an eye out for a 2nd hand Canton soundbase.

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