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2.1 Speakers for TV

I have a Panasonic 37” TV. Excellent TV but the usual problem of the sound being poor. Any recommendations of a 2.1 speaker system. I can’t use 5.1 for various reasons. I only need speakers and my budget is £200-300. Or perhaps a 5.1 system if the price was right and not use the back speakers…would that work.
Thanks
 
First thought is this set that is a very neat install and sounds pretty damn decent.

Your other option is a soundbar like this assuming your TV supports it. (Picked the Panasonic as you have a Panasonic TV)

Have heard a Samsung soundbar and it sounds ok.

Failing that I think you're looking at porting it through computer speakers (Logitech or Creative spring to mind) or a midi system etc.

If you have an AV receiver or a decent Amplifier then there at lots of choices.

Hope this helps. (Bit of a stab in the dark)
 
Ah arwenthecat.. if only you knew how many months I spent researching just this problem and then practically testing a whole bunch of units :) . Well let me save you some trouble. Soundbars, even the better ones from Samsung, actually aren't all that good (I had the HWC450 for awhile and that one even did DTS decoding, which is rare at the £200+ price point).

Sure they provide a good depth of sound, assuming you can get them to work (had lots of problems with getting the things to function properly and sound right), but the width of sound and sound separation between your left and right ears will always be poor. No amount of clever software tricks and speaker angling can make a centralised soundbar sound like a good pair of headphones.

In the end I gave up and went for a Q ACOUSTICS Q-TV2, which straps to the back of your TV and actually does so in quite a clever, mostly unobtrusive and flexible way. It can't decode DTS but that doesn't really matter for 2.1 setups anyway and it does have a digital audio input so the sound is still extremely clear when passed through your TV.

I did have a slight issue early on with getting the digital audio to work but luckily the manual explained some of the quirks with this and I was able to resolve that (you sometimes have to disable DTS outputs on your device and set them to 'normal', even if they're being passed from a Sky TV box through to the TV first).

Otherwise I'm quite impressed. The sub-woofer does an unbelievably good job given that it doesn't vibrate and the side pod speakers are flexible, so you can angle them in such a way to get that headphone style quality. We watched Avatar with the set turned up and the audio made normal cinema sound (the one you pay to visit) seem tinny :) .
 
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A bit off topic... but similar.

My prob isn't getting a 2.1 setup. My prob is getting my wife to agree to replacing my HDMI 1.3a AV-Receiver (Onkyo TX-SR606) with a HDMI 1.4 unit (Onkyo TX-NR609 is most likely) and then my Samsung Bluray player which is about 6 months old with one of the newer 3d players.

At present I've got a 7.1 setup which is very good. Nice big Mission speakers etc.

Prob is that my TV went on the blink and as it was a Costco job with their 5 year warranty they decided it was an uneconomical repair and now we have a new 3D LED TV.

Never been able to see 3D before. Not in the cinema or with the old style glasses. For some reason can see the 3D easily on this.

So naturally I now want 3D capability with the sound to match. Very odd as if you asked me a month ago if I'd care about 3D I'd have said never.

anyways.. subject just got me on a bit of a rant there...:shrug:

Can confirm what Mark said about the Q Acoustics. If does seem to be the best at that price point.

(Btw Mark only said the sound from decent Samsung soundbar is OK ;), personally wouldn't touch one but I've been told in the past my sights are often too high)

Just don't listen to a BluRay with 7.1 DTS HD-MA... nothing sounds quite like it.
 
So naturally I now want 3D capability with the sound to match.

Ah.. you'll be wanting one of them there 4th dimensional speakers then, which use time travel to place you literally inside your TV :) . No, but jokes aside, why not just get a PlayStation 3 :) .
 
Many thanks for your thoughts. I had thought about Q ACOUSTICS Q-TV2 but Ithought they may be too quirky...I'll have to look closer now.
 
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Ah.. you'll be wanting one of them there 4th dimensional speakers then, which use time travel to place you literally inside your TV :) . No, but jokes aside, why not just get a PlayStation 3 :) .

Ah... forgot I didn't mention that bit. I have a PS3 and stopped using it for Bluray. It's not that the PS3 is a bad player, far from it, it's more that (the version I have) will not bitstream Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD MA. You have to let the PS3 do the decoding and output as Linear PCM. (I think this may be different in the newer PS3 Slim but not sure)

I was asked to test the Samsung BD-C5500 for a m8 as his soundbar was on the blink. As soon as I heard the difference in the Hi-Def audio formats decoded by the Onkyo rather than the PS3 I switched to a dedicated Bluray player.

If it was simply a case of rewiring the PS3 then it would be fine for the few 3D discs there are... but it isn't.

Even if you rewire it to HDMI direct to TV and use Optical for Audio then I've still got the audio problem. You can't get the Hi-Def formats. Even if I got a HDMI 1.4 receiver in place and used HDMI for audio and video the probem is still there.

The PS3 can't handle 3D and Hi-Def audio at the same time. So you can get the 3D but are reduced to DTS and DD.

For the moment it's the only solution I have as funds etc. are not available.

Ah never mind... it's just something that has been bugging me and the talk of speakers just got me started.
 
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