Can anyone tell if it is possible to improve my TV sound by connecting the set to my CD player and playing through my speakers? The CD player is a cheap Sony mini system, no separate amp, with an audio in port on the front; the television is a fairly new LG with various ports on the rear.
I’m a bit of a dunce about electronics and any advice would be welcome.
If you are happy with the sound of the mini system give it a go. Speakers on new TVs leave a lot to be desired.
That’s what I thought. I’ve taken the plunge and £1.39 of eBay cable is on its way to me now.
Almost any half-listenable stereo system will yield an improvement on the little 2 inch things they nail into TVs; you’ll enjoy hearing things in a lot more detail, and probably with a much better stereo image as well.
Agreed, the sound will be better. However, as Junior Wells has discovered, there may be lip sync issues.
The only way is to try it. I come out of the TV via the optical connector into an Digital to Analog converter from Richer Sounds and from that into the tape in on the stereo. This should give you audio from all your TV sources (DVD, cable etc). As discussed on the other thread, you may need to adjust for delay if your TV supports it.
It sounds as though you are planning on using the headphone socket on the TV to go into the stereo. If this creates sync problems then you will need to try the optical method. I initially used a cheapo one from Maplins which worked ok but packed up quite quickly. I think the better unit was about £50 or so. My wife has poor hearing so she uses it more than I do although putting the sound through external speakers still won’t overcome the terrible sound mix on a lot of Hollywood films.
I think the only thing is the more boxes you put between the source and the amp the more you’ll risk delays (latency, as they say). A decent fault little cable from the telly into the amp is what you want.
The delay of the external audio DAC is unlikely to be the source of problem (or noticeable at all). Audio processing is an order of magnitude faster than video processing.
Any sync issues between TV digital audio out and the displayed image will be down to the TV. The picture will probably be late relative to the sound. There might be an adjustment on the TV to compensate.
Interesting synchronicity here on topics which is more than I can say for my telly. I’ve had less issues in the past going via headphone socket and it means you can adjust volume. Via tv remote too.
Sound bars do look pretty effective and are positioned in front of TV whereas my hi fi speakers aren’t.
I found my old (25 year old) amp and speakers were fine for music off a CD player or off the set-top-box, and while there were no sync issues they were terrible for TV and movies (muddy and soft), so I got a small/cheap theatre system in the xmas sales a couple of years ago. Have to admit though, I didn’t try an optical cable on that old amp/speakers configuration which might have made a difference.
We have the optical channel set up now for TV output to the amp which I find works as well as the HDMI input (may be the limitations of the JBL bookshelf speakers I got), although we rarely use it.
I found the low-end soundbars to sound pretty thin, very limited bass. It would need a pretty good one (Sonos or similar) with a sub-woofer to get me interested.
Thanks all. There is a mechanism to adjust the synching on the freeview box the TV signal is fed through, though not the TV itself or did player so far as I know. The speakers are already on either side of the screen so I thought the cheapo option was worth a punt first. Thanks again for the tips.
I just have my set-top box connected directly to my amp and switch off the TV sound altogether. Allows me to use it as a source for radio as well – don’t need the TV switched on.