Connecting external speakers to my TV via the Headphone output

[Unwell Cat]

I want to upgrade the sound quality from the internal speakers I have in my 40inch Toshiba LCD. However the only output on the TV is the headphone output for sound.

Can I buy some external speakers (eg, creative labs t40 series 3 or something simliar) and connect them to the headphone output on the TV via either a 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm stereo cable or a 3.5 mm to dual RCA cable (depending on the input on the speakers?

Also would I get much of an audio quality improvement in doing this?

Thanks

[concretesnail]

you could use some powered pc style speakers it may sounds utter guff. there is another way. find the output that is the dubbing output that you could send to a vcr, often the last av channel, and send the auio from that to a standard intergrated amp and speakers setup

[Unwell Cat]

you could use some powered pc style speakers it may sounds utter guff. there is another way. find the output that is the dubbing output that you could send to a vcr, often the last av channel, and send the auio from that to a standard intergrated amp and speakers setup

That sounds complicated plus I dont have a VCR. I'm assuming a ?100 set of PC powered speakers (maybe a 2.1 setup) with the sound output via the headphone socket has to sound better than the built in TV speakers?

I only really want the better sound for DVD's and PS3 games. So is another option to buy a 2.1 setup and connect the PS3 audio to dual RCA connectors on the speakers?

[dataDave]

doublepostftw

[dataDave]

Yeah, you want the red+white stereo RCAs going anywhere but the TV, only use the video from the lead and divert the audio elsewhere, pretend your TV doesn't even have speakers. Have them linked to a standard 2.1 setup (or anything!) instead. I haven't used TV speakers since around 1991.

Having the sound go in the back of the telly to come out of the headphone socket again is fairly ghetto and I'm guessing the TV will do naughty things to your signal before spewing it out again.

I'd look on Ebay and find something like a receiver/amp with digital inputs as well, that way you can get some optical lead and get the most out of DTS etc, which will blow your tits off if you've never experienced it before. £100 should get you something pretty decent, I'm certain. Infact I'm actually doing that right now because the TV repair man can't fix my current surround amp. I'm on around the same budget and I'm looking at 5.1

Finding a decent amp that does JUST 2.1 might be pretty impossible on second thoughts unless you are wanting to buy some seriously old kit. I'm looking at decent Sony amps right now for £40-£50... eventhough they do 7.1 + 8.1 and all that pollava you only need to switch it to digital stereo with the remote and voila, 2.1 again...

You'd need two front speakers and of course a sub to go with it... my advice is to get a nice amp and then find some nice speakers later, ask the seller what speakers he/she used. A good thing about getting a nice amp means you can start off minimal and build up to surround as you like/can afford.

£100 on decent PC speakers would be money wasted for what you want man, and no doubt a waste of good speakers.

[Unwell Cat]

Thanks for the info below mate, let me know what you you buy as I know nothing about amps and seperate speakers.

If I buy a cheap 5.1 system can I run it as a 2.1 system and if so does it work correctly?

Yeah, you want the red+white stereo RCAs going anywhere but the TV, only use the video from the lead and divert the audio elsewhere, pretend your TV doesn't even have speakers. Have them linked to a standard 2.1 setup (or anything!) instead. I haven't used TV speakers since around 1991.

Having the sound go in the back of the telly to come out of the headphone socket again is fairly ghetto and I'm guessing the TV will do naughty things to your signal before spewing it out again.

I'd look on Ebay and find something like a receiver/amp with digital inputs as well, that way you can get some optical lead and get the most out of DTS etc, which will blow your tits off if you've never experienced it before. ?100 should get you something pretty decent, I'm certain. Infact I'm actually doing that right now because the TV repair man can't fix my current surround amp. I'm on around the same budget and I'm looking at 5.1

Finding a decent amp that does JUST 2.1 might be pretty impossible on second thoughts unless you are wanting to buy some seriously old kit. I'm looking at decent Sony amps right now for ?40-?50... eventhough they do 7.1 + 8.1 and all that pollava you only need to switch it to digital stereo with the remote and voila, 2.1 again...

You'd need two front speakers and of course a sub to go with it... my advice is to get a nice amp and then find some nice speakers later, ask the seller what speakers he/she used. A good thing about getting a nice amp means you can start off minimal and build up to surround as you like/can afford.

?100 on decent PC speakers would be money wasted for what you want man, and no doubt a waste of good speakers.

[dataDave]

If I buy a cheap 5.1 system can I run it as a 2.1 system and if so does it work correctly?

Yep.

Let's say your front surrounds belonging to the system are 30w speakers, you can swap them out for better 30w ones... this is why I'm opposed to buying a full system as for the same price you could pick up an awesome amp and two awesome front L + R speakers*, when you get more cash you could get another pair for the back, and so on, it's just a matter of knowing what wattage the amp outputs at, then you buy the speakers accordingly. You could just ask the seller of the particular amp what speakers he/she used with the unit.

I have my eye on this at the moment.... clicky

The back might look a little daunting to you but it's all easy stuff really. 2x 100w fronts and a sub with that and you're laughing. It'll be a long time before you replace something like that.

My mate has a shoddy Sony 6.1 home theatre thing with built in DVD player, it advertises DTS and Pro Logic with the fancy little logos on the front of the player however it doesn't have any digital inputs whatsoever, so getting all the fancy sound from an external source is impossible, the only time he got DTS/PL was by using the built-in DVD player. I hate all-in-one systems man, you need to beware when buying them... my mate isn't exactly **** at buying kit either and usually knows what to get. This is going back a few years though and he has replaced since then. Stuff like that is going well cheap and may look attractive so be careful.

[saif]

A surround amp is great for this - a 5.1 amp will direct the sound to how many speakers you have. I have a 5.1 amp but no sub or centre. I decided to get two better front speakers, the amp knows they are "big" (i.e not just tweeters) so the bass goes there as does the centre channel. My surround speakers are rubbish so I set them to "small" - so bass is not passed to them much as the speakers are cheap and passed to the fronts.
It also has 4 digital inputs aswell as all of the analogue inputs I could need. Separates are the way forward, and backwards - they are totally adaptable.

[Oldgamingfart]

Can I buy some external speakers (eg, creative labs t40 series 3 or something simliar) and connect them to the headphone output on the TV via either a 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm stereo cable or a 3.5 mm to dual RCA cable (depending on the input on the speakers?
Thanks

If you still want to do this you can extract audio from one of the SCART sockets on the back of the TV. You'll need something like this.

[concretesnail]

Fallows is on the money, if you can do it without letting the sound signal in to the tv that is much better. if you are connecting something like a 360 send the audio straight to an amp. if your not sure about surround go for a stereo amp, 80% of a movie is music and if a system can do music well, sound effects are soooo easy. cost wise you will get a better stereo amp pound for pound than a surround amp. and adding a sun will still be an option as some stereo amps have sub shannels or you can use a pass through signal on some active subs.