Hooking up a set of hi-fi speakers

[Asura]

A while back, someone on a forum (I think it might have been AVForums) was talking about how pretty much any hi-fi speakers will give better quality sound than any modern flat-screen TV speakers, simply due to the TV speakers being so low profile (and many TV manufacturers skimping on them anyway, as it's a difficult feature to demo in Currys - as opposed to investing in daft frame-interpolating features that people somehow think makes the picture look better).

So I was thinking of going out to my local recycling centre and picking up a set of wooden-frame speakers from one of the older hi-fi sets there (saw a few good ones recently, Sony ones from the mid-90s, that sort of thing), but many of them have weird connectors. I assume they're going to need an amplifier or something.

Has anyone here done this? Typically, what do you need to do it relatively cheaply?

And I don't mean "audiophile cheap", i.e. "everything under ?10,000 without solid gold cables is so terrible I couldn't bear listening to it", I just mean a reasonable improvement over what my TV is likely putting out right now.

[nakamura]

You could buy a pair of speakers that plug into the headphones jack. I had a pair back in 1997 that were very good. Miles better than any rubbish tv speakers but perhaps.not quite stereo speaker standard.
Things could be better now.

[speedlolita]

My old setup was some B&W DM560 for ?50, an older Rotel amplifier for ?50 and about a tenner worth of cables.

My current setup is Monitor Audio RX1 (?300 >_>), my Cambridge Audio Azur 340A was ?40 or something like that and again about a tenner worth of cables.

I'd recommend at least getting an amplifier with a remote volume so that you can hook it up to the RCA of your TV and use the amp to control the volume.

The difference will be night and day too. I would tend to avoid Sony speakers though to be honest, if you can find something like Tannoy, B&W, Denon, Cambridge Audio, Mission or anything similar to them would be better. Older Wharfedale Diamond offer great value for money.

[Asura]

My old setup was some B&W DM560 for ?50, an older Rotel amplifier for ?50 and about a tenner worth of cables.

My current setup is Monitor Audio RX1 (?300 >_>), my Cambridge Audio Azur 340A was ?40 or something like that and again about a tenner worth of cables.

I'd recommend at least getting an amplifier with a remote volume so that you can hook it up to the RCA of your TV and use the amp to control the volume.

The difference will be night and day too. I would tend to avoid Sony speakers though to be honest, if you can find something like Tannoy, B&W, Denon, Cambridge Audio, Mission or anything similar to them would be better. Older Wharfedale Diamond offer great value for money.

It seems the only outputs from my telly are a headphone jack and a digital audio jack; is that going to be a problem?

Will continue to look into this. I could really do with a small amp, something the size of a matchbox. I probably don't need the range of features offered by a hi-fi separate that's as big as a console.

[speedlolita]

You won't get an amp that small.

Headphone jack works but RCA is preferred. Odd that your TV wouldn't have RCA out too.

[smouty]

A set of PC or other 'active' speakers would be fine e.g. http://uk.creative.com/p/speakers/sb...FSsKwwodyBAAFw

[Asura]

I brought through a pair of Creative speakers from my old computer (they're powered stereo 2.0) - these ones:



They do sound better, and you're right, the difference is night-and-day.

However, there's a problem; the TV volume controller won't change the input volume on them. Instead, it has a "headphone volume" slider buried under 2 levels of menus. It's fine for when running the PC through the TV, as I can change the PC's volume via my wireless keyboard, but it means that when using the TV tuner, or PS3, or any other console, I can't easily change the volume. Even if I hit "mute", it just mutes the TV speakers (which are turned to zero anyway).

I suppose Panasonic assume that if the user wants to mute headphones, they would just take them off?

Still, it's a bit ****. It makes the setup a bit unworkable except for use with the PC. I'm quite surprised that I can't find some kind of menu option for "make headphone output behave like speakers and mute the TV speakers" but there doesn't appear to be one.

EDIT: Ugh, had a look online and it appears to be a common complaint with recent Panasonic TVs, that there is no option to do this. It's in deference to people who might watch TV with someone who is hard-of-hearing, and want two volumes - a lower one from the TV speakers and a much higher one coming out of the headphones, so unlike older TVs, the speakers don't instantly switch off when you plug in headphones.

I have no problem with that, but there should at least be an option to switch the TV speakers permanently off, which would also make the remote's volume controls and mute switch act upon the headphone output.

FURTHER EDIT: More googling shows this to be an unfixable problem. It can only really be dealt with by turning the TV speakers down to zero, then having an external amp with its own volume control that can be turned up/down. Well, at least I didn't waste any more time on this, as that's probably further than I wanted to go.

I'll keep these PC speakers plugged in, and I'll just turn them on specifically when I'm watching Blu-rays or something.

[speedlolita]

That sounds pretty damn awful.

[charlesr]

Solved, and you need this.

This assumes that the "digital audio jack" you refer to is a digital coax RCA

It almost certainly doesn't solve the remote volume issue, but does solve the "kick ass sound from the TV" issue.

[wod]

Solved, and you need this.

This assumes that the "digital audio jack" you refer to is a digital coax RCA

It almost certainly doesn't solve the remote volume issue, but does solve the "kick ass sound from the TV" issue.

charlesr, do these speakers have analogue rca inputs as well as digital ?

I'm looking for some speakers for my tv which isnt anything fancy but does have the red/white rca outputs for sound to some external speakers with the bonus of plugging in ps3/4 etc.