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I hope you guys won't find this to be heresy, but I've never cared much about TV sound. Until this week I've been watching a 20-something inch Sony CRT, and listening in stereo to a set of Cambridge Soundworks powered sub/sat speakers I had lying around, which I fed from the TV using its volume control. It was good enough for me.
My gal likes movies a lot, though, and she came into a small amount of dough and we went and bought a 61" Samsung DLP. Nice picture! But now I've got a $2000 TV with $20 sound. I thought "Simple enough, I'll just hook the speakers back up for now". BUT - as far as I can see reading the book the volume control on the set (and therefore the remote, and the Tivo remote) only works on the internal speakers. If you mute them, the audio-out jacks on the TV revert to full volume and you're expected to control the volume with your AV receiver. This is a drag for me, as I don't have an AV receiver, or in fact any receiver with a wireless remote. And even if I did, as far as I can tell that means either I have another remote to find in the dark just for volume, or I go program some universal remote which will handle both the input switching tasks at the TV and the volume at the reciever at the same time, losing all the custom functions built into the TV and Tivo remotes (or attempt to program them in, making the original paid-for and properly designed remotes redundant). This strikes me as a very stupid design.
Still, I've got to do something soon or I'm gonna go nuts with the telephone quality sound coming out of the TV. I know in the olden days there used to be add-on surround-sound processors, which would take in a stereo input and feed it back out under volume control, balanced with low-power amplifiers built in to drive surround channels. I could make something like that work, using it in stereo for now and maybe adding some surround speakers at some point if I felt like playing with it. Or I could use passive speakers (I've got some around that are good enough) for the front channels if a better choice of equipment would involve built-in amps for all channels. Space considerations are not going to allow for a subwoofer or center channel speaker, and I'd ideally like the device itself to be no wider than a series2 Tivo (ie about 17" wide max or less). Plus it's gotta be cheap cheap cheap - either new or easily available used, but ideally under $100 - I'd maybe go to $150 if I had to but that's the absolute top. I don't care about extra features or audiophile quality sound, I just need something functional. Any suggestions?
Follow Ups:
Doesn't your new TV have a headphone output? It's probably a 1/8" mini-jack..., you can get a mini-jack to RCA cable at Radio Shack and feed the sound to the cheapo amp/speakers you were already using. Volume will change with the remote too.
Thanks, it's a good idea and one I hadn't considered, but I've checked and Samsung didn't include a headphone jack. Cheap so-and-sos....
There's some worthwhile digital surround AV receivers for about $100, if you watch for close-outs, big rebates, etc. I think that's a better investment than some HTIAB. I'm not comfortable with having the DVD player built-in since if it dies, it can't be as easily replaced as an external DVD player.
Go to your local Best Buy and see if they have any closeout NS-H2001 left for $64.
Otherwise the successor NS-H2002 is $94 this week
5.1 sound, 200 watts total, small sub, DVD player and AM/FM
My experience toth NS-2001 is that it propduces lots of clean sound with deep bass given the smaller sub, and the price is unbeatable.
Check out specs of either product at www.insignia-products.com
Probably not a bad suggestion. I really do mean to go just stereo for now, though, and I wonder if given that I've already got a couple of decent passive speakers to work with I might not do better to get this:
http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Boston-Acoustics-Progressive-Scan-DVD-Receiver/2519404/product.html?IID=prod2519404
recently divorced from their apparently overpriced ($1200) htib. I'm under no illusion that the cheese factor on this is particularly lower than the Insignia product (BA is a speaker company, and I'm sure they just went to China and said "Brand us up a box to sell with these speakers"), but since they do sell the speakers separately, the amps in this box ought to be flat - so I should be able to fit almost any speakers I want on there in the future. I'm leaning in that direction, anyway, but am still listening. Thanks for the reply.
I'm stumped. If there is an amp in the box what is it? Will it drive 5 speakers and a sub, or just 2?
Before i bought this I would check the specs out somewhere else, perhaps on the Boston Acoustics Website and see if I could learn more about what is in it for amplifiers..
I know for sure the Insignia has a toggle on the remote and allows you to run it in 2 channel mode, and you should be able to simply replace the Front L & R speakers with your own, using the others as surrounds for 5.1 or not.
and am still stumped as to what the amplification consists of.
Maybe if I had downloaded the big users guide I could figure it out, but not on the spec sheets I read
I read the Owner's manual on the BA site (in PDF). It's a receiver, with a progressive scanning DVD player built in. There are amps for front, rear and ctr channel speakers, and a line out for a subwoofer. It can be set to stereo or a few different surround modes (ProLogic II for the analog inputs, Dolby Digital or DTS for the built in DVD player or optical input). They sold it with their own speakers and powered subwoofer as a system, but apparently it didn't go over too well. 2004 price for what looks like about $800 worth of speakers at their MSRP and this amp was $1200. They're still making a half hearted attempt to sell it with the speakers at I think $700, but at $70 for the amp alone I think I might take a flyer. If it really doesn't work out at all for my current purpose, it can always end up as an AM/FM radio with built in CD player and amp out in the garage...
Having just read the big manual myself, what is odd is that there is nothing in the spec sheet that says anything about the outrput power being sent to the 5 channels.
Clearly, its intended to be hooked to a powered sub and there is no amplification for a sub inside the receiver, as the Insignia does.
THe other differences I see is that the BA version decodes DTS as well as Dolby digital 5.1, whereas the Insignia has only the Dolby The Dolby is found on all DVDs and is basically a requirement for every DVD, whereas the DTS capability is optional, and available on onle a few discs. As I understand it DTS takes up a lot of disk space and normally is not found on a disc with a long movie. There are the optical connections on the BA which I believe is needed for the DTS to work
Depending on Insignia model, there may be audio out connections on the BA not present on the Insignia, and there appears to be a second pair of component video inputs on the BA
Otherwise, the on-screen menus etc look strikingly similar on both. I can see why BA Was having trouble moving these for $700 w/o speakers when INsignia was selling essentially the same thing for $70 inc 5 speakers and a small sub.
But if you dont want/need the speakers and want the additional flex offered by the additional inputs and outputs, the Overstock price on the BA is good. You can always add rear channel speakers and a self-powered sub later.
See link below for the budget 5.1 channel speaker system with powered subwoofer to ideally pair with the overstock BA unit.
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