Do any modern TVs have external speaker sockets?

Drifting round John Lewis the other day and peering at the various
connections on the backs, I wondered why none of the sets seemed to have
external speaker connections available.

As the sets get thinner, the sound quality gets worse. Yet the only way
to get decent sound seems to be through complicated connections to
external amps, soundbars, and the like. The audio outputs from TVs can
easily supply tens of watts to speakers, so why not have a simple
speaker output to a couple of stereo speakers?

Or is it that rather than do that, the manufacturers want us to spend a
fortune on 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound equipment, rather than a couple of
speakers which we probably already have available?

--

Jeff

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
Drifting round John Lewis the other day and peering at the
various connections on the backs, I wondered why none of
the sets seemed to have external speaker connections
available.

As the sets get thinner, the sound quality gets worse.
Yet the only way to get decent sound seems to be through
complicated connections to external amps, soundbars, and
the like. The audio outputs from TVs can easily supply
tens of watts to speakers, so why not have a simple
speaker output to a couple of stereo speakers?

Or is it that rather than do that, the manufacturers want
us to spend a fortune on 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound
equipment, rather than a couple of speakers which we
probably already have available?


Two solutions:
Get a half decent pair of computer speakers and plug into
the headphone socket;
If you have a spare pair of proper speakers find yourself a
small cheap secondhand hi-fi amp and use that to drive them,
again using the headphone output.

I have faced a similar problem in our caravan as my wife has
a hearing deficiency. I built a small line amp (from a
Maplin kit) which feeds into the (fitted) car radio and
source it from the TV headphone socket. It not only works
well but the audio quality is significantly better without
the need for the volume levels.


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

In article , Jeff Layman
wrote:

The audio outputs from TVs can easily supply tens of watts to speakers,
so why not have a simple speaker output to a couple of stereo speakers?

I wonder if this is true for modern run-of-the-mill TVs. Maybe they are
more like portable radios these days and can just supply a few watts peak
at high levels of distortion? Be interested in anyone who can give measured
figures.

Or is it that rather than do that, the manufacturers want us to spend a
fortune on 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound equipment, rather than a couple of
speakers which we probably already have available?

If you already have good speakers, you probably also have a decent amp to
drive them. And if you already use them in the same room for audio, why not
also for the TV?

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

On Thu, 2 Jan 2014 08:54:14 -0000, Woody wrote:

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
Drifting round John Lewis the other day and peering at the
various connections on the backs, I wondered why none of
the sets seemed to have external speaker connections
available.

As the sets get thinner, the sound quality gets worse.
Yet the only way to get decent sound seems to be through
complicated connections to external amps, soundbars, and
the like. The audio outputs from TVs can easily supply
tens of watts to speakers, so why not have a simple
speaker output to a couple of stereo speakers?

Or is it that rather than do that, the manufacturers want
us to spend a fortune on 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound
equipment, rather than a couple of speakers which we
probably already have available?

My Panny has no audio output other than SPDIF and HDMI (one socket has AVR).

Two solutions:
Get a half decent pair of computer speakers and plug into
the headphone socket;
If you have a spare pair of proper speakers find yourself a
small cheap secondhand hi-fi amp and use that to drive them,
again using the headphone output.

This worked well on the Samsung but not on the Panny. The socket on the
Panny doesn't cut the speakers and the volume control has no effect, so I
use it on Freesat only. If I go to Freeview the sound blasts out.

I have faced a similar problem in our caravan as my wife has
a hearing deficiency. I built a small line amp (from a
Maplin kit) which feeds into the (fitted) car radio and
source it from the TV headphone socket. It not only works
well but the audio quality is significantly better without
the need for the volume levels.


--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

I suspect its the way to sell other kit. i bet most of the manufacturers
have their own branded sound systems.
it has always been that way. Not too many tvs have speaker sockets. Also
many tvs have fixed tweaks in their amps to ofset thetinny speak problem to
some extent, so to give you sockets, they would have to disable that
somehow. add to this that they consider most people incapable of not
shorting out the speakers and blowing the set up.
What socket do they fit? Where is the standard for this?
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
Drifting round John Lewis the other day and peering at the various
connections on the backs, I wondered why none of the sets seemed to have
external speaker connections available.

As the sets get thinner, the sound quality gets worse. Yet the only way
to get decent sound seems to be through complicated connections to
external amps, soundbars, and the like. The audio outputs from TVs can
easily supply tens of watts to speakers, so why not have a simple speaker
output to a couple of stereo speakers?

Or is it that rather than do that, the manufacturers want us to spend a
fortune on 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound equipment, rather than a couple of
speakers which we probably already have available?

--

Jeff

In article ,
Jeff Layman wrote:
Drifting round John Lewis the other day and peering at the various
connections on the backs, I wondered why none of the sets seemed to have
external speaker connections available.

As the sets get thinner, the sound quality gets worse. Yet the only way
to get decent sound seems to be through complicated connections to
external amps, soundbars, and the like. The audio outputs from TVs can
easily supply tens of watts to speakers, so why not have a simple
speaker output to a couple of stereo speakers?

Or is it that rather than do that, the manufacturers want us to spend a
fortune on 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound equipment, rather than a couple of
speakers which we probably already have available?

Apart from cost, I'd say it's because the internal amp is 'fiddled' to
cope with the small rear facing speakers.

It more annoys me that they don't provide an analogue line output. How
many Hi-Fi amps have an optical input? And is a long optical cable (and
wall plates) to reach a distant amp even possible?

--
*Someday, we'll look back on this, laugh nervously and change the subject

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Woody wrote:
Two solutions:
Get a half decent pair of computer speakers and plug into
the headphone socket;
If you have a spare pair of proper speakers find yourself a
small cheap secondhand hi-fi amp and use that to drive them,
again using the headphone output.

The headphone output on my Samsung is not of the highest quality. It has
what sounds like old fashioned frame buzz on it which changes with picture
content. I've not yet rigged up the optical output to my Hi-Fi. I'm hoping
that at least will be 'clean'.

--
*I'm pretty sure that sex is better than logic, but I can't prove it.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article , Dave Plowman (News)
wrote:
In article , Jeff Layman
wrote:
Drifting round John Lewis the other day and peering at the various
connections on the backs, I wondered why none of the sets seemed to
have external speaker connections available.


It more annoys me that they don't provide an analogue line output. How
many Hi-Fi amps have an optical input? And is a long optical cable (and
wall plates) to reach a distant amp even possible?

The longest 'optical' digital lead I have is 5 metres. This works OK. But
at such lengths for the 'plastic rope' leads, success will depend on the
details of the transmitter and receiver as well as the quality of the lead.
Found other other leads half that length that don't work.

FWIW Use this with a cheap DAC from CPC as part of one of my DIY
'headDACs' and it seems fine. Works at 96k as well.

For longer leads I'd probably use an optical-coax convertor and a long run
of coax for the spdif.

On 02 Jan in uk.tech.digital-tv, Dave Plowman (News)
wrote:
I've not yet rigged up the optical output to my Hi-Fi. I'm hoping
that at least will be 'clean'.

Optical should at least avoid ground or rf loops. After that, it'll depend
on the source, etc.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

In article ,
Jim Lesurf wrote:
It more annoys me that they don't provide an analogue line output. How
many Hi-Fi amps have an optical input? And is a long optical cable (and
wall plates) to reach a distant amp even possible?

The longest 'optical' digital lead I have is 5 metres. This works OK.
But at such lengths for the 'plastic rope' leads, success will depend on
the details of the transmitter and receiver as well as the quality of
the lead. Found other other leads half that length that don't work.

All the wiring twixt TV and Hi-Fi goes under the floor here. Is it
possible to go TV to wallplate in optical, then wallplate to amp again in
optical? I have room for an optical to analogue converter at the Hi-Fi -
but not at the TV.

--
*I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 02/01/2014 08:38, Jeff Layman wrote:
Drifting round John Lewis the other day and peering at the various
connections on the backs, I wondered why none of the sets seemed to have
external speaker connections available.

As the sets get thinner, the sound quality gets worse. Yet the only way
to get decent sound seems to be through complicated connections to
external amps, soundbars, and the like.



complicated how?
a hdmi cable will do it with the right bar/amplifier - no complication
at all.


--
Gareth.
That fly.... Is your magic wand.