Sound bar (redux)

[Papa Bear]

A couple of years ago Mama Bear and I bought a new bottom of the line LG 46" LED television.
The picture was quite satisfactory but the audio quality was horrible ... almost made a person ill to listen to it.

I called LG to complain and the customer service girl suggested I add a sound bar to it. I suggested they build the set with descent speakers and we agreed to hang up.

Mama Bear and I flopped the TV face down on a pillow on the coffee table and I removed the back screws. I drilled a 3/16 hole in the bottom of the cabinet and ran a pair of light speaker wires up the hole. I cut the existing speaker wires and soldered my new wires one to them (observing channel and polarity).

To the new speaker wires I attached a pair of 30 yr old Radio Shack Minimus 7's..... the TV sounds unbelievably GREAT !!!


Time .... ~ 30 mins
Cost .... $.0.00 ( I had the speakers from an old surround stereo)
Quality of viewing experience .... "priceless"


Happy New Year !!

P.B.

 

[dishdude]

Great suggestion! The amps in those TVs are usually pretty decent (10w/ch) but as you saw the magnets on those tiny speakers just can't produce anything but tinny sound. They could add speaker terminals, but it's more profitable to sell you the sound bar!

 

[gathermewool]

Awesome! Great way to save money.

The speakers in our Samsumg sounded surprisingly good, but there was a lack of depth, for obvious reasons, and very little low-end. Instead of the more popular options, I took a gamble on a refurb Yamaha ATS-1520, connected via optical.

I'm currently listening to Slacker Radio via Bluetooth, while typing this from my [censored] little netbook.

It's one of the few relatively cheap powered sets that I've experienced where 1. the sound is balanced, 2. the bass boost is appropriate and doesn't drown out the mids and highs, and 3. the overall volume required is low, since it is so clear. The highs aren't tinny and the mid and lows aren't muddy.

Like your experience, the difference is fantastic and worth every penny.

 

[BigCahuna]

My only complaint with my LG TV is, the lack of volume. When turned all the way up, it is what would be a 4-5 on my other set.,,,

 

[shiny]

In my LG set the tiny, tinny speakers face backwards. How stupid is that?! So I got a Zvox, which is great. But I like the cost of your solution better. Wish I had thought of it.

 

[DBMaster]

Has anyone tried using amplified computer speakers plugged into the headphone jack? Some of those inexpensive computer speaker sets sound great and some come with subwoofers. Most are far cheaper than a soundbar and are still compact.

My 2006 vintage Vizio has decent sound and when I want better I turn on my 90's vintage stereo amp. The TV has pre-amp speaker outputs on the back.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Has anyone tried using amplified computer speakers plugged into the headphone jack?

It will work. The problem is you will have to manually turn them on/off as most of them are not remote controlled.

 

[dishdude]

If your TV has a USB port, you can get a pair of USB powered speakers and solve the on/off problem.

 

[DBMaster]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Has anyone tried using amplified computer speakers plugged into the headphone jack?

It will work. The problem is you will have to manually turn them on/off as most of them are not remote controlled.


It's not necessarily an issue to just leave the speakers powered up all the time, but you do have a point. If this were the only issue a remote controller that plugs into a wall outlet could be a solution.