Soundbar or powered monitor speakers? (1 Viewer)

[mszak50]

I have an insignia 47" TV in a 13 x 17 room where the dialogue is hard to understand frequently. The couch is about 11 feet from the tv. In the past I have has low end brand surround sound systems attached - but tey usually break after a few years and end up in the trash.I am looking for options to improve the quality of the dialog. Do I go with a sound bar or powered studio monitors? If the latter where should they be mounted ?My budget is 500 US for this project - any help would be greatly appreciated !

 

[schan1269]

We need to know the hookups the TV has...

Toslink/digital coax?
Analog(fixed/variable)?

What other sources are there? (BD/DVD/cable-sat)

Want surround...or just 2 channel?

 

[mszak50]

It has spidf out, headphoneout, and RCA red/white out.

it has 3 HDMI inputs - one core the cable box, one for the bluray player and one with chrome cast.

Mostly this is about hearing the dialogue more clearly - my wife is deaf in one hear, so surround sound does not help her, and I was never a fan of getting rumbled out of my seat. We tend to not watch a lot of action movies anyways - dramas and comedies are what we watch for the most part.

It would be great if we could somehow hook an iPod to this as well, but that is certainly optional.

 

[schan1269]

Any stereo receiver and a pair of speakers will do what you ask.

 

[mszak50]

Just to close the loop I ended up getting a pair of audioengine a5s and plugging them into the headphone out jack on the TV. They sound great and were simple to hook up!

 

[schan1269]

Glad you got it sorted.