Advice needed on extra speakers for tv

[Debicj]

I recently bought a 32" tv which is now wall mounted with all wires inside the wall.

The sound is tinny and I would like to improve it as easily and cheaply as possible. I don't want surround sound or anything fancy, just a bit of an improvement on what is there now.

I thought I could just buy a pair of small speakers such as those used with a computer and plug them into the tv. However, when I have looked at speakers, I notice that some need to plugged in to the mains. I don't want to use the mains because then I would have to have a wire trailing up the wall to the speakers which would look messy.

Any suggestions please?

thanks

 

[MaturityDodger]

Unfortunately, any speakers here will require power.
Your TV won't have audio amplifiers linked up to external connections, just line-level outputs. So passive speakers won't work.

There could be a workaround though. What cables do you have in the wall? If you've got an HDMI, and the TV has ARC, then we might be able to do something.

 

[Debicj]

Thanks for the quick reply.

There is a HDMI cable. It is not in the wall but attached to tv. If speakers could be attached to this it would be ok as the wire could be tucked out of sight if the speakers were fixed just above or below the tv.

I don't know what ARC is. How would I find out if my tv has this?

Here's a link to the tv that might be useful.

http://www.marksandspencer.com/3210...031&pf_rd_p=215570647&pf_rd_s=related-items-3

 

[MaturityDodger]

No, they can't go directly to the HDMI. There would need to be an AVR (large receiver box) which decodes and amplifies it and then connects to speakers.
I was hoping your HDMI would go to a corner somewhere so you can put the AVR out of the way, and then put speakers wherever you want.

ARC is Audio Return Channel. If it has HDMI 1.4, then if will have ARC. The manual should say. The TV's HDMI input could well have ARC written on it.

But anyway, have you literally only got power and aerial cables in the wall, going to the TV?

 

[Debicj]

Yes, I only have power and aerial cables in the wall going to the tv. There are other cables attached to the tv so that I could attach a laptop or wii if I want to at any time, but these cables are just tucked out of sight at the top of the tv.

It is going to be too difficult to get more cables through the wall as my husband really struggled with the power and aerial.

 

[StevieBuck]

The only passive (unpowered) speakers you could get that would work with the TV would be a small set of portable ones that connect via the headphone output. Typically these are fairly low-end units and don’t deliver much on sound quality. I doubt they would offer any kind of improvement over the TV’s built in speakers.

Unless you find a workaround for the cables, it looks like you’re stuck with the TV speakers.

 

[Debicj]

Thanks for your help. It looks like I'll have to put up with it for now then.