I have a question about my 2.1 speakers

hdmaniac123 · Aug 27, 2020

Hi,
I have connected my PC to my Panasonic LED TV and I watch everything from news to movies by streaming.
I have connected my Creative SBS 2.1 speakers to the line out of my PC. I am really short on cash so can't buy a 5.1 setup.

The problem is if I increase the BASS of my subwoofer using the potentiometer which is at the back of the subwoofer everything thing
including the *voice* starts coming out of the subwoofer.

What I mean is suppose I am watching the news with subwoofer tuned to high the voice of the newsreader gets a BASS effect added to it.

This is really irritating.

If I keep the BASS level to a minimum then things like the news and sports sounds okay but as soon as a start a music video I immediately feel
the lack of BASS.

There is no easy solution to this isn't it ?

Conrad · Aug 27, 2020

This is likely because the crossover (the point where sound is transferred from the mains to the sub) is very high. Usually this would be at 80Hz, so below the pitch of most voices. With those little speakers it's probably much higher. I have a bose lifestyle system in my garage and that crosses over at about 250Hz. Yours might not be that high, but if it's 150+Hz then speech will be coming from it and turning it up will be boosting the bottom end and "tilting" the balance.

In short, sorry, no, no easy solutions. You'd ideally be looking a pair of bookshelf speakers, or a sub/speaker combo. You'd also need an amp unless you went with other active speakers.

Bookshelves would improve on the current sound quality, but not the bass level. You could probably do bookshelves and an amp for <£300/£400. Floorstanders would be about the same cost but with better bass. A sub/speaker combo would be more again but could probably be done for £500.