We have an elderly Sharp Aquos TV. We bought it when analogue signals were still traipsing through the ether and it was advertised as 'HD ready'. The TV plays through a BT box so I can get Netflix and the catch-up apps through our provider, Talktalk. Mrs H and I would like to improve the sound quality and wonder if a sound bar is the way to go. The TV will do wired connections only so no Bluetooth and it certainly isn't smart, but we both like the picture and certainly can't afford to replace it. We don't listen to music on it so I doubt that we need a meaty bass speaker. I have hearing difficulties but it's more to do with direction and clarity than volume; suggested aids from an audiologist for me look like tiny machine guns stuck in my ears, which I declined. Mrs H's hearing is good enough for her to sing in the local ladies' choir and to detect me opening a bar of chocolate in the garage. We are both over 65.
Am I on the right track or will it be subtitles for ever more?
TIA.
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Can't comment on the sound bar, but another option is to connect it into your stereo amplifier if you have one, and play through the stereo speakers, which is what we do. Depends where your stereo is though, all of our media technology sits with the TV and the speakers are in the correct position either side of the TV unit. The sound quality is far superior to the inbuilt speakers, so I guess it will achieve what you want.
All you need to check is whether you have analogue or digital output from your TV, I'm guessing it will probably be analogue if it's not a smart TV. Ours is about 8-9 years old and is only slightly smart, but it only has digital output, which meant buying a converter to plug it into our amp. And you might find that sound bars only have digital input as they are a relatively new idea.
Last edited by: Mike H on Thu 7 Jan 21 at 17:46
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I've cordless headphones that I sometimes use. My telly lets me choose whether or not they disable the speaker. I also am able to feed the audio to my audio amp, when I really want to blast it out!
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1/ Buy a reasonable pair of good stereo PC speakers that plug into the headphone socket of the TV
www.amazon.co.uk/ELEGIANT-Bluetooth-Down-Firing-Subwoofer-Multimedia-Brown-Wicker-Pure-White-Liner/dp/B08DCZGNTT/
These are just an example, not a recommendation
2/ Buy a Blutooth sender and use blutooth ear buds
www.amazon.co.uk/FirstE-Bluetooth-Transmitter-Headphones-Transmission-tx80/dp/B06Y57H7H2/
Again just an example
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 7 Jan 21 at 18:01
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The headphones will help. I went down that route with a Bluetooth sender a few years back bit if you are suffering from age related hearing loss with typically loss of the upper end of the scale then they will not really resolve the problem with speech. If an audiologist recommends a hearing aid then give it a go.
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I was watching stuff last night with old bluetooth headphones. I'd forgotten these cheap ones don't have whatever tech is required to prevent audio lag.
The sound and pictures were about a second apart. Awful.
So check your acronyms before purchase of headphones for a tv. Unless they all have whatever it takes these days.
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I think you will always get some lag with Bluetooth but if your TV and phones have version 5 it is liveable with.
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>> I think you will always get some lag with Bluetooth but if your TV and
>> phones have version 5 it is liveable with.
No lag at all with my KS funk25 bluetooth buds
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I guess that both your sender and earbuds are v 5.0 then. Technically I believe there is always a slight delay because of the way Bluetooth works but perhaps not perceptible. My older Bose headphones have a noticeable lag although I can live with it but I no longer use them much for watching TV post hearing aid.
It’s a shame that TVs aren’t yet Bluetooth compatible with hearing aids in the way my iPhone is so the audio could be streamed direct to the aids
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Either my telly or a now-disposed surround system had a sound "nudge" where you could move the soundtrack forwards or backwards a bit to try to sync it.
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Swallow your pride and take the audiologists advice. Hearing aids will change your life.
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Thank you all for your helpful replies.
Update;
Although I may end up with the dreadful directional hearing aids, I'm not ready for them, or earbuds yet and it's more to do with having 'things' in my ear than vanity.
I've used cordless headphones in the past when I had an insomniac phase; I think they were IR driven. They were uncomfortable when worn with the spectacles I need to see the telly.
Anyway, the son we have still living at home got involved and produced a dusty set of 3 speakers that used to be wired to his PC. It has a 3.5mm jack and needs a USB power supply, both of which were found on the side of the TV. In the experimental phase last night there seemed much more clarity in the speech, which was fine, but the music that accompanies nearly all speech in films and dramas nowadays seemed unnecessarily loud; not so fine.
I think we're on the right track with external speakers (thanks Mr Z).
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We bought one of these. I expected little from it except to overcome the difficulties I had making out poorly recorded mumbly dialogue through the tiny or rear firing speakers fitted to a typical flat panel TV, in this case a 50" Panasonic.
smile.amazon.co.uk/PANASONIC-SC-HTB208EBK-Wireless-Compact-Sound/dp/B07F1VCXY4/
Simple, sits below the TV between its feet. Doesn't do the ground-shaking cinema bass thing which I find wearing anyway, isn't hifi but makes the difference between being able to hear dialogue and not. Very occasionally we find a film that's too mumbly to bother with but it's a rarity now - it happened a couple of nights ago for the first time in months.
A friend of mine who actually has hearing aids had the same problem with dialogue. He got one and found it a worthwhile improvement.
I don't think it's quite as good as an entry level Sony soundbar with sub, no longer available and bought for the same purpose and written off in the house fire, but I'm happy it's doing what I needed.
We use it on an optical connection, invariably when watching with a Fire stick, and rarely notice any sync problems. The Fire remote can change the volume but doesn't always succeed in switching the sound bar on at the same time as it does the TV so we always keep the sound bar remote handy too. There are no tone controls, just presets for normal/music/cinema which make subtle differences.
Last edited by: Manatee on Sat 9 Jan 21 at 13:04
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Sound bar- nanny help please - Mike H
