A totally mad idea!

[soundman2]

This might have you all laughing! It's a well-known fact that flat screen TV's are noted for their lack of decent sound especially below a certain screen size. So how about this. I have a 37 inch Panasonic LCD TV and I would love to fit a couple of 3.5mm jack sockets so that I could plug a pair of decent bookshelf type HIFI speakers into it. The audio is quite acceptable, but a few years back I had an old Sanyo 25 inch CRT TV and the sound was awful due to small crappy internal speakers.

Just for the hell of it, I disconnected the internal speakers and put spring loaded speaker terminals on the cabinet to fit a pair of external speakers. The difference was outstanding! How difficult would it be to do this on a modern flat screen TV? Any ideas? Maybe someone, somewhere has done it!

[CoogarXR]

It would probably be fine as long as the impedance on the original speakers is close to the impedance on the new ones.

When I did my sacrilegious LCD-inside-a-porthole-cabinet job, I used a cheap Emerson 20" 4:3 LCD TV, and I hooked up the original zenith 10" alnico speaker to the speaker output on the Emerson. Works great, sounds fine. Way better than the original "squeakers".

[Eric H]

It would probably work as long as the speaker impedance was close.
Does the TV have audio output jacks? Hooking up an external amp and speakers through the output jacks would be an even better sounding solution since the internal amp is probably quite puny.

[Jeffhs]

If you are connecting external speakers to any late-model solid state TV, be careful you don't short the speaker terminals -- to each other or to ground. I mention this because some SS televisions, particularly RCA/Thomson sets of the '80s and '90s, have a "hot chassis" and will be severely and permanently damaged if the speaker leads are accidentally shorted or grounded. I found this out while looking up, online, some info on my RCA/Thomson CTC185A7 19" CRT TV a couple of years ago. The best and safest way to connect external amplifiers or speakers to modern SS televisions is through the audio input/output jacks of a VCR.

[soundman2]

Great to see others who are like-minded! Our TV is 10 watts per channel so it will easily drive a decent pair of speakers. Never had the back off an LCD TV so I'll need to investigate further!

[dr.ido]

Most flat panel TVs use Class-T digital/switching amplifiers. As long as the impedance is the same they'll work. There will be more than enough power as the tiny/thin speakers used in some sets are so inefficient you need 5-10 watts to get anything out of them.

Some sets process the crap out of the audio to match the speakers, so they may sound weird/wrong with normal speakers.

I'd run the line out/optical out into an external amp/receiver myself.

[snelson903]

i would use the amp plan, that way you just go through audio jacks or make your own from the tv,that way nothing gets overloaded and hurt the tv. just watch polarity on your jacks to the amp ,i use a tube amp on my PC for sound .

[soundman2]

Liking the suggestions guys!

[N8NM]

I'm just running the line audio output into an amplified set of computer speakers (with powered sub.) Sounds better than most of those "sound bars" that I've heard at a fraction of the price.

It's kind of funny, this particular TV has it's speakers firing out of the rear and sounds great when you're standing behind it. Unfortunately, that's not the best viewing angle :-)

[soundman2]

I think all the makers of flat-screen TV's should fit external speaker sockets so that folks can have a choice whether to use the sets own speakers or fit a good pair of external ones! . I don't like the soundbar things either.

[vinljnkie]

I have a 19" Coby LED set in my bedroom that I got for Christmas a couple years ago and I used the headphone jack to plug in a pair of decent computer speakers and it sounds much better then the tiny little bitty speakers that come with it.

[Celt]

My JVC has a speaker 1/4" TRS speaker out on it's rear and I have my exponential horns hooked up to it.

[Olorin67]

If I ever upgrade to a "modern" tv, I want to find a vintage stereo console to set it on, and use for sound. Preferably one of the models with front panel doors and not a lift up lid so the tv wont interfere with the lid.