Speakers for old Samsung tv?

[DB72]

Hi... The built in speakers on my Dad's Samsung tv that's about 15 years old have been playing up for a while so I'm thinking of buying some cheap external speakers to plug in but I'm struggling to find some to connect via "Digital Audio Out (Optical)" that the tv seems to need.  Tech generally isn't my forte so I'm a bit lost.  He's a bit deaf so doesn't need anything fancy and also he's old so won't want to upgrade the tv unless absolutely necessary.

Any advice about finding some speakers and connecting via that format..? 

Thanks 

[aubrey]

Most, if not all, SoundBars would take an Optical In connector.

A SoundBar would be your solution.

Is it the normal optical connection which is kind of like a 5mm square hole. A toslink cable.

[Gaz]

Why not get a soundbar?

 

My QM4 is connected to the TV via the optical link:

https://www.whathifi.com/q-acoustics/media-4/review

 

Hearing impaired F-i-L said it was easy to hear.

 

Does your Dad wear hearing aids? - the other option would be a hearing loop to connect his aids to via the 'T' setting.

 

Gaz

[DB72]

3 minutes ago, aubrey said:

Is it the normal optical connection which is kind of like a 5mm square hole. A toslink cable.

 

It's approx. 5mm square(ish) connection with a red light shining out of it if I remember correctly. 

 

Thanks 

[DB72]

3 minutes ago, Gaz said:

Why not get a soundbar?

 

My QM4 is connected to the TV via the optical link:

https://www.whathifi.com/q-acoustics/media-4/review

 

Hearing impaired F-i-L said it was easy to hear.

 

Does your Dad wear hearing aids? - the other option would be a hearing loop to connect his aids to via the 'T' setting.

 

Gaz

 

He doesn't wear a hearing aid.  A sound bar might be ok but perhaps overkill.  I'm just wary of buying something and it not work as most equipment these days seem to mention bluetooth or hdmi. 

[PetrolDave]

Some soundbars also have a line in connection which you can connect to a headphone output from a TV.

[@Lee]

My five-year-old Samsung TV has the normal red and white audio out RCA sockets so I'm fairly sure your dad's TV will have as well. 
My old (2009) model Samsung had them as well.

[Lady Elanore]

I would recommend a soundbar as many have a built-in speech enhancement facility. Mostly it's a presence lift in the frequency spectrum, but it works surprisingly well and my father who is a bit hard of hearing finds it useful. Also,  many soundbars have phono inputs, 3.5mm inputs, optical inputs and can use a thing called "ARC". This is an HDMI connect that plugs to your telly and is labelled as such.

 

Normally HDMI sockets are there for you to plug stuff into, but the HDMI ARC socket can also put out audio and connect to things like Soundbars and feed them the correct type of sound, stereo, 5.1, Dolby Atmos (if your telly is the newer type and has eARC HDMI). But it is the easiest way to connect the sound bar and it also means the telly should select the sound bar when you switch it on as well as everything going into standby at the same time with one remote. 

 

If you take a picture or two of the back of your telly, we can see what connectors it has available. ARC HDMI is a great way for full optimisation without you having to do much  Have a Google for "Soundbars that are great for speech" 

[AGFalco]

If the TV has a Headphone socket then just plug in a pair of Computer Speakers like these:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Inspire-T10-Multimedia-Speakers-Black/dp/B000WQIKJ0/ref

 

You will also want a cable like this:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004G7O1PI/ref

 

Works well for me, not to expensive and just plug in and power up.

Just leave the volume turned up on the speakers and use the tv remote to change the volume.

 

Thanks. AG Falco

[DB72]

 

 

On 04/03/2024 at 21:31, AGFalco said:

If the TV has a Headphone socket then just plug in a pair of Computer Speakers like these:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Inspire-T10-Multimedia-Speakers-Black/dp/B000WQIKJ0/ref

 

You will also want a cable like this:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004G7O1PI/ref

 

Works well for me, not to expensive and just plug in and power up.

Just leave the volume turned up on the speakers and use the tv remote to change the volume.

 

Thanks. AG Falco

 

That's what I was first thinking AG Falco.  Not sure if there is a headphone socket.  I don't remember seeing one but I'd be surprised if it didn't.

 

If it doesn't have a headphone output then it seems a sound bar with a digital optical connection is probably the way to go although he has stated that it's not bothering him that much at the moment, so I'll just wait and see if it gets worse.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

[Lady Elanore]

Take a photo of the back of the telly and show us the connectors. 'ARC' is super easy and often the recommended way to use soundbars. Plug goes into telly's 'ARC HDMI' and put the other end into the soundbar. You might need to go to the telly menu to make sure everything is good for switching stuff on and off simultaneously (ie one button puts telly and soundbar into standby together, but YouTube can give you confidence for this and you might have to check menu anyway for Digital optic to ensure the right formatting for the device and also make sure the telly sound is turned off as otherwise you will have the telly sound and the soundbar sound competing with each other and not necessarily quite in sync with each other (a technical glitch that this technology can throw up occasionally). 

 

Google 'best soundbars for speech' and you will get many recommendations of soundbars with speech enhancement circuitry. I bought a Roku Soundbar for travelling, as it is not only a small, but has all the apps you need for Netflix, Prime, Disney, Apple etc if you stream stuff. It also has a speech enhancement setting that works pretty well as I showed to my father. Not expensive by the general pricing of soundbars, either, especially as it's a streaming stick built into a soundbar (which is quite a neat idea to my thinking). 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roku-Streambar-HDR-Streaming-Player-Soundbar-Black/dp/B08JTTPHJ4

 

A review...

 

https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/roku-streambar

 

 

If you feel you have to go 'Optical' the baby Sonos soundbar is generally thoroughly recommended. It's also quite small and has good speech clarity. It's twice the price of the Roku, but it will sound better and is still relatively cheap for a soundbar.

 

https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/sonos-ray

 

It really is a simple process which eve r route you take, and should require plugging up one cable and possibly a very quick check of the telly menu to ensure everything runs smoothly. Google is a big help if you need a confidence booster to add a soundbar  

[Lady Elanore]

A fairly rough guide to the connection types

 

If you are looking at Optical connectors, they are often referred to as"Toslink"  and the connectors are really cheap. You should take care when plugging them up, as they are slightly more fragile than a traditional connector (but not too much). They also have a fairly obvious symmetry to them ensuring they plug up in the correct way, they aren't cylindrical like a 'normal' jack plug. 

 

HDMI is the connector that we use for things like BluRays/DVD players etc but many years ago some clever engineers figured that as the cable carries both video and audio, it can be used as an audio only cable. This is where "ARC" comes in. It stands for "Audio Return Channel"  and carries not just bog-standard sound, but also things like Dolby Digital 5.1 and other stuff. The other stuff can include switching things on and off remotely and other clever things. In recent times the standard has become "eARC" (not relevant on a 15 year old telly as it won't have it), but this adds the latest digital sound encoding stuff like Dolby Atmos and audio sync things. 

 

An old telly may not even have "ARC" capability anyway, but it's interesting to know a little about these things, I think. In terms of connecting things in the future, Optical will probably die out eventually, as ARC/eARC over HDMI is superior. The irony is in Broadcasting Sound, Optical cable has become the norm over traditional copper cables  Ah for the good old days when I understood more stuff  

[DB72]

5 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

Take a photo of the back of the telly and show us the connectors. 

 

@Lady Elanore... Thanks for your detailed responses.  These are the connections taken from the instruction manual... Hopefully the photos are attached below...

[Lady Elanore]

Ooh, your telly has a lot of connection possibilities, however it does not appear to support 'ARC'. If I remember correctly, ARC came along with a spec called HDMI 1.4 and that would be around the time your telly was made by the sound of it. The good news is it has an optical link and it looks like the popular Toslink, so a Sonos soundbar or similar should work well. You might have to remember to turn the tv sound down separately otherwise you will have the soundbar and the telly both outputting sound simultaneously and that can lead to a degradation of the overall effect you are after. The Sonos systems sound great too. There are other great soundbars too of course, but I would look at the one I posted earlier as a base level to judge others by. 

[@Lee]

I'm sat looking at that bottom left SCART to RGB connectors right now - I was clearing out the TV stuff today. 

 

[Lady Elanore]

Ah, an absolute classic. Pin 8 was the annoying one I seem to recall, it did the voltage change that caused the telly to go widescreen or not  

 

Now I look at multi pin connectors and scream at them to get on with each other and do a ruddy handshake!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[@Lee]

1 hour ago, Lady Elanore said:

Ah, an absolute classic. Pin 8 was the annoying one I seem to recall, it did the voltage change that caused the telly to go widescreen or not  

 

Now I look at multi pin connectors and scream at them to get on with each other and do a ruddy handshake!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TBH I never used it. It was bought years ago for an old (2009) Samsung TV I bought. I'd totally forgotten what it was for but hung on to it thinking 'that'll come in handy one day' which it didn't. It's only this thread that I now know/ remember what it's for and why I bought it. (SCART VCR to non SCART TV) which I never needed in the end. 

 

I also discovered I now own over eight Firesticks and have paired them and their respective remotes up. Gen 1 to current 4K. And a Chromecast. 

Edited 7 March by @Lee

[Lady Elanore]

One day I will collect all my useless cables, adapter and such like...

 

 

 

 

and put them in an enormous bin bag and sling them all.

[@Lee]

4 minutes ago, Lady Elanore said:

One day I will collect all my useless cables, adapter and such like...

 

 

 

 

and put them in an enormous bin bag and sling them all.

If we're ever thrown back into the dark ages (pre HDMI) I'm more than sorted. 

I've enough copper cable with various jacks and connectors in the cellar to wind a power station generator

 

[Aspman]

On 07/03/2024 at 01:41, Lady Elanore said:

One day I will collect all my useless cables, adapter and such like...

 

 

 

 

and put them in an enormous bin bag and sling them all.

Nooooo,

they're not useless they're just waiting for their moment.

(he says hiding SCSI and coax cables)