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Hi all.  

I currently have the Sonos Amp (not new one) with a pair of Bronze Monitor Audio 2 book shelf speakers (decent £250 bookshelf speakers) that I use for music in my lounge. Sounds great.  Not plugged into TV due to the audio delay (i tried years ago to sort this but there didn’t seem to be a work around). so been listening to the TV Native speakers. Yeah I know, sounds pants. 

My current TV is a 9 yr old 40” Samsung that doesn’t have ARC HDMI input. 

 

Anyway, despite ideally wanting to spend on a separate AV receiver for flexibility of speakers and upgrades, I think for simplicity's sake I will carry on with the Sonos alternatives. 

 

I know if I upgrade my TV to an ARC-HDMI and trade in my old amp for a new amp I can have my TV use the the two Bronze speakers to get what would be an upgrade on my TV sound. 

I do listen to music a lot in the lounge so I thought this method would mean I still have a pretty dedicated stereo music amp connected to my Bronze speakers while upgrading the TV sound (I keep reading a dedicated stereo amp sounds better than an AV receiver)

I dont really want to use the Bronze as rears as They are positioned near the TV for music listening and these as tweeters would be an overkill anyway.

Basically, if upgrade my TV, I don’t really want to buy a Sonos Beam AND a new amp.  I have to choose one really. 

(Im aware I can two 2 x 1’s for tweeters for either system I go with.  My lounge backs onto neighbours lounge which is why i have been hesitant on a sub. My nice neighbour, I am)

 

So, a few questions if you wouldn't mind giving me your take on this. 

 

  1. How would the TV sound quality compare with a Beam alone Vs Amp and two Bronze Monitor Audio Speakers in stereo with the new amps virtual centre speaker? If the latter is better Id probably just upgrade the amp which means music may also sound a tad better.
  2. What would you do if you were me. 
  3. Am I missing something obvious here? 

cheers. I might be overthinking this.

Dave

 

I might be overthinking this.

Dave

 

Probably! Including the effect of the delay:-)

Before buying anything, see what happens if you keep the speakers flanking the TV, some distance away from either side, run a RCA cable from the TV analog audio out to the line in jacks on the Connect Amp, and see how things go. The sound will be as good as what the speakers can deliver, and the lag may well be too small to be intrusive.

In my TV room, I have long ago found that a simple stereo amp and KEF Q100 speaker pair serves perfectly adequately, and I don't miss the various other speakers that are promoted for home theatre; not even the centre one given the phantom centre effect that still makes dialogues appear to emanate from the screen. There is no delay of course, but when I tried a Connect Amp in this role, I did not find the delay to be irksome.

I get enough of sound effects from this set up even for effects heavy movies to not make me pine for more.

To follow up: I have just such a set up in my balcony for my TV there to pipe music videos around the adjacent rooms at the same time they are being seen/heard in the balcony, via RCA wire from the TV to a Sonos Connect. The delay in uncompressed line in mode is not noticed unless one is looking at lips or instrument playing like a hawk. In compressed line in mode, it IS noticed because then it is a couple of seconds delay and it jars. To allow uncompressed line in to work, I had to ethernet wire the Connect to the network as also the other Sonos speakers involved; but this will not be an issue for you unless you want the TV audio to be heard on Sonos speakers in addition to the ones wire connected to the Connect Amp, flanking the TV.

Thanks for the reply. 

I did try lots of tinkering at the time and yeah, The lip sync even on uncompressed, was irritating! 

When I heard the new AMP supported ARC I thought this may be the best solution, given my speaker separates. 

Then when I looked behind my TV, and saw no ARC, my happiness was short lived! 

Few remotes is also a bonus. I don’t want to go back to the 80’s/90s where I needed one for TV, Sky, stereo, 5.1 surround and one for a Betamax :-) 

I am surprised that the lip sync was irritating and while that is a personal thing, just double checking - had you used the stereo audio out jack pair on the TV and also muted the TV speakers? This muting is essential because it eliminates the echo effect.

MrDave77,

A few TV’s have a lip sync adjustment that may help.

I have mostly given up on TV lip sync because the TV and broadcasting industries don’t seem to care. The movie industry dealt with this (in projectors) eons and eons ago. Generally,  I find that the movie channels have the best lip sync.  Fortunately, I don’t watch much TV and I’ll watch or listen, but not simultaneously.

Cheers Again

Kumar - yep, deffo muted the TV. 

Buzz - I hear you but presumably if I use ARC,  any lip sync issues are presumably almost undetectable? 

 

Any thoughts on amp and speakers vs sound Beam? 

No, ARC does not guarantee lip sync. 

If your speakers are close to the TV, center channel is redundant. In terms of which approach will sound better, only you know what sounds “best”. In my opinion, both options are in the same “class”. By this, I mean that if one brought in a much more expensive set of speakers, they will be in a higher “class” and more listeners will likely rate them as “better”. Notice that I did not say “everyone” will rate the more expensive speakers as “better”. Goodness of sound is in the ear of the listener.

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