Top 4 Speaker Systems for Your HDTV

Let’s face it, LCD TV speakers suck, they have no real bass and sound boxed in. That’s fine, we care about image quality, and the sound department is better left to a dedicated system. In theory you can use any speaker system, but some models are better suited for the job. They are self powered, reasonably priced (after spending for the LCD it makes sense to watch the bucks), some come with remotes, and looks wise also suit an LCD screen hanging on a wall. For someone who just purchased an LCD TV, and needs some good sound output - you check these choices out. There are two 2.0 speakers and two 5.1 sets.

Altec Lansing Expressionist Bass
Rs. 5490

These are touted as 2.2 speakers. They are actually a stereo pair, with woofers on their bottom circular base, hence the shape. These give out bass downwards, and look like little volcanoes. The woofers are 4-inch (100 mm) subwoofer drivers made of polypropylene; while the mid drivers in the front are 1.5 inches. The max power rated is 25 Watts RMS, and frequency response is 40 Hz - 16 kHz. Signal to noise ratio is above 85 dB. The good part is the build quality is great, and it is a very good looker. Bass is hard and powerful, which itself can impress a section of listeners. It is good for movies and games, not so much for music, but if you are not a critical listener of music, the Expressionist Bass is good to attach to LCDs.

Audioengine A2
Rs. 10,400

This one claims to bridge the gap between consumer and hi-fi audio, and this considerably new brand Audioengine took a shot at marketing their product towards the audiophiles who needed a PC speaker set. The output rating is 30 W max per channel. The speakers are two-way, with 20 mm silk dome tweeters (neodymium magnets) and 2.75" Kevlar woofers. Performance wise, this model is noted for its humongous bass, which was really hard. It can tend to overpower the rest of the spectrum, but overall the bass is great. It's not only the bass; the full response is rounded and neutral level-wise.

Panasonic SC-PT470
Rs. 17,990

This new release is a good looking black home theater set, with 5 speakers, subwoofer and also a full DVD player, plus last but not the least an iPod dock. The Sub is a tall affair with a 16cm speaker, all stream lined in design. The SC-PT470 features an Optical in, has an HDMI connection and HD 1920 X 1080P upconversion and provides Multi-Format Playback. The total power output is 1000 watts RMS. It supports Dolby, Dolby Pro Logic and DTS decoding.

Samsung HT-TX715T
Rs. 41,500

This one is a bit expensive, but someone with a Samsung TV, which is very likely, will love this beautiful looking Home theater speaker system. It’s an 800 watts RMS system with 5 tall speakers bearing Samsung’s Touch of Color red streak on the edges. Overall the system has great aesthetics. Speaker wires supplied are a thin high gauge set of 6 color coded ones, with accordingly longer ones for Surround towers. The video can upscale to 1080p, and it plays formats like DivX,MP3, WMV, DVD-Audio besides regular DVDs and rewritable DVDs. It also has an HDMI output (wire supplied) and a USB input. And last but not the least, it supports A2DP Bluetooth for phone connectivity.