Starter questions

[Paul Drawmer]

At the moment we have a 32" CRT TV. It's a JVC Interiart, and the picture is fine but small and the sound is pretty damn good for just a TV.
I play my music through an old Technics amp into a pair of B&W bookshelf speakers. That's good enough for me.

I'm going to buy a new 40" LCD TV, and I'm assuming that the sound will be a real step down from the 5 speakers in the old TV.

I'm planning on playing the new TV into a new midi radio/cd player that has a sub out and an optical input for the TV sound. I'll hook up my B&Ws to the new unit, and so have the benefit of a proper 2.1 system, that will also play my music properly.

If I'm happy with my B&Ws now, will adding a sub actually make a lot of difference? I'm not at all sure I need it for music, but I'm thinking it will make the TV sound more dramatic when it needs to be.

How important is it to have the left/right speakers equally spaced from the screen? Does it become more of a problem if they are too far apart, and should I just position them close to each side of the screen? Although the overall sound quality is good on the old TV, usually the stereo separation is rubbish.

Does it matter where they are placed vertically in relation to the screen? I can imagine that if there's a screen in the middle of a 10M wall and the speakers are up in the top corners, it would sound/feel pretty weird.

Any pointers to a basic set up for positioning a 2.1 system please?

[OldSkoolRS]

I think that if you are just going to have two speakers (plus sub) then the spacing of them is quite critical. For a while I ran a 'phantom centre' set up which means that I had no centre (still had surround speakers though) so for the sounds of voices, etc intended for the centre speaker they were directed equally to both front speakers instead (as your set up will be).

I found that it was critical to have the speakers equally spaced around the display otherwise sounds could appear to be separated from the screen which is a bit distracting. Equally I don't think it would be ideal having the speakers much higher than the picture (though with a bit of distance you might get away with just angling the speakers towards the listener). My own speakers are below my projector screen, but angled up and 11' away so it doesn't sound like the sound isn't coming from the screen.

I think adding a sub to bookshelf speakers will be worthwhile. I currently have PMC TB2+ speakers which are a larger bookshelf and they work very well with a subwoofer even on music. Depending on budget I'd recommend looking at BK Electronics subwoofers (since the sub doesn't have to match your speakers except in cosmetic term perhaps, but they offer many finishes).

http://www.bkelec.com/hifi/sub_woofers.htm

[Paul Drawmer]

Thanks for that: I've also found the Dolby set up guide which looks useful, it underlines what you say about the front speaker positioning.

the subs you link to look impressive - but are out of budget.

[OldSkoolRS]

BK subs occasionally come up for sale on the AVforums classifieds if that's any help. I'll be putting my own Monolith DF on there when I upgrade in a month or two, but there are XLS200 and XLS400 on there at the moment:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/speaker-subwoofer-c...