You’re Not Losing Your Hearing! Slimmer TVs Leave Little Room for Speakers

By Mary Ann Giorgio

You’re in the middle of the third season of The Walking Dead and the plot is oozing with suspense and gory violence. Good stuff. The picture on your 55 LED is the envy of neighbors and friends and when you watch it in 1080p, those hideous walkers seem to bleed right into your living room. But while the big screen is picture perfect, something is not quite right with the sound. What did she say? Who’s going to the prison? Can you turn it up? The sound is terrible, loud one second, then barely audible the next.  It's not you and you don’t need to look for grandpa's old hearing horn. It's the miniature speakers that came with your big screen TV.

Super slim and beautiful but little room for speakers

Big Screen, Tiny Speakers

Sadly, we can’t have it all. We ooh and awe at the big, colorful pictures or today’s flat screen TVs. Huge LCD and LED TVs, as thin as a slice of bread, pack in amazing technologies such as internet connectivity, 3D, even voice control but all this technology comes at a cost and that cost is sound quality. While speakers included with TVs have never had a stellar reputation for sound, the old CRT sets were at least audible. Say what you want about these hernia-inducing dinosaurs, the CRT had real estate for larger drivers and thus better sound. Today’s flat screens are a different story as manufacturers continue to reduce the chassis size so you see nothing but picture. To make room for that all-mighty screen, speakers have been reduced to quarter-size, full range drivers, often aimed downward or backwards, making sound even more difficult to hear. The sound is no better than a laptop computer.

Options for a Great Front Stage

If you have a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system or a custom home theater, you have front stage speakers, that is a left, center, and right speaker near the display. At OSD we tell customers to invest in the best front stage speakers they can afford because these speakers route critical dialog, surround effects, staging and imaging that make all the difference in sound quality. But what about folks who don’t have surround sound? Perhaps you live in a small apartment or just want to add a TV to the bedroom. Maybe you talked your mom into giving up her beloved CRT from 1982 for a 52-inch LCD and she's not a great candidate surround sound.  No matter the reason, at some point you’re going to need to augment the sound of your super slim TV if you want to enjoy more than a pretty picture.

An Easy Way to Bump up the Sound of Your Big Screen

If adding surround sound is not in your future, an ideal solution is to add a sound bar. These clever devices have been around for years, and are typically a low profile speaker box that fit in a cabinet or directly under the TV. A sound bar will typically have a left, center, and right speaker (and sometimes a small subwoofer). Add one of these to your set up and you won’t find yourself straining to hear dialog or constantly grabbing the remote to change the volume.

Now more than ever, sound bars are becoming a perfect solution for folks who need better sound but don’t want the full-blown surround sound system. OSD Audio under the Jazz Audio brand, will be introducing its own Sound Bar to enhance sound on today’s medium to large flat screen televisions. The low profile speaker will have Digital Signal Processing (DSP) that simulates home theater sound and digitally powered, front firing left and right stereo sound stage, and a dual, down firing powered subwoofer for excellent bass as well. Our sound bar will even sync to Bluetooth-enable devices like Smartphones and Tablets. Just like our in-wall and ceiling speakers, the sound bar will offer the highest performance at the best price. Look for the sound  bar to arrive this summer. We promise you'll hear about it.