TCL Smart TVs = Opinions?

[hk blues]

7 hours ago, Kingpin said:

Cheap, adds subwoofer, and adds rear speakers. Changes the experience completely and only 13k

 

 

 

Yep - as I said the cost of the soundbar is about 50% of the TV itself, at least for the recent 3 sets I have bought.

[hk blues]

19 hours ago, BrettGC said:

I had a nice home theatre setup back in Australia with Nakamichi surround system.  Nah it wasn't Bang and Ofulsen or Bose but still very nice.  That was about $1500AUD (58kPHP) about 8 years ago so yeah, reasonably expensive and not worth putting on what we have here I guess. But having said that, we do play a lot of our Spotify/Amazon music through the TV so maybe worth it after all.  I wish had room for it in the luggage when I moved over here.  It didn't make it to the container either, took pity on a mate and gave it to him. 

I've got a Bang & Olufsen Beosound 1 Hi-Fi. A big disappointment in terms of quality i.e. it developed a CD reading issue after 3 or so years.  It's now a nice enough looking piece of furniture.  I had a Bose home theatre system - 2 speakers plus subwoofer.  Performance was OK but nothing special.  I sold it for a pretty good price and bought a KEF 3-2-1 2 speaker + subwoofer system - better than the Bose but still underwhelming.  I had a cheapo JVC Big Box set-up in the UK - plenty of power but little quality so another miss!

All in all, I think I expect too much hence always underwhelmed.   I'm always looking for more than just sound volume.

 

[Kingpin]

3 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

I agree.  Back in the USA I had 3 TVs and bought mid-range 2.1 sound bars for 2 of them.  I loved them.  For my main home theater I had a high end surround system.

I think those high end sound bars are bit much, but might be ok for those wanting nice sound with limited space.  I bought a Yamaha AVR and Yamaha speakers (2 front towers, center and 2 rears) for less than some of those, I think.  Added a cheap Konzert sub-woofer and it is fine.

Have you heard the newer 11.1 soundbars? It's been said that soundbars are the only AV tech that's been actually improving, I bought one and agree:

 

 

 

[Kingpin]

26 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Yep - as I said the cost of the soundbar is about 50% of the TV itself, at least for the recent 3 sets I have bought.

Only that soundbar, this one is closer to 15%  https://www.abenson.com/samsung-hw-t420-xp.html

[jimeve]

I bought this in the UK (2010) Then 2017 sent it here in da Ph. still working great and decent sound too.

• Panasonic SC-BT230 Blu-ray Home Theater on Amazon.com

[OnMyWay]

9 hours ago, Kingpin said:

Have you heard the newer 11.1 soundbars? It's been said that soundbars are the only AV tech that's been actually improving, I bought one and agree:

That looks very interesting!  Maybe if I get a Samsung 65 TV they will give me one for free??? 

[OnMyWay]

9 hours ago, hk blues said:

16 hours ago, Kingpin said:

 

Yep - as I said the cost of the soundbar is about 50% of the TV itself, at least for the recent 3 sets I have bought.

I think this indicates you need to spend more on the TV.  

[BrettGC]

I think what annoys me the most is the big flashy stickers that display PMPO (Peak Music Power Output) wattage rather than the true indicative measure of RMS (root mean squared).  So, when you see 1000 watts output advertised it's more than a 90% chance this is the PMPO measurement, not RMS.  To get to RMS you just need to divide by 3.  Why does this matter?  RMS measures constant undistorted output, whereas PMPO measures highest possible output, distorted or not, for less than a second.  

Even the higher end manufacturers are guilty of this.

 

[Jake]

11 hours ago, BrettGC said:

Even the higher end manufacturers are guilty of this.

 

Also misleading, at least to me was "total power".  Is the power rating stated for each channel?  It should be, in RMS.  

[OnMyWay]

On 9/12/2022 at 1:50 PM, Kingpin said:

Have you heard the newer 11.1 soundbars? It's been said that soundbars are the only AV tech that's been actually improving, I bought one and agree:

Have you run across any good surround systems that have wireless surround speakers?  Next time I buy, I would really like wireless if the tech has improved enough.  E.g.:

https://www.amazon.com/JBL-5-1-Channel-Soundbar-Wireless-Surround/dp/B075SKB4TF/ref=psdc_172563_t1_B0753ZLK2H

https://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Surround-Performance-Subwoofer/dp/B0753ZLK2H/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=wireless%2Bsurround%2Bsound%2Bspeakers&qid=1663117074&sr=8-5&th=1