Well my trusty old plasma has give up the ghost and I been forced into the modern world of TV’s and it seems utterly mediocre sound. my old plasma had great sound but the it effectively had a sound bar built in.
New TV’s sound is seriously lacking but then the plasma was 3x as thick so far enough I guess!

The question then, I’ve about £150-200 I can justify right now on a sound upgrade, and have limited space around the TV and no real desire for speakers everywhere especially with the brats still in grab and poke everything mode.

Would like a Blu-Ray player too, hence looking at the 2.1 systems. So really, any recommendations on systems or am I better served with a sound bar and stand alone Blu-Ray. Also how important/better are the sound bars with a subwoofer?

Cheers.

Tough budget, for that money either older second-hand soundbar with passive sub or probably older 2.1 system from richersounds or the like, 2.1 will sound better but then if you have little ones do you really want speakers & wires everywhere?
I have an original Orbitsound soundbar in the living room to keep the wife happy & it sounds OK, I have a half decent 5.1 system in my room that is a lot better but wouldn’t even if second-hand be within budget.
HTH.

Could stretch another £100 if it was really worth it, however we watch very little TV really plus wasn’t really planning to buy a TV in the first place…can’t complain after nearly 10 years though!

Was thinking 2.1 as we could work that with the space/room layout but 5.1 etc would be an issue unless mounted all together like 2.1 which would kind of defeat the point I imagine.

Seen this, which should allegedly be circa £300 down to £165 but no reviews.

http://www.electricshop.com/home-cinema-systems/lg-bh7130c-600w-2.1-ch-bluray-home-theater-system-with-lg-smart-tv-and-aramid-fibre-speakers/invt/bh7130c which seems to fit the bill but along with our little TV use comes little idea with these things!

How about

http://www.johnlewis.com/sony-ht-ct60bt-2-1-bluetooth-sound-bar-with-nfc-subwoofer/p1219153

Or

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-BDVE2100-Blu-ray-Cinema-System-Black/dp/B00BJG656C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1410582457&sr=8-2&keywords=blue+ray+surround+sound+system

Cabling may be an issue, but worth it for 5.1 and speakers a reasonable size

Or this seems v good value for 5.1, just get yourself a stand alone bluray as well

http://www.superfi.co.uk/p-15658-boston-acoustics-soundware-xs-51-se-speaker-system-opened-box-gloss-black.aspx

The Cambridge Audio Minx 2.1 system is very good. They are a bit above your budget new but you might be able to get some second hand?

2.1 is fine so long as it’s not a huge room. At that price point you’re going to struggle with the sub. You might be better off with a simple stereo amplifier connected to your TVs Audio out and some normal half decent speakers.

You might be better off with a simple stereo amplifier connected to your TVs Audio out and some normal half decent speakers.

After years of having a semi high end 5.1 setup I went back to a 2.1 system with a stereo amp and speakers when my av amp died , I don’t miss 5.1. Second hand hifi can be cheap, even budget hifi is going to sound better than a soundbar . But if you want a soundbar go for a sub too

We got a new telly recently and the sound is gutless, as you said

I bought a cheap soundbase and even that is much better (and it was 70 quid, delivered). It’s not super-loud and has no tone settings other than bass boost, but I think it’s great for what we want

Depends how posh you want to be

You can get a half decent stereo amp and bookshelf speakers easily for sub £200 and that would sound way better than a 2.1 system at around or even a bit more than that price. Cheap subs are crap ( you’re looking at a minimum of £200 for a half decent sub alone), much better off with decent speakers in my experience.

Or this:

Denon DHT-T100

from superfi.co.uk (£179)?

Cheers all, some bits to consider and look at.

Tbh 5.1 is pretty much a no go. So it’ll be 2.1 or Sound Bar. Need to find a sound versus pound compromise. For the amount we watch, sometimes won’t even turn TV on all week, there is no need or real desire to go to excess.

Misus is leaning more to a Sound Bar for ‘look’ so I’ll see if I can demo some of those I guess.

I’d K.I.S.S.

Stereo or 2.1 is less complicated so for your money you can find betterer gear.

Minx is supposed to be very good, part of the reason is they use a different sort of speaker driver within the satellites – deffo worth a listen.

I’ve not heard a musically accurate soundbar yet, but I have heard some that make a lot of noise for the money.

Personally, if you want to listen to music as well, or if overall the quality is more important then I’d look for a decent pair of speakers and a seperate amp.

Old amplifiers usually work as well as new ones, but you need to be more careful with old speakers as they age more and also can get damaged in more ways.

If you’re able to collect from Bradford I’m selling a very nice sounding but somewhat scruffy pair of floorstanders [AE109] with a massive sound. They’ve had a “service” – some new parts. £75 to you 🙂

Give the Denon soundbase ^up there a Listen, I brought one for our bedroom as the std tv speakers made it very difficult to hear movie dialogue at a lower volume level. and I wanted something that I could Bluetooth the phones to for music as well.

The First night I set it up downstairs just to give it a proper listen to and I was shocked at how good it was, really impressive.

Great bit of kit and at that price its a steal.
(I think I paid £275-280 for it and still thought it was well worth it)

Also interested in this topic and not well versed in the subject.

I presume those Cambridge Audio Minx 2 would require a separate amp?

What about using active speakers such as m-audio / audioengine would that be any good for a TV/music setup like the OP describes?

Not after anything musically stunning…it’ll be playing MTV etc at the most for the kids!
Music is taken care of with some Cambridge Audio 651series separates and a pair of Monitor Audio BX2’s. It really is just about improving the TV’s everyday sound, I know people seem to want thinner and thinner with no bezel, but I’d happily take some depth and a bezel if that meant improved sound. Just have no idea about this stuff!

We just got a Sonos play bar. It is very good. Adding a sub & a couple of play 1’s at the rear are next on the plan.
Our Samsung 6.1 amp died & the wiring for rear speakers was a pain, no way to hide it easily. Wireless was the easiest, if not cheapest way to go.
The network setup has just been made a lot easier as well.

Yes the Minx speakers I linked to do require an amplifier. I think they do an active version, designed mainly for use with computers but if could be plugged into a TV, given the right connectors/adapters.

The Sonos soundbar is great, but very expensive and when married upto the Sonos sub and Sonos 1’s for the rear you’re into half decent discreet 5.1 setup territory, bearing in mind the Sonos setup is not 5.1. If you’re not bothered about 5.1 then that doesn’t matter and the Sonos will sound great, as high end as it’s price dictates.

The Cambridge Minx speakers are very good, I use the small ones for surround sound in the living room and one of the larger ones as a neat centre speaker.
Matched to a set of KEF Floor-standers and an active sub in the corner, it makes for a nice 5.1 set up

The only reason we went from hi fi to 5.1 was picking out voices

Its a shame 3.1 isn’t more common as being able to boost the centre for speech can be a big benefit. Maybe sound bars do this?

I have a minx system – it is very good but I would imagine that as the room gets bigger it would be found a little lacking
I would say that I always find 5:1 sound ends up with voice soundtrack getting buried and difficult to hear

I would say that I always find 5:1 sound ends up with voice soundtrack getting buried and difficult to hear

Shouldn’t really happen, most digital media is encoded so that it raises the centre channel volume so that it is upfront in the mix. Besides you should (well you could on my old AV amp from around 2002) be able to raise the volume of any of the channels independently