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Recommendations for a 50” tv with half decent sound quality?

chartz said:
Decent sound quality in a flat TV? Nah.
Soundbars are all appalling too, so just use an amp with good hi-fi speakers. That’s what I do – I couldn’t care less about Dolby, DTS, surround, sub, etc.
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Have to disagree, there are some very decent Soundbars available, I have a couple of clients who are very happy with the latest SONOS Arc, Sennheiser do a nice one Ambeo but a bit spendy and Yamaha have had decent ones available for years.

Surround sound isn’t for everyone but even a modestly priced 5.1 or 5.1.2 system these days sounds excellent, especially with DD TrueHD and DTS MA plus Atmos and the like, surround content is well served from 4K and Blu Ray music and movies to Prime/Netflix/Apple/Disney, some of the soundtracks from streamed content is really good quality theses days.
 
I will probably buy from Richer and have used them before. Just don’t much fancy squeezing into the little Brighton shop.
 
Amber Audio said:
Have to disagree, there are some very decent Soundbars available, I have a couple of clients who are very happy with the latest SONOS Arc, Sennheiser do a nice one Ambeo but a bit spendy and Yamaha have had decent ones available for years.

Surround sound isn’t for everyone but even a modestly priced 5.1 or 5.1.2 system these days sounds excellent, especially with DD TrueHD and DTS MA plus Atmos and the like, surround content is well served from 4K and Blu Ray music and movies to Prime/Netflix/Apple/Disney, some of the soundtracks from streamed content is really good quality theses days.
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I had a 5.1 system with KEF eggs and a decent AV receiver. Switched to this years ago to rid myself of wires and it is surprisingly good given its limitations.

https://www.whathifi.com/yamaha/ysp-2200/review
 
@JezmondTutu, word to the wise, if you do visit JL please remember that you won’t be watching proper telly but the HD digital feed they use to hook you in. In Richer the controls had been messed with by customers all day so the manager retuned it to their ariel that all the TVs share.
 
mjw said:
@JezmondTutu, word to the wise, if you do visit JL please remember that you won’t be watching proper telly but the HD digital feed they use to hook you in. In Richer the controls had been messed with by customers all day so the manager retuned it to their ariel that all the TVs share.
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I don’t know in the UK but here in France we have a terrible Freeview picture quality, and the sound isn’t much better… but in the country there is nothing else. With 4 meg broadband, no 4k obviously.
Is the situation better in the UK?
 
Get the best picture you can & then buy a Sonos soundbar, they are very good.

Amazingly I can still enjoy watching a movie on a relatively modest set up even though I have a much better audio system. The requirements & expectations are just different.
 
Can't recall the brand, but noticed a model with "sound by Bowers & Wilkins" the other day. I would go for sound over visual quality every day.
 
Well ended up buying a Sony as her indoors said 48” was too small!

Picked up from JL, as the shop is just down the road I don’t think we’ve too much to worry about.

Thanks for all the advice!
 
I've been really impressed with the sound on our Sony AG8 - can definitely get by without a soundbar when the hi-fi isn't on.
 
jagdesign said:
I've been really impressed with the sound on our Sony AG8 - can definitely get by without a soundbar when the hi-fi isn't on.
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I have to say it blew away all of the other non-OLED tv’s so I’m sure it will be fine. If not, I’ll take it back this week.
 
chartz said:
I don’t know in the UK but here in France we have a terrible Freeview picture quality, and the sound isn’t much better… but in the country there is nothing else. With 4 meg broadband, no 4k obviously.
Is the situation better in the UK?
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That sounds tough, I get over 25meg in the middle of nowhere in the Vendée. In the UK lucky to get 11 just a few miles from London.
 
SteveS1 said:
That sounds tough, I get over 25meg in the middle of nowhere in the Vendée. In the UK lucky to get 11 just a few miles from London.
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I’m in the sticks and get 20 although it’s variable. Fibre to the premises is happening within the next couple of months - hurrah!
 
What makes me mad is that neighbours the other side of the road already have fibre. Yes, the other side of the road. So our nice 50 inch telly has to do with pixelated, horribly compressed Freeview until 2024 – not holding my breath either.
 
chartz said:
What makes me mad is that neighbours the other side of the road already have fibre. Yes, the other side of the road. So our nice 50 inch telly has to do with pixelated, horribly compressed Freeview until 2024 – not holding my breath either.
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Can't you connect to their wifi?

My "freeview" picture was excellent the few times that I have watched it. But my house is only about 2km from the transmitter :)
 
chartz said:
What makes me mad is that neighbours the other side of the road already have fibre. Yes, the other side of the road. So our nice 50 inch telly has to do with pixelated, horribly compressed Freeview until 2024 – not holding my breath either.
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Do you not have a French equivalent to Freesat you could access? Would it be better?

My old Panasonic 36 inch TV has both Freesat and Freeview integral HD tuners and I only ever use Freesat; it has more channels, a more logical channel structure and better EPG , although to be fair both work well in my part of the UK. I'm also fortunate enough to have fairly decent broadband to power a Roku gizmo for catch up stuff. I don't pay for anything on TV
 
I would recommend a 50” Pioneer plasma from around 15 years ago. Superb picture and superb sound. I gave mine away recently because we moved to a new flat with a large room suitable for a much larger telly. You should be able to get one on ebay for around £100.
 
Bananahead said:
Can't you connect to their wifi?

My "freeview" picture was excellent the few times that I have watched it. But my house is only about 2km from the transmitter :)
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Freeview is bad wherever you go. Bad technical choices. It once was good but they crammed too many channels and quality suffers badly.
As for SQ, everything in French is okay but other languages are awfully compressed, I’d say 64 kb/s MP3 ?
We are not so close to the emitter but then it’s 200 kW.

We do have Freesat, yes (Fransat). You just need to buy the equipment. You can’t record two channels at the same time unfortunately, which is a pity.
 
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