[SOLVED] Budget living room audio solution?

Mashuguna

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Mar 23, 2009
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Can you recommend a budget audio solution for music and TV in a small apartment?

I live in a 1,200 sq ft, 3 bedroom apartment. My family likes to listen to music (bluetooth from Spotify on our phones) and watch Netflix and such on the TV. The living room is small - maybe 300 sq ft - so we do not need much power or volume. Also we are not audiophiles who will play music loudly and look for nuance. However, I'd love to have a richer sound for music and decent audio on the TV.

Is there a $300-500 set of speakers or solution that I could use as the TV sound and for music?

Right now I play music on an old $45 JBL bluetooth portable speaker - it works but there are no lows, it sounds cheap, and it is just not great. For the TV we have an older $80 Yamaha sound bar. It is decent but the volume during TV shows fluctuates wildly, the controls are nto great, and if we change from the TV source to the Swicth Game source it can go dead until we button mash for a bit. We frequently cannot hear dialogue clearly and some shows are terribly muddy - there are a few (e.g. Man in the High Castle) that we just cannot watch due to dialogue quality.

I am a novice - i know zero about this audio world. I'd just like to be able to clearly hear the dialogue and sound of any normal Netflix show and be able to listen to my Led Zepplin, my daughters' Taylor Swift, and my wife's Daft Punk with some better quality.

Thanks for any help or advice.
 
Can you recommend a budget audio solution for music and TV in a small apartment?

I live in a 1,200 sq ft, 3 bedroom apartment. My family likes to listen to music (bluetooth from Spotify on our phones) and watch Netflix and such on the TV. The living room is small - maybe 300 sq ft - so we do not need much power or volume. Also we are not audiophiles who will play music loudly and look for nuance. However, I'd love to have a richer sound for music and decent audio on the TV.

Is there a $300-500 set of speakers or solution that I could use as the TV sound and for music?

Right now I play music on an old $45 JBL bluetooth portable speaker - it works but there are no lows, it sounds cheap, and it is just not great. For the TV we have an older $80 Yamaha sound bar. It is decent but the volume during TV shows fluctuates wildly, the controls are nto great, and if we change from the TV source to the Swicth Game source it can go dead until we button mash for a bit. We frequently cannot hear dialogue clearly and some shows are terribly muddy - there are a few (e.g. Man in the High Castle) that we just cannot watch due to dialogue quality.

I am a novice - i know zero about this audio world. I'd just like to be able to clearly hear the dialogue and sound of any normal Netflix show and be able to listen to my Led Zepplin, my daughters' Taylor Swift, and my wife's Daft Punk with some better quality.

Thanks for any help or advice.
For a 5 speaker setup the Andrew Jones designed Pioneer Speakers are the best you can do for around $500. https://www.pioneerhomeusa.com/product-category/speakers/pioneer-speakers/
Otherwise if you just want an amazing sound bar the Pioneer SP-SB23W is amazing. https://www.cnet.com/reviews/pioneer-sp-sb23w-review/ I have one myself and it is great, only issue will be finding it.
 
If you don't care much about surround sound and don't want to keep an A/V receiver around as well as speakers, a good powered speaker setup with bleutooth and optical in for the TV would work.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZVPMR5...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

or Swan https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MTW25E...lja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

If you want something cheaper then https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MTW25E...lja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1 but you will need a wire to listen to other sources than optical since there is no built in bluetooth.

You will probably want some stands also for them to go next to the TV.
 
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