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Looking for budget 2.1 amp for TV

iGmole

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Nov 18, 2024
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Hi!

EDIT: apologies, I went full boomer and mixes up my tabs, so wrong forum section. I an admin would be kind enough to save me from embarassment and move this to the right place, I would be most thankful.

My TV audio setup is a bit silly - I am using one of those DVD player/amp combos that came with a 5.1 plastic satellite speakers and a bad subwoofer. At some point I just hooked a pair of actual bookshelf speakers and a DIY 10" subwoofer to it, and.. while not good, it works surprisingly well. The LG amp has rudimentary crossover adjustments (you just choose the main speaker size - large seems best) and per channel gain adjustments.

I just run the optical out from the TV to that thing and it works fine.

The power and distortion levels of the amp must be comedic, but it is enough to watch the news and have some bass rumble when the sport section music theme starts.

I would like a budget 2.1 amp with adjustable HPF and LPF for the still passive 2.1 speaker setup. I am looking at the SMSL A50 Pro, but are there new alternatives in that price range?

It really only needs to have optical in, give me a few watts of power and have the adjustments I stated before. My new TV has some eARC thing so if I can use HDMI to move sound, to control the volume from my TV remote that would be a plus, though. The A50 Pro apparently does that.

Thank you!
 
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I am not aware of anything else than the A50 Pro that can do that in that price range
Alrighty, I decided to order it. It will be a significant upgrade over my current amplifier for not a lot of money. 89€ plus change delivered.
 
It has arrived.

The sound is pretty bad, at least trough eARC you can in a very obvious way hear when the amp runs out of dynamic range. At low (but real world low, late night) volumes quiet parts sound like 8-bit recordings. It's like a bitcrusher-plugin on my DAW.

Noise is acceptable, audible at a non-practically short distance from the tweeter.

If the sound does not improve with other inputs I have to say *the integrated LG DVD-player/amp* was much better.

I will update later when I have a chance to try the various inputs. I decided to post this comment if someone is considering this to use with eARC: do not buy.
 
Really sorry to hear that :(
One of my friends has this amp and he was indeed praising the sound quality, hence I dared to recommend it
He is using the USB input though
 
Really sorry to hear that :(
One of my friends has this amp and he was indeed praising the sound quality, hence I dared to recommend it
He is using the USB input though
Heh, there is a happyish ending to this however.

I went to my storage and put my old Wharfedale book shelf speakers next to my TV. They are much less sensitive than the Magnats they replaced. This improved performance to an acceptable level because it requires dialing up the volume, effectively working the amplifier above the dynamic floor with a healthier margin. Now I can only hear the bitcrusher effect on unpractically low volumes close to the speaker.

It sounds the same with all inputs.

The sound on higher levels is flawless, during the day when there is traffic noise etc. the problem is completely inaudible.

Power is plenty for my needs and now my setup is okay, so it was not a complete failure. The subwoofer out works okay too and the amp is so small I hid it behind the TV.
 
Heh, there is a happyish ending to this however.

I went to my storage and put my old Wharfedale book shelf speakers next to my TV. They are much less sensitive than the Magnats they replaced. This improved performance to an acceptable level because it requires dialing up the volume, effectively working the amplifier above the dynamic floor with a healthier margin. Now I can only hear the bitcrusher effect on unpractically low volumes close to the speaker.

It sounds the same with all inputs.

The sound on higher levels is flawless, during the day when there is traffic noise etc. the problem is completely inaudible.

Power is plenty for my needs and now my setup is okay, so it was not a complete failure. The subwoofer out works okay too and the amp is so small I hid it behind the TV.
Happy to hear that you managed to find an acceptable solution! ;)
Did you play around with the low-pass/high-pass settings for the sub out too?
 
Happy to hear that you managed to find an acceptable solution! ;)
Did you play around with the low-pass/high-pass settings for the sub out too?
Yes, I found the lowest allowed crossover frequency sounds quite good. A simple phase flip option would be a nice addition though, tuning it with a sine wave generator and ear approximation and *flipping the cables back and forth* was pretty cumbersome. But the feature does work as advertised. I like the fact that the HPF and LPF are independent, this helped fine tune the crossover region.

This experience makes me respect the LG designers though: it had delay adjustments per channel (by distance, 10cm intervals), the sound was subjectively cleanish and the entire package with (bad) speakers was 300€ in a Walmart equivalent supermarket a decade ago.

It developed a cooling fan fault and the Toddler of the House sometimes cranked the volume to max, causing.. TV power-on-surprises, so it had be replaced by something hideable.
 
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