Why don't new TVs sound very good?

TVs have probably changed more in the last 15 years than at any time since 1967 when colour transmissions started on BBC2. In this relatively short period of time we have seen huge improvements in almost all aspects of using a TV. These advances include the following :

• Square (4:3) shaped screens have changed to widescreen (16:9).
• Inefficient analogue signals have given way to the new digital ones.
• We had seen the introduction of HD broadcasting.
• Ceefax & Teletext have been replaced by interactive services such as BBCi
• We can now use our TVs to watch iPlayer or other on demand services instead of recording.
• TV's can now let you access Skype, twitter or Facebook as social networking gets ever popular.
• Trudging to the rental store has all but gone as we stream movies via broadband instead. 
• 32" screen sizes are now considered small. 15 years ago, 36" was as big as you could get.
• TVs in bedrooms for children was still considered a luxury instead of a standard fitting.
• Mounting a TV on the wall was a feet of structural engineering and only really happened in pubs or hotels to keep them out of reach of the public.

All these improvements have been fantastic for the consumer & made using a TV more enjoyable than ever before. There has however been been one big casualty through this period. Sound quality.

Old fashioned CRT TVs

15 years ago, TVs were huge, not by screen size, but by sheer bulk. Larger TVs could be almost 2ft (600mm) deep & often had 4-6 inches (100-150mm) of plastic frame around the edge of the screen. A lot of this bulk was unavoidable & simply dictated by the size of the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) technology that was used to produce the picture.

The up-side for this bulk was that speakers could be placed in less conventional positions. They were often placed behind the CRT itself with ports directing the sound out of grills at the front.

We also saw TVs that had sub-woofers on top of the CRT, sometimes inside the main casing, or inside an additional clip on unit. They were out of sight when watching the TV but added valuable depth to the sound quality.

The beauty behind this was that the designers didn't have to worry too much about the audio, they could fairly easily provide a quality of sound that all but the most critical viewer would happily accept.

The early flat-panel TVs

The early generations of flat-panel TVs didn't fare too badly with their sound quality. At the start, manufacturers overcame the space limitations by placing speakers at the side of the screens, at the bottom of the screens and by placing smaller bass speakers behind the screens.

Even so, the depth of these new TVs was a revelation compared to the old CRT sets and even this Panasonic from 2006, with a depth of 6 inches (150mm) was considered slim. The manufacturers were not adding depth to the sets to incorporate these speakers. They were simply fitting the speakers in around the vast amount of boards, heat-sinks & other components that were needed for the TVs to work.

By 2005, manufacturers had started to realise that the design of the TV was becoming almost as important as the picture & sound quality. The picture below shows how much the design of a 32" LCD from Panasonic changed from one range to the next. The later TV offered much sleeker lines and far less frame around the screen. The obvious speakers on the earlier set have been replaced with hidden speakers on the newer design but are still found either side of the TV screen.

Today's flat panel TVs

The trend for TVs to become more streamlined has continued & been made easier as components have got smaller allowing  more of then to be squeezed on to each circuit board. As this trend continued and further advancements such as LED back-lighting appeared, more pressure was put on the space needed to accommodate a decent set of speakers. At this point different manufacturers approached the design of their TVs differently, some sacrificed the size of the speakers to suit the styling of the TV, others sacrificed the styling in the pursuit of better sound. Fairly quickly it became obvious that the more stylish TVs were preferred by the consumer & if required extras speakers could solve the sound problem.

The picture above gives you an idea how far the casing around a Plasma TV has shrunk between 2004 & 2012. The later TV does have speakers built in, but watching anything other than a soap opera or the news may leave you feeling disappointed. You certainly wouldn't, by choice, want to watch the Proms or an action film as there would be many aspects of the audio missing from your experience.

The images above show a top-end 32" from 2006 compared with a mid-range 32" from 2012. It's quite clear how much smaller the newer TV is. The photo in the middle shows a speaker taken from an older LCD lined up next to a new set. The new set is almost half the depth of the speaker & graphically shows the reason why newer TVs have such poor sound reproduction, there is simply no room to do it.

It's a conspiracy!

We've had quite a few people coming in to our store saying that the poor sound quality is all part of a conspiracy from the manufacturers to make us buy additional equipment so we can enjoy TV. I can see where this idea has come from a consumers perspective but highly doubt that this is the case. One of the reasons I doubt this is because the degradation of sound quality has been a slow and continual process. If Panasonic, Sony or Samsung wanted to force people to buy home-cinema systems they would simply take the speakers out completely or would have jumped from the reasonable quality found in 2004 straight to today's standards for the 2005 range. They didn't do this & have been developing speakers ever since to try and maintain as much sound quality as possible. Unfortunately they are fighting an uphill battle against styling and consumer preference.

To see our range of products that will help improve the sound quality of your TV please visit our web site www.HickmansOldTown.com

Or for our blog about improving the sound quality of your TV 
please click here!

How important are Energy Labels?

How important are Energy Labels?

If you're about to set off to buy a new TV or washing machine, the chances are you'll notice the energy labels that are stuck to the front them. With bright colours, logos & numbers printed all over them they can be a bit daunting and confusing to understand. They don't always tell you the whole story either.

What do they tell me? 

Energy labels have the same basic design regardless of the product they are attached to but will be tailored to suit the specific item. As a result the information detailed on the energy labels will vary to include all relevant information. The  picture below shows the variations on Energy Labels that you are likely to see when buying a new TV or Domestic Appliance.

1. The energy rating given to the item.
2. The amount of energy used by the item over a year at average usage levels.
3. The size of a TV screen.
4. The wattage for the TV.
5. The capacity in litres that a fridge or fridge-freezer hold for chilled food.
6. The capacity in litres that a fridge or fridge-freezer hold for frozen food.
7. The noise produced while the machine is in use.
8. The amount over water used on average over a year.
9. The maximum weight of dry clothes that a washing machine can hold.
10. The spin drying performance of a washing machine
11. The amount of noise produced during the wash cycle for a washing machine.
12. The amount of noise produced during the spin cycle for a washing machine.
13. The drying performance for a dishwasher.
14. The amount of place settings that a dishwasher can hold.
15. The condensation efficiency for a tumble dryer.
16. Time to complete an average full cotton load
17. Load capacity for a tumble dryer
18. Type of tumble dryer, Vented/Condensing/Gas Fired

The labels are designed to be used all over Europe and as a result rely heavily on pictures & numbers to convey their message with only limited use of multi-lingual text where required.

Many appliances now have additional Eco settings that will reduce their consumption beyond the quoted levels on the energy labels allowing you to save even more money.

What don't they tell me? 

Although energy labels are a very useful tool to use when buying a new product they do not tell you everything you might need to know. If you are truly concerned about the total environmental impact of a product you will sadly have a lot of research to carry out & even then will probably not get all the bits of the jigsaw you need to make a choice. If on the other hand you are simply concerned about the impact on your pocket when you use a product, the standard energy labels should do the trick for you.

Amongst other details energy labels are not able to give you the following information:

• How energy efficient the factory that made the product is
• How much energy will be required to recycle the product at the end of its life span
• How long to expect an item to last for.
• How well an item actually performs or how much you are going to enjoy using it.
• How well it will look after your food, clothes or dishes.
• How efficient it is with detergent or how much unused detergent is sent down your drain.

One of the Panasonic LCD display factories in Japan. Panasonic are currently aiming to become the number 1 Green Innovation Company in the electronics industry in time for  their centenary celebrations. The should ensure that from start to finish Panasonic products are the most environmentally friendly available. 

What should I look out for?

When buying a new product & looking at energy labels it is important to ensure that you are comparing products like-for-like. If you don't you may well find that you have not got the most efficient machine. For example.

It is no good comparing a 100L capacity freezer to a 150L capacity freezer while only looking at the energy rating. Both machines might have an A+ rating but the 150L machine is almost guaranteed to use more power due to its larger capacity. In this instance it would be better for your pocket in the long run to buy the 100L model, but only if its big enough for your needs.

or

If you live on your own you may not need to buy a 10kg capacity washing machine. Even though it might be the most efficient according to the A-G ratings it may use more power and water than a 6kg machine that might suit your needs better. If you're happy to wait & only do your washing with a full load the 10kg will be fine. If you cant do this, a smaller drum size may be a better solution for you.

Is there anything else I should take into account?

In addition to taking note of the energy labels there are other things that you should take into account when buying a new electrical product. Some of these considerations will have an impact on your overall expenditure whilst others are based on personal preference, gut instinct or historical bias towards or away from a particular brand.
Below are some examples of other things to take into consideration that an Energy label cannot convey:

• Personal preference.

Its no good comparing LCD & Plasma TVs if all you look at are the energy ratings. An LCD will almost certainly use less power per inch than a Plasma, but, you may prefer the picture on the Plasma screen. For similar quality picture & screen size, a Plasma TV may well cost you less to buy when compared to an LCD, offsetting any additional expense on running costs.

• Value for money.

Buying low cost domestic appliances may save you money on the initial purchase but will not look after your clothes as well as a more expensive machine. This will mean your clothes wearing out more quickly, losing shape & colour & needing to be replaced more often. 

Lower cost electrical items also generally need replacing more often or require more repairs. This adds to the overall cost of the machine during its lifespan. You will also find that more expensive machines tend to be more efficient, saving you money on running costs in the long term.
You should not decide something is good value for money based purely on the initial purchase price.

• Choosing a particular brand because of past experiences: Part 1

"I want another Zanussi because mines's lasted 25 years and only gone wrong twice" is a phrase we come across quite often, but having pre-conceived ideas like these often have little basis in modern reality. Just because your Zanussi machine lasted 25 years does not mean that a new one will. Nor does it mean that the majority of machines from that period lasted that long.

What is also important to remember is that a brands position in the market changes over time. Only 10-15 years ago Samsung was a small player in the TV market and was regarded as a budget brand by most dealers. Today they are the No.1 worldwide selling TV manufacturer. In the same period Philips, JVC, Hitachi & Sanyo among others have almost disappeared from the TV market.

• Choosing a particular brand because of past experiences: Part 2

Writing off a particular brand because of a bad experience may also be a bad idea. Very occasionally we will have customer saying they will  never have a Bosch, Siemens or Panasonic item ever again because "they had a nightmare" with a previous item. This opinion though is normally based on a sample of 1 item. From our side of the fence we get to see hundreds of products from the same brand delivered every year & are able to give a broader view of a brands reliability, strengths & weaknesses. 

Conclusion

Energy Labels are important. They have been instrumental in getting the manufacturers to focus on reducing energy & water consumption. For this reason alone they have been a huge success for both the consumer and in the long run, the environment too.
This said, Energy Labels should not be the only deciding factor when purchasing a new product. They are a useful guide to help judge a product on easily quantifiable facts, but not for gauging long term quality, design or overall environmental impact from factory to recycling.

For these reasons we always suggest it's worth coming into the shop to discuss your options with one of our assistants who will happily guide you through the whole process, including delivery & installation.

To see our range of Domestic Appliances and Home Entertainment equipment please visit us in store or visit our web site at www.HickmansOldTown.com