By admin 
These days, it’s pretty much a given that you need a sound bar or some other external audio system for a flat-panel TV, because TV speakers suck!
However, that wasn’t always the case and my recent retro TV purchase has reminded me that some TVs at least had sound that could rival a Hi-Fi system right out of the box. Specifically, the gem of a TV I lucked into buying ended up doing just that!
I Bought an Enormous 34-Inch Sony Trinitron
A few months ago, I finally realized my goal of buying a CRT TV. I had been checking sites like Facebook Marketplace on a daily basis for almost two years, until I saw a TV that met all my requirements.
The Sony KV-L34MF1 is an enormous 34-inch 150lbs monster that messed up my back for weeks after hauling it upstairs. First, I had to put it on two old flight crates until I could buy a table capable of handling its bulk.
Just to give you an idea of how enormous this thing is, this is how it fills up my KIA Sportage’s rear without the speaker pods attached.
It took some time to get it settled in and set up the way I liked, and that involved buying a lot of cables, adapters, and testing out different consoles and media players. Considering the last CRT I owned was a 21-inch flatscreen that I sold almost 20 years ago, this class of glass was a whole new experience for me.
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I Was Just Looking for a Retro Gaming TV
Those speaker pods are what I’m focusing on here, but that’s not why I bought this TV. I never even considered whether the audio would be any good, because the main reason for buying a CRT TV is to benefit from the unique visual advantages that technology brings. Especially for retro gaming.
Specifically, I wanted to play PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games on this TV, along with 8-bit and 16-bit console games. Since the PS2 is also a great DVD player, I tried out some of my 4:3 aspect ratio DVDs on it as well. For example, I have the Transformers cartoon box set as well as the complete Tintin collection.
To my surprise, these shows look much more attractive on this TV than even on my 2022 OLED TV. The OLED does a competent job of upscaling this DVD footage, but this Sony Trinitron TV masks a lot of the flaws in the picture, whereas they’re more apparent on a high-end modern flat panel.
The Speakers on This Thing Are Next-Level
While I was expecting to bask in the soft flow of a CRT TV, I wasn’t expecting the pure sonic prowess of this absolute unit. I guess you should never underestimate Sony when it comes to sound, but the speaker pods that adorn the sides of this TV genuinely sound better than almost all the speakers (TV or otherwise) I’ve heard in my life.
Each pod is on a dampened mounting, and consists of a side-facing woofer and front-facing speakers for the mid- and high-end.
The amplifier is in the TV itself, with a set of speaker wires leading from the back of the pods to the rear of the TV. This also means you can replace the pods with whatever speakers you like, but honestly they sound so good that I can’t imagine most people bothering.
At around 50-75% volume, they deliver punchy, clear sound that fills the room. Above that you start getting distortion, but at 75% volume it’s already way too loud anyway.
This makes sense since a TV of this size was designed for a large living room with multiple viewers. If you sit in the sweet spot, the sound stage is crystal clear.
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What Is Soundstage, and Why Do Music Lovers Care About It?
Think your headphones or speakers have good stereo sound? Great soundstage is what fills the spaces between, up, and down.
I listened to my Metallica S&M and Rammstein Völkerball DVDs and I don’t think I even own any other speaker systems in my home that make this music sound even remotely as good.
Better Virtual Surround Than a Modern Soundbar?
I own one entry-level and one mid-range soundbar, so, admittedly, I don’t have a fancy multi-thousand-dollar Atmos soundbar with all the bells and whistles to compare it to, but the virtual surround on this old Sony blows them both out of the water.
When you activate the virtual surround feature of this late 90s TV, the sound stage expands, and you can clearly hear sounds coming from a very wide audio field. Just like all virtual surround, it’s not actually surrounding you with sound, but when I play PS2 games on this TV, the audio is incredibly immersive.
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Bass You Can Feel in Your Chest
I’m so used to modern TV speakers having weedy, thin bass that I was shocked when I could feel the bass from this TV actually buzz in my chest from several feet away.
I have the TV set up on a wood and metal desk I bought specifically to handle its weight, and it transfers that bass from the pods through the table legs and into the floor. It really is quite remarkable. Explosions in games, gunfire in movies, and double-kick blast beats in music really move the air in the room around.
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Some Modern TVs Are Trying at Least
There are two main reasons modern TVs have poor sound. First, TVs are so thin, there’s no room to put a decent speaker or amp. Second, the speakers are usually down-firing or backfiring and meant to reflect off the wall. Neither of these situations are ideal.
Actually, I just thought of a third reason—these days TV makers don’t expect you to use TV speakers, but that you will buy a soundbar instead. So why bother putting more than just basic little speakers in the TV?
That said, this isn’t always true. My 2022 LG CS OLED, for example, has a very adequate set of speakers and I don’t think you strictly need a soundbar to enjoy using it. Likewise, my old 70-inch Samsung TV had a nice set of speakers and there was no need for a soundbar in that case either.
Very large format TVs (e.g. 98-inches like the Samsung NEO QLED pictured above) need to have thick bodies to prevent their enormous panels from warping and twisting, so there’s enough room to put decent speakers in there. Sometimes they have nice multi-speaker systems with woofers and everything, but that’s obviously not what most people are buying and, ironically, someone buying that class of TV will also almost certainly buy a fancy surround system anyway.
All I know is that I’m going to enjoy the bonus audio greatness I got with this TV until it eventually dies (or collapses the floor) and hope that as technology progresses we can get back to TVs that come with awesome sound right out of the box again.
