$20 Speaker Haul

12 Aug 2024

This set of Panasonic speakers only cost NZD$20! They often have old electronics that people do not have a use for anymore, and these speakers are a great example of that. For some reason they did not come with the original amp stereo thing, which is something I've noticed with these Op shop speakers.

Thankfully, I had an old Toshiba home theatre amplifier/receiver lying around. Luckily it had an optical connection! That means we can easily connect it to our Samsung TV.
The speaker connections were just bare wires so we tried connection that to the amp but the wires would often fall off and make a loud high pitched noise. It even sparked a little!

I went to Jaycar to see if there was anything that would connect to these connectors but unfortunately there was nothing. I resorted to using alligator clips to connect the speakers somewhat securely to the connections.

When I connected it to the TV it decided that 5.1 surround sound was the way. I went on disney+ and watched a trailer for a new Star Wars show and I couldn't hear any dialogue! I realised that the system thought I had a centre speaker so I had to go into the Tizen OS Settings and turn off Dolby Atmos and go back to plain old PCM.

The subwoofer was quite loud and punchy for its size; and comparing that system to TV speakers is cruel. They don't stand a chance!
The receiver has a few sound modes I had a play with. Prologic seems to get a psuedo surrond, which is usefull if you had rear speakers and TV doesn't have surrond sound. Then there is Hall 1 and 2. These add reverb to make it seem like you are in a bigger room. Lastly, there is theater. It makes it sound quieter, but I think it does the same as prologic and incorporates the rear speakers (if I had them).
Overall, I think I scored and epic system for way cheaper than a sound bar, and I'm pretty sure soundbars don't sound as good, simply because the speakers are smaller.

You've reached the end

Comments are hard - just flick me an email or message me on telegram if you want.