Tom has good points that I overlooked. Frankly, for situations exactly like this, I haven't bought a TV in 20 years that doesn't have variable-level outs...preferably RCA composite.

Then, as Tom mentioned, I can hook it up to anything else and use the TV's remote control volume. This also negates needing a second remote just to control volume....a PIA if you ask me!

Yeah, I haven't shopped for TV's in great enough detail lately to know whether that whole "variable line-level output" feature is "standard" or not.

Well I found an old set of Boston Acoustics BA745 Computer Speakers in the garage from an old computer setup, the Samsung 7500 has an audio out mini jack, so I plugged the speakers in and hooked up one of the mini jacks to the TV and low and behold I've got new sound

Great sound no, but the small sub and the speakers is a huge improvement over what the TV was giving out. (the kids thought it is awesome and the wife will be happy because I didn't spend any money.) As Tom mentioned the sound has to be controlled at the speakers, but hell I was the remote when I was a kid so I have no qualms telling the kids to turn up the volume.

I'll probably still shop around, I found CatBrats suggestion on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Surroun...o+soundbar+6000 and that may be a future consideration. Thanks again everyone for the input.

Amen, brother.

Cool that you found a meaningful, free upgrade.

When was the last time we SAVED anybody money around here?

I was the antenna ... and the remote.

There are some rather large sized soundbars out there these days. The concept of bouncing sound off of reflective walls to creative the surround sound perspective is interesting.
I haven't heard any myself but i've read about a Panasonic awhile back that was getting good reviews.
At least, i think it was Panasonic.
It was some time ago.

I have a Mitsubishi Diamond 65" DLP set up in a room with 7.1 speakers. More and more I just listen to the sound from the TV, not only because of the convenience but because of the sound quality. The Mitsu has 8" woofers and I believe a total of 16 drivers, strong bass and projects sound so some effects appear to come from behind me!

At first I thought the Mitsu was exciting the back and side surround speakers, but I think it was JohnK who pointed out how unlikely that was. He is right. It's the Mitsubishi which is 'throwing' surround sound. Based on this experience, i'd say there is real hope for good surround sound quality from a sound bar.

Here's quote from your Mitsu's product description (taken from Amazon):


This is precisely what the good soundbars do.

Well, Peter, I guess I'd quibble just a little.

I think this is what "The Best" soundbars do. I don't think achieving that standard is at all common, as the implementation requires DSP and multiple (many?) drivers. It seems that "most" soundbars are simply a L/C/R in one box. So, I think that the Yamaha Sound Projectors, the ZVox products and some others are meaningfully more capable of an immersive soundfield. I'm not sure that you can't have a "good" soundbar without the multiple-driver surround processing.

But you'd probably still need a pretty big box to achieve "good".

Quibble away. Good, by this forum's standards, is an exclusive group.