Why your television sounds thin

Flat-panel televisions have almost no room for the speakers that matter. A driver small enough to sit behind a two-centimetre bezel simply cannot move enough air to produce a convincing bass note, a warm human voice or the rumble of a dramatic soundtrack. What you hear instead is a thin, boxy midrange with dialogue that gets buried the moment the music swells.

You do not need five speakers, a subwoofer and a ceiling full of cables to fix this. A pair of decent stereo speakers, or a single compact soundbase sitting under the set, will transform everyday viewing more than any other upgrade you can make for the money. The trick is choosing the right option for your room and then taking twenty minutes to set it up properly.

Two speakers or a soundbase?

A pair of active speakers is the purist's choice. Because the cabinets are further apart than anything built into a bar, you get genuine stereo separation: dialogue stays anchored to the screen while effects sweep across the room. Look for models with an optical or HDMI input, or a pair of powered speakers that accept a line-level feed from the TV's headphone or audio-out socket.

A soundbase is the tidier alternative, particularly in a small sitting room where floor space is precious. It is a wide, sturdy slab that the television stands on directly, so nothing new appears in your field of view. Because it has a larger internal volume than a soundbar, it usually delivers fuller bass without a separate subwoofer.

• Choose speakers if you care most about music listening as well as films, and can accommodate stands or a shelf either side of the screen.
• Choose a soundbase if your TV sits on a cabinet, you want minimum clutter, and you need a clean look that survives close inspection.
• Check the weight limit before buying a soundbase. Most handle televisions up to around 40kg, but verify the figure and the footprint against your set's stand.

Placement matters more than price

A well-placed modest system will beat an expensive one shoved into a corner. Start with these rules and adjust by ear.

• Keep the speakers close to the TV. Ideally the two cabinets and your head form an equilateral triangle, with the speakers roughly 1.5 to 2.5 metres apart and toed in slightly towards your seat.
• Get the tweeters near ear height. When you are sitting down, that usually means somewhere between 70cm and 90cm from the floor. Bookshelf speakers on a low cabinet often need a small wedge or a couple of rubber doorstops to angle them upwards.
• Pull them forward off the wall. Ten to twenty centimetres of breathing room behind a rear-ported cabinet tightens up the bass considerably.
• Keep them out of the cabinet. A speaker inside a closed shelf sounds muffled and hollow, however good it is.
• Isolate from the surface. Blu-tack, felt pads or purpose-made isolation feet stop the cabinet rattling along with the bass.

Wiring it up without tears

The simplest connection is optical, and for most UK viewers it is perfectly adequate. Every television sold here in the last fifteen years has an optical output, and a single cable carries clean stereo or a Dolby bitstream to your new speakers.

If your TV and speaker system both support HDMI ARC or eARC, use that instead. It lets the television remote control the volume, and it usually switches the speakers on automatically when you press the power button on the set. You will need to enable it in two places: the audio output menu on the TV, and the input settings on the speakers or soundbase.

Where audio and video travel by different routes, set the television to output stereo PCM rather than trying to downmix a multichannel stream. It is more reliable and avoids the odd effect where dialogue seems to arrive from somewhere off to your left.

Fixing lip-sync and dialogue

Almost every modern TV has a digital audio delay setting buried in the sound menu, usually offering somewhere between zero and 200 milliseconds. If voices arrive fractionally before the lips move, increase the delay in small steps of 10 to 20 milliseconds until the match is right. If the audio lags behind, check the setting on the source device instead, because a streaming box or set-top recorder often adds its own delay.

Two other adjustments are worth making. Switch on any dialogue enhancement or speech clarity mode if your system has one, and reduce the dynamic range compression if you watch late at night, so quiet dialogue and loud explosions sit closer together in volume. Both settings are usually found in the same menu as the delay.

Small tweaks that make a real difference

• Set the TV's own speakers to off once the new system is connected, or you will get a confusing blend of both.
• Give the new kit a week. Drivers loosen up with use, and bass often deepens noticeably after twenty or thirty hours of listening.
• Position a rug or curtains opposite hard surfaces. Bare rooms with wooden floors make any system sound bright and shouty.
• Raise the speakers rather than the volume if dialogue is unclear. Height and angle solve more problems than watts.
• Label your inputs if your speakers have several. Being able to switch straight to the television without hunting through menus will make the whole setup feel like part of the furniture.

Get those basics right and you will find yourself turning the subtitles off, hearing the details in a favourite programme for the first time, and wondering why you tolerated the built-in sound for so long. It is one of the most satisfying upgrades in home audio, and it need not cost a fortune.