For Better TV Sound, Add a Bar

That TV you just bought might be high-definition, but the sound from that set is most definitely not.

If the atrocious retail sales environment has one upside, it is that there has never been a better time to buy a TV. Pick your maker. Pick your store. Everybody from Sony (SNE Quote) to Samsung, from Best Buy (BBY Quote) to Wal-Mart (WMT Quote), is trying to turn our national TV addiction into whatever sales they can.

However, audio nerds like me have a major bone to pick with the cheap flat-panel bonanza: Low-cost TVs that are hot sellers these days almost always come with equally low-fidelity sound systems. If these sets have speakers at all -- many don't, so be sure to check -- they are usually mass-produced, way-offshore jobs that make the AM radio in my mother's old 1968 Caprice sound good.

(Photo gallery: 2009 Consumer Electronics Show)

What is going on here is that electronics makers are angling to get you to bite on an audio package to augment your spiffy new flat panel. Despite the lexiconal abuse, these so-called 5.1 surround-sound systems actually have six speakers: three up front, one of which is by the TV -- called the center channel -- and two on either side. Then there are two in the back, usually overhead. And then one more -- the sub-woofer -- is dedicated to the low sounds.

For sure, 5.1 audio can rock the house. Makers like Harmon Kardon(HAR Quote) and Denon make marvelous multichannel media systems, but there is a major catch. Besides the cost, we're talking six speakers with amps, cables and construction that has to be finessed into your TV room. Which can get to be like Circuit City on a bad day if you're not careful.

Enter the sound bar, electronics makers' answer to the 5.1 surround-sound clutter fest.

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