JVC LT-32J300 LCD HDTV Review - Audio

Audio Summary
• Good quality speakers, relative to other built-in speakers. • Poor surround sound options. • Decent, but not impressive maximum volume.
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Sound Quality (6.0)

The JVC LT-32J300 has decent speakers. They're capable of a big sound and preserve details well. We're not sure if the TV has some latent, secret surround sound feature that's always on, but we thought it did a very good job at portraying localized sound. Of course, the LT-32J300's speakers aren't as good as a decent auxiliary set, but they were definitely better than what we typically hear.

Surround Sound (2.0)

The LT-32J300 has a few surround sound options, like Movie, News, and Music modes. We found all of these options to be inferior to the speaker's normal setting. When we put on movie mode, the sound got very weak in the high end, like it was projecting out a rear speaker that was covered with a pillow (if you are an audiphile, read this sentence as "blanketed"). None of the surround sound options increased the depth of the sound – in fact, most of these settings actually served to make the soundstage appear flatter and far less encompassing. Although no HDTVs we've reviewed so far had stellar surround sound, this is one of the first one that's had better surround sound with the namesake feature turned off.

Maximum Volume (7.91)

The LT-32J300's maximum volume was about 79.1 decibels, which is on the lower end of average. This is a solidly loud level, but the TV might sound a bit weak in a large room.