Samsung SyncMaster 2333HD HDTV Widescreen LCD Monitor, Beautiful TV with one big drawback
I’ve seen the Samsung 2333HD advertised as a 23" monitor with a TV tuner. Now why would they say it that way? I dunno, but I’ll tell you what. This TV is nice colors, clear, crisp, heck it even tilts on its stand, plus you can use it as a computer monitor. I can’t think of a reason not to buy this quality LCD screen… except…
The speakers sound like a portable AM radio from the 1960’s. Very tinny-sounding. I kid you not. It is not the richer sound of my 19" Samsung LN19A650 (which I recommend, btw.) Why would the speakers be so lame? I had my 19" in the bedroom, this 2333HD in the kitchen, so I even swapped the rooms that they were in, but the tinniness followed the TV. I tried to use the equalizer and beef up the low end, lower the high end, but while it added bass, the tinny sound remained.
Yes, this TV apparently has a multimedia sound. But that means you navigate to the Sound menu to where you select from Standard, Music, Movie, Voice, and Custom. What you find is that Custom and Standard were the best choices only because Music, Movie, Voice were even *more* tinny.
I even thought maybe I would learn to get used to it, because I bought the TV at a good price, and, hey, the large 23" screen is just soooo nice in quality. So, I gave it a chance. I tell you, watching this TV over a period of days gave me a subtle earache, that tinniness again.
I boxed this 2333HD back up and will return it to the store. I just cannot hack that tinny sound. Why oh why would Samsung allow this to happen? So is that why places advertise this as "a monitor with a TV tuner"? Is it the phrase to be wary of?
Update: I just figured out what the sound issue is with this 2333HD. This TV set does not have SRS TruSurround XT like my 19" does. On that TV, I had turned the option ON right away, so had never played it without that option. Until this morning, when I turned the option OFF, and a slightly tinny sound came from the 19", but nowhere as bad as on the 2333HD, but it was there. I turned the option ON again in my 19", and the sound was much better, deeper, absolutely no tinniness to it. So, my lesson is, if the Samsung HDTV does not have the SRS TruSurround XT option, I will not buy it.