TV as Center Channel TV speakers as part of a soundbar system (Samsung Q-Symphony, Sony Acoustic Center Sync, LG WOW Orchestra)

What TV-as-center-channel is

A soundbar's center speaker sits below the screen, so dialogue seems to come from the shelf. A TV's own speakers sit at or behind the image. Three brands combine the two: Sony with Acoustic Center Sync, Samsung with Q-Symphony, and LG with WOW Orchestra. The idea is to place dialogue on the picture and let the bar handle width, height and bass. The word "center" is literal only on Sony.

How Sony Acoustic Center Sync works

Sony's design is the most explicit. Its TV Help Guide says you can use the TV as a center speaker "by connecting a device such as a sound bar with an S-CENTER OUT terminal to the TV's S-CENTER SPEAKER IN terminal," and that conversations sound natural "because you can hear them coming from the screen and its vicinity." The guide covers BRAVIA 9, BRAVIA 8, BRAVIA 8 II, BRAVIA 7, BRAVIA 5 and A95L. Sony's HT-A7000 guide describes the wiring: connect the bar and TV with the supplied HDMI cable, then connect the TV's S-CENTER SPEAKER IN jack to the bar's S-CENTER OUT jack with the TV center speaker mode cable, or a commercially available stereo mini cable if the supplied one is too short.

Details matter. The Help Guide notes that even with an S-CENTER connection the bar "must be connected to the TV with an HDMI cable like a normal sound bar." On models where S-CENTER SPEAKER IN shares a terminal with the digital optical output, "optical audio output is not available" while it is in use. If center audio is silent, enable Acoustic Center Sync under Settings, Display and Sound, Audio output, Audio system settings. Some TVs have a CENTER SPEAKER IN terminal that takes an AV receiver's speaker-cable output: the guide says to strip about 10 mm of insulation and match polarity (+/-) at both ends.

Audio Advice, reviewing Sony's HT-A8000 and HT-A9000 bars, says Acoustic Center Sync works best with the BRAVIA 9, which has updated speaker drivers, or the A95L, whose speakers sit directly behind the screen, and that a compatible BRAVIA exposes soundbar quick settings in its own menu.

How Samsung Q-Symphony works

Samsung's US support page says Q-Symphony 4.0 allows "sound to play from a soundbar or wireless speaker (such as the Samsung Music Frame) and your TV's speakers simultaneously." The setup menu is available on 2024 to 2025 Samsung TVs. You can connect up to two devices, either two Music Frames or one Music Frame and one 2024 or newer soundbar, and the soundbar must be on the same Wi-Fi network as the TV. For wired bars, Samsung says the setup includes devices connected by HDMI or optical cable. To turn it off, return to Sound, Sound Output and choose TV Speaker.

The compatibility list is long and year-specific. For 2025 it includes the QN990F, QN900F, QN90F, QN85F, QN80F and QN70F TVs, the S95F, S90F and S85F models, and the Q990F, Q930F and Q800F soundbars; the page continues back through 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020 models.

Samsung does not describe Q-Symphony as a center-channel feature. It adds the TV speakers as a synchronized layer alongside the bar, and the page's own FAQ separates it from the older Wi-Fi Speaker Surround Setup, which Samsung removed because it only worked with multi-room speakers released until 2017.

How LG WOW Orchestra works

LG's support page says WOW Orchestra "uses the speakers from both a compatible LG Sound Bar and compatible LG TV simultaneously to create an expanded soundstage," and that both must support the feature. It activates automatically when the bar is connected, and you disable the automation under Settings, Sound, Listen to sound, Listen together with external speakers and TV speakers. LG states three requirements: it only works with supported TVs and soundbars, only with audio codecs the TV supports, and the eARC function must be set to On in the TV's advanced sound settings. LG credits the α9 AI processor with integrating the sound field of both devices and claims improved dialogue coherence.

LG pairs it with WOWCAST, a separate wireless link from TV to bar. LG says up to 7.1.4 channels and Dolby Atmos can be transmitted over it. LG describes three elements of its WoW audio feature: WOW Orchestra, the WOW interface (on-screen soundbar menu) and WOWCAST.

Sony vs Samsung vs LG

Sony sends the center part of the soundbar's sound to the TV over a dedicated cable, so the TV becomes the center speaker in the layout. Samsung and LG play the TV speakers and the bar together; LG credits its α9 AI processor with integrating the two sound fields. Sony's approach gives a defined role to the TV, while Samsung and LG describe a blended soundstage. Two caveats from the pages loaded: none of the three publishes a measured time-alignment figure between the TV and the bar, so how much delay each system adds is a knowledge boundary here, and all three tie the feature to a brand pair, so a Sony bar with a Samsung TV gets nothing.

What the TV has to deliver

Using the TV as the center channel means its speakers carry every line of dialogue, and cinema calibration asks every channel for the same output. SMPTE RP 200 sets the reference level at 85 dBC per channel with 20 dB of peak headroom, so a center channel at reference level should reach 105 dB SPL peaks at the seat. At 3 m the distance loss alone is 9.5 dB, so the speaker must produce about 114.5 dB at 1 m (the arithmetic is in maximum SPL and headroom). None of the three brands publishes a sensitivity or peak-SPL figure for the TV speakers in the pages loaded here, which is a knowledge boundary: you cannot confirm from a spec sheet that the TV can fill the center role at reference, and most people listen well below it anyway.

Worked example

You own a Sony BRAVIA 7 and an HT-A7000 bar. The HDMI cable from the bar's eARC output carries the Atmos signal, and the supplied TV center speaker mode cable runs from S-CENTER OUT on the bar to S-CENTER SPEAKER IN on the TV. After enabling Acoustic Center Sync, the center part of the bar's sound plays from the TV. You gain dialogue that seems to come from the picture, and you depend on the TV's speakers to handle it. For buying advice on bars with real center speakers, see phantom center and the center channel guide, and for connection rules eARC.