TV sound and surround speakers

Hello I bought a TV and as the reviews I read on the net said, the sound is definitely not one of its best assets Now I wonder, if I buy surround or 2.1 speakers and connect them to the TV, will I get a lot better sound? Basically what I'm interested in, does the TV affect the speakers? For example, will the sound from same speakers be the same quality on different TVs?

the easy answer is yes the sound will be much better from a good external speaker system than what the tv outputs. do all tv's sound the same with the same external speaker system, then i'd have to say no, it would depend on the tv's internal hardware, same as the sound from a pc's motherboard may sound better than another motherboards that uses a different sound chipset. but a good external sound system will always be vastly superior to what the tv can output through it's built in speaker system.

thank you for your answer

I'd be very careful about selecting high quality speakers for most TVs or computers with no sound card to match for that matter, as they will amplify the distortion (ever so clearly) that exists in the weakest sound link, the TVs (or computer) internal sound hardware and it's source. Sound quality is only as good as it's weakest link, everything must be reasonably balanced or potential amplified distortion can/will be the result. We recently went digital radio here in OZ. Potentially a much higher quality sound source than FM, which was potentially better than AM that it replaced and suddenly $20 portable radios became $250 radios made with the same cheap $2 speakers, but manufactured to accept the digital signal. Needless to say and to the disappointment of most buyers, the quality of the sound was still only as good as the $2 speakers allowed Cheers, Lee