Thanks for that. Just dug out and tried an old pair of headphones and sure enough the volume to them is controlled via the TV R/C. So it looks like I can plug some powered speakers into the headphone socket without any issues.
---------- Post added at 15:16 ---------- Previous post was at 14:26 ----------
Problem solved!!
Just remembered a pair of Goodmans powered speakers which used to be connected to an old DAB/CD player of mine. Plugged them into the TV via the headphone socket and the sound's great!
