Inexpensive soundbar or TV

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by efraley, Nov 25, 2015.

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  1. efraley

    efraley Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Richmond Va USA
    I was thinking of purchasing one. BJs has a Vizio on sale for $50. I really don't want to get one with a subwoofer. Any suggestions?
     
  2. Tyler Eaves

    Tyler Eaves Forum Resident

    Location:
    Greenville, NC
    I've never heard one that wasn't $$$ that didn't sound incredibly awful.
     
    johnny q likes this.
  3. russk

    russk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse NY
    I like ZVOX. Got a good deal on one two black Fridays ago
     
  4. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    With most flat panel TVs, the speakers are the weakest link in the chain and if you wish to add a sound bar or computer speakers, you need to have a 3.5mm headphone jack or an RCA output built in to your TV. There are TVs with no headphone jack or any form out output out there. You are better off buying an actual home theater system or hook up your 2 channel stereo to your TV in these instances and full systems sound better than most sound bars as well.
     
    McLover likes this.
  5. Chazro

    Chazro Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Palm Bch, Fl.
    +1 on ZVOX!
     
    clhboa likes this.
  6. Paul Saldana

    Paul Saldana jazz vinyl addict

    Location:
    SE USA (TN-GA-FL)
    My brother in law loves the $200 Polk he bought recently, not sure if that was a steeply discounted price or not.

    I figure that if you have a dedicated music audio system you should just tie the TV or cable box into that and call it a day. That is precisely what I did myself.
     
  7. bcaulf

    bcaulf Forum Resident

    I've been looking at the well-received Yamaha YAS-105 soundbar as the item I'm going to ask for for Christmas this year. It looks to have some great reviews and I'd love to use it for tv, gaming and also streaming audio. Take a look at that one perhaps, but it does have subwoofers so I'm not sure it'll apply here.
     
  8. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    For years I turned on my home theater system every time I watched TV. A few months ago I decided that (a) I didn't like the extra heat generated by my amp when my condo was already too hot and (b) I didn't like spending the money to run my pre/pro and amp when watching shows where sound quality isn't that important. So while I still like turning on the home theater when watching shows with some music content (apart from theme or interlude music), if I'm watching a typical sitcom, talk show, or news show, I now just content myself using my TV's built in speakers. Granted, the sound isn't very good but the dialog is intelligible. One of the fringe benefits is that I no longer have commercials blaring at me at levels much greater than the program content if I happen to be in another room and not watching with my TiVo remote in hand, ready to skip the commercials before they've even begun.
     
  9. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    In our guest bedroom I have a Boston Acoustics Soundbar that was given to me by a friend, who wanted to upgrade to a full home theatre set up.

    It has a wireless woofer (not a true sub) and I have it connected through the optical output using a $60 DAC. It sounds about as good as you could expect for the price. It's fairly well balanced but that is because I spent a little time dialing in the woofer rather than just turning it all the way up. It is an improvement over the stock sound but it's a compromised solution.

    The weakest link is the signal detection system, it's difficult to set at exactly the right volume level. I settled on a level that provides low volume listening with the stock speakers, but if I hit a higher volume the Soundbar kicks in. A little like a sonic turbo charger. :)
     
  10. You're going to want a sub. Otherwise, what's the point of upgrading the existing speakers. You need a little oomph in there.

    I have a Samsung cheapie soundbar (forget the model) that serves well for general TV watching. Better than the tv's speakers anyway. I don't need top fidelity for watching baseball.
     
  11. jkev2

    jkev2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    atlanta
    I use a speakercraft cs3. I don't always want to turn the stereo on to watch tv. better sound than the zevox tv speakers that I compared it to
     
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