I'm interested to hear your thoughts about the benefits of modern day soundbars compared to the days of surround sound speakers and other inventions. For me personally, growing up in the surround sound era, it was a neat little thing to have surround sound to show off to people when they came round to watch a movie or tv show. However, I think nowadays soundbars are my personal preference purely because of a lot less clutter and also multi functionality with the fact a lot of them can also play music etc through bluetooth. What do you guys think? Do soundbars create enough of a room filling audio for your tastes?
Sadly not heard one yet that could match my own Dac - Pre - Amp and Speakers separates set up , but perhaps I’m just old school Late Last year I did have some fun after buying a new TV the salesman wanted me to take the Samsung sound bar on a home trial Interestingly he didn’t ask me what I already had I had volunteered that I run the TV through my digital stereo set up and mentioned that I also had a vinyl set up Which should’ve been a bit of a clue to him He gave me a weeks home trial and told me the tv and movies would be ‘breathtaking and music would be really really good’ I think it retailed at £1000 Needless to say it was a poor effort compared with my benchmark Dac / pre and Cyrus Mono Xs along with Klipsch Quartets for all the options. When I took it back the salesman Said I was the first person who had had a home trial and not bought it
For $130 my Vizio soundbar and subwoofer (chosen to match my TV) sounds pretty good and the set up was painless. I did have a 100 wpc system with KEF Q10s that was better for music but the soundbar is better for dialog and the subwoofer goes deeper that the KEFs did.
..........everybody has his own frame of reference and wishes, taste. and so on. I just can not imagine that someone who is used to listen to a nice dedicated stereo system, would / could fully enjoy music on a soundbar or any other lifestyle audio product. Listened to a few of the so called better soundbars, pretty expensive Sonos systems to, but to my ears it's a poor attempt to recreate music.
The good soundbars are relatively expensive. I’m not aware of any soundbar under $2K I would consider owning. Whether one will meet your needs really depends on your goals. Do you primarily want one for simulated home theater surround sound, with occasional use for background music? In that case a soundbar can be a great solution. If HT duties would be secondary and you want to use one to replace a high quality 2-channel rig for critical music listening, chances are you’ll be disappointed. Of the current soundbar offerings I’m aware of, the Sennheiser and B&O options are probably the best.
They have their place in life…. I picked up one for my daughter and boyfriend Christmas of 2020 . It was a Yamaha , they love it. It has BlueTooth and they stream their music through it. They use it all the time for both music and TV. They are actually looking into another one because their generation in general wants portable music , usually from their phone. It’s sad , but little emphasis is placed on quality, it’s all about convenience and portability I gave my future son in law a pair of Grado RS2e plus an amp and he is hooked on them. So at least he is starting to appreciate quality playback. Poor bastard is learning first hand about WAF and he’s not even married yet….
I wish they would have used them more in car dealer repair and other waiting rooms. Perfect application.
With those good soundbars you want a symmetrical room with walls on either side to get the phantom satellite speaker effect. I have heard some and I can swear it’s as if there were some SFX speakers. Such soundbars cost around $3k. In my living room I use a simple Sony soundbar that has a sub. It’s not expensive and does the job to give me more volume and low end for my TV. It’s convenient whilst not taking up space.
When you get into higher quality soundbars the price gets high enough ($2,000 and up) to make it not worth the investment in my opinion when measured against dedicated speakers and gear. This becomes even more apparent when you go shopping on the high end used market where you can source some very good gear for about 1/2 of original cost. I do think soundbars have a place, and many of them are competent enough to get the job done well....just not as good sounding as the other dedicated material. This means you should try a few of them to see and hear which version fits your needs. Understand the return policy before purchase. If a good fit on return policy buy one, install in the system, listen and decide....if it is a "no" back it goes and try another. If you do find one that trips your trigger be sure to let us know. Good luck.
I have a very old Boston Acoustics soundbar. It was affordable and mainly serves to make TV sound more listenable and dialogue more intelligible. It’s not high-end but it sounds good enough for my needs.
I used and heard sound bars prior to the stand mount speakers I’m using now and there’s absolutely no comparison for me anyway. The speakers are a whole different realm.
My girlfriend has a BA sound bar with wireless sub. I stopped by for lunch and I’m watching the news through it right now. It’s perfect for her because shes’s hard of hearing and uses Closed Captioning, much better than TV speakers
Soundbars are nice for improving the sound on a flatscreen with minimal or hidden speakers, but for listening to 2 channel audio - hard pass
For "dedicated" home theaters, nothing compares to 7.1 surround with two 12" powered subs. I have a NAD T758 7.1 receiver with NHT speakers all around and two NHT 12" powered subs, no sound bar can replicate the AWESOMENESS of a dedicated home theater setup...
I think they can sound pretty damn good and for not much money. I heard a cheap LG system while on vacation. It sounded great for what it was - my iphone playing some Pandora/Spotify - we had a blast. The are very similar to the little Bose cubes of the 90's - those little cubes + the sub - really put out some fantastic sound and launched the whole Sub Satellite industry - I even bought a really nice (better than Bose) Cambridge Soundworks sub/sat system that put my old large 70's speakers to shame (large Heathkit towers)
I find the idea of surround sound when the screen is just a TV and not a field-of-vision-filling cinema screen doesn't appeal that much. For me, all I want is a big and powerful sound more than surround. Best in our house is my stereo system. Second best is the Panasonic SC-HTX5 home theatre TV stand that our TV sits on. It has its own built-in subwoofer as well as decent two-way speakers. No real surround, but loads of ooomph. Then bringing up the rear is our TV. What worries me about a soundbar is where I would put it.
No, but there are times... we recently stayed in a cabin up in the Eastern Sierras, and a soundbar / small SW setup was the only option outside of earbuds. It conveyed a reasonably pleasant sound for a small group of people within about ten feet. On the other side of a large "great room," it lost at least half its volume, but that may have had as much to do with the environment, lots of clutter and sound-absorbing materials, as with the gear.
The soundbar is an ergonomic solution to a problem that is a universal challenge for the typical user: they have a teevee, they need better sound, this is plug-n-play solution. There are probably scads of audiophiles out there (and on here) who would just love for this to be our solution as well; only, we've spent our lives making our problems bigger than most people's. Yeah, I'd get a soundbar if it really elevated my TV/video listening to theater-grade...but I've taught myself, only a theater-grade solution will do. Yeah, I'd get a soundbar if it gave me the ATMOS thrill I've already told myself I need to add a drop-ceiling and extra wiring to even come close; but I can't. I can't believe front-facing drivers are going to ricochet off above me and convince me I'm getting the bang for the buck. Yeah, I'd get a soundbar if it automatically popped the popcorn, served the coffee and dimmed the lights. But that just ain't gonna happen. This is a solution tailor-made for Joe Sixpack, and he ain't coming over tonight to watch Fast And Furious XIII in my living room, so fuggedaboudit.
A sound bar is not a substitute nor an equivalent of proper hifi speakers. It’s mainly a convenience product, good sound quality isn’t its primary goal. It’s useful to make tv voices more intelligible and a decent one can be used for background music. And that’s how most consumers listen to music, as some background noise. Different devices for different target audiences.
