Soundbar to improve TV sound, any suggestions?

sekrapa

The TV's are getting thinner and the speakers inside getting smaller, making sound tiny and unimpressive. Not wanting to have speakers all over the place and many more wires on display than I already have, I thought of getting a sound bar. For those who are unaware of these, it is a long single speaker casing that lies under the TV, with left and right speakers and sometimes a bass. This gives the 2.1 sound with a clearer speech and better crisper sound than the standard TV speakers .... or so they are supposed to do.

If anyone has one of these, what make and model do you have, is it any good and would you recommend it?

Ideally I would like to control the volume through the TV remote, so thinking of a lead from headphone out of TV to aux in on the unit, if this is possible.

Current setup is TIVO (connected through HDMI), Sony HDD recorder (scart) and Xbox (composite).

Stuck with the options and what to do, so any help is appreciated. Thanks. Andrew

John_Gray

I have been appalled at the cost of these devices, being a very significant percentage of the cost of the TV itself. There must be a cheaper way...

bcl999

The sound bar is likely to be an improvement on the bulit-in speakers but it is still restricted due to the physical size i.e. the speakeers in it can't be very big either.

When I bought my Panny plasma, I idiscovered how bad the sound was on these flatscreen things. (I had previously had a big Toshiba TV which had a ssub-woofer speaker along the bottom front of the cabinet and two side stereo speakers so was used to quite good TV sound.)

At first, I linked the plasma up to an old AV receiver off EBay and used my strereo system speakers. That was a vast improvement over the built-in ones for very little cost. However, the AV receiver was only stereo so I have since bought a proper up-to-date one , surround rear speakers and a sub-woofer. The whole thing cost me as much again as the the screen but the difference in sound qulaity is startling.

cajef

I have taken leads fron the sound output sockets of my Panasonic TV and DVD recorder to the Aux inputs of my Teac stereo amp., don't use it all the time but if there is anything where I want decent sound quality such as concerts, the Proms etc., then it is always there.

letsbehonest

I was very Intrested in getting one myself about 3 months and I did a lot of research, my conclusion was as said above expensive for what improvement you get I checked out a recommended make which was Yamaha at Richer sounds and had the demo not bad but £130 , not that good. So I am still looking for a solution having said that I have a Panasonic which is not bad in the sound department so,I'll probably stick with what I've got. It's still just another want I suppose.

warwick_hunt_2

My solution to the poor sound quality was to utilise an old set of 2:1 PC speakers wired to the headphone socket of the TV (audiophiles look away now).

Result: Much improved sound quality plus just the 1 wire to connect satellite, Xbox,PS3 & DVD.

sekrapa

Agree that they are very over priced for what they are. For the same price, I can get a 5.1 system with a blu ray player. I like the idea of one speaker, 1 wire, but baulk at the prices. I do not have an amp or stereo otherwise would have done that.

If it was left to me, I would get a nice 5.1 system and put speakers all around, but have been told under no circumstances that speakers can be fitted to the walls and wires trailed around the room, hence the reason to keep things as neat as possible.

I looked at the http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acoustics-QTV2-BLACK-Channel-Sound-Enhancer/dp/B002SZGGQC/ref=pd_ybh_15 as this looks ideal, but again price is putting me off.

Looks like I will stick with the TV sound for a bit longer.

wba31

I have the orbitsound T12, which I bought for £300 from John Lewis.

It was initially plugged into my TV via an optical cable (provided in box). I had a few problems with the infrared remote to start with, but in contacting Orbitsound directly they sent out 2 replacement bars to sort the problem out (they changed the sensor).

The bar sound is great when my iPhone was plugged in, but when watching TV or films, it seemed a little quiet, even at maximum volume.

I bought a new TV this May (the other one was 5/6 years old?) and the soundbar is now sufficiently loud enough (so i think the volume problem was the output of the old TV, not the bar itself), and never makes it to maximum volume anymore. it's relatively tidy, and cable free (has cable to sub woofer behind TV, optical cable to tv and power cable) and looks quite smart in front of the tv.

I bought it for the fact it advertises itself as almost replicating surround sound, but it doesnt, it just sounds like good stereo sound...

If I went back in time would i buy it again? I doubt it to be honest with you. I would either get this http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct/ONKY-HTX22HDX-BLK/Onkyo+Htx22hdx+Blk.html which a friend of mine has and is a great system, and can be extended to 5:1 if you desire.
OR I would have bought a bigger TV stand, and did what I used to do when I lived with my parents, and that was plug my TV into my 2 speaker Sony Stereo. The sound was loud and enveloping, without being bass heavy - I dread to think how it sounds to my neighbours when watching a film or something... I try to be considerate, and if they came and knocked the door I'd turn it down without argument...

knightstyle

I bought a Konig Sound bar for my parents and the sound is great, 160w and plenty of bass. Still on ebay item 160765606406