Best budget ish soundbar- just plugged in Samsung and unsure.

cohl123

Hi. I have used a yamaha yas93 (now discontinued) for years. No sub no other speaks and I genuinely felt like it was closed to surround sound.

Now I'm only changing it because of dramas with a soundbsr that mean it won't fit but also the optical socket in my TV is knackered.

Have plugged in a Samsung hw b5550 tonight (with sub) after reading various reviews and it coming out on top or similar to much more expensive ones. It was £150 but I must admit the general sound seems worse to me than the yamaha ?

The bass is decent and I hear the depth when there's music in a series, but a standard sound in a series I'm thinking it lacks depth. I have briefly tried to play eith the settings and up the voice.

I'll test on a movie tomorrow but wondering if there's better. Conscious it's only 2.1 but I think the yamaha does well at simulating 3+ channels.

I don't want Multiple speakers. I had to compromise on a sub but I can't hide it

Thanks

cohl123

Just testing it on action films - seems good on explosions - but just still a little underwhelmed giving it cost 150, has a sub and is raved about on reviews as the best yoi can get for under £300 and when the yamaha is nearly ten years old and cost around £80. That sounded "deep" on average series where I've switched back to a series and it doesn't even sound like I have a sound bar connected 

EssexExile

The trouble with soundbars and speakers is that they perform differently in different environments and that people want different things from them. It's really difficult to generalise.

matelodave

as suggested above, you really need to listen to them to see if they give the desired soundfield.

I bought a Sony 5.1 surround sound system a good few years ago to replace an earlier Sony system which had the smallest speakers you ever saw ( less than 2" square) but TBH the old system sounds so much better to me than the newer one both for sound depth and bass although the newer system got good reviews at the time.

In the end sound is very subjective and can be greatly affected by the location of the speakers and room furnishings and bare specifications dont tell you how it "sounds". What sounds OK to one person can be very different to another.

You'd probably be better going to somewhere like Richer Sounds where they've often got a demo room where you can get a better feel for the sound than you can in the TV dept of Curry's or John Lewis.

esmith9797

I got a hisense one to marry up to my Hisense TV and quite frankly it's great for what it was. Less than £130 for either an all in one or seperate bar and subwoofer 

SurferDan

So if the optical socket on your TV is broken how are you connecting the soundbar to the TV?