Why are TV soundbars so expensive?!

SneakySpectator

Some of them cost half as much as the damn TV. I was looking at a 55 inch LG OLED TV and it was £1,800 and then it suggested an "ad on" purchase of a soundbar valued at, wait for it, £899! What the hell is that. 

£900 for enhanced sound? Seriously how good can it be. All my life I've only ever listened to TVs through their inbuilt speakers so maybe I just don't know what I'm missing but I can't imagine ever dropping that much just to get better sound quality. 

They do sell some in the £180 - £350 price range but even that still seems excessive.

Ayr_Rage

You don't know what you are missing!

HonestJohn

I agree about the cost. Going to lash together an old stereo and speakers.

saajan_12

I suppose their argument / pitch would be that wwith TVs getting so thin, there isnt the physical space to have a good speaker. We were given the same pitch about how the inbuilts would be *terrible* and a good TV is *wasted* by how much we'd hate the sound quality. 

We picked out a TV and sound bar, but decided to hold off on buying the sound bar until we tried out the inbuilt sound in situ, on the off  chance it was okay, if not could always buy the sound bar a week later. Set up TV and it was many moons before we even remembered the conversation. Sound was fine, no distortions, good range, no complaints!

daveyjp

I'd never pay almost £2k for a TV.  However a £150 sound bar on a £300 TV makes a huge difference.

flaneurs_lobster

The only way you could judge if a £899 (or £499 or £50) soundbar is worth it to you is by listening to the thing. 

So go somewhere where you can do just that, got a Richer Sounds near you? Indie Hi-Fi shop?

Same argument always occurs when discussing this kind of discretionary spend (especially audio kit). "How on earth can X possibly be worth £££ when you can buy Y for £".

I know someone who spent significantly more than £899 on a turntable cartridge (without stylus). 

400ixl

A £150 soundbar would be an improvement over tv speakers in most cases, but in true terms of a sound difference, very little in comparison to something which has full Dolby Atmos as an example.

Most people don't need / want that level of audio fidelity though, but some with cinema rooms etc may well. That takes a lot investment to develop and cost to produce in small numbers which is why it costs more to buy.

Exodi

This post seems a bit contradictory to me to be honest.

So you're OK with spending £1800 for an LG 55" OLED TV, despite the fact you can pick up an LG 55" OLED TV for under half that, e.g.: https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lg-oled55b42la-55-smart-4k-ultra-hd-hdr-oled-tv-with-amazon-alexa-10262628.html (and it gives you a 50% discount on a soundbar), but can't see why people would spend extra for a soundbar?

Why are you opting for a £1800 TV over the one I linked? You can appreciate, if it's because it has extra nits, or  other relatively minor improvements, then this is exactly the argument that could be used for why someone would spend lots of money on a soundbar.

Don't get me wrong, I'm also guilty -  I ended up choosing a Mini LED 65" 4K TV, got it out the wall, brilliant, time to take advantage of the crisp fidelity and superior image quality.

Only kidding, I watch it without glasses (so I can't see the fidelity), turn the brightness down to save electricity and most of the stuff I watch (e.g. TV or YouTube) is at best 1080p.

DullGreyGuy

SneakySpectator said:

Some of them cost half as much as the damn TV. I was looking at a 55 inch LG OLED TV and it was £1,800 and then it suggested an "ad on" purchase of a soundbar valued at, wait for it, £899! What the hell is that. 

£900 for enhanced sound? Seriously how good can it be. All my life I've only ever listened to TVs through their inbuilt speakers so maybe I just don't know what I'm missing but I can't imagine ever dropping that much just to get better sound quality. 

They do sell some in the £180 - £350 price range but even that still seems excessive.

I'll first point out that were I to rebuy my home cinema sound system brand new today it would cost a little over £8,000 so thats where I'm coming from (and if I had enough spare cash I'd do it again in an instant)

You say you've only ever listened via TVs built in speakers... have you never been to a cinema? Seen the helicopter fly towards you then the sound carries over your head and behind you? If you think cinemas are decent then what can be done at home when you are only concerned about 2-3 seating positions not hundreds is vastly better. 

How good can it be? Reasonable, considering the limitation that you have a single long thing at the front of the room plus a sub thats trying to reflect sound off the walls and ceiling to simulate as if there were other speakers there so that the helicopter does sound as if it is hovering above you not coming from the TV at the front. 

Your basic soundbar has an amp, a HDMI switch and two speakers. It takes the left channel and puts it through the left speaker and takes the right channel and puts it through the right speaker. The £900 one can have up to 11 speakers in the bar itself, feed it with DTS:X or Dolby Atmos which are both object based sound encodings and the processor in the sound bar will workout which speakers to use how and how loud and delayed each one should be to make it sound like the helicopter is above you. To do this you normally run some config protocol so it can work out how each speaker is bouncing about your room depending where it is relative to walls, ceilings etc. 

In principle my much more expensive setup does no different other than there are actually 2 speakers in my ceiling, 2 along side the sofa and one behind etc so its not needing to use reflections to mimic it. Before someone asks, no its obviously not 10x as good despite the price difference but thats the law of diminishing returns but it can go way louder and does sound better than any soundbar

RumRat

I totally agree my cinema set up (recently re-done) cost £7200 and that was with a couple of decent discounts. The TV I have has decent speakers and under normal viewing of TV programmes are absolutely fine. However, when watching a movie, I want it to sound like I'm actually watching it as intended by the Director/Studio.
Is it too much? That would depend, I don't drink much and don't smoke, I save up for a couple of years to make sure I can keep up with the fast moving technology. 
Not for everyone, agreed, but it is definitely a case of you get what you pay for.

EssexExile

I use a Denon mini hi-fi for TV sound, about £400.