When flat screens still had front firing speakers it was not so bad but with 99% of them having down firing speakers a sound bar becomes a lot more attractive.
I just got a soundbar and I’m really enjoying it
- Thread starter RamblinE
- Start date
When flat screens still had front firing speakers it was not so bad but with 99% of them having down firing speakers a sound bar becomes a lot more attractive.
Any move away from internal flat panel TV speakers is a move in the right direction. Those things are atrocious. Harsh, indistinct and oddly unbalanced. For instance, starting an NBC show on Hulu when that paint splash and 7-note NBC audio theme blasts out, it is jarring. Then when the show starts, the dialogue is still too soft.
We don't keep a TV in the living room, just the family room in the basement and the bedroom. When my in-laws come over and we watch something I'll bring out the bedroom TV since my mother-in-law has mobility issues that make a trip to the basement more trouble than it's worth. In the larger room, even at almost full volume, the sound gets lost. I had an extra computer speaker plus mini-sub system lying around and hooked that up. It is SO much better. Even the dreaded NBC theme is evened out and no longer overwhelming.
We don't keep a TV in the living room, just the family room in the basement and the bedroom. When my in-laws come over and we watch something I'll bring out the bedroom TV since my mother-in-law has mobility issues that make a trip to the basement more trouble than it's worth. In the larger room, even at almost full volume, the sound gets lost. I had an extra computer speaker plus mini-sub system lying around and hooked that up. It is SO much better. Even the dreaded NBC theme is evened out and no longer overwhelming.
HTHMAN
Super Member
Back when TVs had front facing speakers, they could sound decent if not good. My plasma had front speakers and I only used the surround sound for movies. When I got my 70" LCD with a thin bezel and rear speakers, I had to have the surround on almost all the time just to understand the dialog. A soundbar is basically just putting those front facing speakers back,
ev13wt
Super Member
This. TV "speakers" are probably intentionally worse than bad. A sound bar makes it sound better. That means, since soundbars are getting better but still no "hifi", soundbars get seen as "really good".
Funny how that works.
charles 1973
Super Member
I just looked at some sound bars at best buy. I would suggest, If you budget permits to get one that has DD/DTS 3.1 sound or better. Many of them, Even the expensive ones ($1,000) are just 2.1 stereo, So there are few, If any options for improving dialog over the cheap TV speakers. In fact the TV speakers may do a better job than a stereo soundbar for dialog. But of course a poor job for anything else but news and perhaps talk shows. So even many stereo sound bar's are still likely a big improvement overall than the TV speakers.
For example My Samsung 32" LED TV has a clear dialog setting, Which ironically does fine job. Add to that tiny TV speakers that compress the background sounds/effects so much I can turn it way up without blasting me out of the house with the loud scenes.
With DD/DTS 3.1 we have isolated the center speaker where the dialog is sent. And we have options (like dialog lift, Dynamic range compression, and simply turning up the center channel) to clear up dialog for all scenes.
For example My Samsung 32" LED TV has a clear dialog setting, Which ironically does fine job. Add to that tiny TV speakers that compress the background sounds/effects so much I can turn it way up without blasting me out of the house with the loud scenes.
With DD/DTS 3.1 we have isolated the center speaker where the dialog is sent. And we have options (like dialog lift, Dynamic range compression, and simply turning up the center channel) to clear up dialog for all scenes.
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RamblinE
(╯°□°)╯彡┻━┻
This seems like valuable information for somebody planning on spending money on one as opposed to accidentally winning one in a sales contest. Great post!
JoeESP9
ESL's & tubes since 83
This has been my experience with flat panel TV's.
The HDTV I'm using now is a Sony tabletop LCD rear projection set (one of those that used to have the optical block meltdown). It actually has a 5" "subwoofer" in the rear of the cabinet, so the sound is actually fairly decent, and everything is intelligible. I figured I would lose that when going to a flat screen, hence the soundbar idea.
My problem is trying to keep the cost from creeping upward. You know how it goes. Start at $299. But wait, this model has feature x, and it's only $349. Oh, this one has better response and it's only $449...and pretty soon, one thing leads to another, and there I go with a $999 soundbar.
My problem is trying to keep the cost from creeping upward. You know how it goes. Start at $299. But wait, this model has feature x, and it's only $349. Oh, this one has better response and it's only $449...and pretty soon, one thing leads to another, and there I go with a $999 soundbar.
Good suggestion. Being able to adjust the dynamics of the sound is a good idea. I hate the movies with rather soft dialog and loud sound effects and background music. Turn it up the hear what is being said and wham!, some loud a$$ noise has you jumping for the remote.
I too recently purchased one of the TV's with built-in Roku and so far it's great. We've cut the cord on DISH and now have Roku on 3 TV's. Added SlingTV to get a littel more typical content and a nicer Antenna to get locals.
The sound Bar thing is something I am starting to consider so I am glad you are giving the notion a thumbs up. I just listened to one of Steve Guttenberg's YouTube videos about best gear of 2017 and he had a Vizio sound bar in there! shocked me enough into thinking I might need to check it out. Also, my dad at 78 has crappy hearing loss so it's a must for him.
The TV manufacturers limit the speaker quality on many models to keep costs down. Be better to just go with a monitor and add your own speaker/sound bar system maybe.
Even my cheapie from Best Buy has three different sound modes: Surround, Normal and News. Surround fakes surround pretty decently, normal is, you guessed it, pretty normal. And News really pushes dialog to the front. We leave it on normal and it works great. I think we paid $70 on sale for it.
My uncle is deaf in one ear and has fairly limited hearing in the other, both due to medical issues. He uses wireless headphones to watch TV with so the entire neighborhood doesn't have to deal with it. Might be worth considering.
Thanks. He simply needs to go get hearing aids. His excuse thus far has been spending money on other ailments, but I tend to think hearing loss is having a big impact on quality of life for him. He is often not engaged in conversation etc because he cant hear what's going on. Plus it's a pain to repeat everything!
RamblinE
(╯°□°)╯彡┻━┻
Even with her hearing aids my mother was blasting her TV. I gave her a pair of K240 Studio headphones and a thirty foot cable. She’s been using them religiously without complaint. And if she was going to complain about them trust me she would have. If not to me then to my wife.
CT_Ohio
Well-Known Member
I use a Samsung soundbar on one of my PCs; worked out well enough that I built sort of a backboard stand to raise it up above the monitor. But with more audio options in my home office area lately, I may move to receiver and speakers. The soundbar does simplify setup, and is far more stable than the powered computer speakers I've had; last pair (Creative Labs) started smoking and I threw em out the back door.
restorer-john
Addicted Member
No soundbars for me. I'd rather eat my own head.
I can see why people do them however, particularly in bedrooms etc, but we have one TV only in our house, in the loungreoom and that's enough. It gets proper amplifiers, D/As and decent floorstanding speakers for movies and TV.
I can see why people do them however, particularly in bedrooms etc, but we have one TV only in our house, in the loungreoom and that's enough. It gets proper amplifiers, D/As and decent floorstanding speakers for movies and TV.
I feel the same way... and I do get it, kind of like buying an all in one unit for the den... cassette, eight track, changer, tuner... a 'compact'... and Sony and Pioneer made some decent ones... but I have to have a 'system' of some kind for what ever I'm listening to except maybe am radio. It's just me I suppose, having a long running affair with audio, but to me a sound bar is so 'Tee Vee'... I can't get past it.No soundbars for me. I'd rather eat my own head.
I can see why people do them however, particularly in bedrooms etc, but we have one TV only in our house, in the loungreoom and that's enough. It gets proper amplifiers, D/As and decent floorstanding speakers for movies and TV.
qdrone
Music is my mistress
When I bought my Sony I bought mine, Harmon Kardon. The T.V. I purchased was the one below their flagship and having doing my research I knew my TV was exactly the same picture wise but the flagship had 4 more speakers and different sound modes at 1000.00 more. My soundbar was 300 and came with a small sub woofer and I can run it with the TV speakers. Movies sound uber,I'm sure it isn't state of the art for Home Theatre enthusiast but for my movie viewing I'm happy.
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