Soundbar

M

MBono

Well-Known Member
86
50
Anyone have a specific soundbar they really like or would recommend? Something reasonable under $300

I've had:

Sony HTCT-770: good bass, mids and highs were hard to hear. (returned it)
LG NB3530A: Returned it even before I set it up due to poor reviews
Samsung HW-H450/ZA: Current setup, but bass is low. Mid and highs are perfect

Looking at the Vizio S4221W-C4

Suffering from paralysis by analysis right now.

Thanks
 
When I was shopping for one a few years ago I went to Best Buy and took a CD with me. The row they had on display had a hidden CD player for the demo loop. Either ask one of the workers to pop it in for you to listen to or just pull the "faceplate" off the display and do it yourself. You might be able to find one you were considering on display to test out and listen to. I bet a lot of them have a 3mm input jack and you could take a cord and your iPod/phone and plug that straight in too.

Ours is decent but it definitely does not get very loud. It's more a "boost" for the crappy TV speakers so I can actually hear what's being said. I don't think any of them are really great from what I've experienced. I did enjoy listening to Cannibal Corpse really loud in the middle of the store though. It's one of those BB's where you can't get anyone to help you ever. No one even came over to see what all the racket was.
 
The only true way for me to test is: to bring it home, set it up and listen. There is so much background noise at BB, everything gets drowned out. I have been going to BB, pairing with my phone and cranking the music. It's still hard to get a true experience in store. Music sounds very different than movies, and add the ambient noise.... Next time, I may just bring a chair, popcorn and a blu ray in store and try again....hahaha
 
You'd never be able to get a good idea from the store itself. Some soundbars are sound projectors and reflect the sound off of walls to give a type of surround sound. I tired a Yamaha system at home and it didn't work well with the way my room is set up. I have a half wall behind my couch so there's nothing to reflect off of.

We currently have a Sharp HT-HB60 that we really like. It goes well with the Sharp TV that we have.

We tried the Yamaha YSB-2200 and didn't like the sound. Probably because of the room setup like I mentioned above.

We also tried the Bose Cinemate 130. It sounded good but not $1000 better than the Sharp system so it went back too.
 
MBono said:
Anyone have a specific soundbar they really like or would recommend? Something reasonable under $300

I've had:

Sony HTCT-770: good bass, mids and highs were hard to hear. (returned it)
LG NB3530A: Returned it even before I set it up due to poor reviews
Samsung HW-H450/ZA: Current setup, but bass is low. Mid and highs are perfect

Looking at the Vizio S4221W-C4

Suffering from paralysis by analysis right now.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Can you swap out the sub for something potentially better? If it's just lacking bass, I'd think you could just buy a better sub and replace the Samsung one?
 
Tried the Vizio for a few days...returned it.

Settled on Denon....(perfection, for at least my setup anyway) BB had it on sale which was $200 less than list.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top