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Sound Bar Speaker Advice

mj4cy

mj4cy

Asst. Regional Manager
Mar 28, 2006
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Iowa
I have a TV mounted above my fireplace and have a ledge on top of the fireplace for a sound bar. I'd like to get one that is good quality. Am not too worried about cost but obviously want a good deal. I don't want it to be too huge. I want to minimize the amount of chords showing as possible as right now all chords are hidden. I know I want one with the wireless subwoofer.


Any help/suggestions would be great.
 
I have always liked Klipsch speakers. they make a setup like you want with good reviews on Amazon. R-10B looks decent for $350.
 
Had the same situation earlier this year. Didn't want to spend a ton, yet get decent sound. Tried out several sound bars at the local Best Buy and the Vizio sounded the best to me for the money. Ended up with the Vizio SB4051. Got a couple of cheap speakers stands from Monoprice for the rear surrounds.

Wireless woofer is decent, but yeah, not as good as my previously hard wired system. It's a compromise, but one I can live with. I wish I could tune it a little more, but overall I've been happy with it.
 
My old house had a wired in system and was awesome. That'd cost a ton to do here, so I'm going to do the best I can with a sound bar and subwoofer. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Something like this?

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Look at Sonos playbar...pretty pricey but I have the Play 1 and am saving up for the Playbar as it runs off of your home Wifi System and can connect to auxiliary Play 1, Play 3, or Play 5 speakers anywhere in the house within the Wifi range...So, if you have the game on your TV and sound playing through the Playbar, you can play the TV sound anywhere throughout the house.
 
i know we are installing a Samsung with a wireless subwoofer and also a Yamaha soundbar in some units (I believe the sub is wireless, but not 100% sure). I can check at work tomorrow.
 
My recommendation would be Sonos as well. I have Play 5 (2), Play 1 (1) and a Playbar. Don't have the wireless sub yet but haven't missed it if that gives you indication how good the Playbar sound is. Super easy setup. Should be able to integrate with your TV remote as well. Phone controls all devices too.
 
123Punt said:
My recommendation would be Sonos as well. I have Play 5 (2), Play 1 (1) and a Playbar. Don't have the wireless sub yet but haven't missed it if that gives you indication how good the Playbar sound is. Super easy setup. Should be able to integrate with your TV remote as well. Phone controls all devices too.
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That's my favorite thing about my play1 is that I can control all with my cell phone so it works out convenient when I'm down at the fire pit I can control music from my phone! Almost all music platforms (spotify, Pandora, iheart, etc) all play through wifi, not blue tooth
 
I like the one I bought, don't even remember brand, but my only issue with it is from the wireless sub woofer to the rear surround speakers, they give you like 10 feet of wire to work with. I've had to splice and add wire to it at both homes it's been at.
 
The one thing I can tell you is to think hard about connections. I have an older soundbar/sub combo and the HDMI piece of it sucks.

It's probably pretty common today but when I bought mine none of them had ARC. With ARC you can just use one HDMI cable from the TV to the soundbar. Without ARC, it sucks. I ended up just using the optical connection.
 
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dmclone said:
The one thing I can tell you is to think hard about connections. I have an older soundbar/sub combo and the HDMI piece of it sucks.

It's probably pretty common today but when I bought mine none of them had ARC. With ARC you can just use one HDMI cable from the TV to the soundbar. Without ARC, it sucks. I ended up just using the optical connection.
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IMO, the optical out from the TV is the easiest and best solution. In fact, quite a few soundbars on the market now ONLY have optical inputs.
 
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ripvdub said:
With today's technology, why are audio receivers still so freaking huge?
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Agree 100%. The TV I'm considering a soundbar for isn't in a location real conducive to surround. Was considering going back to a good old 2.0 receiver and a decent pair of bookshelf speakers. Shoot, even the 2.0 receivers are HUGE nowadays. That's what got me looking at soundbars or I'm also considering self-powered bookshelf speakers.
 
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