Soundbars

[MontyVeda]

I just route everything through my hi-fi amp to a pair of proper speakers: PC, Xbox, DVD, etc.

There's a lot of mumbling going on in too many modern TV shows... the only thing that works for me on such shows is a pair of wireless headphones

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I've still got my Yamaha YSP1000 hooked up - I reckon I've had it 20+ years and it's built like the proverbial (apart from a known capacitor issue - which I fixed, to my great pride!), and whilst it won't do 5.whatevernumberitis it's still really excellent, and with its little sub hooked up, all we need.

 

[mistyoptic]

The son and the daughter both have their TV's mounted high on the wall, I find it uncomfortable looking up them it doesn't seem natural to me, we have ours mounted on the wall but at an height that is level with us when we are sat comfortably on the sofa, I understand it in pubs etc so everybody can see, but never grasped the advantage at home, it does keep the kids sticky fingers off it though.

Looking up for prolonged periods dries your eyes out and makes them feel gritty because they're wider open than normal (and you get a crick in your neck too)

 

[Fab Foodie]

Recently bought one of these:
https://www.johnlewis.com/sony-ht-m...-ultra-slim-wireless-subwoofer-black/p3160283

Works a treat.
Wireless Subwoofer is hidden at the other end of the room (it's very slim which is a bonus)
Significantly enhances the sound for movies, documentaries with a great soundtrack etc. - like the 'Perfect Planet'.

BUT - for the OP it has a 'clear-speech' mode which works very well, especially useful at night when volumes need to be suitably low to clarify voices.

A remote control manages the functions including subwoofer output which makes tailoring the sound fairly simple.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

(I presume they are the)Manufacturer's own images show the soundbar off centre. Make you wonder

Daft q, but do those newer models like the Sony et al have a 'tailor to room' function where the soundbar 'learns' about its surroundings & sets itself up accordingly?

 

[Tenkaykev]

I did look at soundbars about a year ago but we don’t watch much TV so decided against it at the time. We have a LG TV, I was digging my way through the menus and discovered a “ clear speech “ option in the sound settings which does improve things. I noticed a marked increase in sound quality compared to the Panasonic we replaced.

 

[T4tomo]

a relatively cheap sound bar from the likes of richer sounds is definitely a good investment. Sound clarity and quality is a huge step up from TV speakers, plus you can bluetooth phones etc into them, so if kids are round or parties (remember those?) etc, easy source for music of choice.

you can spend loads on the solution for hifi quality sounds, but unless you are a massive film buff and demand a full cinematic experience in your own front room, the the humble cheap sound bar does a cracking job.

 

[matticus]

Recently bought one of these:
https://www.johnlewis.com/sony-ht-m...-ultra-slim-wireless-subwoofer-black/p3160283

Works a treat.
Wireless Subwoofer is hidden at the other end of the room (it's very slim which is a bonus)
Significantly enhances the sound for movies, documentaries with a great soundtrack etc. - like the 'Perfect Planet'.

BUT - for the OP it has a 'clear-speech' mode which works very well, especially useful at night when volumes need to be suitably low to clarify voices.

(I presume being JohnLewis you got 90% kickback?)

This is interesting, as we've suffered with modern telly progs and our (slightly) modern TV; we bought a moderate-priced soundbar and it really is good for movies at a decent volume BUT
it makes the dialogue problem much worse! So we mostly watch with it off (especially if I'm trying to watch without keeping the rest of the house awake).

 

[Chislenko]

(I presume being JohnLewis you got 90% kickback?)

This is interesting, as we've suffered with modern telly progs and our (slightly) modern TV; we bought a moderate-priced soundbar and it really is good for movies at a decent volume BUT
it makes the dialogue problem much worse! So we mostly watch with it off (especially if I'm trying to watch without keeping the rest of the house awake).

Interested in how it makes the dialogue worse as that is the main reason we want one.

Picked up a Sharp Soundbar in Tesco this morning only to find our TV is that ancient it is not compatible with it!!

However did try playing some music via Bluetooth from the phone and at low volume the sound was not great.

Admittedly it is only the 2.0 bar and I appreciate you get what you pay for.

 

[matticus]

Dialogue is fine if you turn it up loud!

 

[Tenkaykev]

If I’m watching a film and struggling with the dialogue, I switch on subtitles if available.

 

[KneesUp]

I've had a Yamaha ysp-800 for around 15 years. It's been shelf mounted and wall mounted with various tvs, and has been configured to give decent surround sound (when in a room this suited) and permanently in stereo mode (when the room shape was too odd for it to bounce the sound about the place) The 'auto set-up' function with the included microphone is very good, and when I bought it I had no idea how useful that microphone would be for doing zoom quizes with the family.

The sound from any tv without it is very thin to my ears, tv speakers always sound like they are there just so the tv works, but they're like the tiny ink cartridges you get with a printer - you're not expected to use them really - it's just so the manufacturer can say it works out the box.

Personally I'd try and get a decent soundbar and keep hold of it rather than a cheap one. Mine doesn't have HDMI throughput or anything because it's so old, but it's still fine - the various 'boxes' (Freeview recorder, NOW tv, Bluray player) send the picture and sound to the tv via HDMI and the tv passes the sound digitally to the soundbar via a very thin and discrete optical cable - the don't go obsolete.

Ours has various settings that may help with dialogue - when things are in stereo (i.e. most things broadcast) I put it in stereo mode so the sound is coming straight out of it. In the surround modes is sends sound off at all sorts of angles with appropriate tiny delays so it arrives at your ears in a way that makes you think there are speakers all around you, but when you're watching Pointless it just makes it harder to hear the talking. That said some of the virtual effects are good - I tend to use 'sport' mode for, er, sport as it does quite a good job of focussing the sound of the commentary straight ahead but making the crowd noise sound enveloping.

EDIT - it also has 'Target' mode where you can set it to 'aim' the sound at a particular point, so if you're a bit mutton and the other half is not, and you have your own parts of the sofa, you could set it up to aim the sound at your end :-)

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Two votes for the longevity of ancient Yamaha YSPs then

 

[KneesUp]

Two votes for the longevity of ancient Yamaha YSPs then

And they are convenient - the yamaha replaced a (JVC / Panasonic? not sure, it was a long time ago) surround system which had beer spilled in it at a party - that was a pain to set up with all the satellite speaker brackets and cables. I bought the yamaha so I didn't have to do that again!

 

[Bonefish Blues]

And they are convenient - the yamaha replaced a (JVC / Panasonic? not sure, it was a long time ago) surround system which had beer spilled in it at a party - that was a pain to set up with all the satellite speaker brackets and cables. I bought the yamaha so I didn't have to do that again!

Just to say, if you ever start to have issues with switching on, don't panic - there's a fix on the web.