Yeah, yeah, we know we told you all to buy a flatscreen TV, but unless you've paired it with a full-blown home cinema system you're probably wondering why it sounds worse than your old goggle box. And that's where buying a sound bar comes in.
The innate thinness of plasma and LCD TVs make decent audio an almost impossible task, something that's given rise to a whole new generation of speakers. Known as sound bars, these one-box affairs are designed to sit underneath a flatscreen TV, either on an AV rack or bolted to a wall.
Their appeal is obvious: many owners of traditional 5.1 home cinema systems don't use them. Put off by trailing cables and parking meter designs, some don't even finish unpacking them.
Step forward the sound bar: they might vary wildly in price and features, but they all promise the same thing: cinematic sound without the fuss. Here are ten of the best sound bars available today, starting with the biggest sound bar bargains and working our way up to the best of the best.
KitSound BoomDock - �90
This KitSound sound bar is real bargain basement stuff, but it's a good value quick-fix if money is tight.
Designed primarily for an iPod ? there's a dock atop this gloss black unit ? the BoomDock is well named; this is all about bass. Armed with a 22W 5.25-inch subwoofer and analogue audio inputs on its rear to hook-up to almost any source, the BoomDock's red-lit LED display and a retro-style volume knob and input selector adorn the front of this diminutive unit that's more box than bar.
There's a remote control and AM/FM radio tuner, and though it's at its best with loud music, action movies and especially high-octane games are given an audio push ? just don't expect anything resembling home cinema surround sound.
Sharp HT-SB200 - �99.95
This Sharp sound bar is definitely at the budget end of the spectrum, a fact reflected in its comparatively limited feature list, but if you want a no-frills way of boosting your TV's sound quality then this might fit the bill.
It doesn't offer any built-in audio decoding for Dolby Digital and DTS, but it does provide 32W of built-in 2.1-channel amplification and some sound processing modes.
But despite its lack of refinement the Sharp's sound is generally loud and gutsy, and it certainly offers a more exciting listen than any flatpanel TV we've ever heard.
Plus, the same over-emphasis on treble that causes harshness on loud effects actually helps the Sharp to excavate lots of sonic detail from background ambience and effects during quieter passages.
Read: Sharp HT-SB200 soundbar review
Panasonic SC-HTB500 - �270
For this kind of money you might expect a weak feature count, but this Panasonic sound bar - the SC-HTB500 - is both 3D-compatible and has a wireless subwoofer.
Using bamboo cone speakers to give dialogue more clarity, the SC-HTB500's HDMI in and out can pass-through a 3D signal. Its HDMI input also boasts an audio return channel (ARC), so does away with the need for separate audio cables if you want to send sound from a TV's built-in Freeview TV tuner to the SC-HTB500 ? though your TV will also need an ARC-compatible HDMI (new Panasonic TVs do). Can also be wall mounted.
Monitor Audio Radius One HD - �450
Monitor Audio's debut sound bar differs from the rest in that it's not designed to replace a 5.1-system, but to form part of one.
Inside this sleek, compact unit are left, right and centre speaker drivers, but no rear ones, sub or pseudo surround sound processing. To complete the setup you can buy other Radius speakers separately, including R45HD rears and the R360HD sub, but that sort of defeats the object.
Inevitably, when listening to Radius One HD on its own, it does feel lacking. It's designed to be teamed up with other speakers in the Radius range, which bumps up the cost and means you'll have to hook everything up with cables ? the very thing soundbars are normally designed to avoid.
It's not a criticism as such, it just means that the Radius One HD isn't aimed at your typical soundbar buyer.
Read: FullMonitor Audio Radius One HD review
Samsung HT-BD8200 - �550
The key feature on this Samsung sound bar is its super-slim design which makes it ideal for mounting on a wall underneath a flatscreen TV, though the HT-BD8200 isn't just a sound bar. Inside is a fully featured Blu-ray player, while a 100W active subwoofer ? a glossy black affair that could be mistaken for expensive home cinema gear ? communicates with the main system wirelessly.
Read: Samsung HT-BD8200 review
Pioneer HTP-SB510 - �600
This 3.1 Pioneer sound bar is designed to sit alongside a flatscreen TV. As well as coming from a company with noted audio heritage, the HTP-SB510also has something of a modular approach; it's a neat one-box solution as it comes, but Pioneer's S-SB5R satellite speakers can be added to create a proper 5.1 soundfield. Pushing its future-proof credentials is its ability to pass 3D video signals over HDMI.
Teufel Cinebar 50 - �659
Among Teufel's vast range of home cinema speakers is its Cinebar 50, an all-in-one sound bar that adds a subwoofer. Offering Dolby Virtual Speaker-powered quasi-surround sound from one speaker, the wall-mountable Cinebar is fitted with enough ins and outs to take almost any audio feed, including optical and coaxial digital, as well as analogue, input. Unlike a lot of its competitors, the subwoofer is wired, though its MP3 & WMA-compatible USB ports is a nice extra.
Yamaha YSP-2200 - �800
This Yamaha sound bar is one of the best in the buisiness. But then having virtually invented the sound bar category in 2005 with the YSP-1, it's no surprise that Yamaha's line-up of Digital Sound Projectors are among the best around.
Super-slim and 3D compatible, this latest incarnation combines a subwoofer and 11 different Cinema DSP sound presets, though it's how it works that is the real attraction; 16 beam drivers and a couple of bass-reflex subwoofermini speakers, each with its own digital amplifier, bounce sound beams off the walls to create believable multi-channel surround sound that's calibrated to the exact dimensions of any room. Clever stuff ? and now thoroughly affordable.
KEF KHT8005 - �1,000
KEF's effort resembles a sound bar, but it's actually a traditional 5.1 system. Any decent sound bar worth its salt comes with a subwoofer and the KHT8005 is no different, but where it does differ is the two satellite speakers provided. They won't appeal if you're after a completely wire-free audio set-up, though rest assured that the left, right and centre channel speakers are all built into the main one-box unit.
Designed for a 42-inch TV, the KHT8005 use KEF's noted Uni-Q drivers while its KUBE-2 subwoofer adds the depth that lone one-box systems can't manage.
Yamaha YSP-4100 - �1,250
Designed specifically for those of us who aren't prepared to put up with a flatscreen TV's lack of audio talent, this Yamaha sound bar promises to deliver surround sound and, more importantly, powerful sound, from underneath one.
A stunning 40 separate drivers send soundbeams around your living room, combining with a subwoofer to offer cinema-grade sound that's a jot more powerful than your average sound bar. With four HDMI inputs and one output you can use the YSP-4100 to switch the rest of your AV gear, it's even possible to link an iPod or iPhone via an add-on dongle that sits on the end of your Apple gadget and wirelessly sends uncompressed audio to the YSP-4100 using Yamaha's AirWired tech. Now that's what we call a proper all in one.
B&W Panorama - �1,500
So can B&W's high-end Panorama sound bar offering set a new standard for one-box cinemas? There's no denying the convenience of the system.
Essentially an entire speaker system in one submarine-shaped cabinet, they are designed for wall-mounting underneath your flatscreen TV, with many offering technologies that simulate a 5.1 soundfield.
But while they are certainly practical and increasingly popular, they also usually involve a sonic compromise, and we've found the results are patchy at best.
But despite the paucity of features in this model (no radio tuner, iPod dock or HD audio support) Bowers & Wilkins' Panorama is a formidable soundbar debutante.
Read: B&W Panorama review
 |  |
No comments:
Post a Comment