TV Sound Bars?

[hitek79]

My parents are getting a new TV, and I'm recommending they upgrade their surround sound system as well, since it's 12 years old and total junk. I'm thinking maybe a sound bar for simplicity, but I don't know all that much about them. Any input?

[oftpiste]

I'm interested too.....

[nickwm21]

I am not an audio freak but I have a Sony soundbar/sub combo that works great. I am sure a quality 5.1 system would be better but I would also bet a sound bar is better than a standard two speaker stereo.

sent from the future using my mind powers

[SeatownSlackey]

Just upgraded our tv and moved the old one to the bsmt. No system down there so started shopping sound bars under $300. Ended up with the LG nb3520a. $214 from Amazon. Not 5.1 but great sound/$

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[MontuckyFried]

I also have an LG sound bar I picked up for a couple hundred from BB. Has bluetooth connectivity, a couple optical in's, and a wireless subwoofer, which also connects via BT.

I'll tell you straight up that while there is no comparison to a good surround system, I really enjoy it for it's simplicity, size, and surprisingly good volume and bass. Absolutely blows away the crappy speakers built into TVs. I bought my sound bar for a place I was renting and didn't feel like dragging around my surround system as I moved from place to place.

While it's no replacement for a good surround system, I'd absolutely recommend one to the non-tech savvy (ie most of our parents). If you can live without surround sound, I'm sure you'll be quite happy with the sound.

[buttahflake]

i'm running a Boston Acoustic soundbar with a BA wireless sub woffah.
it's loud and clean.
woot

[guroo270]

So my parents recently picked up a brand new LED top o the line Samsung 7000 50" for their newly remodeled house, and threw a soundbar system under it. Now, it's nice, don't get me wrong, but we watched Animal House and one of the newer Star Wars movies on BluRay on it, and something just irked me the whole time. I've got a Samsung 56" 6000 series plasma, and as far as watching movies goes, I think it's 10 x's better. There was always something slightly off about the audio, like the background music being too loud or something... I don't know, I heard a lot little things in Animal House that I'd never heard before, and I thought it was detrimental to the movie experience. Everything just seemed a little more awkward.

Something someone told me once was that not all movie makers are happy about bluray because they were able to get by before with movie props basically tricking the eye into seeing them as real, but now the definition is so great that if a spray painted black box is in a corner of a room, now it looks like a spray painted black box in the corner and not an end table. Know what I'm saying?

The worst was Star Wars though. You really could see that things weren't interacting as well with the cg. Aside from the movie being terrible, everything just looked fake.

The sound bar performed pretty well, and we watched Kansas' anniversary concert on it and it was great, but I would say that by the time I left, the sound and picture were both bothering me.

[Name Redacted]

I bought a Sound bar this week for my Samsung 46" flat screen. Got the Samsung sound bar from target for 179.99 with a sub. Sounds great with the TV, who's sound sucked before. I can also stream pandora through the speakers using blue ray which is awesome.

[schuss]

I have the sony HT-CT150 and it works great for apartment viewing/easy setup. Special bonus - my comcast guy had the same bar, so he programmed the remote to redirect all volume stuff to the system when you had cable selected.

[Lindahl]

Guroo, did you turn off frame interpolation? That's one of my biggest pet peeves in displays these days. Totally ruins movies by changing it from 30fps to something higher.

[old goat]

The worst was Star Wars though. You really could see that things weren't interacting as well with the cg. Aside from the movie being terrible, everything just looked fake.

I hate to be the one to break it to you but Star Wars IS fake.

[guroo270]

Guroo, did you turn off frame interpolation? That's one of my biggest pet peeves in displays these days. Totally ruins movies by changing it from 30fps to something higher.

Ya. I know it's fake. Not a big fan either.

I did not fuss with the settings. Wouldn't have known what to do but I'll relay that info. I just know that my dad was all excited about his new tv and I couldn't tell him I thought it sucked.

[grskier]

I've done some research into this... Long/Short of it is you mostly get what you pay for.... none of them are as nice as a full array, but they'll all (almost all) be better than the TVs speakers...

[Swine]

Ya. I know it's fake. Not a big fan either.

I did not fuss with the settings. Wouldn't have known what to do but I'll relay that info. I just know that my dad was all excited about his new tv and I couldn't tell him I thought it sucked.

Turn off the "Jutter" unless you're watching live sports, it makes everything cinematic look like dogshit.