Discussion
Had a separate 5.1 system for a few years now but as always the good wife has complained about speakers and wires everywhere. She said her friend has a soundbar which sounds great and would I consider having one of those instead. Knowing what they used to be like my initial thought was no, however reading up the Yamaha 2200 is getting great write ups. Anybody on here have experience of this model?
Edited by grazer15 on Saturday 27th October 23:58
It really depends on what quality you are used to.
The cheaper sound bars are really on 'enhancers' to bolster the sound from the TV.
Yamaha's are good, but work on reflections to create the surround experience and get the rear channels to sound like they are coming from behind you.
The ones I use, when I need to, are Polk passive's. They need a normal surround sound amp and use clever phase delay tech to create the rear effects. That means they don't need walls to reflect stuff around the room.
Another viable alternative would be using a LCR front speaker, which is a left / centre / right speaker bar in one pack and then use separate sub and rear channel speakers.
Hth.
V.
The cheaper sound bars are really on 'enhancers' to bolster the sound from the TV.
Yamaha's are good, but work on reflections to create the surround experience and get the rear channels to sound like they are coming from behind you.
The ones I use, when I need to, are Polk passive's. They need a normal surround sound amp and use clever phase delay tech to create the rear effects. That means they don't need walls to reflect stuff around the room.
Another viable alternative would be using a LCR front speaker, which is a left / centre / right speaker bar in one pack and then use separate sub and rear channel speakers.
Hth.
V.
It depends on how picky you are on the sound issue, obviously you are not going to get true surround sound.
I used to have a 5.1 system and took it out because it was me that was fed up with the speakers and wires all over the place.
When I recently bought a telly I bought one of these on the basis that thin tellies have such small speakers they don't have a chance.
I didn't expect hifi sound out of it but have been surprised by just how good it can be. For example during the Olympics was watching some sailing in 3D. I had the sound out of this Samsung. On one of the races they had the cameras on the boat transom. The sound of water was all around my seat in the living room, someone was shouting "Starboard" from out of the kitchen. How in holy hell they achieve this so realistically I find impressive.
Then again it's far from perfect and there are some settings on the system that sound a bit underwhelming.
I used to have a 5.1 system and took it out because it was me that was fed up with the speakers and wires all over the place.
When I recently bought a telly I bought one of these on the basis that thin tellies have such small speakers they don't have a chance.
I didn't expect hifi sound out of it but have been surprised by just how good it can be. For example during the Olympics was watching some sailing in 3D. I had the sound out of this Samsung. On one of the races they had the cameras on the boat transom. The sound of water was all around my seat in the living room, someone was shouting "Starboard" from out of the kitchen. How in holy hell they achieve this so realistically I find impressive.
Then again it's far from perfect and there are some settings on the system that sound a bit underwhelming.
FiF said:
It depends on how picky you are on the sound issue, obviously you are not going to get true surround sound.
I used to have a 5.1 system and took it out because it was me that was fed up with the speakers and wires all over the place.
When I recently bought a telly I bought one of these on the basis that thin tellies have such small speakers they don't have a chance.
I didn't expect hifi sound out of it but have been surprised by just how good it can be. For example during the Olympics was watching some sailing in 3D. I had the sound out of this Samsung. On one of the races they had the cameras on the boat transom. The sound of water was all around my seat in the living room, someone was shouting "Starboard" from out of the kitchen. How in holy hell they achieve this so realistically I find impressive.
Then again it's far from perfect and there are some settings on the system that sound a bit underwhelming.
FiF or Flat, can I ask how you've set these speakers up please?I used to have a 5.1 system and took it out because it was me that was fed up with the speakers and wires all over the place.
When I recently bought a telly I bought one of these on the basis that thin tellies have such small speakers they don't have a chance.
I didn't expect hifi sound out of it but have been surprised by just how good it can be. For example during the Olympics was watching some sailing in 3D. I had the sound out of this Samsung. On one of the races they had the cameras on the boat transom. The sound of water was all around my seat in the living room, someone was shouting "Starboard" from out of the kitchen. How in holy hell they achieve this so realistically I find impressive.
Then again it's far from perfect and there are some settings on the system that sound a bit underwhelming.
One tall one as "front of screen" like a regular soundbar, the other tall one as a rear behind you for surround and then the sub kind of anywhere presumably near the TV.
I note the website says the tall ones are wireless to the sub, then I'm guessing the sub is wired to the TV.
Or do I have this completely back-asswards?
Ah, maybe you've got the 2 tall ones left & right behind you?
Then you've got front TV speakers... now I'm really confused!
Vanya said:
FiF or Flat, can I ask how you've set these speakers up please?
One tall one as "front of screen" like a regular soundbar, the other tall one as a rear behind you for surround and then the sub kind of anywhere presumably near the TV.
I note the website says the tall ones are wireless to the sub, then I'm guessing the sub is wired to the TV.
Or do I have this completely back-asswards?
Ah, maybe you've got the 2 tall ones left & right behind you?
Then you've got front TV speakers... now I'm really confused!
Sorry for not answering this as I had missed it.One tall one as "front of screen" like a regular soundbar, the other tall one as a rear behind you for surround and then the sub kind of anywhere presumably near the TV.
I note the website says the tall ones are wireless to the sub, then I'm guessing the sub is wired to the TV.
Or do I have this completely back-asswards?
Ah, maybe you've got the 2 tall ones left & right behind you?
Then you've got front TV speakers... now I'm really confused!
At the time referred to above I was experimenting with settings and speaker positioning.
The sub is connected to the TV with an optical cable. The two speakers are powered by the mains and the sound signal is transmitted wirelessly from the sub.
The sub is by the side of the TV stand, and the two speakers were behind the viewer spread out left and right. Both the TV and the speakers were being used simultaneously.
I gave up on this set up for two reasons, whilst at times it could be very good, at times it was just odd, plus, the main reason, I got fed up of having to faff around syncing the sound through the TV and the speakers and balancing the volume levels. It seemed to vary quite considerably dependant upon source and setting.
So now I have a totally conventional setup, the sub in the same place, and the two speakers at the front L&R corners of the TV stand, the TV speakers turned right down to zero. As the input to the sub is with an optical cable, it fires up as soon as the TV is powered up from stand by. Never used the two speakers bolted together like a sound bar.
Think that's fairly clear? Could take a pic and stick in flickr if that helps any more?
FiF said:
Clear and concise stuff
Thanks FiF, nothing I don't understand there whatsoever.Except, maybe, I would never have thought of that config of using the 2 tall speakers together as one, like a soundbar.
Thanks for the offer of the posted pics, not necessary.
The more I read up on that system the more I understood, your explanation was kind of expected in a way, well the conventional one was.
Cheers.
V.
No problem, thanks for describing it as clear and concise, I knew what I was prattling about but not sure if it was understandable.
All the connections, brackets to connect the two speakers and form a soundbar come as standard in the box. This includes a wall mounting bracket and iirc a !stand" so it can be laid on a flat surface.
The only slight downside, which gets me in trouble with Mrs FiF is that it's impossible to control the volume with the Sky remote, so she either puts up with whatever it's set at or has to deal with two remotes. Apparently that is technical hell and too confusing.
All the connections, brackets to connect the two speakers and form a soundbar come as standard in the box. This includes a wall mounting bracket and iirc a !stand" so it can be laid on a flat surface.
The only slight downside, which gets me in trouble with Mrs FiF is that it's impossible to control the volume with the Sky remote, so she either puts up with whatever it's set at or has to deal with two remotes. Apparently that is technical hell and too confusing.
Yes thanks again FiF.
After a bit more research I'm convinced the soundbar route is for me.
I'm looking for now at this or a very similar LG alternative.
I do like idea of the disc player integration.
Again bearing in mind the high priority of Bluetooth streaming.
Samsung is winning at the moment since I'm also looking their smart TVs too.
Then again, I like this quite a lot too!
After a bit more research I'm convinced the soundbar route is for me.
I'm looking for now at this or a very similar LG alternative.
I do like idea of the disc player integration.
Again bearing in mind the high priority of Bluetooth streaming.
Samsung is winning at the moment since I'm also looking their smart TVs too.
Then again, I like this quite a lot too!
Have heard the Yamaha and that sounded nice.
FYI Richer Sounds were very uncomplimentary about disc drive reliability in Samsung DVD Blu-Ray players.
I have absolutely no idea if this is true or they were just trying to make a sale on a Sony system that they had on offer. That was so cheap that their sales pitch that it was effectively to be treated as a disposable item, which frankly goes against my nature.
I didn't want a DVD player as I stream videos from a network drive, direct from the net or via my laptop wifi. Samsung TVs aren't the easiest to do this with, the Samsung All-Share complicates matters until sussed.
FYI Richer Sounds were very uncomplimentary about disc drive reliability in Samsung DVD Blu-Ray players.
I have absolutely no idea if this is true or they were just trying to make a sale on a Sony system that they had on offer. That was so cheap that their sales pitch that it was effectively to be treated as a disposable item, which frankly goes against my nature.
I didn't want a DVD player as I stream videos from a network drive, direct from the net or via my laptop wifi. Samsung TVs aren't the easiest to do this with, the Samsung All-Share complicates matters until sussed.
Further thanks for that bit of background FiF.
I have my own misgivings on the player, the slide-in/out type rather than the tray type.
Bitten as I was previously by this type of dvd player.
Yes, so perhaps it was my survival instinct then pointing me in the Yamaha direction.
My feeling is that the Yamaha has a bit more quality technically and functionally.
All in all a better single purpose system.
Well that's the hope.
Also, thanks for sharing on the TV side too, I'll definitely be bearing that in mind.
I haven't had any direct dealings with Richer Sounds, yet, but I would think they are in different league to the Currys/Dixons/PC World etc floor staff experts!
I have my own misgivings on the player, the slide-in/out type rather than the tray type.
Bitten as I was previously by this type of dvd player.
Yes, so perhaps it was my survival instinct then pointing me in the Yamaha direction.
My feeling is that the Yamaha has a bit more quality technically and functionally.
All in all a better single purpose system.
Well that's the hope.
Also, thanks for sharing on the TV side too, I'll definitely be bearing that in mind.
I haven't had any direct dealings with Richer Sounds, yet, but I would think they are in different league to the Currys/Dixons/PC World etc floor staff experts!
FiF said:
Samsung TVs aren't the easiest to do this with, the Samsung All-Share complicates matters until sussed.
Hey FiF, since it sounds like you're a bit ahead of me on the TV front would you have a couple of recommendations/pointers by any chance maybe?I'm looking at smart TVs in the high 40 and low 50 inch categories.
Thanks for any tips.
V.
Ahead of you? 
I'm not even ahead of myself on this one to be honest.
I've only sussed about 10% of it so far, and still trying to find a better way to play direct from the server.
As far as I can see, if you have either a Samsung PC or smartphone then all share is a piece of pee.
Anything else, ie I'm Asus i7 win7 and no smartphone it's a b
h, as evidenced by the thousands of threads and queries about the place.
I suspect, Google is your friend, it's certainly given me some things to try, and sort out a few of the issues, but still nowhere near where I want to be yet.
Part of my problem appears to be that my DLNA server is a Western Digital POS, they use an old version of Twonky to stream media, and the Samsung doesn't work with that. In theory I could buy and upgrade to the latest version of Twonky and that is supposed to sort it, BUT (and it's a bigger but than J-Lo's) it is a manual upgrade, and I am not sufficiently confident of my non existenet PC skills to do the upgrade manually. Some people have tried it, and only ended up stuffing the drive and losing all their data.
There are a LOT of pissed off Samsung and WD owners out there it seems, and neither Samsung nor WD want to know.
That's my problem, but the solutions for seemingly similar systems differ so greatly that, not being unhelpful about it, but I think your best bet is to figure out a solution according to your system.
My current solution is that I make sure the videos are in the AllShare shared server in my laptop and play them from there on the TV. Then they play brilliantly, it's just a PITA remembering to copy them across first as I can't figure out how to add the server directories into the Allshare shared server library. Or something like that.
I've even considered getting a Belkin Screen cast and stream them via WiDi.
Sorry chap, more questions than answers I know.
I'm not even ahead of myself on this one to be honest.I've only sussed about 10% of it so far, and still trying to find a better way to play direct from the server.
As far as I can see, if you have either a Samsung PC or smartphone then all share is a piece of pee.
Anything else, ie I'm Asus i7 win7 and no smartphone it's a b
h, as evidenced by the thousands of threads and queries about the place.I suspect, Google is your friend, it's certainly given me some things to try, and sort out a few of the issues, but still nowhere near where I want to be yet.
Part of my problem appears to be that my DLNA server is a Western Digital POS, they use an old version of Twonky to stream media, and the Samsung doesn't work with that. In theory I could buy and upgrade to the latest version of Twonky and that is supposed to sort it, BUT (and it's a bigger but than J-Lo's) it is a manual upgrade, and I am not sufficiently confident of my non existenet PC skills to do the upgrade manually. Some people have tried it, and only ended up stuffing the drive and losing all their data.
There are a LOT of pissed off Samsung and WD owners out there it seems, and neither Samsung nor WD want to know.
That's my problem, but the solutions for seemingly similar systems differ so greatly that, not being unhelpful about it, but I think your best bet is to figure out a solution according to your system.
My current solution is that I make sure the videos are in the AllShare shared server in my laptop and play them from there on the TV. Then they play brilliantly, it's just a PITA remembering to copy them across first as I can't figure out how to add the server directories into the Allshare shared server library. Or something like that.
I've even considered getting a Belkin Screen cast and stream them via WiDi.
Sorry chap, more questions than answers I know.
Sorry Vanya, in my rant about Samsung and Western Digital I've missed answering your question.
THE ONLY thing about the TV that annoys me is this inability to play .MKV files over the network. I have about 0.5Tb of videos that I own and am trying to avoid having to figure out how to recode them into something it will read directly. It is quite happy with mpg wmv and various others, it also claims to read mkv and avi but in practice it doesn't. For example one can download a BBC iplayerprogramme in full HD, save it to the drive and the TV will watch that. I'm just trying to figure out if it still deletes them after 30 days.
Everything else happy with the Samsung 6300. Easy to setup, hardwired into the newtork, all the apps are fime iplayer, ITV catchup, and so on. When I moved it during some redecoration, set it upstairs and it connected wirelessly to the router without effort other than remembering the router password. Even Sky SD input was pretty damn good, though now have HD.
I have the picture quality set on Movie, don't like the standard or vivid settings.
The freesat tuner is excellent, freeview is lousy where I am without buying an aerial the size of which makes GCHQ twitchy.
Only a 37", I don't go for big tellies.
Really the restrictions and complications of the Allshare is the only negative issue.
THE ONLY thing about the TV that annoys me is this inability to play .MKV files over the network. I have about 0.5Tb of videos that I own and am trying to avoid having to figure out how to recode them into something it will read directly. It is quite happy with mpg wmv and various others, it also claims to read mkv and avi but in practice it doesn't. For example one can download a BBC iplayerprogramme in full HD, save it to the drive and the TV will watch that. I'm just trying to figure out if it still deletes them after 30 days.
Everything else happy with the Samsung 6300. Easy to setup, hardwired into the newtork, all the apps are fime iplayer, ITV catchup, and so on. When I moved it during some redecoration, set it upstairs and it connected wirelessly to the router without effort other than remembering the router password. Even Sky SD input was pretty damn good, though now have HD.
I have the picture quality set on Movie, don't like the standard or vivid settings.
The freesat tuner is excellent, freeview is lousy where I am without buying an aerial the size of which makes GCHQ twitchy.
Only a 37", I don't go for big tellies.
Really the restrictions and complications of the Allshare is the only negative issue.
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