Sound Bars - Which are best?

[zed4]

Hi,

My parents want a surround sound system, but have an odd shaped room and literally nowhere to place any speakers, so I suggested a decent sound bar.

So, what's good at the moment? They're looking to spend £300 maximum, I suggested the Yamaha YSP-1400 as it looks very good, but it's over budget really.

So, any advice for me? It's for watching TV and films, they have a Samsung TV but they can't hear it very well. We've been to JL, but it's difficult to hear them properly, as there's so much noise in the building.

Thanks,

Dan

[conkerman]

Not listened to a sound bar for some time. Wasn't that impressed when I did.

How about going stereo?

[obob]

Go to Richer Sounds they usually have a quiet room where you can test stuff. But I've got a Philips HTL510 I think, anyway its very good and was £200 from RS a few months ago. So might be even cheaper now. It gets great reviews on all the usual tech sites.

[belleair302]

JBL SB 200 is a great soundbar for realistic money or the LG 4530 for around £300 is also excellent.

[telford_mike]

I had a similar issue - new Samsung telly which is lovely and slim but rubbish sound. I bought a Yamaha YSP 2200, which is out of your budget but worth looking for on eBay. Simply awesome bit of kit. Inexpensive sound bars are pretty rubbish.

[zed4]

Thanks for the comments. I'm going to try and get over to my local RS store, although they're usually packed to bursting with customers!

These are all in budget,

http://www.richersounds.com/product/soundbars/yama...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/soundbars/yama...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/soundbars/pion...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/soundbars/orbi...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/soundbars/onky...

[arfur]

I have a Samsung one with wireless sub.

Bought in Currys about a year ago for 300 quid I think

Works really well ... more than happy

[belleair302]

The JBL S400 is well worth buying at the price available at Richer Sounds.....

[R26Chris]

belleair302 said:

The JBL S400 is well worth buying at the price available at Richer Sounds.....

Ditto. Just bought one. The sound quality is phenomenal. A bargain at £249.

[The_Burg]

Sound bars work best in even shaped rooms. Bought a Yamaha DSP1000 on eBAY. Chap demonstrated it when i went to collect. Worked amazingly. In my room just doesn't work at all. Front works, left surround works, right just doesn't. Won't auto configure. Very dependant on where the reflective surfaces are. In the right room really are amazing. Though a cheaper 'real' package would be better and cheaper in most cases i suspect.

[zed4]

Here's a very rough sketch of their room.



The lounge is laid out in a very awkward way, with the TV in a corner, with no space to place surround speaker, hence I thought the sound bar would be best.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[Saleen836]

We have this one..
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd-blu-ray/dvd-bl...

Went for a soundbar as surround sound just isn't possible with the shape/layout of the room, very impressed with the sound quality and as it is connected to a Panasonic tv we can control the volume with the tv remote.

[The_Burg]

zed4 said:

Here's a very rough sketch of their room.



The lounge is laid out in a very awkward way, with the TV in a corner, with no space to place surround speaker, hence I thought the sound bar would be best.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Issue with our room is mainly a window. Make sure you try it with curtains / blinds open and closed. The reflections are needed to make the pseudo surround work and will be very different.

[VEX]

In my opinion, at that budget you'll have to listen to them to chose, there are no really winners of losers.

Although well out of budget, the current ones I favour if I have to use SoundBars are the Monitor Audio AS2 and the Polk 5000 / 6000 passive range used with a separate AV Amp.

V.

[zed4]

Went for the Onkyo LS-B50 in the end. Bargain at Sevenoaks and sounds very good.