my TV needs more volume

[smifffymoto]

our living room is 8 x 7 and as we have just put down a new floor and decorated Mrs S has decreed the room a wire free zone,so the surround sound has gone.

What are the alternatives,sound bar, wireless surround sound or another set up. As usual at this time of year funds are on the low side so I have set a budget of around 500.What do you suggest?

[mackie1]

I have a Sony HT-XT3 sound base which I'm very happy with.

[JimbobVFR]

New floor and decorating was your missed opportunity to do it properly and chase in cables IMO

What did you have before?

[Chris Stott]

Best soundbar at c.£500 is the Yamaha YSP2500 according to pretty much all the review sites.

[Watchman]

You can have surround sound with Sonos - and you'd only really need 3x mains sockets. One for the PlayBar and two for each of the rear speakers.

[Chris Stott]

Sonos is way overpriced IMO... £600 for the playbar, which sounds rubbish without the £600 sub. Plus another £400+ if you want the rear speakers too.

My brother in law has the bar and sub, and whilst it sounds decent, it doesn't sound like £1,200.

[benz0]

over budget but saw that the Naim Muso is reduced to 795 today only at John Lewis..

[Watchman]

Chris Stott said:

Sonos is way overpriced IMO... £600 for the playbar, which sounds rubbish without the £600 sub. Plus another £400+ if you want the rear speakers too.

My brother in law has the bar and sub, and whilst it sounds decent, it doesn't sound like £1,200.

Each to their own - I think it sounds quite decent but you can optimise the sound in the settings if you disagree.

Also, I bought one for £479 only a month ago (SuperFi), so in that context, still overpriced? He could start with the PlayBar and add the surround later.

And a pair of Play:1s (rear speakers) are currently £299 *the pair* so again, overpriced?

I'm not saying there aren't alternatives but given the brief for "no cabling" the Sonos system is pretty simple to implement.

[Chris Stott]

Watchman said:

Each to their own - I think it sounds quite decent but you can optimise the sound in the settings if you disagree.

Also, I bought one for £479 only a month ago (SuperFi), so in that context, still overpriced? He could start with the PlayBar and add the surround later.

And a pair of Play:1s (rear speakers) are currently £299 *the pair* so again, overpriced?

I'm not saying there aren't alternatives but given the brief for "no cabling" the Sonos system is pretty simple to implement.

I'm not saying the Playbar sounds bad - it does sound good, but it needs the sub to do so, and that doubles the price... if it was £500-£600 for the bar and sub together, it would be reasonably competitive VFM.

But for the price of the Playbar alone, you can get a Yamaha YSP2500, which has 'pseudo' surround, 3 x 2.0 HDMI's with 4k 50/60 fps & 3D pass through, Dolby True HD & DTS HD decoding, bluetooth, and a wireless sub... it get fantastic ratings in pretty much every review you read.

[smifffymoto]

I would have liked to put cable in the walls but it wasn't practical to do so and also wasn't thought about as I was perfectly happy with our wired LG surround sound.
Thanks for the suggestions chaps.