Samsung Sound Bar HW-E551
Discussion
Does anyone have the Samsung HW-E551 sound bar?
It seems to get a bit of a slagging online in the Amazon reviews, but most of the complaints seem to be that it is advertised as wireless, when in reality the HDMI cable goes to the sub and the wireless bit is the data transmission to the two speakers / sound bar.
From my perspective the wiring setup would be no problem, and is this just people getting the wrong end of the stick. Gets a decent review in trusted reviews though.
It's either this or the Orbitsound T12v3 which reads OK but seems to have less options for connectivity.
Have to drag my sorry ass to John Lewis for a side by side demo.
It seems to get a bit of a slagging online in the Amazon reviews, but most of the complaints seem to be that it is advertised as wireless, when in reality the HDMI cable goes to the sub and the wireless bit is the data transmission to the two speakers / sound bar.
From my perspective the wiring setup would be no problem, and is this just people getting the wrong end of the stick. Gets a decent review in trusted reviews though.
It's either this or the Orbitsound T12v3 which reads OK but seems to have less options for connectivity.
Have to drag my sorry ass to John Lewis for a side by side demo.
Well I'll answer my own question.
Bought one from Crampton and Moore. £269
Simple to assemble, haveit in the 2:1 setup rather than a sound bar. After a bit of confusion that it wouldn't connect with the dealer recommended HDMI cable turned out that digital optical cable was needed. After that piece o cake.
The TV sound isn't that bad for an LCD but is completely outclassed by the E551, as you would expect. Have played TV broadcast, Olympic opening ceremony sounded amazing, films and music from server, streamed from router, laptop via Samsung All-share, and have also played music streamed from laptop via bluetooth. Unbelievably it even made the commentary on England's dire performance in the first test vs the Saffers better, at least acoustically.
God knows how loud it goes, I got complaints on one film from Mrs and Miss Fif sitting out in the garden as to how loud it was. The volume was plenty loud enough for me, I had it on setting 11, max being 50.
Lot of people as in OP, have complained that it's not a wireless subwoofer, as power and the optical cable go to that. The wireless bit is the sound transmission to the speakers, which then only need a single power lead, and reduces the obvious wiring clutter in view, the sub being hidden away round a corner.
All in all, reasonably pleased with purchase.
Bought one from Crampton and Moore. £269
Simple to assemble, haveit in the 2:1 setup rather than a sound bar. After a bit of confusion that it wouldn't connect with the dealer recommended HDMI cable turned out that digital optical cable was needed. After that piece o cake.
The TV sound isn't that bad for an LCD but is completely outclassed by the E551, as you would expect. Have played TV broadcast, Olympic opening ceremony sounded amazing, films and music from server, streamed from router, laptop via Samsung All-share, and have also played music streamed from laptop via bluetooth. Unbelievably it even made the commentary on England's dire performance in the first test vs the Saffers better, at least acoustically.
God knows how loud it goes, I got complaints on one film from Mrs and Miss Fif sitting out in the garden as to how loud it was. The volume was plenty loud enough for me, I had it on setting 11, max being 50.
Lot of people as in OP, have complained that it's not a wireless subwoofer, as power and the optical cable go to that. The wireless bit is the sound transmission to the speakers, which then only need a single power lead, and reduces the obvious wiring clutter in view, the sub being hidden away round a corner.
All in all, reasonably pleased with purchase.
croyde couple of other things I'll mention.
As mentioned had a bit of trouble connecting, this nothing to do with the sound bar but because the shop thought that my TV had ARC which their 55" version of same model in shop had, my 37" doesn't which is why the HDMI cable didn't work. Once I got it connected up almost every digital sound processing option was set to ON, which might have been me pressing buttons earlier. :dunce:
Anyway the first thing watched proper was an episode of Wallander, which thanks to Kenneth "Whispering" Branagh has fairly frequent volume changes. I'd got Smart Sound Volume set to on, ie it adjusts volume up in quiet bits and turns it down in louder bits. Smart sound it ain't, very distracting.
Also experienced a strange thing, again in Wallander, also while "Smart" volume was on so not quite sure what was doing what, but there was a scene in a workshop, with quite loud workshop background noises, where Wallander and Nyberg were interviewing some guy at the other side of the workshop from the camera. The 3D sound effect played the scene exactly as it appeared, ie the viewer felt to be surrounded by workshop noises, but Whispering Bob and his mate were prattling away quite quietly in the distance over there somewhere behind the screen but were difficult to hear over the workshop noise. So rather effective but...
On the other hand I was watching some of the Olympic yachting race where they'd mounted a camera in with the competitors, and the surround sound on that was utterly amazing. How in hell they did it, whether it was some sort of broadcasting trickery or not, but the wind and water sounds were like being in the boat with Ainslie. Very impressed.
If you have it connected via the optical cable it turns on automatically with the TV, which is OK if you are using the TV remote, but a pain in the rear if like me you use the Sky+ remote to operate the TV. You can turn the auto power on function to off.
As mentioned had a bit of trouble connecting, this nothing to do with the sound bar but because the shop thought that my TV had ARC which their 55" version of same model in shop had, my 37" doesn't which is why the HDMI cable didn't work. Once I got it connected up almost every digital sound processing option was set to ON, which might have been me pressing buttons earlier. :dunce:
Anyway the first thing watched proper was an episode of Wallander, which thanks to Kenneth "Whispering" Branagh has fairly frequent volume changes. I'd got Smart Sound Volume set to on, ie it adjusts volume up in quiet bits and turns it down in louder bits. Smart sound it ain't, very distracting.
Also experienced a strange thing, again in Wallander, also while "Smart" volume was on so not quite sure what was doing what, but there was a scene in a workshop, with quite loud workshop background noises, where Wallander and Nyberg were interviewing some guy at the other side of the workshop from the camera. The 3D sound effect played the scene exactly as it appeared, ie the viewer felt to be surrounded by workshop noises, but Whispering Bob and his mate were prattling away quite quietly in the distance over there somewhere behind the screen but were difficult to hear over the workshop noise. So rather effective but...
On the other hand I was watching some of the Olympic yachting race where they'd mounted a camera in with the competitors, and the surround sound on that was utterly amazing. How in hell they did it, whether it was some sort of broadcasting trickery or not, but the wind and water sounds were like being in the boat with Ainslie. Very impressed.
If you have it connected via the optical cable it turns on automatically with the TV, which is OK if you are using the TV remote, but a pain in the rear if like me you use the Sky+ remote to operate the TV. You can turn the auto power on function to off.
Edited by FiF on Wednesday 1st August 17:12
Sorry tbh, not a clue really.
Before this I had an ancient Panasonic 5:1 home cinema set up, which was connected into Pana CRT TV.
Even when had the speakers correctly arranged round the room the surround sound was nowt special, but Mrs FiF complained about the wires trailing everywhere and frankly I agreed with her.
Add in the additional issue that whilst playing a DVD the sound was OK(ish), but when fed from the TV (which was a palaver in itself) it really was very ordinary, then the Samsung is miles better than that. Suspect it is more down to the quality of the signal being fed to it, note: complete non hifi numpty guess. So in the end I ripped it all out and put up with the CRT TV speakers.
Before this I had an ancient Panasonic 5:1 home cinema set up, which was connected into Pana CRT TV.
Even when had the speakers correctly arranged round the room the surround sound was nowt special, but Mrs FiF complained about the wires trailing everywhere and frankly I agreed with her.
Add in the additional issue that whilst playing a DVD the sound was OK(ish), but when fed from the TV (which was a palaver in itself) it really was very ordinary, then the Samsung is miles better than that. Suspect it is more down to the quality of the signal being fed to it, note: complete non hifi numpty guess. So in the end I ripped it all out and put up with the CRT TV speakers.
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