TV Soundbars

I’ve always heard that Bose is better advertisement than sound but never heard one in real life. We recently put a TV in a room we turned into a library. We put an Apple TV in there and a pair of HomePod minis. We’ve been really impressed with them. We have a soundbar in our bedroom (don’t remember the brand) and the HomePods outperform them.
 
I've never been impressed with most Bose products for the price they charge. We have a Bose compact soundbar which was given to us by a family member. It serves it's purpose to make content on the TV easier to hear, but the sound quality isn't anything fantastic. I do however really like my noise cancelling ear phones though.

A couple years ago we picked up a Vizo 2.1 sound bar system (sound bar and a subwoofer) and really like it. We paid less than $200 for it. The sub is wireless and we connect the sound bar to the TV via an optical cable. The sound quality is really good, very crisp and clear. The TV sits in a large open area, so we weren't going for a home theater experience. We just wanted something that would allow us to clearly hear everything anywhere in the open space and it delivers. I doubt we've ever had to turn it up above 50%.
 
Haven't personally heard these but I'd be inclined to say get a soundbar with an external subwoofer if you have the space for it.
 
Sonos Beam or Sonos Arc would be the best way to go.....
Great App. Easy to expand if you have the room/budget (subs, or rears, etc).
Ecosystem is great
 
Desertnate said:
I've never been impressed with most Bose products for the price they charge. We have a Bose compact soundbar which was given to us by a family member. It serves it's purpose to make content on the TV easier to hear, but the sound quality isn't anything fantastic. I do however really like my noise cancelling ear phones though.

A couple years ago we picked up a Vizo 2.1 sound bar system (sound bar and a subwoofer) and really like it. We paid less than $200 for it. The sub is wireless and we connect the sound bar to the TV via an optical cable. The sound quality is really good, very crisp and clear. The TV sits in a large open area, so we weren't going for a home theater experience. We just wanted something that would allow us to clearly hear everything anywhere in the open space and it delivers. I doubt we've ever had to turn it up above 50%.
Click to expand...

+1 vote on the Vizio. I think we talked about them in a post a while back, ended up getting the M21_somethingsomething (HD8R?) - says it's a 2.1 system but the woofers are integrated into the bar. We've been really happy with it. Huge improvement over just through the TV, subs surprisingly carry through to the basement if you're putting them to use.

If you're using it in a house where you're usually watching movies not with your 8 YO sleeping upstairs, I'd totally go up a notch and get the external sub version.
 
Plus the new soundbars have bluetooth capability so great to stream music as well.
 
I have a 65" Sony with a Sony sound bar with a sub woofer and the difference with and without the sound bar is like night and day. Even without music, there's a huge difference in the sound. A musical program is awesome.
 
chefwong said:
Sonos Beam or Sonos Arc would be the best way to go.....
Great App. Easy to expand if you have the room/budget (subs, or rears, etc).
Ecosystem is great
Click to expand...
I second Sonos! I have all of the sound bars and you can not go wrong with them. I have a beam with a sub mini in my office and love it.

I have the ARC and Gen 2 sub in my family room and it sounds amazing.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Just got done hooking up the BOSE a bit ago. Used the optical cable provided. HOLY CRAP! Sounds like a new TV. Way better than what I expected. Even the bass is decent. Hearing things I did not before. Dialogue mode is amazing. Going to spend more time with it tonight and will give final thoughts later here.
 
PA DETAILER said:
Just got done hooking up the BOSE a bit ago. Used the optical cable provided. HOLY CRAP! Sounds like a new TV. Way better than what I expected. Even the bass is decent. Hearing things I did not before. Dialogue mode is amazing. Going to spend more time with it tonight and will give final thoughts later here.
Click to expand...

You should connect through HDMI cable. It’s the best connection possible and better than optical + in most cases it’s the link to be able to use your current TV remote to adjust the soundbars volume instead of having to use 2 remotes.

As far as soundbar, I decided to buy a TCL Alto8+ 3.1.2 soundbar with wireless subwoofer on sale price $100 which is a steal for what you get. Not to mention the original price when released was $699.00 which is crazy. I have it hooked up to a 50” TCL HDTV so it hooks up seamlessly.

It has enough bass to rock the walls + it does Dolby Atmos which is cool when watching movies on Prime. For $100 I bought another 1 just days later and gave it to my parents.
 
I wanted to use the ARC input but that is currently being used by the DIRECTV set up. So digital was my option. Not a big deal.
 
PA DETAILER said:
I wanted to use the ARC input but that is currently being used by the DIRECTV set up. So digital was my option. Not a big deal.
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Does the soundbar have an both HDMI input and output? If so, you can run the DirecTV box into the soundbars HDMI input and connect the soundbar out to the TV’s Arc input. Then it all comes together like synergy. Lol.

Or choose an input that’s not in use at all times such as the PS5 if it requires you to toggle its sound on/off whenever you need sound on. [if it doesn’t automatically pass though]

You’re missing out using that optical cable. That was cutting edge tech in the 80’s-90’s. You can’t get Dolby Atmos to work on optical, only HDMI can do it.
 
Eldorado2k said:
You should connect through HDMI cable. It’s the best connection possible and better than optical + in most cases it’s the link to be able to use your current TV remote to adjust the soundbars volume instead of having to use 2 remotes.
Click to expand...

Depending on the TV and your set-up, it may not be a problem.

I've got a couple sound bars in our house. Two are connected via the optical cable and one via the HDMI. One TV with HDMI and one with optical are both are totally controlled (power, streaming choice, volume) with a single third party remote that came with the video source (Roku and Direct TV Android streaming box). It seems only our second hand Bose sound bar needs to use it's own remote for volume when connected via optical. The TV with the Bose bar is limited on ports and I'm not sure it even has a ARC HDMI available.
 
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