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Hoping to get some advice and suggestions on a Soundbar. (1 Viewer)

andrewYoung

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I am hoping to get some advice on soundbars. The sound from my TV is not that great and I have trouble hearing what is being said. I have made all the tweaks possible on the TV and nothing helps. I can crank up the volume, but it gets too loud for anyone upstairs.
I also have a surround sound system, but the center speaker is small and not that great.
I have thought about getting a better center speaker, but believe that a soundbar would better serve my purposes. The space we have for our center speaker is very small, so I am very limited in what speaker I can get or it will not fit in that space.

What I would like is to be able to use my DirecTV remote to turn on the TV, cable box and soundbar all at one time. Anything more complicated and the wife will not do it. Is it possible to turn them all on at once?

What kind of soundbar should I get? I do not necessarily have a budget, but would like something reasonable.
I did some research and spoke to a sales guy at a home theater stroe and it seems lilke the Sonos soundbar is one of the best. I am not against having a Sonos soundbar or the price ($699), but want to make sure it is very good if I am going to pay that price.
The prices on the soundbars I have looked at run from $100 to $2000, which is quite a difference.

What soundbar would you recommend? Would I have to buy a universal remote to turn on all 3 items or will the soundbar turn on when my TV turns on?

Thank you
 

Wayne A. Pflughaupt

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Are you giving up on the surround sound system? The reason I ask is that AVR- or HTIB-based surround sound sytems and soundbars are mutually exclusive concepts in TV audio. You can’t mix-and-match them.


Regards,

Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

Al.Anderson

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If your TV has CEC, get a receiver or soundbar (with CEC) of the same brand; with CEC turning on the TV will turn on the soundbar. (The same brand is not officially required, I have a Sony TV and a Yamaha receiver and CEC works fine; but it tends to work better within brands.) So if the DirectTV remote already turns on the TV, then the receiver/soundbar will come on too.


I don't have any experience with the Sonus, but I never trust manufacturers that don't list detailed specifications and I could not find number of speakers or size of the drivers. If you go with a soundbar, consider one that is passive and driven by a receiver. When driven by a receiver they are both louder and usually more "precise", which should help with dialog. (Of course, everthing is more complicated too, so your wife may not like that.)


Someone may recommend a universal remote. I haven't has as much luck with them as everyone else seems to have had. I have a number of Logitechs and they are very inconsistent performers.
 

CyberRube2

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We bought 4 of these Vizio Sound bars with surround and a sub and I gotta say its pretty good. We paired them with VIZIO TV's so it was all pretty straight forward connecting them up. One of them we have in about a 15x15' room and it sounds good.
 

Kyrsten Brad

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Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:

Are you giving up on the surround sound system? The reason I ask is that AVR- or HTIB-based surround sound sytems and soundbars are mutually exclusive concepts in TV audio. You can’t mix-and-match them.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
Wayne is quite right about this.

My system (Vizio 70) has both a Vizio sound bar and a AVR based surround sound and they are mutually exclusive.

The soundbar is only used for regular cable TV viewing ( my BH cable box is hooked directly to the TV). I call this my Simple Setup for my family members who simply want to turn the TV on to watch regular TV.

My AVR setup is used for Blu-ray/DVD viewing and for digital download viewing (I use my Blu-ray player internet connectivity capability for digital downloads). Both Blu-ray players go thru the AVR. The soundbar does not function in this setup.

Hope this helps.
 

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