Soundbar Recommendations Please

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Previous posts on soundbars and suchlike a little old given how products change - so this a new request.

We're going to wall-mount our Sony TV and the soundbox we have (Sony HT-XT1, cost abut £230 new) is too deep front to back to mount it on the wall under the TV. So looking for a not too expensive (but doesn't have to be cheap) soundbar (plus woofer box?). Maybe not any more than £300.

Any thoughts - and if we can get one that doesn't require a separate woofer for decent sound experience then all the better. Might pay a little more for such a beast.

 

[oxymoron]

Just got the Sonos beam , £300 marvelous especially with the voice enhancement on , as loud as you could probably want and it is expandable if you want to add speakers, woofer and such .
Wall mountable as well i believe.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Just got the Sonos beam , £300 marvelous especially with the voice enhancement on , as loud as you could probably want and it is expandable if you want to add speakers, woofer and such .
Wall mountable as well i believe.

Sounds just the job. Our Sony Soundbox seems to give us all the 'depth' we need without a separate woofer...but it's a box rather than a bar - and so was wondering about the depth you get fro just a bar.

 

[chellie]

Lot of bad blood for Sonos on the internet at the moment as they are stopping support for some products. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51231363

 

[Blakey]

Lot of bad blood for Sonos on the internet at the moment as they are stopping support for some products. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51231363

I think it is mostly on the older legacy products and they have said some of the products 'may' stop working in future.

I've also got a Beam plus a couple of play ones, and its perfect for the size of the room, I would like to add a sub in future but they are pretty expensive, (John lewis had them on offer for £425 iirc, just before xmas but i was away)

Could also look at a Sonos playbar which is a bit larger, both are wall mountable.

Its not essential but if you go for a Beam i would check that you have an HDMI ARC (audio return channel) on your TV.

 

[Dando]

Ask your barber!

 

[tigerwes]

Another vote for the Sonos Beam.

Blakey how much better is it with the 2 rear speakers? I've been tempted with getting a couple for a while.

 

[Crazyface]

Bose thing. 100 notes. Does the job perfectly. Sits behind TV at the base. No sub speaker needed. Why spend 400 notes?

 

[oxymoron]

I considered the Bose , did not fare very well against the sonos when i was looking around .
One little thing i was told was always take your wife to listen to any speakers you are thinking about buying as it turns out they
have a better hearing range than men do , well supposedly that is .

 

[Blakey]

Another vote for the Sonos Beam.

Blakey how much better is it with the 2 rear speakers? I've been tempted with getting a couple for a while.

I got the play ones at pretty much the same time so diffictult to say, I managed to pick a pair up for £150 secondhand, I would say it makes a a decent improvement as gives more of a 'surround' sound having the ones's as rears.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I've been pointed at the Yamaha YAS107 7.1 - or if I can find one a Yamaha 5.1 soundbar as that will be a good bit cheaper and not a lot of difference - and spend the saving over the Sonos on a gold or other high quality fibre optic connection. I am liking that idea.

For us TV is TV - it's so not the most important thing in our life and we wouldn't be 'showing off our system' in any case - and we don't need mega surround sound - just nice to have better sound that we get from the speakers on the TV

 

[Lord Tyrion]

When I was looking for a soundbar a few years ago I went into Richer Sounds. The sales guy in there whispered to me, 'any by Yamaha' and gave me a wink. He had cheaper, more expensive brands and as always with RS, put no pressure on me at all but that stuck with me. That would sit with your recommendation SiLH.

I ended up with a Panasonic soundbox from John Lewis. More compact that a bar (so more agreeable to my wife), available in a sale at the time and it has hugely improved watching programmes. Sound bars and boxes really do make a very positive difference.

 

[spongebob59]

Yamaha, bought one to go on the musicast set up we have , can control it all from the mobile.

If you want a plug and play one then the q acoustic ones sold by richer sounds are good too.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Yamaha, bought one to go on the musicast set up we have , can control it all from the mobile.

If you want a plug and play one then the q acoustic ones sold by richer sounds are good too.

I don't actually know what 'plug and play' is in the context of a soundbar/TV

The aerial guy who game to look to install some stuff for us earlier claimed to be a bit of a Hi-Fi AV and audio buff - and it was he who recommended a Yamaha. Said that under any blind comparison Yamaha's sound was indiscernible from that of Sonos, Bose and the likes. And he absolutely recommended getting good quality fibre optic connector as something that would introduce massive improvements in sound.

 

[Robster59]

I always find HotUKDeals is a good place to look for best prices.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I don't actually know what 'plug and play' is in the context of a soundbar/TV

It means there are no complicated set ups to perform, no apps to download to work it etc. You literally plug it in and it works. When you hear that you think 'are they are not all like that?' but presumably they are not.

 

[Beezerk]

I've had a Sony HT xt3 for a few years, great sounding base.

 

[casuk]

Roth make superb sound equipment, I had the original bar 1 and the thing was impressive the newest edition is around £150 wireless sub included

 

[Ye Olde Boomer]

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...odctry=US&prodlang=EN&channel=Online&storeid={product_store_id}&device=c&network=o&matchtype=e&locationid={loc_phyiscal_ms}&creative=&targetid=pla-4581596234400184&campaignid=283268302&msclkid=83c26f9268fc12032ba831dcb2c68f2d&gclid=CKjqx47r4OcCFV_otQodgzMEzA&gclsrc=ds

I use a pair of these on each of two of my TVs. They're not very expensive (compared to your Harbeth, Rogers, etc.).
They require a separate amplifier, but the sound is much clearer than with the tiny internal TV speakers, even at low volume.

 

[Crazyface]

I considered the Bose , did not fare very well against the sonos when i was looking around .
One little thing i was told was always take your wife to listen to any speakers you are thinking about buying as it turns out they
have a better hearing range than men do , well supposedly that is .

Well not at our house!!!! The Bose is 200 notes cheaper and does the job! Unless of course you are a slave to the TV and need super duper wraparound cinema sound. Me? I only need to hear it better than the rubbish speakers on the actual TV.