Sound Bars

Spiral City is sound

 

We got one of these, absolutely bang on

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/samsung-hws50bxu-3.0-allinone-sound-bar-dark-grey-10238562.html

 

same here and totally agree. I’ve also got the sub. Sound is brilliant.
@ark104 (v2) if you can stretch to it would highly recommend the sub - I think it makes a difference! Can get a mini sub now which you can get for around £350

 

Iron maiden by any chance

 

I bought one from Asda a few years ago, think it was their own make. Cost me 15 nicker. It was an absolute steal. I don't really use it for the telly, just bluetooth music to it really.

 

Hooky, you’ve got to let us know what you decide ….
I bet you end up spending a few grand and blast your neighbours out with Slipknot and Rammstein and a touch of Tubular Bells to ease the pain

 

I like metal and rock mate. Int car and concerts. Tis why I ended up with hearing aids lol.
But in the house a bit/lot of Cyndi lauper or Carpenters.
The samsung ones seem to be getting good reviews at the price I'm prepared to pay if at all. It'll be a couple of week or so. Having a couple of short breaks watching tarn. Charlton (london) Exeter (Torbay). Yep. Glutton for punishment afore anyone sez owt.

 

We got a polaroid soundbar from asda. It was about£50:00 . Its suoerb.

 

Sunday morning Bachelors whilst your peeling spuds.

 

Saw em in the day. I'm Not sure how that came about. I think they must have been on the bill at a summer show in blackpool.
Bobby knutt in his Autobiography said they or one of the band were arrogant pricks backstage.

 

Grew up with them, Simon and Garfunkel and Neil Sedaka on repeat every Sunday. Occasional, Help, Abbey Road or White Album or Status Quo best of. If my mum had her pick it was Simply Red or Beautiful South. Sometimes even stretched to Earthrise or Brit Awards 1989 if they were feeling modern.

 

Sorry buddy but I don't know how to send a private message.
If you are interested I have a Yamaha C20 sound bar for sale. Purchased January 2022 and as you would expect from Yamaha the sound is superb. Was £180 new but I'd let it go for £80
Reason for sale, I've just got a new TV with built in soundbar.which is adequate for my needs

 

Came here to pretty much say exactly the same

Bought a Samsung QLED 18 months or so ago and got a Samsung soundbar included in the package. Infinitely better than the TV speakers on their own despite it being a mid range TV

Well worth it in my opinion

 

Oh dear! I just came across the following on the internet... Clearly a load of utter nonsense and marketing hype..

"Is soundbar enough for Dolby Atmos?
Fortunately, Dolby Atmos soundbars can deliver cinematic audio in spaces that speaker packages could only ever dream of, at a fraction of the price. And, with a well-considered purchase you can make a powerful sonic impact on your living room for very little outlay."

Without getting too technical Dolby Atmos works differently to conventional surround sound and stereo.

Stereo works by varying the amplitude (volume) between left and right speakers (the space between ins known as the 'sound stage' so different sounds e.g. violins in an orchestra appear more to the left whilst Cellos, contrabasses appear more to the right as they appear on a real concert hall stage. Depth of sound (how far back the sound is created by various levels of reverb) This is achieved in studios with bands etc via post production mixing after the initial recording. Orchestral recordings are sometimes made using a binaural head which looks like a dummy head with microphones in the ears which is place in the 'best seat in the house' acoustically. THis is often said to give the most natural and realistic performance. More often sections of the orchestra are 'miked up' with overheads and recorded on separate tracks which are then 'mixed' afterwards in the same way groups and bands are recorded.

Dolby and DTS surround sound takes the stereo signal and processes it using complex software to separate sounds and send them to different speaker placements to create more dynamic sound enveloping the listener. THe various codecs have different characteristics and depending on environment and source material DTS or Dolby may be slightly superior to the other.

Dolby Atmos uses more speakers (at least 7) is different in that rather than using codecs to split a stereo signal and direct sound to speakers, individual sounds on the soundtrack are placed on different discrete channels and can be directed dynamically. For example a plane seen approaching and flying over your head will have been mixed to start in the front speakers moving to top front then move to the rear speakers as it appears to fly over and behind you. Background sounds, dialogue and other visual 'objects' can be assigned to other speakers on discrete channels. This gives better sound and better placement of sounds relative to the objects' position on screen.

Soundbars (however many speakers they contain) are always placed in front of the listener although a separate subass can be placed anywhere (this is because bass soundwaves are omnidirectional whilst mid-high frequencies are very directional).
The soundbar can mimic surround sound by varying amplitude in speakers (like stereo but also by using 'phasing' in combination with the amplitude manipulation) giving the impression that the sound is coming from somewhere other than between the speakers. However it cannot really extend that sound stage accurately to mimic behind and above like physical speakers. (phasing is where a mono signal being sent to two or more speakers is delayed fractionally in one or more of them creating harmonics). It was a very popular effect in pop song back in the 70s, particularly when used on drums,... (itchycoo Park single by the Small Faces is a good demonstration of the phasing effect) and still is today but usually used more subtly ) Of course it requires more complex processing to 'move' sounds around. It only works best with moving objects (like the plane example above) so you can't for example have a sound bar giving the impression that someone is speaking directly behind you .
That said there is still a considerable debate on exactly how the human brain can distinguish sounds coming from behind but research continues. Nevertheless there are always going to be limits on what front positioned speakers only can achieve in tricking the brain into thinking the sound is coming from behind the listener.

In summary, many soundbars are pretty good and surround sound ones make a decent 'go' at simulating surround sound at a realistic price but anyone claiming they can deliver true Dolby Atmos or even DTS and Dolby like a physical surround sound speaker system is lying and it is hype verging on a fraudulent claim.
Beware of cheap Surround soundbars. The reason why True Hi-Fi amplifiers and speakers and speaker cables are expensive is that in order to accurately reproduce a good stereo image the soundwaves from each speaker should output at the same moment. Matched, high quality internal amplifier components are essential for good stereo & surround sound. This is absolutely essential for pseudo surround sound as it is accurate phasing that creates the effect. If anyone has ever connected two stereo speakers incorrectly by reversing the polarity one on they will notice a loss of volume and bass. This is because bass is usually output in the middle (equal volume in both speakers so if one side sound wave is reversed it cancels the other one out). If you were to play a pure sine wave as a stereo signal and reverse the polarity on one speaker you would get absolute silence. That is basically how noise cancelling headphones work. Miking up a drum kit with multiple mics can lead to this where one mic is picking up the same signal as another mic but out of phase and they cancel each other out. Moving one a few centimetres will resolve the problem.
Above views are based on my years as a muso -(keyboards, synthesisers and piano) and working in recording and post audio production.