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I've been looking for a decent-ish bluetooth speaker for the front room. It's not a big room, so it needn't be anything too flashy. Unfortunately the huge price increases in Rural/Vita means that we won't be adding to the ones we have in the kitchen and bedroom (which are brilliant).
By chance I looked at sound bars as a present for family and I happened across sound bases. Most of these have Bluetooth and some have NFC (we have OSX and android devices) and it [i]seems[/i] that it could be a double whammy in that we'll get betterer TV noise and a music player and they aren't hugely expensive.
We aren't audiophiles, but I'd like something which plays music well. Multiroom stuff is not required.
Any experiences/advice on these little blighters? Are they shit (comparatively) for music?
We've got one of these: [url= https://www.johnlewis.com/panasonic-sc-hte80-speakerboard-bluetooth-sound-base/p757507 ]Panasonic Soundbase[/url]
Vastly improved the TV sound, various modes to sound like the cinema, stereo, 3D sound-a-like. Cheap as chips now. Also does NFC.
There's also a bigger one if you want to upset your neighbours neighbours. 😉
That's great, thanks! What's it like for music?
It's not a Hi-Fi. But it's more than acceptable. I've had to turn the sub woofer setting down to almost minimum, otherwise it gets a bit BOOM-TIZZ car audio like. But that might be the cabinet it's sat on. On an open TV bench you'd have a bit more adjustment.
It's also surprisingly loud. Movies sound like proper theatre systems, obviously not surround. So much so it's a case of telling Boy2 "TURN IT DOWN, ARE YOU DEAF?"
Sonos Playbar is wifi and allows you to use for music via smartphone when tv not in use. Highly recommended but not cheap
The Sonos Playbase looked pretty good on the Gadget Show a while back, I guess depends what your budget is.
I found on a couple of cheaper soundbars/docks I've had the base is just way too intrusive (I like base in music and I'm far from an audiophile but when you can't hear dialogue in a film due to what should be background sounds overwhelming it you can't help but notice it and they usually don't come with a way to balance it out).
I would say listen to it in the shop but I doubt even then you get a true sense, just make sure you buy from somewhere with a hassle-free returns policy and take care unpacking it.
Sonos Playbar is wifi and allows you to use for music via smartphone when tv not in use. Highly recommended but not cheap
Most of them do this, even the £60 LG we got the FiL. On that basis I couldn't justify £700 for a sonos. I'm looking at a Panasonic ALL30 as we have a Panasonic TV and it should work with the ARC HDMI. Has NFC too. I just don't know if it will be much good at music, I suppose I'll have to go see one.