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I've never had a soundbar and know nothing about them, so after advice/recommendations . In the past I have hooked the telly up to an old hifi amp and speakers which was OK, but it's not an option in our current living room.
So... Samsung 55 inch smart TV about 2 or 3 years old. Small living room, with TV in one corner facing 2 x 2 seater sofas, see rough diagram below. Usually just me and Mrs Bloke watching. I just want an improvement on the rubbish TV speakers, we don't need mega volume but would like an improvement in clarity, bass etc. I think I just need a soundbar and maybe a subwoofer rather than a surround system. Ideally something up to around £150 but could maybe stretch to £200. Is that realistic? What should I look at?
Second hand Sonos beam gen 1 is what I bought. Picked up from eBay for around £160 I think. Very simple, looks good and good sound for the size of your room I’d say.
We’ve got a fancy 5.1 surround system in our main room, so used to very decent sound.
Recently bought a Denon DHT-S517 soundbar + sub for the other room and I’m seriously impressed. So impressed I’d be happy with it as our main AV system if I didn’t already have the other setup. It’s £300 but there’s also the DHT-S316 for <£200 that I imagine is worth a look.
2nd the beam it's bonkers for the size+price.
I don't think gen2 was much better tbh built in Alexa I believe.
Very basic but my Creative Stage V2.1 has impressed me, very cheap for what it is. Just a single bar and wired-in sub though.
Thanks all, some ideas to research.
I’ve been underwhelmed by all the soundbar since bought for tv viewing. Had 3 different ones - Philips / Samsung / LG. On all of them they had a subwoofer included - I found they were good for music but often then bass from the subwoofer drowned out the people talking - even with subwoofers turned to their lowest setting. I’m wondering whether some standalone active speakers might be a better option - I picked up some Edifiers R1700 for my garage gym - but I’m going to give them a whirl with the tv instead of the sound bar at some point and see if it works out better.
https://www.edifier.com/global/p/bookshelf-speakers/r1700bt
There are also the R1850s which you can get with a sub out should you decide you want to add their compact active subwoofer for more bass. But going on my r1700s I’m not sure it’s needed.
I’m an Edifier fan but I don’t think a stereo pair is the answer for the tv unless you have a really good system. It will if course beat the tv speakers. Almost anything will. At one point I used the line into a Bluetooth speaker, it worked well. It’s become my sound bar for rental cottages
Our sound bar was recommended on here. It’s a Samsung without a subwoofer. Ms-650 I think. I paid £200 for an ex demo. We sometimes opt for clear voice mode for films where the voices are over whelmed by other sounds. The sound bar is divided into 3 so it takes the centre speaker feed to the middle
The used Sonos above sounds like a good idea
But I Don’t think you’ll regret whatever you get
This article looks helpful
https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/soundbars/1413559/best-budget-soundbar
Cheers, I'm watching a couple of Sonos beams on eBay. I think that's the way I'll go.
I’d also recommend stereo speaker over a soundbar. I have a pair of AudioPro A26 for the TV and they’re great. Think they’ve now been replaced by the A28 so might be some bargains on the older model. Much better sound than any soundbar I’ve had or heard.
Q acoustics M2 would suit your needs perfectly. £170 https://www.qacoustics.co.uk/m2-soundbase.html
It looks like it's discontinued but maybe someone has stock or there's the M4.
I bought a cheap Majority soundbar for use as a bluetooth speaker in my kitchen.
I'm very happy with it.
They do some higher end ones as well.
This one is £200 on Amazon and is Atmos compatible. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09F6ZFBD9?tag=georiot-trd-21&th=1&psc=1&ascsubtag=whathifi-gb-1700515383066808300-21&geniuslink=true
TV across the corner of the room? 🤔
Can’t help with soundbars. Though a good soundbar with subwoofer will be better than TV speakers. AVR and speakers here and noticeably better than the speakers built in to our LG TV. Even SO notices it ‘sounds different’ if for some reason the AVR hasn’t turned on with the TV.
TV across the corner of the room? 🤔
No choice due to the layout and access to power and aerial sockets. There also is a wood burner, chimney breast, awkward alcove and other furniture not shown in the diagram which dictate where the TV has to go. These and the fact that it's a small room mean I don't really want separate speakers. As I said in the OP, I've used an amp and stereo speakers with a TV before and it sounded great, but I need a more compact option for this room.
At the OPs price point a soundbar is definitely the way to go even if there were no space restrictions. A £200 soundbar will have HDMI but its unlikely that a pair of active speakers or cheap amp will have. This makes it so much easier to use as both come on at the same time and it works better with one remote plus the quality is normally slightly better. I think you really need to spend £500 plus to get a good active 2 channel and then they can still be a bit bass light without a sub and of course this all takes up space.
Personally I prefer Denon to Sonos for sound quality though the Sonos app is better. If you can find a Denon Home 550 'open box' on ebay for £250 ish (as I did) then that is a very good compact soundbar and can easily be extended with a couple of Denon Home 150's or even a Sub at a later date.
Update. Just 'won' a Sonos Beam gen 1 on eBay. Thanks to those that suggested it. From what you've said and what I've read elsewhere online, it should be a good fit for our small living room. I was also pleased to read that it works with Google home, as we are quite plugged in to that ecosystem.
So it arrived yesterday in immaculate, as new condition. It's working well and was a doddle to setup, apart from faffage getting the Google assistant set up. This involved an hour on the phone to Sonos support and lots of messing about with ethernet cables, router settings and moving kit from room to room.
Mostly quite chuffed with it but if I'm honest, I'm slightly underwhelmed by the sound. It's undoubtedly better than the rubbish TV speakers but not by quite as much as I was expecting. Only 'slightly' though - I suspect my expectations are based on ignorance! The look, controls, app, ease of use etc. are all spot on. Thanks again for the advice.
If you have an iPhone (or can borrow one) it's well worth running through the Trueplay tuning in the app.
It should definitely be a decent improvement - have you tried going back to the TV audio? Often you notice the change more on a downgrade than vice versa.
Fully Android household so no iPhone at hand. I haven't gone into the TV audio settings yet though. I'll give that a go thanks 👍
Mostly quite chuffed with it but if I’m honest, I’m slightly underwhelmed by the sound.
I avoided saying anything earlier as the general voice was that Sonos was the way to go and you had gone down that route, but that's kinda my experience too. We had an LG soundbar (with sub-woofer) but I fancied an upgrade – the Sonos is *slightly* better, but it certainly didn't transform my viewing experience. The only real benefits it has over my old set-up is that it is easy to play music through it and the fact it has an app so I can change the sound settings easily (ie, clearvoice etc).
(I have set my unit up with Trueplay too)
I haven’t gone into the TV audio settings yet though.
Not sure he was recommending you to fiddle with the audio settings on the TV (if that is what you are saying you are goign to do). I would turn off all TV interference with the audio and then beg/borrow/steal an iPhone/iPad for the few minutes it takes to run Trueplay. I found Trueplay made a big difference for me, and and the whole point is to adapt the audio for the specific room acoustics, so it may make a big difference in your sub-optimal corner set up.
OK, I'll scout around for an iphone to borrow and run Trueplay. Cheers.
We have a gen 1 beam in our "big room" (and it it really rather big) but also has a pair of play 1's as rears.
The latter should be next on your list!
If it's a large room there's really no substitute for a proper amp and speakers.
To use an American automotive phrase... "there's no replacement for displacement".
That's not to say modern, smallish speakers and smallish amps are rubbish, they are not.. But a sound bar is always going to be a compromise, even if it comes with a half assed sub.
My 10" sub for example weighs in at 15kg... But it's a bit of a beast for a small room.
I should have added that the beam and 2 x play 1's have made a massive difference despite the size of the room. (6 x 11m)
Def don't need an amp in my humble opinion.
So... I mugged my daughter's fella for his iPhone and used it to run Trueplay. It's made quite a difference and it's now much closer to what I was hoping for 👍
Glad it worked. Now you just need to make sure you always grab the seating position it's tuned for 🙂
(...and start saving for surrounds and sub to add to it!)
I started with a gen 1 Beam and over the years (and during sales!) have added two Play SLs and then a sub mini.
It's awesome.