Soundbars have come a long way

[lparsons21]

That’s just bogus! Yeah, most of the ‘wireless’ speakers that are out there now aren’t completely wireless. They have amps inside of them and plug into power.

But that eliminates the wiring from front to back, which is the primary reason using fully wired systems is difficult or messy in these ‘open’ design homes. In my case it is even difficult to wire the side to side in the back because of the room’s design.

There are some wireless solutions that can be used with AVRs but most aren’t very good and aren’t totally wireless either. Usually a single box that talks to a transmitter connected to the rear speaker connections on the AVR and then wires to the two speakers. I’m not aware of any of those that can do more than 2 channels, so no Atmos or other height codecs.

In the more advanced soundbars there is lots of work with electronically twiddling the audio to fake your ears out. From reviews it seems there are a few that do a very good job of it. Even Nakamichi is doing that as they have no upfiring speakers in their setup either. For Atmos the Samsung soundbars with upfiring speakers do a better job with the soundfield than does Nakamichi. But the Nakamichi does a better job than my Samsung. Reviews seem to support that opinion too.

 

[Bruce]

In the more advanced soundbars there is lots of work with electronically twiddling the audio to fake your ears out. From reviews it seems there are a few that do a very good job of it. Even Nakamichi is doing that as they have no upfiring speakers in their setup either. For Atmos the Samsung soundbars with upfiring speakers do a better job with the soundfield than does Nakamichi. But the Nakamichi does a better job than my Samsung. Reviews seem to support that opinion too.

Just ordered the Nakamichi - Shockwafe 9.2.4 for the new house, wife made me promise to keep it simple in the main living room, no wires, no extra equipment, so bought the 75" TCL 8 series (Roku), so it will just be that and the Nakamichi, I know that you have to hook up the sides/rears to the wireless subs but I can hide those under the couch.

Going to convert one of the garages ( house has 2) to be the main theater with Processor/Amp(s), Projector, etc, that is where she will let me go wild.

 

[overtimeman]

Wow,it has been a long time since I've posted in a forum.My living room is small so my first sound set up was a Sony two channel system with Sony SS7000 tower speakers.When the unit went out after a lightening strike close by I got A Vizio 2.1 sound stand and used it for two years.Well it was better than the TV speakers.Back in February Amazon had the Zvox 670 for $240 so I jumped on it.I have it sitting on one square inch blocks on all four corners and my new 65 inch Sony sitting on top of it.Hey the wife and I are happy with our system and it sounds great and looks neat.

 

[Bruce]

Just ordered the Nakamichi - Shockwafe 9.2.4 for the new house, wife made me promise to keep it simple in the main living room, no wires, no extra equipment, so bought the 75" TCL 8 series (Roku), so it will just be that and the Nakamichi, I know that you have to hook up the sides/rears to the wireless subs but I can hide those under the couch.

Going to convert one of the garages ( house has 2) to be the main theater with Processor/Amp(s), Projector, etc, that is where she will let me go wild.

Returned the Nakamichi a few weeks ago, rears and subs would constantly have to be re-connected, don’t know if the drop outs is just a flaw or if because they are in the 5ghz wireless signal range and interference from my routers caused it, also it sounds like something from a sound bar, not so robust.

Bought the Samsung Q90 Sound Bar, sounds so much better, no drops for a week now, cannot tell the difference between it and a real sound system