Why soundbar exists?

tikker · January 11, 2021

15 hours ago, Riccardo Cagnasso said:

Yes, I was describing my original toughtprocess. Now I start to better understand the other point of view.

But I remain on my "expensive" definition in comparison. Maybe you don't really understand how dirty cheap bookshelf speaker are. I use a pair of edifier 1280t for my desktop pc. I got them for 80-90 euros new and shipped. They sound bloody great. Yes they are very colored, but they sound so good. I will be very happy to watch a movie over them if my old yamahas blow up.

As a baseline pretty much anything will sound better than built-in TV speakers. TVs are getting so thin there is nothing you can put in there for good sound quality. Other's have already pointed out the simple aspect of beauty and appeal. You can like something and you cannot like something.

With regards to your point about price: everything comes at a price. Bookshelves, floorstanders, soundbars; they all tailor to different markets and at the same time make different compromises. Soundbars especially. They are convenient, sleek and provide decent sound quality within their limitations. Their convenience is also why they are expensive: it's a very small and limited form factor to work with and (for the market they tailor to) need to be foolproof. You gain convenience/simplicity at the price of a more expensive product.

The reason bookshelves (or bigger speakers in general) sound better, is because they can fit larger drivers enabling them to reach lower frequencies. If you were to size

up soundbars to the point they can fit those bigger drivers their sound quality would undoubtedly improve. On the other hand they would loose a lot of their appeal as they are no longer a sleek little sound bar. They'd be heavy, take up a ton of space, won't fit under your TV etc.

Great sound qualtiy and cheap just don't go together most of the time. The Edifiers are flawed in their own ways that more expensive speakers would solve. For the price however they are great and that's also important. Sometimes there just are those gems.

Ultimately none of this matters and all comes down to the WAF

22 hours ago, Riccardo Cagnasso said:

If beauty was a completely subjective thing, there won't be "speakers" and "soundbars", there would be infinite variations. Because I might just like a banana shaped speaker and you might like a spherical one and there would not be a way to reconcile our different perception of beauty

Sort of banana shaped and coloured speaker: https://www.hifinews.com/content/vivid-audio-giya-g1-spirit-loudspeaker

Spherical speaker: https://www.deluxe-a.com/en/shop/acustic_systems/flowers-daf-350

In the end it's about making money. Oddly shaped speakers do exist, but either they are meant as just a cheap party trick or are ridiculously expensive, because they are expensive to manufacture and most people don't want bananas as their TV speakers so there is no real market for them.