Sound bar suggestions

[TheBeltboy]

I'm looking to improve our audio specifically the ability to hear dialogue during action. We have a 50" LG TV on a wall mount arm, there is power at hight behind the TV, and the hdmi cables go into the wall and come out at floor level so no visible cables, but I don't have a draw line to put any more cables in.

 

I'm thinking of getting a sound bar with a mount to hang it off the vesa mounts, the TV has optical out and hdmi arc (only 2 hdmi total though which isn't great). 

 

I'm looking for advice, on what specs to look for, sounds bars start cheap but looking at the specs I can't always see what makes 1 more expensive and presumably better than another. Also are wireless subs any good?

[saintlouisbagels]

Looking at the specs of speakers is basically useless since they don't correlate to real world sound at all.

 

Any soundbar is an improvement over TV audio.

You really can't make a bad decision. Just pick what Vizio, Sony, or Samsung soundbar looks good to you and your budget. Generally the higher price does correlate with higher quality, but obviously ask here before making the final checkout.

Keep in mind that there is a mode now called "Night Mode" or something similar for a lot of brands, and even streaming services. This raises the volume of the lowest sounds, and decreases the volume of the highest sounds so that everything is easy to hear at the expense of what the audio engineers would want you to experience (oh well).

 

I personally love my Sonos Beam gen2 but the $500 MSRP is not for possible for everyone.

 

Talking about subwoofers is kind of complicated.

Decent subwoofers are $200-$400 alone. Good subwoofers with "real bass" start at $450 and go astronomically expensive.

The subwoofers that are part of home theater kits and subwoofer bundles? Well, they do the job of producing noise at a low frequency. Not good, not awful.

[Sir Cow]

Bose has a line of smart soundbars (600, 700, 900, etc.) that will automatically adjust the audio and bass during loud scenes like in a Christopher Nolan movie so that you can still hear the dialogue without being assaulted by sound. The 700 worked well for me, but the price tag on the new 900s is a little prohibitive for casual usage, and you have to buy the subwoofer and satellites for better surround sound separately which tacks on a few hundred more. 

[saintlouisbagels]

2 hours ago, Sir Cow said:

Bose has a line of smart soundbars (600, 700, 900, etc.) that will automatically adjust the audio and bass during loud scenes like in a Christopher Nolan movie so that you can still hear the dialogue without being assaulted by sound.

It's so funny to me that people keep using Christopher Nolan movies as examples. His movies are intentionally mixed to be inaudible and as part of the score. You're basically required to watch them with subtitles if you care about the plot in the noise-heavy scenes.

[Paweds]

 

17 hours ago, Sir Cow said:

Bose has a line of smart soundbars (600, 700, 900, etc.)

I have a couple Bose soundbars at home, and I must say, I love them!