Design, active or passive, connectivity,
integrated Bluetooth and other features are factors that you should consider
when choosing to buy a soundbar speaker for TV in your living room.
For most people, soundbar speaker is the
best choice to get a better sound quality for TV in the living room. This type
of speaker is simple, which is not too expensive and does not use those
entangled cables like a real surround sound system. It also does not offer the
sound quality as good as a discrete speaker does, especially when listening to
music, but if you want better sound when watching movies and TV programs, this
type of speaker is much better than a built-in one.
You should consult the list of best
soundbar speakers from the well-known evaluation site before buying. Besides,
from the facts presented at the last CES, the manufacturer is preparing to
release all kinds of 2013 new soundbar, with a few notable improvements and
will probably release a variety of soundbar speaker that features built-in
Bluetooth.
Here are a few suggestions when selecting
the soundbar speaker according to the technology site Cnet:
Traditional design or tabletop design
There are 2 main soundbar designs: traditional
and tabletop. Traditional soundbar is designed with long and thin speakers,
often accompanied with a wireless subwoofer. This type can be hung on a wall
or placed in front of the TV's rack. This is a simple design, but there are
drawbacks that it can cover the remote control sensor of the TV if you place it
on the rack.
A
traditional soundbar model from Philips
Meanwhile, tabletop soundbar is designed
more beautifully, placed under the TV, looks like part of the TV's rack instead
of speakers. Also, it does not cover the remote control sensor of the TV. The
drawback is the lack of bass due to the lack of a discrete subwoofer. Also some
kinds can do that, but if you want to hear the true bass, you should choose the
traditional design soundbar. Of course, it is best to combine a tabletop
soundbar with a wireless subwoofer, but there isn't any type of this
combination on the market.
Bose
Solo is one of the tabletop models has good performance.
Number of input ports
Looking at the back of the soundbar
speakers, you may be surprised to find only a few ports for audio in, it seems
that it's not useful for home theater system with HDMI devices.
Today, most manufacturers want users to use
the HDTV as an audio converter. This
means that you can connect all the devices in your home theater to the TV, then
connect the TV's optical audio port to the soundbar speaker. This is a simpler
overall design because you just need switch inputs on one device and that is
your TV, instead of having to switch inputs on the soundbar.
This type of configuration has some
drawbacks, too. You have some limitations due to the number of ports on the TV,
such as if there are only 3 ports on the TV, you can only connect up to 3
devices. However, we can overcome these limitations by using a HDMI adapter,
but it will be more complicated when using soundbar.
There is another limitation that most TVs
reduced the audio signal into a stereo signal, not the true surround sound.
This is not a big problem for most of the soundbars, as though to have true
surround sound signal, it does not do any better. There are some special
annoying cases when the TV emits true Dolby Digital signal but the soundbar
speaker does not have Dolby Digital decoding feature. For most people, this is
not a matter of concern.
Despite many limitations, most people will
choose to use the TV as a converter. Therefore, when buying soundbar, you do
not need to worry about the number of ports if the back of the speaker has an
optical audio out port.
Intergrated Bluetooth
Bluetooth is the most convenient wireless
connectivity to transfer the sound from smartphone or tablet. This feature runs
to play music stored on your phone and any music applications. Additionally,
it can run on any platform that most iOS, Android and Windows 8 phones and
tablets will feature built-in Bluetooth. If you use your phone to listen to
music, you really need to have Bluetooth.
If soundbar is not equipped with an
integrated Bluetooth connectivity, you can add this feature through a Belkin or
Logitech adapter, but this is not a good solution because the input ports are
often limited on the soundbar. The adapters are even more entangled in the case
that you use TV as a converter. Then, you need to connect it to the analog
ports and you will have to turn on the TV if you want to listen to music.
Hope that those 2013 new soundbars that are
soon-to-be on the market will have Bluetooth built-in. Therefore, you should
not rush to buy a soundbar without built-in Bluetooth.
Remote control
Most soundbars do not have a remote
control. Instead it depends on the TV's remote control to program and react to
your command.
Theoretically, this is not a bad idea. No
one needs too many remote controls to use when watching movies. However, the
fact is that there are some problems. After you turn off the TV's built-in
speakers, some kind of TV would display an annoying message each time the TV
receive a volume commands from a distance, this phenomenon occurs if you use
the controller to control TV control soundbar.
The easiest way to overcome this problem is
to use the signal cable box's remote control that has volume button or use
multifunction remote control.
Indicator lights on the front
Most soundbar do not have display screen or
indicator light, so you do not know the volume level or which port is being
used.
Indicator
lights on the front of the Zvox Z-Base 420 speaker look nice but not really
necessary.
However, there are also many soundbar
speaker models with the beautiful front lights, especially when concealed
within the grid layer diaphragm. But the facts that the display lights are not
really necessary but it's only a decoration and display the volume level of the
speaker. Normally, you only need to increase the volume to a comfortable
listening level and do not need to know that it's 20 or 30.
Powered soundbar or passive soundbar
Most soundbars which are being sold are
"powered" soundbar, meaning that they have an integrated amplifier
system and do not need a separate A / V receiver. There are also passive
soundbars with high-orientation and no amplification system, so you need to
purchase an A / V receiver.
The purchase of additional A / V receiver
will increase the cost quite a lot, in addition to being messy because you will
have to connect the receiver to the soundbar. Instead, you can buy a stereo
with an amplifier and a pair of good speakers and the sound is much better than
this solution.
Apart from some special cases, you should
select a standard powered soundbar speaker or using a full size traditional
soundbar.
