Sound Bar Recommendations

[roadrunerboi]

Have issues where the the vocals/dialogue of the conversations on TV cannot be heard while the explosions are just way too loud. Looking for a sound bar to balance out everything.

Does anyone have recommendations for a good one? Budget approximately THB5,000.

TIA!

[lopburi3]

Do you have any adjustments available on the TV perhaps - to limit this wide range? Believe often they have such things for both video and audio on new sets. The price would be right.

[roadrunerboi]

Its a relatively old TV...

Does that mean that if I get a new TV, the issue could be resolved an I do not need to invest in a sound bar?

[lopburi3]

Can not say for sure - be better to listen to several models and check various settings - but can say for a fact have found a great deal of difference in such settings and wife especially has same issue of needing sound at a relatively constant level and has had no issues with several Samsung LED 32 inch models over the last few years. I currently only use computer for my TV viewing and ear plugs for audio and find no problem having loud enough to hear without excessive noise from explosions and such.

[canman]

I have found the same thing with several combinations of sound systems and TV's. The best result I have gotten is from a full dolby 5.1 system with the levels of all channels adjustable. The majority of the "speech" is carried on the centre channel so if you can boost the gain on that one and reduce on the channels. Another option if your system has a graphic equalizer (usually included in the sound setup menu) set the frequencies from 85Hz to 255Hz higher than the others as this is the range of typical human speech.

[coops]

Not sure for a 5,000 baht budget (? - you mention maybe getting a new TV, so did you mean 15,000 or 50,000 baht budget?) - but for sure TV sound is generally very poor, hence the popularity for add-on soundbars or full 5.1 systems.... the Yamaha soundbars are very highly regarded, would be worth the investment and obviosly can be carried over if you change TV's...

this looks like it may be the cheapest in their range, about 17,000 baht (seems to be a discontinued model in the US)

http://th.yamaha.com/th/products/audio-visual/hometheater-systems/digital-sound-projector/ysp-1400_w/?mode=model

Can't check due to it being in Thai - but Yamaha souindbars are fairly easy to find in Emporium or Paragon etc so you could look around and ask what models are available, Paragon might have widest range.

It's best is if your soundbar takes the HDMI from the cable box and any other source, and then outputs ONE hdmi to the TV - ie it'll need about 3x HDMI inputs and one HDMI output with "ARC" which allows any sounds from TV to feedback to the soundbar (so if it's a smart TV and you're watching youtube or netflix on the TV;s internet connection the sound will be played through the soundbar also through that one hdmi connection). This is preferable to the older method of an optical output from TV to your soundbar... (there's an ugly mess of what TV ooutputs surround sound or DTS audio from it's audio output channel, so bets avoided altogether with the HDMI into the soundbar for it to play all audio and pass through the video to the TV)

Edited January 11, 2016 by coops

[craigt3365]

Google sound bar reviews. I was heading down this route also until I read the cheap ones are not so good. Recommendation was to go with a full stereo setup. I'm not prepared to do it as the tv is in the bedroom. So. Just dealing with it.

The tv in the lounge has full 5.1 surround. And I try to only use content that supports this. Sounds great.

[IMHO]

Well outside the budget being discussed here, but for others looking to solve this problem with more budget on hand, Marantz, Denon and Yamaha all make AVR's/AVP's (Audio Visual Receivers / Audio Visual Processors) that feature dialogue enhancement technology - much more than just turning up the centre channel volume, these really do make it much easier to hear the words.

I find it especially useful when watching Truevisions - the mixing on some of their channels is terrible.

[Soi Sauce]

A friend just bought a kickass Sony Unit for 6k. Not so much a sound bar as a sound brick. Looks great and sounds amazing, and has none of the problems you mentioned, but could blow your windows out if you wanted to do such, although still excellent at low volumes.

Sorry I cannot give you the model number, but it seems readily available in Emporium and all Power Buys.

Hope you can find it.

[roadrunerboi]

Maybe it is this one... Power Buy.

[BuddhistVirus]

The cheapest and relatively OK sounding sound bar could be LG and Samsung. But don't forget to look out for one with subwoofer.

As others have said, you can't go wrong with Yamaha though. Also JBL.

May you find what you're looking for.

[BngkkB]

Just bought two both 3900 Baht. LG came with a sub woofer and the Samsung did not. The LG is used in the living room and sounds decent, the Samsung is in the bedroom with no sub woofer. I bought them both in December but I am already having problems with the Samsung, static intermittent. Go with the LG. Within your budget and sounds ok. Bought both at Big C.

[BaldPlumber]

I've had an LG soundbar with wireless subwoofer for about 18 months now. Costs about 5.5k baht I believe.

I use the optical input and 3.5mm input from TV boxes and keep the TV muted.

It's only a 2.1 system, but sounds great to my ears.

Subwoofer essential in my opinion, would sound very tinny otherwise.

Edited January 25, 2016 by BaldPlumber

[HampiK]

Till now I use a Samsung soundbar, because i have a Samsung TV... work perfect together... I only can tell, that since the flat TV's the sound is much worse that you need a soundbar much more than a few years back, when the TV's was much more thick.

Now I am also surprised by the Yamaha specifications... In about 1 year I will move the main TV to the bedroom and buy a new TV for the living room, as the 40" is too small for my thinking and then I have to consider which soundbar or maybe sound-system I should buy.