The old Man is looking around at sound bars and has asked me for some input. I know squat about them so I figured I'd ask here. His budget is up to £250. Are there any features which are a must. His to is a Panasonic plasma if it makes any difference

 

I'd never use one myself (amp and separate speakers all the way for me), but if I was shopping for one in that budget I'd probably end up getting one of these two:
http://www.richersounds.com/product/...0/yama-ysp1400
http://www.richersounds.com/product/...ama-yas105-blk

If it's not obvious, I'm a big fan of Yamaha AV gear. It sounds great, easy to setup, and the stuff I've owned has always been very durable (spare room has an AV receiver and speakers that must be easily 15 years old, and still work faultlessly).

 

I bought an OrbitSound one from Currys last year after the Mrs decided Cola was the best way to dispose of the old Panasonic surround sound.

I went with an open mind (my only criteria was a sub-woofer really). Salesman did the patter and pushed the OrbitSound onto me. I was in a decent mood so I humoured him, but in fairness when set up and out on it was brilliant. The bar has 7 speakers inside in total with these weird side woofer things, which to my ears makes the sound seem like surround sound but without the million speakers dotted about the room.

The woofer is good too, ask the scumbag c*nts next door when I have the football on

Ah, found it: http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-...35937-pdt.html

 

I agree with mark...amp and separate speakers all the way can't be beat...But saying that it all depends on room size,a Soundbar is good for a small room or perfect for a bedroom,those Yamaha sound bars are quite good and replicate a OK 5.1 experience,just don't expect the full surround sound experience.SJ.

 

http://www.richersounds.com/products...5c64d493ad39#1

I'd go for one of these 2 personally, we've got the previous incarnation and it sounds superb.

 

I bought a Sony HT-NT3 last weekend. I can't be bothered with separates and setting up half a dozen speakers around the room. I'm not a home cinema aficionado but still appreciate decent sound to acompany any terestrial and dvd movies and this system, for my ears, sounds just fine to me. It's also a mutli-room system and also bought the Sony SRS-X88 wireless speaker so can stream music around the house, works well with AirPlay and Bluetooth.

 

ARC is a nice feature on some soundbars, it meant I could ditch an optical cable and 1 HDMI.

 

As above; if the TV supports ARC over HDMI (audio return channel), then it becomes a two wire solution ( power and HDMI cable), also if the bar and TV support HDMI-CEC then you won't need an additional remote to control the power and volume. (HDMI-CEC also known as Viera link, Simplink, Bravia link, RI link etc. ).

Unfortunately due to the ambiguity between manufacturers, you may not know if it'll work properly until either someone with the exact same model TV and bar report that it works, or you try it yourself; so keep that returns receipt handy

 

+1 on the whole business of getting ARC to work. Friend at work spent literally months faffing around with his after getting a new TV and soundbar (neither of them bottom of the range tat, far from it), with multiple engineer visits to his house from the manufacturers of both items trying to figure out why they wouldn't play together, and in the end just had to bite the bullet and swap out for a different model. Honestly can't see the point myself, if you can just use a single co-ax or optical spdif cable instead. Guaranteed 100% compatibility, without any of the hassle.

 

The main point really is being able to use a single remote control, and turning on the TV turns on everything else, as does turning it off.

I've had Panasonic TVs working with Sony and Onkyo amps, and Sony with Onkyo, but LG with Sony; nope, well sort of; Have to turn the amp on first then turn on Tv go in via Simplink menu and select home theatre. Then it all works fine, until you turn it off and it forgets everything, so you have to do it all again ( two remotes, power on each unit individually etc.). The same Sony amp works fine with a Pansonic plasma.

An alternate route is a sound bar with a self learning remote function; permanently mute the TVs speakers (most have an option to do this), then teach the sound bar to respond to the tv remote's power and volume commands. Seems ok on paper, not tried it myself though.

 

Bought a Samsung 8500 last night and its a bit hit and miss with the Sony Soundbar ARC, it seems to change settings every so often. It is nice though when 1 remote does it all and you can ditch a couple of wires.

 

I don't think it would be the end of the world to him if he needs to use a second remote.
He just wants something which will sit tidy infront of his tv and provide better sound than the crap tv speakers.
He mainly watches DTV but does have Virgin too. Am I right to assume if he uses the tv's optical output, he will get sound from the DTV as well as the Virgin. The Virgin is HDMi'd to the tv so I assume that the optical cable will send that to the soundbar?

 

The optical out on the TV will send audio to the soundbar according to whatever is being watched on the TV. If you connect the sound bar via HTMI, then the sound will still play from the source (eg, the Sky box) even if the TV is off.

 

The Sonos soundbar has very good reviews and is connected via optical output. However if you want true Dolby 5.1 surround sound with speakers at the rear too, optical output from the TV won't do this.

 

If it helps, i just picked one of these up and it is pretty good for the money:


Had a separate system before, obviously you trade in surround sound etc, but does look a lot neater.

 

Bit of a contradiction in terms, isn't it, if we're talking about soundbars?

 

After much test driving around a few shops we selected this. Lots of depth and crystal clear all from a very tidy unit. Works well with his tv remote too

While I'm on - are Curry's in LG's back pocket? We went in two of their shops to speak to their "experts" who both raved about LG soundbars which sounded crap.

Was also quite disappointed with Richer Sounds whose "expert" was clueless. We almost went for a Cambridge item but was happy to put in a little more legwork to test drive the Samsung at a Curry's before buying it from Crampton And Moore for under £300

 

It depends if in the future the OP's Father wants to extend the system by adding rear speakers? I don't have Sonos wireless speakers but I've done a lot of research on them as I'm extremely tempted. The reviews are absolutely outstanding and it's a premium product. The downside is the cost. £1.2k for soundbar and sub. Also, regarding what I said in October when I made that post, upon further research, higher range Samsung and Sony TV's will actually transmit digit Dolby 5.1 through the optical output (which is what the Sonos soundbar is connected to) therefor you will get a true 5.1 wireless home cinema setup, plus all the other benefits of Sonos such as multiroom music setups and all that. I'm very tempted but it's pricy, plus I need a new Sony 4K 65" TV first anyway. But for now, I'm making do with my old Panasonic and inbuilt speakers .

 

Our samsung sound bar is great. Bluetooth and sound quality is spot on. Our tv is samsung also as i was advised same brand works best together.

 

The Old Boy was prepared to use a separate remote if he had to. In fairness, it's no big deal. Once you have set the desired volume level then you don't touch it again

 

I 2nd that a few friends have commented on how good are Samsung sounds specially the sub, and not big money either

Far better then the lg we did have.

 

Just listened to the LG in Curry's and was very disappointed. Will pop back and have a listen to the Samsung. I want to run our TV (when we get it) through our amp. and floorstanders, but the missus wants the TV in the corner.

 

LG are always overhyped. Take OLED for example "the future of TV" it can't handle motion and production costs are insane. An LG rep once told me the Army ship them over to soldiers as they are the most responsive tv`s for Call of duty, wrong person to talk to about gaming sets.

 

Get any Yamaha one I have the ysp 400 they don't make it anymore but it sounds good, and I also have a pioneer massive amp running 7.2 and 2 rel subs....sound bars have Less wires wife friendly and sound pretty damn good lol

 

I have the OrbitSound as well, is pretty impressive for the money, have a Sonos system was was tempted to get one of their soundbars but don't tend to listen to music in the living room, so seemed little point, although you can pair them with a couple of Sonos ones for surround sound, but the ones are not great quality sound imho.

 

I've got a LG sound bar connected to our LG plasma, it has a separate 300w wireless subwoofer.

The sound quality is IMO outstanding, we have a 6m x 6m living area and it will shake the room on even a modest volume level.

I'm sure there is better but for £200 ish im very pleased.

 

We sampled various LGs up to one which was £380. The base element sounded ok, but the mids and treble were very empty and tinny sounding.
I did expect better as my own (granted its a 5.1) system is a 7 year old LG which was only £300
I'd be interest to see how an up to date 5.1 system would sound

 

Fair enough, mate, perhaps the shop didn't have this one set-up properly.