Soundbar vs Sound base, which is better?

Sadly, not everyone has the money or space to have a more traditional 5.1 speaker system with surround receiver for their home theater setup. For that matter a lot of people likely don't care. Today you have choices of many ways to make your TV sound better.

Soundbar with sub and surround speakers

What is a soundbar or sound base?

Basically a soundbar is a powered speaker. In most cases they are 2.1 speaker systems, meaning they have a left and right channel with a possible external bass speaker. Therefore the 1 in the 2.1. Though they leave out the center channel speaker where dialog usually comes from they often do a decent job of faking out your ears by using electronics to hear the stereo in a broader pattern and the voices dead center.

What is the difference between a sound bar and a sound base?

Typical soundbar without subwoffer

A soundbar is simply a bar with 2 or 3 channels of speakers in it that sits either in front of or mounted on the wall under your TV. They sometimes will have a subwoofer wired or wireless to add bass. Most sound bars need the subwoofer to produce reasonable movie theater bass since they are relatively small.

A Sound base has a wider, deeper box that sits "under" your television. One advantage is that it allows for a much larger cavity for an integrated bass speaker, eliminating the need for a separate subwoofer. Sound base's were originally popularized by ZVox but are now made by just about everyone.

Take a trip to your local big box or warehouse store to listen to a few of the soundbars and sound bases. Newer models sound remarkably good for casual movie watching.

Typical Sound base

Features to look for:

• 2.1 meaning they have integrated bass
• 3.1 meaning they also have a center channel in addition to a bass speaker
• Dolby
• Surround (usually electornically produced so you don't need additional speakers)
• Bluetooth to hook up your phone

Pricing usually runs between $70 and $400 an up depending on brand and overall quality. Caution on spending more than $400 on an item like this, the returns are diminishing. Once you get above this price point I'd steer you toward a full 5.2 or 7.1 speaker system with a receiver for a much better surround experience. 

Which is better? 

This depends on your specific needs and taste. If your TV is wall mounted a sound bar will almost always be the better choice. If your TV sits on a piece of furniture and you don't want something sitting in front of the TV than a sound base is an excellent choice and will offer great bass without the hassle of finding a home for a subwoofer. 

Soundbars for Surround Sound 2013

Sonos Takes on Soundbars

Sonos, the company best known for $300 - $500 connected home entertainment speakers based upon a wireless mesh network is entering the home theater speaker business with a new soundbar. If you consider that for $300 to $500 for a small but decent sounding tabletop speaker Sonos is a good deal next to most expensive iPod and docks and bluetooth speakers, you'd expect their soundbar to come in similarly priced. You'd be wrong.

The $699 soundbar

So yeah, $699 soundbars are not rare, there are quite a few that can't even do the other things the Sonos can do with it's optional $699 subwoofer, namely stream music all on it's own. But at a total of $1,400 that is a lot of change for a sound bar. 

We'll have to wait till March 5, 2013 to find out if it's worth it. As reviews come in we'll post some notable comments here.

SONOS PLAYBAR TV Soundbar and Wireless Speaker for Streaming Music

Yahama Receiver with Built in Subwoofer

Ok, this has to go down as one of the strangest ideas I've ever seen. This is Yamaha's answer to a really low space receiver/soundbar system.

The Yamaha YHT-S400BL has a subwoofer built into the receiver, and a very skinny soundbar.

Hight Ratings

Here's the weird thing. This unit gets 4 stars from Amazon buyers. I understand the convenience of not having to have a separate subwoofer on the floor somewhere, really I can. But the design has some real flaws when you stop and think about it.

• The electronic components will be subjected to constant shaking from the sub
• The receiver will likely be in a cabinet, which will also be shaken by the subwofer
• If there is a TV sitting on the cabinet then it too will be shaken by the subwoofer

None of these things should be shaking, especially the electronic components in the receiver. There is a good reason companies like Onkyo, Denon and Marantz spend so much effort on chassis and feet design on their receivers so they DON'T shake.

If you must have a system that takes up a little space, consider one of these. They do not include the receiver so no shaken electronics but they will still move the cabinet they are in.

• Panasonic SC-HTB10 120W 2.1-Channel Slim Sound Bar System with 3D Pass Through (Black)
• ZVOX 550HSD Low-Profile Single-Cabinet Surround Sound System with Optical and Coaxial Digital Inputs

Boston Acoustics vs Polk Entry Level Soundbars

 

Soundbars for bedroom or second room home theater setups are one of the fastest growing speaker categories. It's easy to see why. Why, here is a list.

• East to set up
• Take up little space
• Usually has a wireless subwoofer
• Much easier to use than complex AV receivers
• Relatively cheap
• Virtual Surround Sound has gotten much better (don't need rear speakers)

However some soundbars can be very expensive, upwards of $1,000. So we decided to highlight two entry level soundbars we believe will meet most folks needs from Boston Acoustics and Polk Audio.

Below is a table comparing the features of each. As you can see there is not much difference in the overall specs. In fact these two brands usually have a very similar sound profile as well. Both BA and Polk have solid industry reputations and should meet your small home theater needs for a long time.


Boston Acoustics TVee Model 25 2.1-Inch System with Sleek Sound Bar and Wireless Subwoofer (Black)


Polk Audio Surroundbar IHT 3000 Home Entertainment System (Black)

Main Features	Polk audio Surround bar IHT 3000	Boston Acoustics TVee Model 25
Wireless subwooer	Yes	Yes
Optical and analog inputs	YES with included optical cable	Yes
Virtual Digital Surround	Yes	Yes
Soundbar Product Dimensions	30.5 x 4.4 x 4 inches;	31.4 X 4.4 x 4.4 inches ;
Rear Speakers	No	No
Subwoofer Size	6.5” down firing	6.5” down firing
Watts	100 watts Soundbar 80 watts Subwoofer	150 watts total
Midrange	2X 6” full range	2 - 1.5X6” full range
Price	$349.95	$349.99

Both brands have several higher end soundbars that will also sound great and be more effective in larger rooms. You can search Amazon from the links below.

 Search Amazon.com for polk soundbars
Search Amazon.com for boston acoustics soundbars

Affordable Soundbars for Home Theater

 

Soundbars are popular for home theater because they don't require a lot of wiring or an advanced degree in electronics to operate. Generally a soundbar comes with one bar with a few midrange speakers, and a few tweeters. Better soundbars add some type of virtual surround sound. The best soundbars add the surround sound and a wireless subwoofer. What would be really nice would be a wireless subwoofer that also powers two surround speakers. Since subs can be almost anywhere in a room you could place the sub under an end table and run the surround speakers off of that. I've not seen this yet but it sure would be a great idea.

In the mean time here are some of the newest crop of Surround Soundbars on the market.

Boston TVEEM25  

The Boston Acoustics soundbar, TVee Model 25 is priced right at $349 with the newly added virtual surround. Their olderr Boston Acoustics TVee Model 20  was always highly rated on Amazon

Polk Audio Surroundbar IHT 6000 Instant Home Theater   
The Polk IHT 600 also adds virtual surround sound and the bar is only 2" deep to compliment today's slim TV designs. It comes in at $455.84. You can also consider the Polk Audio Surroundbar IHT 3000    which is only $324.99.


VIZIO VHT510 5.1 Surround Sound bar  
For those of you with Vizio TV's this soundbar is a bargain. It does have the surround speakers. It will likely work with any setup but the advantage here is that you'll only need one remote if you have a Vizio already.

Sony HT-CT350 Virtual 5.1 Sound Bar 
The Sony HT CT350 is a nice surround setup, though again with virtual surround. You will gain the benefits of one remote if your other gear is Sony but it is not necessary. It gets good reviews as well.

It is important to remember that virtual surround sound works best when there are only a couple of viewers and they are sitting next to each other in the sweet spot of the speakers. Since this method of surround sound is using audio gymnastics to deliver a enveloping experience it is not a true surround. That said, those of us who want a clean easy to use install, these surround soundbars offer a great alternative to lots of wiring and sometimes difficult to use AV Receivers.

New Harmon Kardon Sound bar with surround

Soundbars are getting more popular by the day. With more and more famlies owning multiple flat panel TV's the need to address the subpar sound that comes from them is increasingly important. Most recently Harman Kardon has entered the Sound bar market with the SB 16 featuring a wireless subwoofer and vitrual surround processing.The left and right speaker channel has two 3-inch midrange drivers and a 0.75-inch tweeter. The speakers are powered by a 2x25-watt amplifier rated at 20Hz to 20kHz onto 8 ohms with less than 0.07 percent THD with both channels driven simultaneously. The sound bar's connections are a stereo analog input for source one, and two input features both a coaxial digital input and an optical digital input, allowing for digital connection of two additional devices, like a Blu-ray player, set-top box or gaming machine. The sound bar doesn't incorporate Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1-channel decoders, it instead relies on a DSP to fool your ear into hearing the sound from somewhere the speakers are not.. The 10" subwoofer is a bass-reflex designand the driver is down firing.
Some reviews.
No Amazon review yet but they have the best descriptions and pictures.Harman Kardon SB16 Soundbar and Wireless 100 Watt Subwoofer (Black)
Audioholics
The SB 16 is very competitive in terms of its price point and design philosophy. The wireless sub is a plus and three inputs a definite bonus. The SB 16 seems to have it all from looks to features. What was more impressive is what they accomplished sonically.

Speaker Soundbars

What are speaker soundbars?

With the advent of flat panel TV’s; plasma & LCD, a new type of home theater loudspeaker has emerged. Speaker Soundbars can deliver 2,3 or 5 channel surround sound. Typically they position all three front channels, left center and right into one box. Speaker soundbars can be made of metal, molded plastic or even wood. They are usually flatter in depth then conventional speakers and almost always come with a way to attach the speaker to a wall. The advantage of the speaker soundbar is that it takes up less space and can usually blend into the décor.

Types of speaker soundbars

Passive speaker soundbars.
This type of soundbar includes 1 or several speakers for each of the front channels, left, center and right. There is a speaker connection for each channel on the back of the speaker. A passive soundbar speaker needs an amplifier or receiver since it has no built in power amps. The passive soundbar usually needs a surround receiver to produce the center channel results.

Picture of Boston Acoustics 2.1 Soundbar with subwoofer...no surround but a very neat wireless subwoofer at an attractive price.

Active speaker soundbars
Active speaker soundbars will have the same configuration as the passive soundbars but will include a built in amplifier and surround sound processer to separate the center channel sound. The advantage of an “active” soundbar is that it does not require a bulky amplifier to produce the basic front channels of surround sound. This can give you an incredibly clean Flat Panel (LCD) TV installation with the minimum of wires. Even though these speakers have surround amplifiers built into them they usually will not have outputs for rear channel surround.

Active speaker soundbars with DSP (Digital Signal Processing)
This is the most sophisticated type of soundbar speaker. Besides having 3 speakers and a 3 channel amplifier it includes a Digital Signal Processor. The DSP enables the soundbar to take the surround sound signal and create the illusion of rear and side surround sound WITHOUT the need for additional speakers! Some of these speaker do an incredible job of reproducing surround material.

Buying a speaker soundbar for a flat panel TV
Given that they are relatively new, prices for sound bars are all over the place. In general the passive soundbars are the cheapest, the active soundbars cost more and adding DSP will bring the price up even more.

All types of speaker soundbars could increase your enjoyment of watching TV with the addition of a center channel and the convenience of not having to fiddle with costly and often hard to use surround sound receivers.

Some resources for the newest soundbars
On-Wall Soundbars in TWICE Magizine
More on Soundbars

For Quality speakers at Half the Price visit The Speaker Company at http://www.thespeakercompany.com