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Samsung Soundbar Sound Advice
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I replaced my old Samsung 2:1 system with a soundbar recently. I have noticed a marked difference in bass and low end power, and in actual fact it seems like the new system cannot take much bass at all.
The 2:1 system was a sub and two satellites. The treble was always average but it had surprising low end power and grunt, DVD's were quite impressive although my Humax sounded shocking. The Humax was connected via phono leads and the DVD via HDMI. There was a massive difference between the two. It only lasted 4 years and then died a death. The system incporporated a DVD player within it allowing these two seperate connections.
I just bought a new Samsung Soundbar to replace it, it comes with a near identical sub to the old system. I also bought a seperate LG DVD and Blue Ray player. Soundbar is connected to my TV this time by a single headphone jack. It has much better treble and mid range sound via the Humax bringing it up to how I would have like it to sound ages ago. Although the DVD / Blue Ray sound is also good, I am finding no matter which system I use, a marked decrease in bass and low end performance. It goes further than that though - anything with big boomy low end sound gets lost and all you hear is a decrease in mids and high's but no bass, as if the system is trying to play the low ends but unable to do so. Nothing is distorting, it is just not coming through at all. For example I watched Olympus Has Fallen yesterday, and parts where the plane flies overhead the Whitehouse, explosions, they all sound ok, but there is a complete lack of vibration and presence, all you get is strained mid range. You even get what seems like a decrease in overall volume where the bass is taking over the sound stream and the system cannot play it out over the high's.
My other half had no idea, as I suspect most people would not, and in fact complained it was all to loud, but that's no surprise. However it is a completely different sound experience than before, which puzzles me as I have replaced one sub for another which seems like for like in appearance and connection. Overall the system sounds good, but it is missing a lot of low end impact and precision.
I wondered whether the headphone jack connection could be the cause? However I have no other way at all to connect. The headphone jack is the ONLY sound out from my TV and the DVD /Blue Ray player has ONLY 1 output of a single HDMI.
Thoughts?
The 2:1 system was a sub and two satellites. The treble was always average but it had surprising low end power and grunt, DVD's were quite impressive although my Humax sounded shocking. The Humax was connected via phono leads and the DVD via HDMI. There was a massive difference between the two. It only lasted 4 years and then died a death. The system incporporated a DVD player within it allowing these two seperate connections.
I just bought a new Samsung Soundbar to replace it, it comes with a near identical sub to the old system. I also bought a seperate LG DVD and Blue Ray player. Soundbar is connected to my TV this time by a single headphone jack. It has much better treble and mid range sound via the Humax bringing it up to how I would have like it to sound ages ago. Although the DVD / Blue Ray sound is also good, I am finding no matter which system I use, a marked decrease in bass and low end performance. It goes further than that though - anything with big boomy low end sound gets lost and all you hear is a decrease in mids and high's but no bass, as if the system is trying to play the low ends but unable to do so. Nothing is distorting, it is just not coming through at all. For example I watched Olympus Has Fallen yesterday, and parts where the plane flies overhead the Whitehouse, explosions, they all sound ok, but there is a complete lack of vibration and presence, all you get is strained mid range. You even get what seems like a decrease in overall volume where the bass is taking over the sound stream and the system cannot play it out over the high's.
My other half had no idea, as I suspect most people would not, and in fact complained it was all to loud, but that's no surprise. However it is a completely different sound experience than before, which puzzles me as I have replaced one sub for another which seems like for like in appearance and connection. Overall the system sounds good, but it is missing a lot of low end impact and precision.
I wondered whether the headphone jack connection could be the cause? However I have no other way at all to connect. The headphone jack is the ONLY sound out from my TV and the DVD /Blue Ray player has ONLY 1 output of a single HDMI.
Thoughts?
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At a rough guess I would say the sub is not working. Or is not connected to the main soundbar properly. But knowing what device we are talking about would help.
By the way there is no e in Blu-Ray
I cannot emphasis enough that is connected properly, and it is working. You cannot connect it incorrectly, it is the standard Samsung only "single socket" insert that simply goes from the soundbar to the subwoofer. You can adjust the Bass and the Subwoofer level on the bar, which I have done placing both up to max and then just below max. You can hear the bass level change, but when bass and woofer are set to maximum, the bass power is as I would expect most other systems to sound like with the settings turned down.
I am just about to go and bluetooth a youtube bass tester on the soundbar to get a definitve answer, something I haven't done yet. Will post back in a minute.
No way of testing it via HDMI on something like a monitor or friends TV?? I would say it is a fair chance your means of connecting it is hindering the performance of the soundbar.
Have you tried plugging the optical out of the Blu-Ray player into the optical in of the sound bar to see how that performs?
Interestingly, I just tested it using various bass testers via Bluetooth. Even from the mobile phone I used to test it, the sub is clearly working and can obviously be quite potent when asked to be, which is surprising. This has led me to now wonder whether this is something to do with the film, perhaps it is just not a film with great deep impact sounds. Furthermore maybe it is my basic LG Blu-Ray / DVD player's internal amplifier at fault.
Or maybe I am just thinking too much about it. I only paid £130 for the soundbar, and as a bit of an audiophile I was surprised as I have had much better sounding setup's before. Plus it doesnt help I usually listen to a Bose Companion 3 system via my desktop which fills the lower ground of our house, and there's not much improving on the quality of low end from it's acoustimass module.
Hi Chris - yes it def has bluetooth I just used it. Must be the 355 = http://www.johnlewis.com/samsung-hw-h355-2-1-bluetooth-sound-bar-with-subwoofer/p1337342?kpid=233234581&s_kenid=1900a7db-aa28-5349-fac5-000030b38107&s_kwcid=402x34191&tmad=c&tmcampid=73&kpid=233234581
The Blu Ray player only has 1 HDMI output, no optica and in fact no other options whatsover other than a USB port input at the front.
You do know that Bose is an acronym for Buy Other Sound Equipment?
Try listening to a bluray as a test.
Is there any such thing? - mostly the sub is just fed the bass content from all the other channels, no matter how many.
The LFE channel is discrete - it delivers low frequency information ranging from 3-120Hz.
If you have no sub the information from the .1 channel gets down mixed to how ever many channels being used, and only those set to large. The .1 channel is not mixed from other channels.
As I understand it the 'capability' is there for a discrete channel, but it's rarely used as such because there's rarely any reason or point in doing so - this is why it's .1 rather than a full number.
It's called the .1 channel because it's not a full bandwidth channel (3-120Hz). The full numbers refer to full bandwidth channels (20Hz-20kHz).
I can assure you the .1 channel is used, my sub is capable of 12Hz and there are plenty of soundtracks where it let's me know it.
I think it's a combination of both. The LFE channel is used for low frequency effects (hence the name) and this is as you say severely bandwidth limited hence the .1. However the sub woofer will also be used for the low frequencies of the other channels combined, the cut off frequency at which they will go to the sub or the other speakers can be configurable in the amp to match the speakers.
I'm not absolutely sure why you need an LFE channel as the low frequency information could be carried on the "normal" channels. I would guess it something to do with compression efficiency and/or the very low frequency but high volume information "messing" with the normal audio information. However whether it would be needed in theory doesn't alter the fact it is used as you say.
If its using the TV headphone socket will it not be affected by the base/treble setting from the TV?
Yes it will - although it's most likely to have the bass boosted, in order to try and help compensate for the poor speakers in the TV.
My guess would be along those lines too - mixing the additional bass information from the LFE channel to the main channels could well have an adverse affect on the overall results due to their complexity, they are the most challenging sounds to reproduce, must be easier/simpler to do this via a dedicated channel.
Incredible what frequencies can be reproduced if you have capable equipment, for example, Captain America The Winter Soldier has frequencies as low as 6db, lots of 12Hz and strong 20Hz content.