Sound Bar or Surround Sound speakers

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Peter the Great

01-02-2013

Originally Posted by chrisjr:
“Any half way decent AV amp will allow you to adjust the volume of the centre speaker, where the majority of the dialogue is mixed to, separately to the other speakers.

On my Onkyo amp it is a couple of button presses to get this adjustment up so I can crank the centre speaker up to 11 to hear the dialogue and keep the effects at a civilised volume. It also has what it calls Dynamic Volume, (what I would call a Compressor), which is pretty effective at reducing the dynamic range so the difference between dialogue and effects is not so pronounced.

And it is nothing at all to do with having a full AV system or a soundbar. If the dialogue is mixed low and the effects high it will be like that regardless of what you are listening to. Unless the disk player is downmixing the sound track to stereo for the soundbar and boosts the centre channel level.”

My Sony AV receiver also has the auto volume feature which is useful but it doesn't work on HD Audio formats.
Last edited by Peter the Great : 01-02-2013 at 14:15

bgtension

01-02-2013

How are all of these devices connected to the TV, via the headphone socket?

kramstan70

01-02-2013

Originally Posted by njp:
“I think you might mean sound waves!

I have to admit, that was the technology I thought all sound bars used, but I probably only ever looked at high-end ones.”

Yes I did- my mistake!. Common myth about how sound bars work. Yep, higher end ones will use this technique; others will use some sort of digital filtering.

kramstan70

01-02-2013

Originally Posted by grahamlthompson:
“You won't ever see the audience duck as the zeros in Pearl Harbour scream over your head in Pearl Harbour using a sound bar ”

Depends how good your sound bar is! The Yamaha sound bar I have (YSP 2200) very much recreates what you are talking about. Ok, admittedly it can't compete with a high end discrete 5.1 or 7.1 set up, but it comes damn close for the money and convenience and ease of use for every day living.

kramstan70

01-02-2013

Originally Posted by bgtension:
“How are all of these devices connected to the TV, via the headphone socket?”

What- sound bars?

njp

01-02-2013

Originally Posted by bgtension:
“How are all of these devices connected to the TV, via the headphone socket?”

It might be possible, but it would be a fairly bad idea. Some of the circuitry in headphone outputs is quite cheap and nasty. Much better to go with an optical output, or line level audio output, or whatever else your TV offers and the soundbar can accept.

With my AV amp, I no longer even have an audio connection from the TV, because I found I never used it. I watch everything via my DVR, and that plugs into the amp via HDMI, and then to the TV. The way it's set up, on the rare occasions I don't switch the amp on, the sound gets passed through to the TV along with the video, otherwise the TV sound is automatically muted (simply because the amp doesn't pass it through).

bobcar

01-02-2013

Originally Posted by grahamlthompson:
“
You won't ever see the audience duck as the zeros in Pearl Harbour scream over your head in Pearl Harbour using a sound bar”

Originally Posted by kramstan70:
“Depends how good your sound bar is! The Yamaha sound bar I have (YSP 2200) very much recreates what you are talking about. Ok, admittedly it can't compete with a high end discrete 5.1 or 7.1 set up, but it comes damn close for the money and convenience and ease of use for every day living.”

Yes on my Yamaha sound bar you can hear effects like a helicopter buzzing round your head, not as clear as separate speakers but it is there. The room does have to be right and you do have to sit in the right place (set up with a microphone).

phillees

02-02-2013

Totally agree, I have the 2200 too. Once set up correctly it's a quality bit of kit.

phillees

02-02-2013

Originally Posted by bobcar:
“Yes on my Yamaha sound bar you can hear effects like a helicopter buzzing round your head, not as clear as separate speakers but it is there. The room does have to be right and you do have to sit in the right place (set up with a microphone).”

Personally I achieved far better results doing a manual setup. It adds that little bit more direction and speaker placement.

kramstan70

06-02-2013

Originally Posted by phillees:
“Personally I achieved far better results doing a manual setup. It adds that little bit more direction and speaker placement.”

I totally agree. I used the mic set up to begin with and then used manual settings to tweak speaker placement etc. I'm really impressed with it- streets apart from the previous Yamaha soundbar I owned the YHT S400 ( which i was still happy with) and which used the digital filtering technology to produce quasi-surround sound. With the YSP 2200 you are getting the real deal and with no messy cabling to worry about!

bobcar

06-02-2013

Originally Posted by kramstan70:
“I totally agree. I used the mic set up to begin with and then used manual settings to tweak speaker placement etc.”

That's what I did, it's much easier to adjust it when it's almost correct.

DaddyKev

06-02-2013

Sound bar for me

Rest room sound bar Panasonic SC-HTB520 Speaker sys - home theatre - 2.1-CH

Living room sound bar Bose® Solo TV sound system

uk1

06-02-2013

I am thrilled to bits with my Microlab Solo6c.

A month or two to bed in but absolutely brilliant performance and value.

powar

06-02-2013

Yamaha YHT-401 for me. Delighted with it.

http://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/aud..._w/?mode=model

kramstan70

07-02-2013

Originally Posted by powar:
“Yamaha YHT-401 for me. Delighted with it.

http://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/aud..._w/?mode=model”

I had the YHT S400, the model that preceded the 401 and was happy with it. I think the only difference between the older and newer model is the addition of a USB connection for an iphone. In fact I've still got the old S400- just looking for a good home for it, since I upgraded to the YSP 2200. Excellent pieces of kit the S400 and 401 though.

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