I recently purchased a Goodmans GDSBT150OP soundbar and subwoofer package from Tesco Direct. It is a 60 watt sound bar with a 90 watt sub. The soundbar is a very decent size and seems to sound pretty good for the price (£39). The included sub seems like a piece of junk.
To be fair, the sub appears to work and does seem to add a bit of something to the sound, as the soundbar sounds a bit 'thin' without it, but it has a stupidly over sensitive auto standby mode, which cannot be disabled and causes it to go into standby near constantly on quiet sections of a TV programme, film or when pausing a game. The going into standby itself is fair enough, but when it detects an audio signal again and comes on again it makes a loud popping sound, it really makes me jump, and the constant on/off power cycling cannot be good for the electronics, which lets face it, probably aren't great to begin with. My unit could be faulty, but as other people have reported similar issues, I suspect it is simply really bad design.
I'm reasonably happy with the soundbar itself and do have a decent separate active sub from a previous sound system I was hoping may be compatible? My sub is a Yamaha SW-P130. It is only rated at 60 watts compared to the 80 watts of the Goodmans, though I would be VERY surprised if it's output was actually lower, as the Goodmans one looks like a small toy by comparison.
The sub outrput on the soundbar is a regular phono output just like from a receiver/amplifier so I could physically connect my Yamaha to it no problem, I just wanted to first check if doing so would be safe? or would it be likely to damage the soundbar or sub?
Any advice really appreciated.
To be fair, the sub appears to work and does seem to add a bit of something to the sound, as the soundbar sounds a bit 'thin' without it, but it has a stupidly over sensitive auto standby mode, which cannot be disabled and causes it to go into standby near constantly on quiet sections of a TV programme, film or when pausing a game. The going into standby itself is fair enough, but when it detects an audio signal again and comes on again it makes a loud popping sound, it really makes me jump, and the constant on/off power cycling cannot be good for the electronics, which lets face it, probably aren't great to begin with. My unit could be faulty, but as other people have reported similar issues, I suspect it is simply really bad design.
I'm reasonably happy with the soundbar itself and do have a decent separate active sub from a previous sound system I was hoping may be compatible? My sub is a Yamaha SW-P130. It is only rated at 60 watts compared to the 80 watts of the Goodmans, though I would be VERY surprised if it's output was actually lower, as the Goodmans one looks like a small toy by comparison.
The sub outrput on the soundbar is a regular phono output just like from a receiver/amplifier so I could physically connect my Yamaha to it no problem, I just wanted to first check if doing so would be safe? or would it be likely to damage the soundbar or sub?
Any advice really appreciated.