Soundbars 2021

I’m happy with my Sonos beam. It’s small, unobtrusive, and sounds pretty good.

Typically, no. It isn’t really that different from going through a receiver. Some models of TV are actually known to introduce latency when using eARC instead.

Yes that’s possible. My crappy old TV doesn’t have that problem, but Sonos allows you to adjust the delay if yours does.

I have a Samsung soundbar, now paired with a TCL TV. The soundbar has a “wireless” sub and rear speakers. I’ve been pleased enough with the sound.

I have it connected to the TV via digital optical, 'cuz I’m old-school like that. No latency at all.

I’m still using this setup from 2015. Awesome sound. Subwoofer is wireless but needs power and the satellites connect and are powered from there.

https://support.vizio.com/s/article/S4251w-B4-Model-Information?language=en_US

I use the Optical out instead of HDMI to save an HDMI connection. I also use HDMI pigtails to connect more than four devices to the TV. Cable box, PS5, Switch, Wii U, TG-16 Mini, Analogue Super Nt/Mega Sg and I think that’s everything right now.

I have no latency with Optical. I probably won’t ever replace it unless it fails.

After moving to a soundbar I could never go back to a traditional setup as it’s so clean and simple. We have a Samsung soundbar without the rear surrounds and it sounds really really good. We have a tiny room that we use it in which I’m sure helps. Inputs hasn’t been an issue for me. I have a console and a roku connected to the tv and the tv to the soundbar with still and extra hdmi if I needed it.

Same, I ditched floor-standing discreets for a Samsung Soundbar with wireless Sub and rears (Q90R) and would do so again. So much cleaner looking, less cable management and sounds great. I do wish there was more flexibility to adjust the volume of the rears, since in my use case the Samsung config tool does not provide anywhere near enough control of volume, but that’s a knock against the model, not soundbars.

I do also have a pair of decent active monitors and separate sub specifically for listening to music (via vinyl, CD and streaming), but they are now bookshelves, rather than floorstanders and take up a more reasonable footprint.

I have an LG soundbar with the wireless sub and wireless rears and it’s awesome. The rears make a huge difference on surround immersion – the so-called Atmos from the front only was pretty meh.

I have a killer setup upstairs in the main media room with 7 Klispch speakers, whatever reasonably priced Sub AVSForum was recommending three years ago, and an Atmos receiver. THAT audio blows away any soundbar when you’re cranking things up and going for a home theater experience or wanting to play a game with immersive, loud volume. But at normal movie/TV watching/gaming mid-volume audio levels, the LG system sounds really good too.

But I wasn’t impressed with the LG until I added the wireless rears. Even though they’re tiny, weak speakers, the actual surround audio makes an enormous difference.

I have a 7.1 system that I’ve used since… 2006? It’s a Pioneer speaker set with Xbox 360 branding. Since moving in August I haven’t set it up, because I was bumming out on the wires and getting those speaker wire hiders again. Plus my new house is open concept so to hang the rear speakers I’m going to need tons of extra wire. I was looking to upgrade, since this unit is 15 years old anyway.

@Wallapuctus, yeah, a good soundbar with rear surrounds will likely be comparable to the Pioneer HTS-GS1, since that uses pretty small bookshelf-size speakers. And honestly, as I said, the surround/soundbar setup is pretty awesome as long as you don’t ever want things loud.

I have a Vizio Elevate with our projector and it’s a fantastic soundbar with one caveat. The subwoofer is kind of out of control. I have to keep it on the lowest setting and it still shakes the house. I believe it is a 8" sub and it’s wireless. The whole system is sweet when the ATMOS speakers swivel up and it really does create the feeling of overhead sound.

Wanted to thank everyone for the sound bar recommendations. I did end up buying the samsung setup. It is 500 off for black Friday if anyone is interested in it. I had to play with the settings quite a bit to get it to work correctly. Once I did it sounds good. There is distinct wrap around sound, so you do get that cinematic feel. Bass isn’t as good as what i am coming from, but it’s decent. For reference, I have a velodyne 10" 1000 watt sub. The samsung is an 8" 160 watt sub. It’s enough for explosions to have a nice rumble. Best part, no wires. the rears do need to be plugged into a wall socket.

I went with the Sonos Arc and I’m pretty happy with it so far (it replaced a Klipsch/Denon setup). I have a modern OLED TV that supports eArc, so the soundbar can handle Dolby Atmos. Movies on itunes and Disney+ look and sound fantastic. I’m going to mount the TV and soundbar on the wall and hide the cables inside the wall for a clean look. Black Friday sales made this a good time to order mounting kits.

The surround effect coming from the Arc is decent but I’m going to add Sonos surround speakers for that added immersion. I won’t bother with a sub-woofer since I live in a condo.

Sonos surrounds are super easy because everything is wifi-- no wires needed (other than power, obviously). I recommend the IKEA bookshelf Sonos speakers for surrounds, they sound great and are half the price of the One or One SL.

Ikea also has floor stands for $25 if you don’t want to mount to your wall and run wires down.

Oh that’s interesting. I assumed I had to stick to the Sonos brand for compatibility with the Arc. I already ordered the One SL’s, along with Sanus wall mounts and Echogear in-wall cabling kits. Again going for a clean look.

Those little IKEA speakers are Sonoses. Sonosii? Sonii? Anyway.

I use Play:1’s for my surrounds because I bought a couple years ago, but if I was buying today I’d get those little IKEA Sonos speakers.

Oh you’re right, I see the little Sonos tag now. That’s good to know for future reference.

SYMFONISK, went looking for them in my corner of Canada but my IKEA was sold out. $129 CAD. Less than half the price of a Sonos One $269 CAD.

They’re an outstanding value. I would certainly put two of those up against one of any other speaker, and they’re perfect for surrounds.

Huh, thanks for the pointer! I had no idea IKEA was selling these.