New soundbar from B&W that’s only slightly more expensive than the Sonos Arc (although it does include a wall bracket, which I had to spend $80 on for the Arc). I bet it sounds amazing. It has a built-in subwoofer, so probably not a good choice if you live in an apt or condo.
Bowers & Wilkins announces its first Dolby Atmos soundbar - The Verge
Bowers & Wilkins says the Panorama 3 was tuned by the same engineering team as the loudspeakers at the iconic Abbey Road Studios.
I’m sure it has nice woofers built-in but you can’t change the laws of physics, it can’t sound like a real subwoofer.
I really like Sonos. It’s overpriced like Apple, but also like Apple once you get their stuff you realize it’s just extremely pleasant to use. If I was going to get a new soundbar, I’d definitely get an Arc or Beam gen2.
Upgraded my bedroom setup (Arc + Sonos One x 2) by adding in the Sonos subwoofer. The sound in my bed room is better than my Samsung setup in the ‘main area’. Really can’t say enough good things about an Arc setup for gaming and movies. Like @stusser said, it’s like Apple. The shit all just works and is very pleasant to use. Meanwhile, said Samsung soundbar downstairs turns itself off after 5 minutes with no audio (like, when you pause) and drives me nuts all of the time.
Thinking of that Ikea Sonos speaker for the PC - for gaming. Does it show as a device when I click on the volume icon in Windows task bar? Anyone have this setup?
The Symphonik Wifi speaker? You can’t use that as a PC speaker. No line in and any jerryrig wireless streaming from your PC would have audio lag.
I’m currently connecting my PC to the Echo Show via Bluetooth (*) and can play games and watch movie without lag. It’s pretty good actually. That’s why I’m thinking of upgrading it to this Sonos but, it does not seem to have Bluetooth and just wifi - so, I’m not sure how that will work for the PC.
(*) my built in speaker on the LG ultra wide is not working, and I don’t have any other speakers, so the Echo Show will do.
Bluetooth works fine, but I don’t believe that Sonos has bluetooth.
What’s better to connect a soundbar, HDMI or the optical thingie?
HDMI supports newer high-res audio standards (e.g. Dolby TrueHD) that optical does not, so I’d just use HDMI.
Roger thanks. So should i loop the xbox through it then?
Yeah, connect your XBOX to your TV and your soundbar also to your TV - one/some/all of the HDMI ports on the TV should be marked as eARC and you basically want to plug your soundbar into one of those.
NB: Older TVs may not have an eARC port. Previously there was ARC, which was the same concept but older and not as good, and if you don’t even have ARC you’re probably forced into using optical after all.
My TV only has two ports, one has the Xbox, the other the chromecast. But the soundbar has two HDMI ports too, or maybe three… Its documentation was quite unclear on what to do with them.
Ah, sorry, not sure - mine only has the one, so simple not even I can screw it up! What’s the make/model though? Might be info online about doing what you want?
Use whichever port supports earc so you can control volume with the TV remote
Hi Folks!
My sister-in-law just emailed me a soundbar question and I don’t know what to tell her. So I figured I would come consult with the panel of Qt3 experts. Here’s what she wrote:
Dad emailed saying they want to get a soundbar because they keep having to turn their TV up. I’d suggested this from the get-go when we ordered the TV for them, but he initially thought the audio was just fine. When we watched the new West Side Story during our visit it was a lot of distorted bass…
So the ones we are finding initially on Amazon seem to require Bluetooth, and his TV doesn’t have that - it’s gotta be HDMI. Surely there’s something out there, but thought you might have more experience with these anyway.
Dad’s TV is this one, a Samsung 40-inch LED. It’s a smart TV but is not connected to internet/wifi (you probably know why…).
Any suggestions from the hive-mind?? Muchos thankus!
While a lot of Soundbars offer Bluetooth connectivity, they tend to connect via HDMI. I have something like this:
The dad’s TV has an HDMI port (HDMI1) w/ an ARC label. Just connect the soundbar to that ARC HDMI port, and that’s about it! The TV volume will then control the soundbar using the old TV remote.
If that feels like overkill for your dad, Vizio makes a whole range of soundbars, including one that’s just the center/left/right channel and it’s pretty cheap. Any of their soundbars will provide a much-improved listening experience to his TV’s speakers.
Thank you both! I’ll recommend a Vizio.
Anyone notice if any good atmos sound bars are on sale during amazon’s prime sale thing?
The Sony ones are discounted a little, but I’m not sure it’s because of prime day.