Hey All,

My wife and I have been spending a lot of time in front of the TV lately, for obvious reasons. Both of us have been disappointed with our auditory experiences while watching TV/Movies, as, even with compression off, sometimes it's very hard to hear what people are saying when there's other sounds going on.

I've been thinking about getting a soundbar, as space is somewhat limited, and there's not any good way to do a full surround sound system that multiple people can get the full effect of (namely me, I sit in a chair in the back corner of the room. it's my spot. no I'm not opening to moving)

Soundbars have come quite a ways in recent years, it seems. I'd definitely like one that comes with a subwoofer (I have a place for that), and wouldn't be totally against rear speakers, it's just that one would be above my head, and the other way off to the left, about 12' away.

Anyway, I figured I'd poke my head in here and see if anyone has any good suggestions or experiences with soundbar systems. I've been looking at some of the Klipsch options, but it's been decades since I've been serious about any kind of home theater/home audio, and have no idea where to go from there.

Thanks!

DaiTengu

... An unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless.

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Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: DaiTengu to All on Wed Apr 08 2020 02:40 pm

Anyway, I figured I'd poke my head in here and see if anyone has any good suggestions or experiences with soundbar systems. I've been looking at some of the Klipsch options, but it's been decades since I've been serious about any kind of home theater/home audio, and have no idea where to go from there.

I'd do some research and look at reviews. We bought a soundbar a while ago for one of our TVs, and while it works decently well, the TV it's hooked up to has some odd behavior with it. The soundbar uses an optical cable, and the TV is a smart TV, but it's an older one, from around 2013, I think. We sometimes watch TV shows & movies with Plex, and with Plex, when we pause a video and then play it again, the TV keeps switching the optical output format, and the soundbar doesn't recognize the other format. I think the 2 options are Dolby and PCM, and I have to make sure the optical output format is set to PCM in order for there to be sound from the soundbar.

Nightfox

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Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: DaiTengu to All on Wed Apr 08 2020 14:40:12

Anyway, I figured I'd poke my head in here and see if anyone has any
good suggestions or experiences with soundbar systems. I've been
looking at some of the Klipsch options, but it's been decades since
I've been serious about any kind of home theater/home audio, and
have no idea where to go from there.

i have no experiance with sound bars but i have been using closed captioning for years... even with headphones... it isn't the best thing but it works for the most part...


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Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Rampage to DaiTengu on Wed Apr 08 2020 07:40 pm

i have no experiance with sound bars but i have been using closed captioning for years... even with headphones... it isn't the best thing but it works for the most part...

I miss too much with CC on. I wind up staring at nothing but the text. I might as well read a book, and have the audiobook play along with it.

DaiTengu

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DaiTengu wrote to Rampage <=-

Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Rampage to DaiTengu on Wed Apr 08 2020 07:40 pm

i have no experiance with sound bars but i have been using closed captioning for years... even with headphones... it isn't the best thing but it works for the most part...

I miss too much with CC on. I wind up staring at nothing but the
text. I might as well read a book, and have the audiobook play
along with it.

I have a Bose sound bar (w/ subwoofer) on one of my TV's, and it's
pretty nice. Lots of bass and volume if you want it. *MUCH*
better than the sound that comes from the TV normally. It uses an optical/fiber cable from the TV to the soundbar. Worth the cost.



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Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: DaiTengu to Rampage on Wed Apr 08 2020 11:23 pm

I miss too much with CC on. I wind up staring at nothing but the text. I

And I miss too much without CC on. lol


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Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Gamgee to DaiTengu on Thu Apr 09 2020 07:23 am

I have a Bose sound bar (w/ subwoofer) on one of my TV's, and it's
pretty nice. Lots of bass and volume if you want it. *MUCH*
better than the sound that comes from the TV normally. It uses an optical/fiber cable from the TV to the soundbar. Worth the cost.

Back when I sold A/V equipment (25 years ago!) Bose was the shit. The $2000 sound systems with the tiny cube speakers were mind-blowing. Now everything is that size, and I'd really kill to have some big 'ol speakers with 15" woofers in them, I just dont have the space or the money to invest in a full receiver/5+ speaker system.

DaiTengu

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Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Gamgee to DaiTengu on Thu Apr 09 2020 07:23 am

I have a Bose sound bar (w/ subwoofer) on one of my TV's, and it's
pretty nice. Lots of bass and volume if you want it. *MUCH*
better than the sound that comes from the TV normally. It uses an optical/fiber cable from the TV to the soundbar. Worth the cost.

I don't even know where the speakers are on TVs these days. There are no front-facing speakers or other visible speakers on TVs anymore, so I'm not sure where the sound comes from..

Nightfox

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DaiTengu wrote to Gamgee <=-

Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Gamgee to DaiTengu on Thu Apr 09 2020 07:23 am

I have a Bose sound bar (w/ subwoofer) on one of my TV's, and it's
pretty nice. Lots of bass and volume if you want it. *MUCH*
better than the sound that comes from the TV normally. It uses an optical/fiber cable from the TV to the soundbar. Worth the cost.

Back when I sold A/V equipment (25 years ago!) Bose was the
shit. The $2000 sound systems with the tiny cube speakers were mind-blowing. Now everything is that size, and I'd really kill
to have some big 'ol speakers with 15" woofers in them, I just
dont have the space or the money to invest in a full receiver/5+
speaker system.

Yeah, I've always liked Bose. I guess there is better stuff
available for the true "audiophile", but Bose seems just right for
me. I still have a pair of '901' speakers that I bought way back
in the very late 80's! (or maybe it was the early 90's, it's a
little fuzzy now...), and they are just awesome. Don't really
crank it up as much as I used to, but those speakers are hard to
beat in my book. They are "reflecting" speakers where most of the
sound goes out the back and is designed to be reflected back off
from the wall. Almost unbelieveable back in the day. :)



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Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: DaiTengu to Gamgee on Thu Apr 09 2020 11:53 am

is that size, and I'd really kill to have some big 'ol speakers with 15" woofers in them, I just dont have the space or the money to invest in a full receiver/5+ speaker system.

There's a great thift shop near me that's got collections of speakers with huge-ass woofers, cloth grilles and WOODEN ENCLOSURES. Had a reel-to-reel tape deck last time I was there, and a handful of old receivers with analog tuners.

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Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: poindexter FORTRAN to DaiTengu on Thu Apr 09 2020 03:43 pm

There's a great thift shop near me that's got collections of speakers with huge-ass woofers, cloth grilles and WOODEN ENCLOSURES. Had a reel-to-reel tape deck last time I was there, and a handful of old receivers with analog tuners.

There used to be a place like that around here, I stopped in a couple times, years ago and always meant to go back. Never did, and they shut down a year or so ago.

I do have an old Sony reel-to-reel tape deck somewhere. Or I did. I wonder if my wife threw it out...

DaiTengu

... Almost everything in life is easier to get into than out of.

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Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Gamgee to DaiTengu on Thu Apr 09 2020 03:28 pm

Yeah, I've always liked Bose. I guess there is better stuff
available for the true "audiophile", but Bose seems just right for
me. I still have a pair of '901' speakers that I bought way back
in the very late 80's! (or maybe it was the early 90's, it's a
little fuzzy now...), and they are just awesome. Don't really
crank it up as much as I used to, but those speakers are hard to
beat in my book. They are "reflecting" speakers where most of the
sound goes out the back and is designed to be reflected back off
from the wall. Almost unbelieveable back in the day. :)

Yep, those were some of the speakers I sold way back then.

I've been partial to Klipsch as of late. They seem to be pretty highly regarded.

DaiTengu

... I've always been a bit maturer that what I am.

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Nightfox wrote to Gamgee <=-

Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Gamgee to DaiTengu on Thu Apr 09 2020 07:23 am

I have a Bose sound bar (w/ subwoofer) on one of my TV's, and it's
pretty nice. Lots of bass and volume if you want it. *MUCH*
better than the sound that comes from the TV normally. It uses an optical/fiber cable from the TV to the soundbar. Worth the cost.

I don't even know where the speakers are on TVs these days.
There are no front-facing speakers or other visible speakers on
TVs anymore, so I'm not sure where the sound comes from..

They're hidden in the "frame", or facing out the back of the TV.
If you look closely you can usually find the "grill" covering
them. Most seem to be fairly decent, unless it's a noisy room and
then I often have trouble hearing them well.



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Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Gamgee to Nightfox on Thu Apr 09 2020 06:15 pm

I don't even know where the speakers are on TVs these days.
There are no front-facing speakers or other visible speakers on
TVs anymore, so I'm not sure where the sound comes from..

They're hidden in the "frame", or facing out the back of the TV.
If you look closely you can usually find the "grill" covering
them. Most seem to be fairly decent, unless it's a noisy room and
then I often have trouble hearing them well.

Facing the back? I'd think that would be the wrong direction for speakers on a TV..

Nightfox

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Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Gamgee to Nightfox on Thu Apr 09 2020 18:15:00

I don't even know where the speakers are on TVs these days.
There are no front-facing speakers or other visible speakers on
TVs anymore, so I'm not sure where the sound comes from..

Gamgee> They're hidden in the "frame", or facing out the back of the TV.
Gamgee> If you look closely you can usually find the "grill" covering
Gamgee> them. Most seem to be fairly decent, unless it's a noisy room
Gamgee> and then I often have trouble hearing them well.

trivia tidbit: they're being pointed out the back to take advantage of reflection bouncing off the walls al la bose speakers... they're missing the tuned sound tubes that bose has/had, though ;)


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Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Rampage to Gamgee on Fri Apr 10 2020 09:52 am

trivia tidbit: they're being pointed out the back to take advantage of reflection bouncing off the walls al la bose speakers... they're missing the tuned sound tubes that bose has/had, though ;)

I did a little reading yesterday. Apparently you can get "upward firing" speakers that are designed to bounce sound off the ceiling for a Dolby Atmos setup, as opposed to mounting speakers in the ceiling.

DaiTengu

... Don't jump on a man unless he's down.

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Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Nightfox to Gamgee on Thu Apr 09 2020 12:41 pm

I don't even know where the speakers are on TVs these days. There are no front-facing speakers or other visible speakers on TVs anymore, so I'm not sure where the sound comes from..

I hate these flat screens. I can't hear a thing unless I have it blasting. Without CC I'd be in deep shit. Head phones are an option but then they blast the commericials which ruins the entire experience all together. Thank goodness for Netflix on the PC! ;-)



HusTler@havens.synchro.net
Proud operator Synchronet BBS

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Nightfox wrote to Gamgee <=-

Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Gamgee to Nightfox on Thu Apr 09 2020 06:15 pm

I don't even know where the speakers are on TVs these days.
There are no front-facing speakers or other visible speakers on
TVs anymore, so I'm not sure where the sound comes from..

They're hidden in the "frame", or facing out the back of the TV.
If you look closely you can usually find the "grill" covering
them. Most seem to be fairly decent, unless it's a noisy room and
then I often have trouble hearing them well.

Facing the back? I'd think that would be the wrong direction for
speakers on a TV..

Some TVs have that, and some face the front. The rear-facing ones
are designed to have the sound reflected back from a wall behind
the TV. They actually work pretty well.



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Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: HusTler to Nightfox on Fri Apr 10 2020 10:15 am

I don't even know where the speakers are on TVs these days. There are
no front-facing speakers or other visible speakers on TVs anymore, so
I'm not sure where the sound comes from..

I hate these flat screens. I can't hear a thing unless I have it blasting. Without CC I'd be in deep shit. Head phones are an option but then they blast the commericials which ruins the entire experience all together. Thank goodness for Netflix on the PC! ;-)

If you get a sound bar or sound system to connect to your TV with a good set of forward-facing speakers, that can help..

Nightfox

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Re: Re: Home Theater Audo suggestions
By: Gamgee to Nightfox on Fri Apr 10 2020 06:41 pm

Facing the back? I'd think that would be the wrong direction for
speakers on a TV..

Some TVs have that, and some face the front. The rear-facing ones
are designed to have the sound reflected back from a wall behind
the TV. They actually work pretty well.

I suppose most of the time you'd have the TV close to a wall, so it works out okay. We do at home for our living room TV, and generally we can hear the TV.

Nightfox

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