Spec me a sound bar

CorrectHorseBattery said:
Do you folks find the voices still sound like they're coming convincingly from the TV/TV area when using a soundbar?

I've always had this issue with the speakers I've got at my parents where female voices in particular don't really sound like they're coming from the actors' mouths. I tried to do a lot of tweaking and positioning over the years but just learned to live with it.
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Not had that personally are the speakers a pair without centre channel ? Having a dedicated centre channel in most soundbars would help I imagine.
 
I've recently purchased the Samsung Q990F. Having come from a full separates system (which is being moved into a dedicated home cinema room), I was really impressed with the sound it can produce.

I definitely noticed the disembodied voices though and this was down to the sound modes. Anything other than "Standard" for stereo up-mixes the vocals to all speakers, which in my opinion sounds awful.

The speaker levels also needed tweaking, rear speakers down and centre speaker up. This helps to increase vocal clarity without applying equaliser tweaks, which tend to cause other problems.
 
matgsi said:
I've recently purchased the Samsung Q990F. Having come from a full separates system (which is being moved into a dedicated home cinema room), I was really impressed with the sound it can produce.

I definitely noticed the disembodied voices though and this was down to the sound modes. Anything other than "Standard" for stereo up-mixes the vocals to all speakers, which in my opinion sounds awful.

The speaker levels also needed tweaking, rear speakers down and centre speaker up. This helps to increase vocal clarity without applying equaliser tweaks, which tend to cause other problems.
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I thought you needed adaptive to use all of the speakers?
 
For a stereo signal, standard appears to use the soundbar and sub only, no rear speakers. For 5.1 upwards, it uses all speakers. This is what should happen.

Adaptive will upmix to use all speakers from a stereo signal, but I find it introduces weird effects, voices from rear speakers when it should be coming from the front etc.
 
matgsi said:
For a stereo signal, standard appears to use the soundbar and sub only, no rear speakers. For 5.1 upwards, it uses all speakers. This is what should happen.

Adaptive will upmix to use all speakers from a stereo signal, but I find it introduces weird effects, voices from rear speakers when it should be coming from the front etc.
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I wonder if has Dolby bug like Denon avrs that was similar problem.

My old AV pre surround decoding was fantastic mono soundtrack from a oldmovie yet effects was coming from rears when needed.
 
It could be. My Yamaha A3080 can upmix a stereo signal perfectly without any weird artifacts.

The Mrs has just put Phil Spencer New Zealand's Best Homes recording on the Sky box and the rear speakers are working very well, assuming it's a 5.1 soundtrack.
 
matgsi said:
It could be. My Yamaha A3080 can upmix a stereo signal perfectly without any weird artifacts.

The Mrs has just put Phil Spencer New Zealand's Best Homes recording on the Sky box and the rear speakers are working very well, assuming it's a 5.1 soundtrack.
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I think the bug was with DD material then upscaled and voice from rears. People said using pcm the upscaling that was better...it shouldn't be

Not sure if was ever fixed as sounded like a Dolby DSU bug
 
Aah OK, that could well be the case then.

I've only had it installed a couple of weeks, so still have further learning/fiddling to do!
 
CorrectHorseBattery said:
How are you finding it otherwise? I’m hovering over the buy but so far am waiting for the price to come down.
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From a sound point of view, I'm impressed and that's coming from a full 5.1.2 separates system. It can certainly fill the room and the sub is very impressive for it's size.

Had a moment a few days ago when the sub kept disconnecting, but this was fixed with a power cycle on the main soundbar and has been fine since.

I got it from Richer Sounds for £899, which is a good chunk off the RRP.
 
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matgsi said:
From a sound point of view, I'm impressed and that's coming from a full 5.1.2 separates system. It can certainly fill the room and the sub is very impressive for it's size.

Had a moment a few days ago when the sub kept disconnecting, but this was fixed with a power cycle on the main soundbar and has been fine since.

I got it from Richer Sounds for £899, which is a good chunk off the RRP.
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Do you find the Atmos effect convincing?

My experience is of a 5.1 system but quite a few years old now and no Atmos.
 
Upfiring Atmos will never sound as good as dedicated ceiling speakers. I also have a beamed ceiling so the effect will be compromised. Having said that, it does still give a convincing sound bubble and I can definitely hear sounds from above.

I find Atmos in general an incremental improvement on 5.1, not the massive leap I remember when I went from stereo to 5.1. Given the choice, I would still choose Atmos over a standard 5.1 setup.

What system was the 5.1 you experienced, was it a soundbar or separates?
 
matgsi said:
Upfiring Atmos will never sound as good as dedicated ceiling speakers. I also have a beamed ceiling so the effect will be compromised. Having said that, it does still give a convincing sound bubble and I can definitely hear sounds from above.

I find Atmos in general an incremental improvement on 5.1, not the massive leap I remember when I went from stereo to 5.1. Given the choice, I would still choose Atmos over a standard 5.1 setup.

What system was the 5.1 you experienced, was it a soundbar or separates?
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Yeah my brother has upfirer speakers and they're not great probably doesn't help he's got a low ceiling


I'm using bookshelf speakers mounted on the wall and they work pretty well, ceiling is high so I get the effect
 
matgsi said:
Upfiring Atmos will never sound as good as dedicated ceiling speakers. I also have a beamed ceiling so the effect will be compromised. Having said that, it does still give a convincing sound bubble and I can definitely hear sounds from above.

I find Atmos in general an incremental improvement on 5.1, not the massive leap I remember when I went from stereo to 5.1. Given the choice, I would still choose Atmos over a standard 5.1 setup.

What system was the 5.1 you experienced, was it a soundbar or separates?
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Separates, it's a Monitor Audio MASS system.
 
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