Can anyone recommend me a soundbar/base??

hornetstinger · 27 Nov 2019 at 09:51

£400 can get you a good avr and stereo speakers.

Plus Sonos is limited to 65,000 tracks

StevieP · 27 Nov 2019 at 10:08

hornetstinger said:
£400 can get you a good avr and stereo speakers.

Plus Sonos is limited to 65,000 tracks

Can you recommend a setup of this type?

My main issue is space to be honest - I haven't really got the room for too much kit in my living room, which is why a soundbar is appealing.... and any track limit isn't a problem as it will be used almost exclusively for TV watching and gaming!

Royal Fleet · 27 Nov 2019 at 10:12

I have a Beam (but not connected another speaker).

Works great; sound great and has Alexa (or Google) built in. Integrates with my Smart home set up so when I say Alexa 'Goodnight' it turns off (along with all the lights) the TV.

hornetstinger · 27 Nov 2019 at 10:12

£150 yamah avr and wharfedale diamon 9.0 then 10" sw150 sub.

Much better sound more connectivity, redundancy failure, upgrade and add speakers and sub at will

Squink · 27 Nov 2019 at 10:30

StevieP said:
My main issue is space to be honest - I haven't really got the room for too much kit in my living room, which is why a soundbar is appealing.... and any track limit isn't a problem as it will be used almost exclusively for TV watching and gaming!

If you want a soundbar, get a soundbar and don't be badgered into AVR + Speakers. A decent soundbar will sound fine and it'll fit in neatly with your room and look acceptable. If you want an AVR, you still need to spend lots of money to get gut-rumbling base and perfect speech reproduction, plus you have a dirty great AVR box to stare at and plenty of wires to deal with.

hornetstinger · 27 Nov 2019 at 10:39

mulpsmebeauty said:
If you want a soundbar, get a soundbar and don't be badgered into AVR + Speakers. A decent soundbar will sound fine and it'll fit in neatly with your room and look acceptable. If you want an AVR, you still need to spend lots of money to get gut-rumbling base and perfect speech reproduction, plus you have a dirty great AVR box to stare at and plenty of wires to deal with.

Also avrs have radioactive elements in them and you get instant cancer and death.

Jeez

200sols · 27 Nov 2019 at 10:43

mulpsmebeauty said:
If you want an AVR, you still need to spend lots of money to get gut-rumbling base and perfect speech reproduction.

Same applies to a soundbar, apart from gut rumbling bass, soundbars simply cant do it.

StevieP · 27 Nov 2019 at 11:06

I'm really not fussed which way to go as long as it sounds good and doesn't take up a huge amount of space!

The reason I'm leaning towards the Sonos is because it will fit nicely in front of my TV without obscuring anything and having listened to my mate's, it sounds pretty good to my ears! ("gut rumbling" sound isn't really what I'm aiming for - just looking to improve upon the standard TV sound with some decent sound)

If I can add a further speaker in the future that will connect wirelessly and sit on a shelf behind the sofa then this should be good too!

hornetstinger · 27 Nov 2019 at 11:07

I've got a arcam alpha 9 faulty but cheap. When using a regular input left channel Crackles but if you use tape input, it's fine, and volume control works. So it's a single input integrated amp. That will trounce all other soundbar amps

It's 75w per channel.

hornetstinger · 27 Nov 2019 at 11:18

Just seen pair of wharfedale diamond 9.1 for £50 with cosmetic damage

You have to be nuts to get soundbar over that, those speakers plus my amp total £100. And will destroy and £1500 sound bar

Lol

Squink · 27 Nov 2019 at 11:31

hornetstinger said:
You have to be nuts to get soundbar over that

Unless you are limited by space/don't want the wires/want something that looks neater/simply want better sound than a TV without getting into the whole hi-fi enthusiast thing.

StevieP · 27 Nov 2019 at 11:51

mulpsmebeauty said:
Unless you are limited by space/don't want the wires/want something that looks neater/simply want better sound than a TV without getting into the whole hi-fi enthusiast thing.

This is very much me.

Psycho Sonny · 27 Nov 2019 at 16:23

hornetstinger said:
Just seen pair of wharfedale diamond 9.1 for £50 with cosmetic damage

You have to be nuts to get soundbar over that, those speakers plus my amp total £100. And will destroy and £1500 sound bar

Lol

step away from the crack pipe. have you ever heard a £1500 sound bar?

hornetstinger · 27 Nov 2019 at 18:46

Psycho Sonny said:
step away from the crack pipe. have you ever heard a £1500 sound bar?

Yeah do her sounds had a few going a customer trying each one.

Meh.

Also that system is one hundred pounds. Shoe me a soundbar that offers better sound, more power, better build, and upgradability, and standardized components.

hornetstinger · 27 Nov 2019 at 18:56

Or what about wharfedale diamond 9.0 for £30 and a t amp?

Again better than soundbar, and standard parts
Don't like the amp, want more power? Get a ATI 6002. Add a sub? No problem use high level? Want JBL pro cinema speakers that are the size of a double wardrobe? No problem.

Velco the t amp behind the TV, one run of cables. Sorted. For £50-£70.

HRL · 28 Nov 2019 at 18:01

StevieP said:
This is very much me.

Beam would be ideal for you, and adding smaller Sonos speakers to it is a walk in the park.

Sure it’s not audiophile grade but it’s a million times better than the TV speakers and it can rumble surprisingly well for its size. I had to turn the bass levels down on mine.

StevieP · 28 Nov 2019 at 19:12

Update on this - I decided to go for the Beam, picked it up today and so far I'm extremely impressed!

I can't hand on heart say it's worth 4 times the cost of my trusty old Maxell soundbase (circa £90 when new many, many years ago) in terms of quality but I always felt the Maxell punched waaaaay above it's weight both in terms of quality and features for the money!

On the whole though, the Sonos looks to be the business and I can add on other speakers as and when required which might be nice!

Thanks for all the suggestions guys!