Sound Bar Recommendation

Soldato
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I've recently started using my bedroom 42" TV more now for movies and now the addition of a PS4 I'll be gaming a lot on it.

I'm not looking for blitzingly incredible sound, and masses of wires and speakers all over the place, just something that sounds better than the pitiful TV speakers.

So a soundbar looks the way to go, never used one, budget of up to £100

Seen a few that come with a separate sub around the max of my budget so its actually possible to get some rumble which would be nice.

Cheers
 
Best recommendation I can give is to not buy one and to instead get a 2.0 or 2.1 passive set up. They just aren't that good, certainly not worth the premium in price vs a speaker set up. You could even go active speakers and then you'd have the same number of wires as with a soundbar and better sound quality.
 
Can be a bit confusing as where to post what. People ask about hi-fi speaker here, gaming speakers and headphones in home cinema section.

Nothing wrong with asking about soundbars here, it's just as it's usually a thing for home cinema setups, might get better responses there.

For gaming soundbars, there is the Razer Leviathan; but somewhat over budget at £160+. No idea what would be worth considering for £100.
 
Where my TV is located in my room, I have limited space to put anything else around it, that's why I'm imagining a sound bar to be the solution as it'll just sit underneath the TV.

If I was to put separate 2.0 speakers they would have to sit behind the TV as there is no more room on the platform the TV sits on.

There's a few Samsung bars with separate subs in a popular high street retailer for under £100 that's caught my eye, SAMSUNG HW-J355.

The room is not huge like a living room so I'm not after huge amounts of power. I'm led about 1.5m away from my TV so even something like that with a small sub should give me the enhanced sound with a bit of rumble I'm after.

If I want the real deal I'd take my PS4/Firestick/Stream PC to the downstairs TV which is sat on top of a Panasonic cabinet with 5 speakers and 2 subs build into the legs, sound and bass is fantastic for an ex display unit that only cost us £100ish
 
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I bought my Dad the Sony HT-CT180 soundbar for christmas and its totally rubbish so don't buy one those its no better than the built in speakers

no bass from the bass box .....I'm not being fussy or basshead.

tried moving the bass box around playing with the settings and still no good so I'm sending it back and hes keeping the built in speakers on the sony 55w905a

I have a sonos playbar in my bedroom it sounds ok but not as good as the reviews make out but much better than the rubbish sony I just got
 
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Yamaha - don't buy anything else.

Also Make sure you buy one of their YSP models, the YAS range is crap.

People who buy soundbars (like myself) do so because of space limitations not because they don't want a proper setup.

I have about 1cm of free space either side of my bedroom setup. The only solution is a soundbar nothing else will fit anywhere.

Yamaha are the rolls royce of soundbars but their budget ones won't blow you away.

I owned the YAS 101 and it was okay. Upgraded to the YSP 1400 and it's a lot better. Hopefully one day I'll upgrade again to something like the YSP 2500 or above.

I would try and buy the best yamaha soundbar you can afford. Best to look at avforums classifieds. I bought my YSP 1400 for the same price as my brand new YAS 101 and it's worth 3 times as much.
 
Not sure about writing the YAS range off entirely and saying they're crap. I've tested a YAS-105 and actually found it pretty decent if you're on a budget and need something extremely low profile. You're right though, if you can pick up a YSP at a good price, then I'd go for that for sure.
 
Not sure about writing the YAS range off entirely and saying they're crap. I've tested a YAS-105 and actually found it pretty decent if you're on a budget and need something extremely low profile. You're right though, if you can pick up a YSP at a good price, then I'd go for that for sure.

oh yeah the YAS range is good if your on a tight budget. it's better than other options in the same price range. it's just that you don't get anywhere near the sound quality of the YSP models they are a big step up.

having owned both. YSP all the way. it's worth saving up the extra for.
 
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