Upgrading soundbar, worth upgrading TV at same time?

Kemik · 23 May 2024 at 16:16

I currently have a 55" LG B7V and Yamaha YSP-2700 soundbar. It's in a 6x6m living room and I mainly stream TV and movies via AppleTV with some small amounts of gaming and sports.

The Yamaha is starting to get more frustrating so I'm looking to upgrade to the Samsung Q990C. I don't really need to change my TV right now but if there's special offers on...

TV wise it is between the 65" LG C3 and Samsung S90C. Would have the TV and soundbar the same brand help in any significant way with audio sync? Even between apps on the Apple TV I seem to have different sync issues - think it is the audio format disagreeing with the Yamaha. I was edging towards the LG but the Samsung would be £200 cheaper and it being the same brand in case there's any additional integration benefits.

Are these upgrades worth it? Will I notice a difference?

And the real one for debate - C3 or S90C?

R4z0r · 23 May 2024 at 21:42

C3 and S90C are both excellent, can’t really go wrong. I’d just go for whichever you can get the better price on.

55 to 65 will be a big difference, IMO.

I don’t know anything about soundbars really. I use Sonos and have been very happy with them.

Kenai · 24 May 2024 at 09:01

I don't know how prices compare generally elsewhere but Richer Sounds currently have £350 if you buy an S90C and Q990C together, making it £1878 for both.

hornetstinger · 24 May 2024 at 09:37

Why not add a decent speakers

SVS Prime 5.1 System with Yamaha RX-V4A AVR

Immersive 5.1 Surround Sound for the Price of a Soundbar Unleash home cinema surround sound in any small to medium size room with the compact and versatile Prime Satellite 5.1 Surround Sound System.Small Speakers, Huge SoundRedefining performance in the compact speaker category, SVS Prime...

yorkshireav.co.uk

In a couple of years you'll have the same issues with new soundbar. With that system when the AVR goes out of date (will probably take 15 years so upgrading is a must by then) then just change the AVR

Ayahuasca · 24 May 2024 at 12:12

9.3.4 system I reckon.

200sols · 24 May 2024 at 12:34

Just buy a cinema at this stage, its what hornetstinger did. (in his head).

hornetstinger · 24 May 2024 at 12:38

Ayahuasca said:
9.3.4 system I reckon.

Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 HCP 7.1.4 Speaker Package, Black at AV.com

www.av.com

That's still under 9.3.4 number of speakers so would add another £400 or so ontop. Plus need a AVR capable of 9.3.4, I don't think even Denon 6800 has enough channels?

Kenai · 24 May 2024 at 12:39

Another thread successfully **** on, barely half a dozen posts in

"Should I buy S90C or C3?"

bUy a MorE eXpeNsIvE AV sYstEm

:rolleyes:

hornetstinger · 24 May 2024 at 12:52

Also issue of relying on ARC/E-ARC.

hornetstinger · 24 May 2024 at 12:55

Kenai said:
Another thread successfully **** on, barely half a dozen posts in

"Should I buy S90C or C3?"

bUy a MorE eXpeNsIvE AV sYstEm

How's that E-ARC codec support ?

"The Samsung S90C supports all Dolby Digital options flawlessly. Unfortunately, it doesn't support DTS formats at all, which is disappointing, as many UHD Blu-rays use DTS for their lossless audio tracks.6 D"

absolute fail. Buy a soundbar with all the codecs, use E-ARC to gain ease of connection, and DTS doesn't work. What a joke.

Won't have that issue with AVR, as long as your source goes into the AVR first

Kenai · 24 May 2024 at 13:03

hornetstinger said:
How's that E-ARC codec support ?

The LG C3 is slightly better, as it supports DTS-HD Master 7.1 but I don't think the S90C does.

Not a major concern for someone looking to pair with a Q990C really I don't think.

hornetstinger · 24 May 2024 at 13:07

Kenai said:
The LG C3 is slightly better, as it supports DTS-HD Master 7.1 but I don't think the S90C does

Exactly. reason to go for the LG. Although I have had issues with E-ARC myself, with LG, unsure where the problem is, so have choice of falling back to devices through av pre amp.

With soundbar if it just has single E-ARC input, you are stuffed. Combination of HDMI inputs and E-ARC is ideal on soundbar, to get around any possible E-ARC sound issues, or PS5/Xbox VRR 4k 120hz etc if your soundbar HDMI in doesn't support that, so you do have to use E-ARC for those console devices.

Kenai · 24 May 2024 at 13:15

hornetstinger said:
Exactly.

A fantastic example of you missing the key parts of people's post in your increasingly tedious campaign to make everyone spend loads of money on AV systems they don't need or want.

Kemik said:
I mainly stream TV and movies via AppleTV with some small amounts of gaming and sports.

So you read this and fixate on whether eARC supports DTS, a format that last time I looked, AppleTV doesn't support in the first place anyway.

hornetstinger · 24 May 2024 at 13:20

so give up any dts content from any source? my god you lot make me laugh.

Kenai · 24 May 2024 at 13:22

hornetstinger said:
my god you lot make me laugh.

I wish we could all say the same about you, but you don't even manage that these days, it's just really really boring

Kemik · 24 May 2024 at 18:22

hornetstinger said:
Why not add a decent speakers

SVS Prime 5.1 System with Yamaha RX-V4A AVR

Immersive 5.1 Surround Sound for the Price of a Soundbar Unleash home cinema surround sound in any small to medium size room with the compact and versatile Prime Satellite 5.1 Surround Sound System.Small Speakers, Huge SoundRedefining performance in the compact speaker category, SVS Prime...

yorkshireav.co.uk

In a couple of years you'll have the same issues with new soundbar. With that system when the AVR goes out of date (will probably take 15 years so upgrading is a must by then) then just change the AVR

Don't you need to run wires everywhere? I don't need to do that with a soundbar. I don't want to have to hide speaker wire under carpet or round door frames. I used to have a more basic 5.1 system (certainly wasn't >£1k) but the wires really made things awkward. I'm not an audiophile so the soundbar was a good fix. Mainly to get better sound than the TV speakers.

Due to the way the wiring is done for my TV (through the wall), I tend to feed the source directly into the soundbar and then run the HDMI up to the TV from there. This will only fall over if I got more serious with gaming and needed higher refresh rate than the non-2.1 HDMI ports the soundbar will allow.

Although have I have drawers full of blu-rays, I haven't switched on the PS4 for agesss - just end up streaming instead. Previously had the Fire Stick 4K Max and now moved to Apple TV 4K.

MOOGLEYS · 8 Jun 2024 at 18:57

I have been looking at the Q990C it gets really good reviews and now the D variant is out it’s dropped in price a nice chunk.

Did you get one in the end ?

Simmz · 8 Jun 2024 at 19:34

hornetstinger said:
so give up any dts content from any source? my god you lot make me laugh.

Not on a Samsung 990C you wouldn't, you can just plug a Blu-ray player or whatever directly into the soundbar itself and get DTS that way. TV doesn't need to support it as you are by passing it.

Also, serious question, is there an actual reason why you can't post a picture of your system...? You're always quick to tell everyone to buy an AVR and speakers on threads like these but never respond when people ask why. I'm not flaming or having a go, would just be nice to know the actual reason rather than see the constant fairy tale posts go up.

Simmz · 8 Jun 2024 at 19:38

Kemik said:
Don't you need to run wires everywhere? I don't need to do that with a soundbar. I don't want to have to hide speaker wire under carpet or round door frames. I used to have a more basic 5.1 system (certainly wasn't >£1k) but the wires really made things awkward. I'm not an audiophile so the soundbar was a good fix. Mainly to get better sound than the TV speakers.

Due to the way the wiring is done for my TV (through the wall), I tend to feed the source directly into the soundbar and then run the HDMI up to the TV from there. This will only fall over if I got more serious with gaming and needed higher refresh rate than the non-2.1 HDMI ports the soundbar will allow.

Although have I have drawers full of blu-rays, I haven't switched on the PS4 for agesss - just end up streaming instead. Previously had the Fire Stick 4K Max and now moved to Apple TV 4K.

While it's very expensive with the subwoofer, the new Sony Bravia theatre quads are really decent. They've basically made it what the original should have been like, so much so that it can actually hold its own against some entry/mid range separates systems and I actually bought the system myself after having a demo of it.