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I purchased a fantastic sounding Polk 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound Bar by Polk Audio to go with a 55" Panasonic Plasma. The salesman said there has been anincrease in the number of HDTV owners turning to sound bars instead of complete 5.1 Home Theatre Systems, because of the cleaner look of soundbars and easier set-up, amongst other reasons.
I purchased a fantastic sounding Polk 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound Bar by Polk Audio to go with a 55" Panasonic Plasma. The salesman said there has been anincrease in the number of HDTV owners turning to sound bars instead of complete 5.1 Home Theatre Systems, because of the cleaner look of soundbars and easier set-up, amongst other reasons.
I think they are, at least for most "regular" people. Audiophiles who need the best or people who want to recapture the "cinema experience" 100% want the full-on surround sound. However, for people who just want better quality sound to go with their TV, sound bars offer that for way less money and complexity. Many flat screens have crappy built-in sound bars, so for people who just want more clarity/quality without feeling like they are in a THX commercial, a sound bar is perfect.
Foremost I think to most people is the ease with installing them. Most rooms are simply not conducive to a nice full 5.1 layout. You end up running cables, sticking speakers everywhere, etc. You either end up spending a lot of time and money or it ends up looking kind of crappy. Most people don't want a room that screams "this is where we watch movies" with speakers hanging off the wall and wires snaking under the rugs. With a sound bar, it simply goes in the space already dedicated to the TV and that's it, especially now that most sound bar woofers are wireless.
So between ease and cleanliness of installation, cost and the fact that most people just want sound that is "better" than what the TV has, not necessairly the "best you can buy", I'm not surprised at all that sound bars are as popular as they are. I'm personally considering one to go with our next TV over a larger setup.
I agree with NJGOAT. For the average users who want something that is affordable, simple, and sound better than a TV speaker will go with something simple and small and not intrusive like Sound Bar or even those famous tiny speakers from Bose. Not everyone have an extra room built and designated for only home theater use. Most people's tv are in living/family room and not everyone wants 5 ft, 6 ft tall floor standing speakers spread all through out their living/family room. It costs money to have those speaker wires professionally installed behind the wall.
Those who are serious about their home theater experience and are willing to spend their money and are willing to live with those speakers all over their room; there is no comparison.
As the quality of internal TV speakers have dropped, the quality of sound bars have grown exponentially. It's quality has grown so much that I completely removed my Onkyo TX-SR308 AV receiver and associated speakers and replaced it with a Yamaha YAS101 sound bar.
If you want actual theater-like surround sound, there's no substitute for a decent surround system with at least 5 speakers and a subwoofer.
That said, I think sound bars have become popular along with flat screen TVs. Most flat-screen TVs don't have very good sound compared to a good quality tube TV. There's not enough room in a flat-screen's cabinet for nice, big-sounding speakers, so some people are looking for a simple, relatively inexpensive (compared to a full system) upgrade are opting for sound bars.
If you want actual theater-like surround sound, there's no substitute for a decent surround system with at least 5 speakers and a subwoofer.
That said, I think sound bars have become popular along with flat screen TVs. Most flat-screen TVs don't have very good sound compared to a good quality tube TV. There's not enough room in a flat-screen's cabinet for nice, big-sounding speakers, so some people are looking for a simple, relatively inexpensive (compared to a full system) upgrade are opting for sound bars.
That is one thing that ticks me off with a lot of the current flat screens out there. The goal is thinner, thinner, thinner in everything; but when it comes to speakers, there is a limit to how far you can go before losing significant quality. My Pioneer KURO plasma has good sounding speakers. They perform very similar to a mid-priced soundbar and can fill a room with sound. Of course, since the panel is relatively thick, they could put good speakers in. I've been TV shopping recently and even high end TV's have relatively crappy speakers. More mainstream/budget options pretty much guarantee that you are getting crappy speakers. I'm personally surprised that no manufacturer has gone with a thicker than necessary cabinet to integrate good speakers.
To some extent yes, for many reasons, including those posted already.
Far more people are more interested in content rather than performance. Consider the use of crappy MP3s through $3 earbuds. People watching blockbuster movies on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. If you asked 100 people randomly, 80 of them would tell you that the $399 "home theater system" they bought from Target is amazing. They have no idea that there are better options. When soundbars started becoming more popular, many people found that to be an even better way to have something that "works great" and not have to run any wires.
The presence of better surround systems has dropped considerably for a variety of reasons. Specialty A/V retailers took a major hit in the last ~5-6 years, so to much of the buying public, Best Buy is as good as it gets. I certainly wouldn't count on a true theater experience in most of their stores. Web searches for home theater bring up thousands of HTIBs before anything performance oriented comes up.
Consider this line:
A complete setup, inclusive of a branded 50-inch LED TV and Blu-ray player, can set you back just US$1,800.
$1800 does not in any way get into custom home theater level, especially when the 50" and Bluray player are included. That leaves less than $1000 for the entire audio setup, which as the article states is the cost of a better HTIB or soundbar. The article contradicts itself, but most people will take away that $1800 is what a custom home theater setup costs.
Misinformation comes into play. There is the old "watts" issues, where more watts is better, supposedly. Few people have any idea what that means, but it's still promoted as a reason to buy. I still see actual surround systems that are so poorly set up or utilized that to their owners, a sound bar might actually sound better. A 300 watt soundbar looks like a great deal.
I still see actual surround systems that are so poorly set up or utilized that to their owners, a sound bar might actually sound better. A 300 watt soundbar looks like a great deal.
I have a 350 watt sound bar and it puts out more than enough sound to fill a 19x20 family room. IMHO, a top quality 5.1 dolby digital capable sound bar with either a built-in or external subwoofer is more than adequate for 90% of family rooms. For most people I've known, their 5.1 Theater Systems were overkill for the size of their family rooms and sounded rediculously loud.
Last edited by dorado0359; 11-15-2013 at 11:12 PM..
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I have a 350 watt sound bar and it puts out more than enough sound to fill a 19x20 family room. IMHO, a top quality 5.1 dolby digital capable sound bar with either a built-in or external subwoofer is more than adequate for 90% of family rooms. For most people I've known, their 5.1 Theater Systems were overkill for the size of their family rooms and sounded rediculously loud.
Volume is easy and cheap. Clarity, not so much. People often turn their systems up because the poor clarity garbles the dialog and muffles the sound effects.
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Misinformation comes into play. There is the old "watts" issues, where more watts is better, supposedly. Few people have any idea what that means, but it's still promoted as a reason to buy. I still see actual surround systems that are so poorly set up or utilized that to their owners, a sound bar might actually sound better.....
Telling people they are misinformed without telling them WHY they are misinformed is misinformation. Here I'll start you off with a link related to Watts:
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