Sound Bar

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dochielomn
Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2013 9:16 am

Sound Bar

Post by dochielomn »

Anyone have any experience with buying a soundbar for speaker system? Currently, I'm looking at something like a soundbar with wireless speakers (or mainly a wireless subwoofer that some speakers can connect to). A friend of mine is suggesting the Vizio s4251w-b4 5.1. Just curious if anyone here has any recommendations or input. Thanks.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Sound Bar

Post by Adam »

I have the Vizio SB3821-C6.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SMBG8QY/

Our living room is pretty narrow, so we don't need a lot of sound energy to fill it. The audio quality is good for the small room, but not overpowering. It does some fancy sound stuff so the sound stage feels wider than it should for the size. I'm sure a sound bar plus satellite speakers would sound even bigger. We've had zero issues with ours.
dochielomn
Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2013 9:16 am

Re: Sound Bar

Post by dochielomn »

Ok, so typing this out so it will make sense to me and I can make the proper decision/choice. Currently, the way my AV system is set up is a PVR, TV, DVD player, Roku (which connects to the TV via HDMI), a VCR player, and my desktop all send audio to the receiver and the receiver sends out the signals to the speakers. If I get a soundbar and using the soundbar to replace all of the speakers, then in theory I would need an audio out coming from the receiver into the sound bar, correct? It's either that, or I would need to re-route everything into the soundbar and only use the receiver to handle changing the video aspect of things? Or am I completely cutting out the receiver and could just re-wire everything into the TV directly to handle the video aspect of things (assuming the tv has enough inputs to handle everything)?
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Sound Bar

Post by Adam »

Yes, you could do any of those things. What audio outputs does your receiver have?

My sound bar has RCA analog input plus digital inputs via SPDIF and optical. I am using the TV as the sound distribution source so analog and HDMI into the TV and optical audio out to the sound bar. The TV has a setting to disable the internal speakers, so I've done that.

The model I have also has Bluetooth for maximum features.
dochielomn
Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2013 9:16 am

Re: Sound Bar

Post by dochielomn »

My receiver is an Onkyo HT-S790. It has 3 digital in optical and 1 digital in coax. It also has a CD analog in, Tape In/Out analog in. My TV is a Toshiba 42HL167. It has 3 HDMI inputs, 2 component video/audio inputs, digital audio out, and 2 composite video/audio inputs.

So, I'd think that ultimately, I could cut the receiver out of the equation if the ultimately other devices will have to directly connect to it in order for me to use it for sound and then use the TV for the video switching. I don't see an audio out on the receiver so I don't think I can use the receiver for sound anymore.

Receiver- http://www.intl.onkyo.com/downloads/man ... nual_e.pdf

TV- http://static.highspeedbackbone.net/pdf ... Manual.pdf
dochielomn
Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2013 9:16 am

Re: Sound Bar

Post by dochielomn »

And just finishing off this particular topic. I got the sound bar and connected everything up this past weekend. For the most part, all the video and audio is being sent to the TV and then the TV sends out the audio to the sound bar. The 2 exceptions I have are the DVD player connect to the sound bar directly via a digital coax cable and my desktop sends analog audio to the sound bar. Just had to tell the remote that change the inputs on the sound bar as required.
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