Our old Samsung TV died so we picked up an on offer Sony Bravia.  Only way I can get it to talk to our very cheap Samsung soundbar is via an aux/analogue connection (No HDMI, won’t recognise BT connection).

We’ve been thinking about a soundbar for this room for a while. Have nothing to integrate it with. Would like to play Spotify etc and have a decent TV sound experience. Quite a big room but can’t be bothered with external 5:1 wired speakers etc.

SO soundbar or soundbar + subwoofer. Max spend would be the Sonos Beam at £369. For that price there seems to be loads of choice including Sony ones. We’d be connecting with HDMI probably through the (single) ARC port.

Much difference or just buy what’s on offer at around that price? Ta.

I have a Q-Acoustics which is great. Parents have the Samsung one that matches the TV they have with a sub, also sounds fine. Both around £200.

With Spotify, you have a couple of options. Your TV prob has a Spotify app, or Bluetooth from your phone/tablet. A Sonos is slightly easier for this as it’s on WiFi, but unless you’re planning on getting other Sonos stuff prob not worth the extra cost IMO.

A Sonos is slightly easier for this as it’s on WiFi, but unless you’re planning on getting other Sonos stuff prob not worth the extra cost IMO.

Thanks. That’s what we’re thinking. Not sure we’d be buying lots of other Sonos stuff. I can connect my phone to our current Samsung soundbar and that works fine, so wouldn’t be an issue to keep doing that. Don’t really think we want a smart speaker so as you say not worth the cost.

I saw that Q-Acoustics on a couple of review sites. It was on my list as was:

https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/gbr/en/products/speakers/tv5-v2 and

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07B9QRNVF?tag=georiot-trd-21&th=1&psc=1&ascsubtag=whathifi-gb-1191458695166808000-21

The second one (LG) as it’s half price so ticked the ‘potential bargain’ box!

Or to stick with all Sony and buy into the ‘ATMOS” marketing nonsense

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/dvd-blu-ray-and-home-cinema/home-cinema-systems-and-sound-bars/sony-ht-x8500-2-1-all-in-one-sound-bar-with-dolby-atmos-10191275-pdt.html

For Spotify, look for one with Spotify connect as this will allow it to stream music directly from the internet, rather than relying on Bluetooth etc. Yamaha offer this as do a lot of other makes, giving you a light version of Sonos without buying into their eco system.

Got one of these and love it, sound quality is head and shoulders above every other soundbar I listened to at the time last year. No doubt sounds better with a sub but would need to be a really big room to really require it as bass is very impressive as is

https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/samsung-hw-ms650-soundbar

SO soundbar or soundbar + subwoofer.

Get a sub. Those dinosaur steps in Jurassic Park are never the same without one.

We have a sub on out current cheapo one. I see most of those recommended seem to have the sub in the main unit.

thanks for the advice so far

No doubt sounds better with a sub but would need to be a really big room to really require it as bass is very impressive as is

does it have the “cinema sound” though that makes everything rumble like the Jurassic Park example above?! 🦖💦👣

We bought a beam

Within weeks we had a couple of the little ones for side fill, I really want a sub but dont want to pay the cost of that……………..

Very much enjoy the experience

Having said that I still have my 10 year old yamaha bar in the man cave which is great too

I had the original Sonos playbar bit sold it as it was quite wide and wouldn’t fit on our TV unit.

Now have a beam and think it sounds much better and also looks better. I tried loads of bars as it had to replace a dedicated surround set up and the Sonos gear is head and shoulders above anything else I demonstrated for the money.

So I bought the Sonos Beam after reading lots of reviews. I knew it would be a bit different to the Samsung as it weighed about three times as much.

Not sure what kind of elven magic is going on, but the quality and the, er, direction of the sound are top notch. Watched a couple of movies since and it’s a big upgrade. Also lifts the dialogue a bit which is good if you’re getting a bit cloth eared like me 😉

Also good for music. Well after I wrested control back from Google assistant. Having TV with chromecast, Sonos with Chromecast, everything with airplay, it all gets a bit confusing.

Anyway very happy with the purchase and our lad is happy his PS4 games now have a bit more sound uuumph now we’ve attached the old soundbar to that TV.

Nice…

the issue with new flat TVs is that you simply can’t ‘magic’s good sound from them!

I used to have q acoustic bt3 speakers with a q acoustic sub with my tv… was lovely..
then I upgraded to kef lsx speakers (with the sub).. sounds absolutely stunning.. really pleased…

the sonos stuff is cool too..B.I.L had the whole set.. but vv pricey!

DrP

Yeah it’s a ton of cash. I won’t be buying the rest of the 5:1 set! Still I promised to be dragged along to Ikea to sort out no.2 offpsring year 2 living at Uni needs, so I might buy a couple of https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/symfonisk-wifi-bookshelf-speaker-black-80357557/ those.

I did look at stand up speakers etc but it was all going to involve cables and faffery and I’m just too lazy to sort that stuff out. One HDMI connection and then it’s all done on the app.

The sound from the TV without the soundbar was definitely as poor as we’d read it would be. We did have a max budget for TV+Soundbar based on that.