When watching TV or using a streaming service to provide your content, you always want to make sure that you get the best sound quality for you listening experience. Having one of the best soundbars will be huge upgrade over the built TV audio capabilities, such as achieving a high quality audio system that can provide you sound profiles such as Dolby Atmos or DTS: X. Many TV speakers maty top out at stereo sound or Dolby Digital which won’t give you that surround sound experience that you would be able to get with an AV Receiver or a great soundbar.
Having that great surround sound system that will transform your living room into a home theater, not only ups the ante from TV sound, but also having surround speakers or, virtual speakers through a soundbar will provide you better sound for all your home entertainment from your TV. Let’s face it, after a long hard day at work and you are looking to watch some TV while relaxing in your living room, you will be looking for an audio experience that would wow even audiophiles, so having a soundbar or AV Receiver would provide high-end home audio, which really adds to the relaxation while watching a TV show on a streaming service such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services.
There is an array of the best soundbars from manufacturers like LG, Samsung, Klipsch, JBL ,Sony, and Vivitar. These soundbars will have a powerful center channel speaker for clear and precise dialogue reproduction and virtual rear speakers making an affordable great surround system. Therefore, you won’t have to compromise your audio experience, as with the latest and greatest soundbars, you get better Hi-Fi audio quality than TV speakers.
Benefits of a Soundbar
Audio Quality
When looking for a soundbar system for your new TV to enhance the audio experience you get while watching TV or gaming, your new soundbar should support the latest audio formats such as Dolby Atmos and/or DTS:X. These will give you immense immersive audio which basically turns your viewing area into a home theatre. So, your new soundbar will blow away the sound you get from built in TV speakers and give you amazing sounding speakers supporting the latest audio standards.
Even when listening to headphones connected to your soundbar via Bluetooth, if compatible you can get Dolby Atmos sound with head tracking from manufacturers like Apple and Sony. This will make you feel like you are part of the action in a movie or give you that wide soundstage when are listening to your favorite music.
Extend Your Soundbar
If you really want to utilize your soundbar as a home theater system, than you should look into a soundbar that comes with a wireless subwoofer to give you that punchy booming bass and rear speakers which could be bookshelf speakers transforming your front facing soundbar into a full on speaker system. This could mirror an AV Receiver system, which usually costs quite a bit more than a soundbar system.
Soundbar Tech and Connectivity
Its 2025 and we expect that not only would a new soundbar provide amazing audio quality, but would also serve as a smart soundbar. That would mean you can usually use a virtual assistant such as Amazon Alexa or Apple Siri to navigate sound profiles, volume control, content look up and more.
To utilize these services and basically turn your soundbar into an Alexa Dot or Apple Home, as with the included bluetooth technology when you pair your phone with your soundbar. Your soundbar should also come with Wi-Fi technology with a minimum standard of Wi-Fi 5, or Wi-Fi AC, so you can access the faster 5 Ghz wireless network. These specs can turn your flat screen TV into a wonderful home theater system.
When attaching your new soundbar to you TV via a wired connection, you should utilize the ARC or eARC capabilities with a 2.1 HDMI cable. Let’s take a moment to explain the benefits of ARC and the latest capability called eARC which is usually equipped on the main HDMI port on your new TV. Connecting your soundbar to your new TV via an HDMI cable through a port marked “ARC” or Audio Return Channel which lets sound go back and forth between your TV and soundbar. This enhances your audio experience as it will provide better sound quality with formats such as PCM, Dolby Digital and DTS virtual surround. This is a great upgrade over the sound quality that would be coming from your TV speakers.
Now with even newer technology, there have been upgrades over the standard ARC HDMI port on your soundbar or AV Receiver. Many of the best soundbars will now have eARC capability. eARC upgrades over the standard ARC port by providing an even lower latency between the soundbar and your flat screen, but it also provides audio quality that was mirrors the original content recording and gives your TV to now watch shows, movies and game in top notch surround formats such as Dolby Atmos and DTS: X. This will give you the virtual surround system that gets audio quality which can be close to a full AV Receiver even with height speakers.
You can even use your soundbar as an amplifier if with the larger extension on the 3.5mm audio jack which can usually be found on the rear of the soundbar, along with the eARC port, optical port and possible component connections.
In addition, if you are an Apple user and heavily vested in the iOS ecosystem, ensure that your new soundbar has Apple Airplay 2. This way you can play your enjoyable, relaxing or uplifting fun music from your smartphone directly from your soundbar.
Apps/Software
Finally, make sure that you download the companion app for your soundbar. Whether that be the Sony Sound Connect App, the Bose App or the Soundcore App for Anker products. These apps will give you an EQ with preloaded sound profiles, but with the ability for you to adjust the EQ yourself as a custom EQ setting. So, you can raise up that low end if you want that extra bass in your music. If you like punch bass Anker Soundcore products with their bass boost are a great option, however we prefer the Sony soundbar with ULT Bass speaker lineup, as it provides a wider soundstage which is more appealing to audiophiles.
Audio Angle
Just as an AV receiver would be set up underneath your new TV with wit’s wiring from there to the external speakers but you want the center channel speaker to be set up directly in front of you as this is the main speaker that provides dialogue and much of the action as well. Smart soundbars will usually have a set up where you can give the seated distance you are from the soundbar and will automatically adjust the sound profile from the soundbar and the wireless subwoofer to compensate for longer seated positions. Therefore, you will be still getting that immersive surround sound system with a soundbar.
Availability and Surround Benefits
Many manufacturers such as LG and Samsung offer some wonderful wireless soundbars with optional rear speakers and wireless subwoofer. So, you have a wonderful variety of soundbars that will provide 2.1 stereo sound all the way up to a 7.2.3 or even higher surround abilities of 9.2.3. Klipsch which is famous for its amazing sound reproduction in their headphones and speakers and some great options to choose from a smart soundbar with 2.1 channel stereo sound to one with a wireless subwoofer that offers Dolby Atmos and DTS:X with up firing speakers which act as the height surround speakers, letting your hear things like planes, helicopters and more over your head truly giving you better sound that is much more immersive than built in TV Speakers.
Let’s take a moment and explains what all this means and how it could affect your audio experience. When you have Dolby Atmos or DTS:X which are currently are the highest end surround sound standards. You can achieve immersive surround sound that puts you right into the action with sounds coming from your sides and above and feeling the rumbling of the action as it moves from speaker to speaker providing unreal surround sound.
Soundbar?
Yes, if you are shopping on a budget and can’t get a full-on AV receiver but won’t be satisfied with the audio experience you get from your TV’s built in speakers or want to get one of the best high end soundbars, there are a plethora of options to choose from. Ensure that any new soundbar you get has an eARC or ARC port and Wi-Fi and bluetooth.
Many of these great soundbars will emit sound effects from your remote to provide either haptic feedback directly on the remote and/or sound coming through the speaker so you can easily navigate the home screen on your TV and have one touch capability to change the audio profile from music to movie to casual listening.
To conclude, while not being able to provide exactly the surround sound audio experience of an AV receiver, they do a very good job of reproducing the sound with high quality that are a huge upgrade over the built-in TV speakers, without breaking the bank for a high-end AV Receiver.
So soundbars are great versatile audio listening devices which are worth purchasing.
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