Time for a Soundbar

AsSiMiLaTeD

With the move coming up I'm going to replace the living room setup with a soundbar. We've got limited space in there and want to keep a simple setup. I'm looking to keep my sources (TiVo, Apple TV, BluRay Player) so I need a soundbar with multiple HDMI inputs, sound quality is also important, don't care about any streaming features. I don't want to spend a fortune on one, but am looking above the typical 'budget' options that are common these days.

I've been looking at the Definitive Technology W Studio and am leaning towards that option, seems to tick all my boxes though I have not heard one.

Can anyone make a compelling argument for another option, or give me suggestions of other options to look at under $1500 or so?

TIA

[Deleted User]

Danny,

For soundbar. Here is what I picked up not too long ago. I can't make a compelling argument but I can say it sounds good.

[Deleted User]

The soundbar is Jamo. I don't watch much TV but you will also have to consider Dolby Digital and DTS support. The Jamo only supports Dolby Digital.

I noticed my new phone also posted time and battery life but for the first time, I could say it is the nicest phone to date and no, those are old pics not taken from the new one. Haha

Halen

audiocr381ve

I tried the Martin Logan Vision ($1,500) and the Monitor Audio ASB-2 ($1,650) as well as auditioned all of the Def Tech stuff.

The Martin Logan Vision looked great and fit in our space really well. Dialogue was very easy to hear on this one. The night mode worked surprisingly well and we used it when the kids went to sleep. Bass wasn't tight but the sound was round enough not to need a subwoofer. Definitely good enough. Something sounded very artificial about it which is why I returned it to try the ASB-2. In hind sight, this was the better of the two and I would have been completely happy with it for two reasons. Number one being that we never strained to hear any dialogue and number two, it looked fantastic IMO.

The Monitor Audio ASB-2 was absolutely massive which is ultimately the reason why I ended up getting rid of it. I did measurements beforehand of course, but seeing the thing in real life changed my mind about it. Guests would comment on it and the wife hated it. It kicked out the bass surprisingly well, was extended, but it did lack refinement. Dialogue was always tough to hear.

I heard almost all of the Def Tech soundbars and none of them stood out to me. I demoed them in a Magnolia at Best Buy. I actually took notes on each one which I wish I still had to share with ya. IMO they all lacked extension and dynamics. Very flat sounding. But who knows, it could have worked very well in the home environment. I will say that the ML Vision smoked them in a side by side comparison.

Now I'm rocking the Pioneer SP-BS22-LR's with the matching center and getting a far superior sound far a lot less money. I'm using a couple of tiny Parasound Zamps ($100 each) to power them with the signal coming straight from my Oppo 103. I also have a small sub that I had laying around connected. But now I'm back to a full set up right?!

The sound I'm getting now is certainly better but again, I would have been completely happy with the ML Vision too.

AsSiMiLaTeD

halenhoang wrote: »

The soundbar is Jamo. I don't watch much TV but you will also have to consider Dolby Digital and DTS support. The Jamo only supports Dolby Digital.

I noticed my new phone also posted time and battery life but for the first time, I could say it is the nicest phone to date and no, those are old pics not taken from the new one. Haha

Halen

Did you pick up the Galaxy S6? Since I use an iPhone 6 Plus as my personal phone I elected to take the S6 as my new work phone. It's a fantastic device and to be honest is the first phone that has made me wish my iPhone was a better device and gives me a bit of 'gadget envy'. It's difficult to make the case against the Note 4 and S6 NOT being the two best phones on the market at this point in time, I'm especially jealous of their cameras over the two iPhones.

That being said, I do still prefer my iPhone but that's more because of services like iMessage, FaceTime, Find my Friends and Apple Pay and how well those are integrated into my daily life especially with almost all my friends and family being in that same ecosystem.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I'll

audiocr381ve wrote: »

I tried the Martin Logan Vision ($1,500) and the Monitor Audio ASB-2 ($1,650) as well as auditioned all of the Def Tech stuff.

Do you know which DefTech you listened to or how long ago this was? The Martin Logan lacks HDMI inputs (I think?) and that's kinda a deal breaker for me. I suppose I could use the inputs on my TV and use the optical out to the sound bar but not sure how good that signal coming out of the TV would be? I can say I'm definitely not a fan of the look of the Martin Logan, but it's not ugly enough to keep it out of contention so I'll have a look.

Jimbo18

Here's a new in the box Def Tech W Studio soundbar on the local CL for $850. Doesn't say if he will ship.

http://charlotte.craigslist.org/ele/5000601077.html

AsSiMiLaTeD

I stopped by Best Buy on the way home today and listened to the Martin Logan and the Definitive W Studio. It was basically a waste of time, the only thing they could play thru the Definitive was some stupid overview thing and the Martin must have had blown woofers or something because it sounded terrible and had really bloated bass.

I have a feelling I may have to buy a couple of these things and keep the one I like the most. Ultimately it's a sound bar and I shouldn't obsess over sound quality but if I'm gonna spend the money I may as well get the best one I can afford.

ken brydson

DSkip wrote: »

You know you're seeing Russ this weekend, right? IMO nobody else better to talk to about the bars than him.

Rooster knows his bars for sure...

[Deleted User]

DSkip wrote: »

You know you're seeing Russ this weekend, right? IMO nobody else better to talk to about the bars than him.

Russ was the one that pointed me to the Jamo. I did mess around with a few others, but for the money, the Jamo is really good and would have to spend easily over double to slightly sound better.

Danny. I picked up the S6 Edge and yes, for the first time, it is a solid Samsung. Glass,. Metal. Curve.... in platinum gold is insane sexy and sleek. Oh yes, the touch interface and android has come a long way. Camera, pixel density, I could go on and on. The battery could use a lot more juice but it is nice to have wireless charging.

Halen

AsSiMiLaTeD

The thing that gets me about the S6 every time I pick it up is that I'm reminded it's a Samsung because of the branding right there on the front. It's such a great looking phone otherwise, but I personally think the Samsung branding on the front looks tacky. I'm fine with the branding on the back because most people use a case and cover that up anyway, and I could care less if someone else knows what brand of phone I carry, I just don't want to be reminded of it every time I look at the screen. That would be like me wearing dress shoes to work that have 'Allen Edmonds' written across the front.

It's a minor thing I know, but that's the final 5% of the picture that Samsung has never really understood and probably never will. At this point their phone hardware is equal to or better than Apple in every single way, they just don't understand people or backend services very well. If they ever get those two nailed down then Apple better watch out because Samsung has a much more talented and smarter engineering team (IMO).

nspindel

Following this thread closely, I'm going to be in the market for a sound bar in a few months.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I picked up a couple models on the way home and have another coming in tomorrow, will compare and share my thoughts on a day or two.

AsSiMiLaTeD

After a good bit of testing I can say that I definitely prefer the MartinLogan Vision over the other options I'm trying. However, it does NOT have HDMI and getting it to work in my current system is a complete logistical nightmare. I need some kind of HDMI switch that will also give me surround audio over an optical toslink cable and the only one I'm finding is the overly expensive Octava. I'm trying to see if I can make it work somehow, but it's not looking promising.

rooftop59

Well it sounds like u know what u want and you're set on it. But I am curious why not something like a marantz nr slimline receiver and a small pair of bookshelves like the energy rc10s? Since you already have several components, you would only be adding one more dvr sized component and a small pair of speakers. Plus you would have the hdmi switching you want, and the sound quality would destroy whatever you're looking at. I just picked up an nr1403 which you can get refurb from a4less, and I and loving it so far. might be worth an audition. Just my 2 cents...

AsSiMiLaTeD

Speakers just won't work in this setup. If I've got room for even small bookshelf speakers then I've got room for towers, just not the case though. This is a space thing not a money thing, I could easily build a better sounding rig for half of what I paid for these sound bars.

I looked at those slimline models and if they had an optical output they would work great, I'd much rather pay more for one of those than the $250 I'm looking at for an HDMI switch with optical output.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Follow-up:

I didn't do an in depth comparison over the course of a couple weeks like I normally do, ultimately it's a sound bar and all sound bars are basically garbage when it comes to sound quality. I've already spent more time than soundbars deserve, but I'll post some thoughts here to wrap things up from my end.

I ended up testing the MartinLogan Vision, B&W Panorama, Definitive Technology W Studio, and the Sonos PLAYBAR in home, and I spent some time with a Yamaha YSP-4300 in the store. Many thanks to the guys in Magnolia at my Best Buy for allowing me the in-home demo and making the process easy for me.

Ultimately we kept the MartinLogan Vision as it had the best combination of build quality, connections and sound quality. I don't think you need to spend this much money on a soundbar to get something decent and the argument could easily be made that spending this kind of money on a soundbar is dumb when you could build a much better stereo setup for less. Add to that the fact that a soundbar is just not a good shape and size for producing good sound and you have the scenario where upgrading to a higher end model only nets small improvements in sound quality and spending 3x the price of entry level soundbars just isn't worth it.

All that being said, I think the ML was the right choice for us. Read on for discussion of the ones we tested.

The Yamaha was the best of the bunch by a good bit for pure movie watching as it has the best surround effects, a bunch of drivers and a calibration microphone. It's clearly tuned for movies and not that great for music though, and even with the mic calibration didn't do well in less-than-ideal rooms with odd setups. If you're primarily movie watching and are ok with the price-tag then this is a great option. As a purpose built device it's actually better at doing what it does than any other sounder in the bunch, for movies it's not just "good for a sounder" it's actually "pretty good, period".

The PLAYBAR sounded good and obviously integrates well with the rest of the SONOS gear so is a great option if you're already in that ecosystem. It also has the ability to use another set of SONOS speakers and sub to create a true 5.1 setup, not an option on the other models I tested. The one major drawback with the PLAYBAR is the selection of inputs, or lack thereof. Your only options for listening are via the typical SONOS setup and a SINGLE optical input. Why go to the trouble of allowing people to create a full 5.1 setup and then limit the whole thing by only having a single input? That alone was a complete deal-breaker for me since I have 4 devices and I'd imagine most people have at least 2 or 3 devices. It's also a bit on the small side for a living room, I'd like to see them offer a larger option with more inputs.

The B&W was really weird for me. It seems to have good reviews online, but I've found at least one more reviewer that had the same issue I had. It has some kind of processing that you can't disable that seems to always be adjusting itself as your music plays. So I'll be listening to a track starting with a guitar and bass line and then the drums kick in and the whole soundstage shifts to the right, it's very strange and I don't like it. It's also a very large soundbar, but I was fine with that.

The W Studio by Definitive probably has the best array of features and connections and Play-Fi support is nice to have. it's well built and the wireless sub is actually pretty good and fills out the low end nicely. The size of this bar didn't work particularly well in my setup but that's obviously specific to me, overall it's a thin soundbar and is longer than most other options and should work really well for most people and stands if you can accommodate the length. This is the one I wanted to like the most out of the bunch because of those connections, would have made things much easier. Ultimately though, the sound didn't do it for me. It handled dynamics really well and worked for movies, it sounds very impressive at first with a really large soundstage making the soundbar sound much larger than it really is. After a few minutes though you realize just how over-done and fake the soundstage really is and then at least I was unable to NOT focus on that from that point on. It sounds kinda 'neat' but in the end it's just not very natural sounding at all. Damn shame, very nice soundbar otherwise.

The MartinLogan Vision is the option that worked the best for me overall and is the one I kept. It's very well built and is a good looking product, and most importantly it was the best sounding out of the bunch to my ears. Initially I was concerned about the lack of HDMI inputs but in the end the included inputs (2 optical, 1 coaxial, and 2 analog) ended up working for me and in the end I think I'm better off with this setup. Although this soundbar was obviously tuned more for music playback it's also very good for movies and TV which is important since it'll get used for those a lot in our case. It has good overall tonal balance for music, though obviously the effects created by a good stereo setup like image and soundstage are obviously not that great. Vocals are great for both music and video, and dialog is clear and full. It has a night mode which works quite well, better than any I've ever tried before. The biggest selling point is that I won't need to pair a sub with it, it has an output for a sub and built in support for a wireless sub as well, but in the smallish room it's going on we don't want a sub and won't need one with this soundbar.

audiocr381ve

Glad the ML Vision worked out! My thoughts exactly on it. Straining to hear dialog is something you don't have to worry about with the Vision and to me was the biggest reason why I thought it bested everything else.