@Lino_kitsune) Updated 30/09/21 at 15:00 p.m. Share:
Much more practical than a home theater set, the sound bar is a serious alternative to simply improve the sound quality of your television. This review brings together a wide variety of soundbars to help you make the right choice.
As aesthetic as it is, the smoothness of our televisions represents a handicap for the audio quality. It's simple: to get power and bass you need volume - a luxury that poor TV speakers don't enjoy these days. Rather Samsung soundbar or Bose soundbar? Here is a comparison dedicated to people who, for aesthetic, practical or simply pragmatic questions, prefer the compactness and practicality of a sound bar to the exhaustiveness of an amplifier accompanied by its attendant speakers.
Much more practical than a home theater set, the sound bar is a serious alternative to simply improve the sound quality of your television. This review brings together a wide variety of soundbars to help you make the right choice.
As aesthetic as it is, the smoothness of our televisions represents a handicap for the audio quality. It's simple: to get power and bass you need volume - a luxury that poor TV speakers don't enjoy these days. Rather Samsung soundbar or Bose soundbar? Here is a comparison dedicated to people who, for aesthetic, practical or simply pragmatic questions, prefer the compactness and practicality of a sound bar to the exhaustiveness of an amplifier accompanied by its attendant speakers.
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Editorial buying guide
What is the best sound bar?
Let yourself be guided by our experts
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How are soundbars tested at Itopdroid?
The tests include classic acoustic measurements (frequency response, harmonic distortion rate, impulse response, square waves, etc.) carried out in our sound lab, but also scenarios in an acoustically less mat room to fully appreciate the spatialization offered by the sound bar in a more natural setting. The ease of configuration, fluidity of use and multiple features are also scrutinized.
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What size (s) / dimensions for a sound bar?
Before buying your new soundbar, first think about its location. Most bars incorporate a wall mounting system to accompany televisions already hung. In the event that it will be enthroned in front of your television, the question of the maximum height available between your furniture and the bottom of the image of your television arises. Manufacturers are often aware of this problem and now market relatively compact soundbars, the height of which does not exceed 6 cm. However, some models blithely exceed this threshold. We pay special attention to this and we mention it in our tests. Live photos (in front of a television and on a conventional size TV stand) are also published to help you make your choice.
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With or without a subwoofer?
Some bars are sold with a subwoofer (wired or wireless), and it must be said that this is a good idea. If the latter is a minimum efficient (and this is certainly not the case), it allows to gain in sound quality. It is a hybrid solution which is also practical: the size is reduced and the presence of the subwoofer makes it possible to limit the cost of the whole compared to a 2.1 home cinema kit. Some bars, sold alone, are also capable of more than respectable audio performance in this area. You are free to add an optional subwoofer if they can.
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With or without surround satellites?
Many models of sound bars attempt to reproduce a 5.1 or 7.1 home theater listening experience. To do this, some products keep the practical and easy-to-use aspect of the sound bar by offering virtual surround spatialization (...) without additional speakers to install. Other models of “hybrid” soundbars rely on a true pair of speakers for the rear channels: think about the space and the configuration of your listening room before choosing this kind of product.
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Can virtual spatialization technology really replace a speaker kit?
In short, yes! A multichannel speaker kit (5.1, 7.1 etc.) is certainly the best solution on paper, but it poses many constraints - financial of course, but also acoustic. The placement of the speakers and the acoustics of the room play a fundamental role in the sound experience; however, it is not always possible to position the surround speakers to your liking in your living room, very far from it. Virtual spatialization systems do not have this problem, and some of them really compete with home cinema installations, less space and cost. Of course, not all of these systems are created equal, but our tests are there to help you sort it out, and make the right choice according to your needs and desires.
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What means of connection can I expect on a sound bar?
Sound bars are by definition designed primarily to accompany a television. The vast majority of them incorporate at least an optical input and / or an HDMI ARC (or eARC) port to connect to the television. The variety of wired connections depends on the goodwill of the manufacturer: additional HDMI inputs, mini-jack input, RCA subwoofer output, RJ45 ... On the wireless side, Bluetooth is very often offered, and Wi-Fi n 'is only present if the sound bar has connected functions.
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What is HDMI ARC (or eARC)?
The acronym ARC that we almost always see affixed to the HDMI output of sound bars means "Audio Return Channel" - that is, in good Spanish, "audio return channel". It means that the cable connected to this HDMI port can be used to transmit the sound signal from the TV to the sound bar. It is therefore not necessary to use an additional audio cable to perform this transmission.
Originally, this return channel was only capable of carrying stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, or DTS streams. This limitation has become particularly troublesome with the advent of three-dimensional sound formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS: X (see below). This is why the eARC protocol was developed from 2017, for "Enhanced ARC" ("enhanced return channel"), indeed compatible with these formats. However, to enjoy it, it is necessary to have a compatible soundbar and TV, which unfortunately are still scarce today - although it is hoped that the compatibility will start to become widespread. from 2020.
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What features can you find on a sound bar?
The range of features available on soundbars grows with the rise in range (and in price). All products have at least one equalization mode which is sometimes accompanied by several presets, such as Voice mode (improved speech intelligibility) or Night mode (low frequency attenuation and dynamic compression). There is regularly a mode of virtual spatialization, the automatic acoustic calibration option is however rarer. The so-called “connected” soundbar models (connected to a box via Wi-Fi or RJ45), more and more present on the market, offer functions such as playing files on the local network (UPnP / DLNA) , multiroom (proprietary protocol and / or compatible with Chromecast, Airplay 2, DTS Play-Fi for example), access to music streaming services and webradios (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, SoundCloud, TuneIn, etc.) or even integration of the “intelligent” voice assistant Amazon Alexa / Google Assistant. When this is the case, a companion application on mobile is present to configure the soundbar and manage all these possibilities.
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Dolby Atmos, DTS: X: what is it, and is it really useful?
Dolby Atmos and DTS: X are "3D" surround encoding formats, that is, they contain spatialized sound elements not only horizontally all around the listener, but also vertically. , over his head. Both appeared in 2015 in domestic versions, these two formats are now found very regularly on video streaming services (Netflix, Disney + ...), Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray discs, and even some games. video. Compatible soundbars are very numerous today and can be found in all price ranges, from 200 to several thousand euros. Obviously, as with horizontal spatialization, not all of them reproduce 3D spatialization with the same success: while some only produce barely perceptible effects, others manage to create a sensation of bluffing envelopment, almost worthy of installation with real overhead speakers - at a considerably lower cost.
