You have probably heard of soundbars, right? If you haven’t and you are into watching movies and listening to music, you definitely should. Picture this, you have just bought a sleek new LED TV with all the frills; massive screen, crystal clear HD picture quality, and smooth those sleek lines. You can’t help but be impressed, and you’re sure your buddies will too.
After all, who would mind having a friend with what can only be described as a substitute for a cinema screen. You have every reason to smile as you sink into your sofa remote in hand. Here goes. You turn the thing on only for your smile to disappear as soon as you hear something that passes for sound emanating from it. To make matters worse, your living space is not big enough to accommodate large speakers that could enhance your TV’s puny sound system.
Now, let’s go back to soundbars. In short, they are the way to have high-fidelity surround sound in confined spaces where having traditional speaker sets is simply impractical. These bars are compact yet powerful, stylish, and most importantly, music to your ears. So, if you are in the above predicament, don’t worry, here are the three best soundbars in the market.
1) The Vizio Soundbar
Let’s start with the cheapest of the three, the Vizio SB4051-C0. Although you will never remember its full name (let’s be honest here, the numbers and letters don’t help), you will neither forget the quality of sound it produces nor its affordable $340 price tag. For this little, you get to take home a powerful subwoofer and two smaller complimentary speakers which churn out an impressive sound, and it doesn’t end there.
You will also get wireless and Bluetooth connectivity for use with your mobile devices and for downloading updates into your soundbar if keeping devices up-to-date is your thing. Talking of devices, its HDMI interface as well as Dolby and DTS surround sound format support allows you to hook it up to whatever system you have in your living room. In addition, there is a remote control thrown in for extra convenience.
Finally, the Vizio doesn’t disappoint when it comes to making the most out of limited spaces. To accomplish this key function, there is a wall mount to help you position it anywhere in you please. If you are on a budget and love good sound, the Vizio is definitely the best soundbar for you.
2) The Sonos Playbar
If you want more than an entry level sound quality such as the Vizio’s, you should consider upgrading to the Sonos Playbar. This feature packed soundbar is different in many ways. The first is in its $700 price. While you might consider this to be steep, this soundbar is worth every penny. The second difference, however, is more surprising. The Sonos Playbar is a single unit speaker set.
You see, despite appearing like a single compact unit, there is actually a total of nine different speakers inside the Playbar one of them being a subwoofer! Imagine that. This fact only becomes evident when you connect it to your TV only to be amazed at the clarity of its 5.1 surround sound output. That’s when you understand why it cost you 700 big ones.
Your surprise continuous when you realize that your soundbar connects with your TV’s remote so that two can be turned on simultaneously. In addition, if you have more than one Sonos Playbar, you can link them together for a better sound. You can play your phone’s playlists or update the Playbar wirelessly.
3) Definitive Technology W Studio
Sporting a price tag that is not for the fainthearted, this classy $1000 aluminium-covered device is, without a doubt, the best soundbar setup you can buy at the moment. What do you get for that kind of money? For starters, it comes in two detached parts namely; a soundbar that houses three woofers and an equal number of tweets plus a massive and powerful subwoofer.
The smaller soundbar alone has an output that would be sufficient for most people but when combined with the bigger subwoofer, the final sound is nothing short of amazing. Now, throw in multiple HDMI input ports, an optical input port, a remote control, and wireless connectivity into the picture and you get a sound system that is second to none.