I am afraid this is another "what should I buy" thread.
My Samsung HW-J355 seems to have died, turning off after a minute with a PROT error. In hindsight I should have known something was wrong as I seemed to need the volume louder, but genuinely thought it was my hearing going! I never chose that, it was a piled-high item in my local Tesco for about £80 that was well reviewed, when I went online while in store, shortly after replacing my old CRT with an LCD model and hearing its shortcomings.
I do not really watch films, so mainly I only watch from a Sky HD box and the TV's inbuilt DLNA player. So the latest Dolby and DTS standards are not that important to me, though something future proof is always better than not.
Which means the upper end of my budget is £300, though even that feels like pushing it beyond my use and appreciation and was hoping for something under £200. I just want something that sounds nice and to be able to hear clearly, as I can have problems hearing speech in person in noisy environments (central auditory processing disorder). Which is why I thought it was me and not the soundbar falling apart!
The choice though is overwhelming because it is not simply a matter of compromise but that everything in my price range seems to have something badly wrong with it.
So firstly, is a 3.1 sound bar worth it? My old CRT TV had surround sound built-in, and I definitely felt the benefit of the centre speaker, which was absent with the soundbar. But given the closeness of speakers and my budget, will it be a genuine benefit or more of a gimmick? Where I sit is six to seven feet from the TV.
Or should I just get something cheap, under £100, as it will be an improvement on the TV's speakers and accept that if I ever upgrade my TV or what I watch then I will just need to replace it then?
I had made a shortlist of the L.G. SN4 as the budget option at £130, L.G. SL6Y as a 3.1 system at £270, and the Sharp HT-SBW460 as an alternative 3.1 system for £250. It seems I took too long to sit down and properly consider the pros and cons that the SN4 is now up to £199 (prices for that from John Lewis) that it no longer seems such a budget option.
The Sharp was my favourite for the added connectivity, but the reviews were less good and it lacked DTS. As I said it is not something that important to me, but my old TV had it, the Samsung had it, and I do own a blu-ray player so it may be of occasional value. And though some sort of virtual height processing may be nice, I cannot see myself ever needing Dolby Atmos which seems to be its main selling point.
Also, one review for the Sharp said the subwoofer sounds much better if you stuff some microfibre clothes in the back. Which I am not sure if that is a positive or a negative.
My problem with the L.G. models was a lack of a 3.5mm port, because I have a DAB radio I connected to the Samsung this way, mainly for listening to cricket. But for this I would happily settled on the SN4 originally, although it seems an AUX input is lacking from most bars I have looked at so I accept that I may have to concede defeat on that.
And after reading reviews, it sounds like the lack of a separate subwoofer is a problem for the L.G. SN7CY which is why I ruled that out.
After looking at "you may also like" links and reading threads here for recommendations from other threads I then ended up on the Sony HT-G700, a 3.1 model with all the standards but no 3.5mm port. The positive review on the site mad it seem worth paying the top end of my budget. Then I read the thread for it, which pretty much wrote it off.
And so I am even more confused than before I started. And going to a shop for advice is not even an option as I am shielding, as I have been since March but for a small window in autumn. So any help and advice would be very greatly appreciated, because the sound direct from the TV is awful so I need to get something sorted.
Thanks.
My Samsung HW-J355 seems to have died, turning off after a minute with a PROT error. In hindsight I should have known something was wrong as I seemed to need the volume louder, but genuinely thought it was my hearing going! I never chose that, it was a piled-high item in my local Tesco for about £80 that was well reviewed, when I went online while in store, shortly after replacing my old CRT with an LCD model and hearing its shortcomings.
I do not really watch films, so mainly I only watch from a Sky HD box and the TV's inbuilt DLNA player. So the latest Dolby and DTS standards are not that important to me, though something future proof is always better than not.
Which means the upper end of my budget is £300, though even that feels like pushing it beyond my use and appreciation and was hoping for something under £200. I just want something that sounds nice and to be able to hear clearly, as I can have problems hearing speech in person in noisy environments (central auditory processing disorder). Which is why I thought it was me and not the soundbar falling apart!
The choice though is overwhelming because it is not simply a matter of compromise but that everything in my price range seems to have something badly wrong with it.
So firstly, is a 3.1 sound bar worth it? My old CRT TV had surround sound built-in, and I definitely felt the benefit of the centre speaker, which was absent with the soundbar. But given the closeness of speakers and my budget, will it be a genuine benefit or more of a gimmick? Where I sit is six to seven feet from the TV.
Or should I just get something cheap, under £100, as it will be an improvement on the TV's speakers and accept that if I ever upgrade my TV or what I watch then I will just need to replace it then?
I had made a shortlist of the L.G. SN4 as the budget option at £130, L.G. SL6Y as a 3.1 system at £270, and the Sharp HT-SBW460 as an alternative 3.1 system for £250. It seems I took too long to sit down and properly consider the pros and cons that the SN4 is now up to £199 (prices for that from John Lewis) that it no longer seems such a budget option.
The Sharp was my favourite for the added connectivity, but the reviews were less good and it lacked DTS. As I said it is not something that important to me, but my old TV had it, the Samsung had it, and I do own a blu-ray player so it may be of occasional value. And though some sort of virtual height processing may be nice, I cannot see myself ever needing Dolby Atmos which seems to be its main selling point.
Also, one review for the Sharp said the subwoofer sounds much better if you stuff some microfibre clothes in the back. Which I am not sure if that is a positive or a negative.
My problem with the L.G. models was a lack of a 3.5mm port, because I have a DAB radio I connected to the Samsung this way, mainly for listening to cricket. But for this I would happily settled on the SN4 originally, although it seems an AUX input is lacking from most bars I have looked at so I accept that I may have to concede defeat on that.
And after reading reviews, it sounds like the lack of a separate subwoofer is a problem for the L.G. SN7CY which is why I ruled that out.
After looking at "you may also like" links and reading threads here for recommendations from other threads I then ended up on the Sony HT-G700, a 3.1 model with all the standards but no 3.5mm port. The positive review on the site mad it seem worth paying the top end of my budget. Then I read the thread for it, which pretty much wrote it off.
And so I am even more confused than before I started. And going to a shop for advice is not even an option as I am shielding, as I have been since March but for a small window in autumn. So any help and advice would be very greatly appreciated, because the sound direct from the TV is awful so I need to get something sorted.
Thanks.
