Sound Bars

Modern TVs are great at creating cinematic visuals at home but often lack when it comes to Audio. A Soundbar sits below the TV and contains several speakers that respond to different audio frequencies, and work together to produce an enhanced three dimensional soundscape in the room.

Soundbars are generally less expensive than multi speaker Home Theatre setups and can enhance a TVs Audio without taking up a lot of space. Whilst they won’t quite produce the same sound quality as a dedicated surround sound system they are still a substantial upgrade.

There are two types of technologies Soundbars use to produce a faux surround sound experience. Beamforming soundbars bounce sounds around the room to produce the effect of surround sound, while HRTF or Head-Related Transfer Function Soundbars imitate the ways in which sounds are processed in the brain from different positions to create the illusion of surround sound.

Dolby Atmos and DTS-X are both different technologies for creating 3D audio to reproduce by certain Surround Sound Systems and compatible Soundbars such as LG, Sonos or Samsung Soundbars. To understand how they work, you should know about surround channels.

When shopping for a new Soundbar have a look at each model's number. These numbers describe how many standard speaker channels the soundbar has (first number), a 1 if it has a subwoofer for bass (second number) and the number of upward-firing speakers used to simulate sound from overhead (optional third number). A 2.1 Soundbar has two forward firing channels plus a subwoofer for bass, whilst a 7.1.2 Soundbar will create the best faux Surround Sound experience with seven forward firing speakers, a subwoofer and two upfiring speakers.

Whilst 5.1ch and 7.1ch Soundbars can produce sounds that come from left, right, front and behind, Dolby Atmos and DTS-X compatible Soundbars add overhead sounds using additional upward directed speakers to bounce sound off the ceiling for a 3D audio effect.

Most soundbars support HDMI, Optical and RCA Cables. HDMI cables provide the most bandwidth and generally allow for the highest audio quality. If a TV and Soundbar have ARC (Audio Return Channel) or eARC (enhanced Audio Return Channel) ports, these will produce the best audio when connected via a version 1.3 or higher HDMI cable. To effecitvely take advantage of 5.1 surround sound use an ARC port or an eARC port to support uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound along with Dolby Atmos and DTS-X standards.

Gaming Hardware and other devices connected to a TV at once can complicate things. Running these through the Soundbar and then to the TV via HDMI will produce optimal results.

Once cabling is setup adjust the audio settings on the TV. Change the audio output from ‘TV Speaker’ to either ‘ARC’, ‘eARC’ or ‘Optical’ depending on which connection is used then turn on the ‘Pass Through’ setting. Check the TVs operating manual for detailed instructions on specific models.

Before buying a Soundbar, check to make sure it has the connections required and these connections are compatible with home's TV. You'll need an ARC or eARC port on the Soundbar along with the TV to get the best quality audio.

A Soundbar with video switching passes video to the TV through the Soundbar. This can be handy for connecting devices like 4K Media Players or Gaming Hardware to the Soundbar for optimal audio if the TV does not support ARC or eARC.

Some Soundbars can be paired with compatible Wired or Wireless Speakers to upgrade room audio. Additional speakers can be positioned in the back of the room to mimic 5.1 surround sound.

Some Sound Bars have a Bluetooth connection to pair with a Phone or Tablet and use as a Bluetooth Speaker. Models with Wi-Fi support can stream directly over a home network without losing sound quality.