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Why Do I Need A Soundbar?
If your home entertainment system is feeling a little lacklustre, investing in a soundbar is the best choice you can make. A soundbar could be the key to improving the quality, power and all round magnificence of your home viewing experience. But as every investment does, soundbar systems cost money. So it’s best to do your research first, and find out exactly why a soundbar is the best technology upgrade you can make in 2021.
A Soundbar is Simply a Speaker…
If you’ve got this far you probably already know what a soundbar is. But if you’re still a little clueless, here’s a simple explanation. A soundbar is a technology system that functions as the speakers for your TV.
A soundbar will improve the over-all audio quality of your TV, including everything from the dialogue to the bass. Sleek and slim in design, a soundbar will usually fit in perfectly with any of your home décor. They can be placed above or below your TV, and most models can be wall-mounted. Alongside your main soundbar, you may want an additional subwoofer speaker and some rear speakers to really amp up your viewing experience.
A soundbar is a technology system that functions as the speakers for your TV.
The process of buying a soundbar is relatively easy: you see a soundbar within your budget and you buy it. But as you’re shopping around, there’s a few things that you might see and wonder, do I need to know what that means?
What is Dolby Atmos?
Dolby Atmos (you’ve definitely heard of it) is an award-winning technology that takes your listening experience to the next level. Introduced into cinemas in 2013 during Disney’s Brave premiere, the technology quite literally inserted another level of listening into the cinema. Dolby introduced multi-dimensional sound channels that could pinpoint the location of the sound and reflect that location within the theatre. Dolby Atmos creates an experience rather than just audio playback. The in-home-version of this is scaled down, however it still creates a similar effect to what you hear in the cinema.
In the same way that the cinema changes the location of the sounds you hear, soundbars use directional speakers to change how you hear the audio from your favourite TV shows and films. The image above shows you how sound from the speakers travel around your living room. Some soundbars have upwards facing drivers which direct the sound to the ceiling and bounces down to your seating space, emulating the feeling of surround sound.
What Are Those Confusing Numbers?
You may see numbers such as ‘3.1.2ch’ and ‘5.1ch’ within the title of soundbars as you’re browsing. These numbers aren’t there to throw you off, they’re there to inform you of how many levels of sound you can get. The first number is the amount of channels. The second is the amount of subwoofers. The third is how many upward facing drivers you’ll get. So you know the more channels, subwoofers and drivers you get, the better your surround sound.
So Why A Soundbar?
Is your TV’s dialogue not clear? Do you have to tell your other half to be quiet to hear when a character is speaking? Soundbars have voice-enhancement features that sharpens the dialogue and brings that voice channel up to the same level as the rest of the audio.
Does the midst of a fantasy battle get lost and muddled? Do you find yourself bored and distracted in what you thought was amazing in the cinema? You need a subwoofer that delivers great bass. A soundbar and subwoofer combo will add that extra layer to your favourite action scenes.
TVs are getting thinner and thinner each day, meaning less TV real estate for quality, inner-TV speakers. And with technology shifting to hyper-realistic 4K resolutions, manufacturer’s are more focused on the visual technology. A soundbar cuts straight through this issue, giving you audio you can control with just the touch of a button. Dialogue will be clearer. Bass will be deeper. Action will be more dynamic.
Whatever the reason for upgrading your sound system, a soundbar will always give you better sound from the get-go. They’re engineered to be that way. And a lot of them come with extra features which make your purchase even better. Dolby Atmos. Bluetooth. Wi-Fi. Just to name a few. All created to make your in-home cinema experience the best it’s ever been.
Jargon Buster
| Dolby Atmos | Dolby Atmos is an audio technology that lets the director (or artist) give specific sound a location. This is reflected within your viewing environment, allowing for deeper, more dynamic sound. |
| Subwoofer | A subwoofer is a large speaker within a sound system that delivers the audio below 200Hz, giving you well-defined bass. |
| Upward Facing (or Firing) Drivers | Internal upward facing speakers that directs sound to the ceiling and back down to your ears to simulate the feeling of cinematic surround sound. |
| Q-Symphony | Q-Symphony synchronizes both the soundbar and TV speakers, giving you a fuller surround sound experience. |
| Rear Speakers | Placed behind your viewing position, rear speakers capture the depth of a scene. This is audio such as added sound effects and quiet background audio. |
| 4K Pass Through | This means it’s a 4K Soundbar. It passes your audio and video through the soundbar before being directed into your 4K TV, giving you a more stable (in-sync) connection and less cables. |
Still not sure what soundbar is for you? Give one of our salesmen a call on 01159651937 and they can help find what soundbar is right for you.
