Top positive review
25 people found this helpful
Good value, excellent support
By Mark Bradford on Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2021
I replaced an Onkyo 5.1 surround sound system with this sound bar. The Onkyo was an older system, with wired speakers and the remote didn't work well. I had heard an amazing sound bar while in an AirBnB so I was convinced that the sound could be great (but unfortunately didn't note the model of the sound bar that impressed me so much). Anyway, I took a chance with this sound bar, given it's positive reviews, Dolby decoding, subwoofer and HDMI ARC to work with my TV. I'm not disappointed. It is not the "richest" sounding system, nor the most powerful, but it sounds good, the clarity is excellent, and although some channels require that we turn up the volume most of the way, I've never detected any distortion. We don't like overwhelming bass (nor overwhelming volume, for that matter), and the subwoofer is plenty for us - we actually have it notched down a couple of steps. The remote has some preset mixer settings - I don't notice a lot of difference between them, but we keep it in movie mode, as we are mostly watching show/movies with some Pandora music in between. You can separately adjust treble and bass up or down via the remote. The construction of both the sound bar and remote feels solid. We have only used this connected by HDMI to our TCL Roku TV and the connection works perfectly. It detects Dolby inputs, responds to the TV remote, and even responds to "Volume up/down" command to the TV via Alexa. (You do have to use the sound bar remote to set the input to HD mode when receiving from an HDMI source - and you may have to change the audio settings of your TV) The product has worked flawlessly so we didn't really need to contact the seller. But the product arrived with a surprise coupon to receive a free set of bluetooth earbuds. Unfortunately we couldn't get the associated website to accept our coupon code. Not a huge deal, but I wrote to the seller and was pleasantly surprised by their prompt responses. We could never get the website submission to work, so after a few message exchanges, the seller agreed to send us the earbuds based on our receipt and coupon code. They arrived a few days later. You may not get the same little present with your purchase, but the experience gave me a great deal of confidence in the seller. My only minor annoyance with the sound bar is the little LED display which shows indicates responses to any input, including from the TV (e.g. volume, starting a show, etc.). When acknowledging any new input, the display shifts to a super-bright annoying level for a few seconds. Bug the heck out of me so I put a couple layers of translucent tape over the display and all is well. Overall, a very nice product, good bang for the buck, and a reliable seller.
Top critical review
12 people found this helpful
Sound Upgrade But Bass Lacking… and Then It Stopped Working
By bd on Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2022
Bought this for our 50” TV. We needed a small speaker that wasn’t too long or too expensive. Directing the sound forward definitely upgraded the audio quality for us, voices sound clear… but the overall audio quality feels thin. However, for the price, you really can’t beat it so that’s why I rated it 4 stars. It’s functional and I feel good about the price. My main issue is with the subwoofer. I don’t think they should even include it. I’d buy the speaker without the sub if that was an option, now knowing how ineffective it is. After emailing their support, I was told that my speaker required a firmware update downloaded from their website. You put it on a USB and insert it into the speaker. However, the update didn’t seem to make a huge difference to me. What I did realize was that the bass buttons on the remote are backwards. The left button increases bass, while the right button decreases bass. Hard to see for someone like me who is far sighted and used to left to right functions. But even turning the bass all the way up, you only feel a slight response from the subwoofer at normal volume, even holding your hand or ear against the sub. This seems misleading to me based on the description of “impactful bass” and the included subwoofer. The bass in my experience is not impactful and nearly non existent. At higher volume, the audio quality seems to break down and it sounds like it’s blaring. I’m usually not a huge stickler for audio, but I can hear the drop in quality as I turn it up. Not a big deal for us since we listen at a medium to low volume. My recommendation is if you are looking for the most economical price and just need better dialogue, this should work fine. The HDMI ARC is helpful to allow use with only one remote, but keep in mind our remote changes volume by 3 steps at a time instead of 1 when this speaker is plugged in, so you go from too low volume to too high, etc. Again, not a big deal and we can live with it, but you may run into the same issue. Update 10/10: The sound is just so tinny, sort of narrow and not full, I’m having to rate 3/5. I’ll probably move it to the guest bedroom once we upgrade during Black Friday deals. Update 10/24: When using AUX, it turns off by itself after awhile. Annoying. Then it started doing this weird thing when using HDMI ARC where the sound would totally go out between commercials and shows or when switching apps. Tried a different cable, swapped for a different model speaker, worked fine. All I can assume is this thing is already glitching out. Had to send it back.
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