A soundbar and a surround system both beat the speakers built into your TV. The difference is how much room, budget and cinema you want.
You do not need professional knowledge to know that a soundbar or a set of speakers will sound better than your TV’s built-in speakers. If you are not an audiophile, though, the soundbar vs speakers question is harder to settle. Here is how the two compare, and who each suits.
Lower cost. A soundbar costs a fraction of a surround system, and there is no installation to arrange.
Compact. A surround system needs several speakers, some of them mounted overhead. A sound bar sits on your TV console, which makes it a better fit for homes short on space.
Better than TV speakers. Built-in TV speakers lack clarity and cannot place sound in different directions. A decent soundbar improves both. It cannot match true surround, and it creates a wider soundstage by using small built-in drivers to suggest more sources of sound than there are.
The Klipsch Flexus range is one example, with the Flexus Core 200 soundbar and the compact Flexus Sub 100 subwoofer to add low bass.
The Sonus Faber Omnia is a self-contained wireless speaker system that can also be used as a soundbar with a TV. Absolute Sound is the distributor for Sonus Faber in Singapore.
A properly calibrated home theatre system gives each speaker its own job: music, effects or voices. The result is sound that comes from the left, right, front, back and above, as it does in a cinema. Think of hoofbeats passing you on a battlefield, or a sound effect that seems to happen right in front of you.
If you have turned the volume up and still missed a line, more speakers may be the answer. A dedicated centre speaker carries dialogue on its own, so voices stay clear when the soundtrack gets busy.
A surround system can be specified to suit you. A 5.1 set-up is a clear step up from any TV. A 5.1.2 set-up adds ceiling speakers for height, which is the closest comparison with a ceiling speaker vs soundbar choice. You can see how it works in a real Klipsch 5.1 living room.
It depends on your room and how you watch. If you want something close to a cinema, choose a surround system: it gives better sound, clearer dialogue and a room that sounds the part. If you want a clear step up from your TV’s speakers without the equipment, a soundbar will do.
Tell us about the room and how you watch, and we will help you decide.
Tell us about the room and how you use it. We will take it from there.
Tell us a little about your space and how you’d like to listen.
