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Friday, December 6, 2013

3 Reasons to Use a Sound Bar for Your Home Theater




 Sound bars have become a popular speaker choice for many home theaters simply because of their size. They are a great compromise between a large surround-sound system and the tinny speakers on your TV set. Below are some reasons why you may want to try one of these new devices in your own home theater space.


Walk into any electronic store or browse home theater websites on the Internet, and you are sure to see sound bars. These long and thin boxes are often paired with a subwoofer and designed to mount underneath your flat panel TV. While many sound bars claim to deliver surround sound, they cannot compete with a full 6-speaker surround sound system. Despite this limitation, there are some reasons why you might choose a sound bar over multiple speakers in your home theater. Here are three reasons that we feel are the best.


3. Limited Space – Many home theaters end up being wedged into whatever space is available. Often times this space is compact, not offering much room for a full surround sound setup. In a case like this, a sound bar may make better sense as it may not be possible to put rear speakers behind the couch or home theater seats. Also, a smaller room may enhance the faux surround sound feature mentioned on many sound bars.


2. Easy to Use – For the most part, sound bars are not complex pieces of equipment. Many models don’t even come with a separate remote, opting to have the TV remote programmed to control it. Some sound bars plug into your TV via HDMI or optical audio cables. A few higher-end models even offer a built-in switchbox to let you choose between your game console, cable box, Blu-ray player or other components. Once a sound bar is properly set up, it will usually work as an extension of the TV, so you do not need a second remote to control it.

1. Budget – A good surround sound setup can range from a few hundred dollars to thousands and even millions of dollars. A good sound bar often costs much less starting at $199 or so. This price discrepancy is often enough to get more people to buy sound bars and raise their popularity. If you do not care about true surround sound, but don’t want to listen to your TV’s small and tinny speakers, a sound bar might just be the thing that you are looking for.



For more information on choosing the right sound bar, check out this review on CNET.

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