Soundbar or stereo for TV under £400?

[Majky]

Hi all and sorry for my english, I use google translator.

I am looking to upgrade an old hi-fi tower and would like to hear others opinions on what would be best for my situation. It should be a setup that I will use 90% of the time for TV sound, the rest of the time for radio or music.
My living room is 3.5x4 meters, with the TV wall located at the edge of the room. The place for the TV is given, and I can place the sound system either in the niche above it or in a smaller niche below it. If it was supposed to be a soundbar, it could be placed in the large niche under the TV. The dimensions of the large upper niche are 1300(width)x460(height)x500(depth). The height of the ceiling is 2350. I know that the placement of the speakers is not ideal, but unfortunately it is not possible otherwise or elsewhere due to space.

So now the options I'm researching:
A- Soundbar with subwoofer (Samsung HW-Q800C, etc.) - At first I preferred this option from the point of view of not a very suitable location for classic speakers, but in the end, since I live in an apartment, I don't know whether to get a subwoofer at all.
B- Active speakers or studio monitors (Edifier S2000MKIII, Kali MM-6) - This played about a level better than a soundbar when the speakers were placed correctly. But will it play a level better even if I place the speakers in a niche up to a height of 1.8 m? I would turn the speakers down so they point towards the sofa.The difference between Kali and Edifier is about £100. Do you think the Kali will play that much better to be worth the extra money over the Edifier? But Kali has a higher bass reflex in the front, which is more suitable for placement in a niche.
C - Mini amplifier + passive speakers (Fosi Audio BT20A Pro + Elac debut b5.2) - This set would cost about the same compared to the Kali MM-6, but will it be qualitatively worse or better? I don't know how this would work exactly as Fosi probably doesn't have a remote. With this variant, how would I deal with the fact that if I sit in front of the TV and want to increase the sound, so that I don't have to get up and turn the knob on the amplifier?
Which way did you go? Or are there any better options or components? I started thinking about the second and third options because I'm used to (as far as possible) slightly better sound and I don't know if a rattle with a subwoofer that will have to be slightly muted most of the time would satisfy me. In my opinion, a better set-up, even if placed badly, should play better than a soundbar.


Thanks for any answers.

 

[staticV3]

Hi @Majky! Welcome to ASR.

The place for the TV is given, and I can place the sound system either in the niche above it or in a smaller niche below it. If it was supposed to be a soundbar, it could be placed in the large niche under the TV.

Does the blue rectangle in your drawing represent where you would place the Soundbar?

If so, then I would genuinely choose that over traditional speakers placed way above or below the TV.

Samsung make some excellent Soundbars, courtesy of Harman Research, which they bought in 2017.

Check out rtings.com for some great reviews and objective data of the different Samsung Soundbar models.

I don't know how this would work exactly as Fosi probably doesn't have a remote. With this variant, how would I deal with the fact that if I sit in front of the TV and want to increase the sound, so that I don't have to get up and turn the knob on the amplifier?

If you end up going with passive speakers and an Amp, a good way of adding remote control would be with the SMSL PS100.
It plugs into your TV via HDMI and you can control volume with your TV remote.

 

[Majky]

Hi @Majky! Welcome to ASR.


Does the blue rectangle in your drawing represent where you would place the Soundbar?

If so, then I would genuinely choose that over traditional speakers placed way above or below the TV.

Samsung make some excellent Soundbars, courtesy of Harman Research, which they bought in 2017.

Check out rtings.com for some great reviews and objective data of the different Samsung Soundbar models.


If you end up going with passive speakers and an Amp, a good way of adding remote control would be with the SMSL PS100.
It plugs into your TV via HDMI and you can control volume with your TV remote.

Thank you.
Yes, the blue rectangle is place to possibly place a soundbar.

If I buy front ported speakers and also turn them down to the listener, will this placement still degrade the sound quality?

 

[staticV3]

Thank you.
Yes, the blue rectangle is place to possibly place a soundbar.

If I buy front ported speakers and also turn them down to the listener, will this placement still degrade the sound quality?

The sound will still obviously come from above the TV, which I'd find distracting.

Though it depends on the listening distance.

In the end, a sound bar will give you better placement, better bass extension, seamless volume control, and perhaps even some spatial audio for (limited) surround sound.

 

[Majky]

OK

There's one more thing I'd be interested in. I now own a Technics SC-EH 570 hi-fi tower. Will buying new speakers (eg soundbar or Edifier S2000MKIII, Kali MM-6, Elac debut b5 or Kef Q150/350s) be any noticeable improvement at all?

 

[PierreV]

I recently bought a new TV for my country house. The initial plan was that, once the TV had been installed, I would move one of my full scale systems from my main house to the country house. However, there was some kind of sale and the TV was delivered with a HW-Q700C soundbar+sub for "free". I would never even have considered a sound bar, used as I am to much larger systems with multiple subs.

Yet, I was very pleasantly surprised by its performance. While I wouldn't use it for critical music listening, its overall tonality is very good, dialogues are perfectly rendered, imaging is quite decent, power level is sufficient. After a couple of months, I have decided not to bother with the migration and setup of a big system.

 

[ZolaIII]

Find the space to place speakers on sides and tweeters in line with listening position (ears hight) and go with active but big one's and basic unbalanced DAC with Toslink optical input from TV.
It will cost you more of course.
Kali LP 8 V2's with stands (and cable you won't use) 428£:

Kali Audio LP-8 V2 (Pair) With Stands & Cables

Buy Kali Audio LP-8 V2 (Pair) With Stands & Cables for the best price online at Music Matter UK. Shop for Studio from Kali Audio with Free Next Day Delivery.

www.musicmatter.co.uk

You can use it for first time with TV line out trough headphone 3.5 mm out (in line out mode!) or if it has RCA line out. As that won't be optimal on the long run something like WiiM pro with remote about 125£ +19~20 for remote for the sake of PEQ's it has streamer only as a bonus. And of course rent borrow or buy measurement microphone to set the EQ, buy cheap deacent cables you will need if you don't have them already (unbalanced RCA and Toslink).

 

[Majky]

Thank you, but unfortunately I don't have the space to place the speakers on the stands outside the TV wall, as I already mentioned.

 

[ZolaIII]

Well I tried, it won't sound good no matter what you buy if tweaters aren't in hight with ears, wave guide helps but just a little bit. If you go with smaller speakers then you need sub and at least 10" one which complicates things either way (speakers or half deacent soundbar regarding proper integrating of such) and you will need at least basic EQ capabilities and in PEQ form anyway. Soundbars won't really cut it (especially regarding highs).

 

[Majky]

I have one more question. If I only want to use one speaker, do I need a mono amplifier? If I wanted to buy one passive speaker do I need a mono amplifier and if I wanted to buy one studio monitor do I need a mono DAC to connect to the TV?

 

[staticV3]

I have one more question. If I only want to use one speaker, do I need a mono amplifier? If I wanted to buy one passive speaker do I need a mono amplifier and if I wanted to buy one studio monitor do I need a mono DAC to connect to the TV?

More DAC channels than required aren't an issue and neither are more Amp channels.

For example, you could buy a 16ch DAC and a matching 16ch Amp still use just one channel of each to listen in Mono.

It'd be a huge waste of money, but the remaining, unused 15 channels wouldn't impede your listening experience in any way.

That being said, you do want a way to downmix to Mono when listening in Mono.

Simple DACs and Amps do not have that ability.

 

[Guddu]

I have one more question. If I only want to use one speaker, do I need a mono amplifier? If I wanted to buy one passive speaker do I need a mono amplifier and if I wanted to buy one studio monitor do I need a mono DAC to connect to the TV?

Curious, why would you think of mono in this case?

Audio format you are going to get on TV or streaming channels/apps is stereo (or multi-channel), and using just one of those (Right or Left) isn't any pleasant unless radio type news only.
Are you looking to downmix/merge/convert Stereo to Mono?

PE. staticv3 already asked similar query.

 

[Guddu]

That being said, you do want a way to downmix to Mono when listening in Mono.

Simple DACs and Amps do not have that ability.

Oops... did not notice you already asked this already.

 

[Yasuo]

OK

There's one more thing I'd be interested in. I now own a Technics SC-EH 570 hi-fi tower. Will buying new speakers (eg soundbar or Edifier S2000MKIII, Kali MM-6, Elac debut b5 or Kef Q150/350s) be any noticeable improvement at all?

For TV only (like movies, shows) the difference would be minimal.