Sound Bars and Bases

By Wayne Maruna

            Until recently, the standard for a home theater setup consisted of a complicated receiver (amplifier and tuner), a front left and front right speaker, a center channel speaker, a subwoofer, two rear surround speakers, and a tangle of wires.  As televisions have gotten wider and thinner to the point of being no thicker than a Snickers bar, the landscape for the accompanying sound systems has evolved as well.  The multipoint wired surround system has given way to smaller, neater wireless designs.  Enter the Sound Bar.

            Those super thin TVs produce amazing pictures, but their thinness has resulted in pretty awful built-in speakers that pump their sound out the back of the screen and into a wall.  It’s little wonder that dialogue has become indiscernible, especially for older hearing-impaired viewers, hence the growing popularity of sound bars and their sibling sound bases.

            A sound bar in its typical format is a wide device of minimal height and depth designed to sit in from of a TV on a table or hang below wall-mounted TVs, directing their output toward the listener.  They can be any width from about 18” to more than 42” and perhaps 2.5” to 3.5” high and generally about 3” deep.  They are produced by just about every company in the television trade (Samsung, Sony, LG, Vizio) as well as companies in the audio business (Bose, Sonos, Polk, Yamaha, Zvox) plus a plethora of no-name Chinese companies.

Vizio 29w” x 3d” x 3h” Soundbar

            A few companies offer something called a Sound Base, which in essence is a sound bar in a platform format.  These are built sturdily enough to support the weight of the television which either rests directly on top of them (when the TV has a central base supporting them) or straddles the platform between the TV’s wide legs. 

Sonos Play Base 28w” x 15d” x 2.3h”

            Both sound bars and sound bases have their own internal amplifiers, eliminating the need for a receiver.  They may contain multiple amplifiers, depending on design and price.  For example, the high-end Sonos Playbase above has ten amplified speaker drivers.

            Because of their narrow depths and heights, the sound bars and bases don’t allow a lot of travel room for the speaker cones, so their bass frequencies are limited.  For something closer to a true home theater experience, it is often desirable to add a wireless sub-woofer to enhance the low end of the audio spectrum. 

            Some companies like Zvox, Bose, and Sonos provide special circuitry designed to enhance the voice portion of the audio spectrum.  Zvox especially has targeted dialogue enhancement over the full home theater experience in marketing their sound bars and bases,   claiming to use hearing aid technology to enhance the dialogue.  In fact, they also have branched into the hearing aid market, selling what they call hearing aids but what might be better classified as hearing amplifiers for people with mild to moderate hearing loss.  At $200 each, these might be worth trying for people in that range of hearing loss.

            I have had personal experience with six sound bar products: a Tao Tronics mini sound bar ($35), the Vizio SB2816 sound bar with wireless sub woofer ($100 new on Ebay), the Zvox Sound Base 330 ($200), the Bose Solo 5 sound bar ($200), the Sonos Beam sound bar ($400), and the high-end Sonos Play Bar ($699 new, $549 certified refurbished).  These pretty well sample the price spectrum for sound bars. Remember that most of these are sold as sound improvements over built-in flat panel TV speakers, and only in the very high end as competitors to traditional multi-component home theater systems.

            Capsule reviews based on my experience and preferences follow.

            The TaoTronics was used in front of a computer monitor and was little more than a toy.  Not suitable for TV sound replacement.  It was returned. 

The Zvox sound base 330 had a lot of promise.  With a heavy MDF enclosure, it looked and felt like a granite grave marker. Sound comes from three 2” speakers plus a 5-1/2” ‘sub-woofer’.  Pairing with my Tivo remote was as simple as could be. Online reviewers raved about the Accuvoice dialogue enhancement.  But for me, the improvement over the TV’s own speakers did not justify the price tag.  It was returned as well. 

Bose has made a name for itself developing small speakers that generate impressive sound.  But with only two 2” speaker drivers, the Bose Solo 5 underwhelmed.  I could never get its ‘universal’ remote to pair with my targeted Vizio TV.  Sayonara, Solo. I should point out that the Solo 5 is the low end of the Bose sound bar offerings, and writing larger checks should get you into much better sounding equipment.

The Bose was replaced by the Vizio SB2816. I figured surely that would work with the Vizio TV remote, and it did.  Just one spot of difficulty in having the sound bar choose the right input, but other than that, it linked to the Vizio remote easily.  At $100 through Ebay, the sound bar was preferable to the Bose and the Zvox.  The wireless bass module definitely made a difference.

I’d been curious about the high-end Sonos speaker line.  They offer two sound bars and a sound base.  The Play Bar is a large (35”) sound bar with nine drivers and has been in the product lineup for a number of years.  The Beam is their latest offering, a much smaller 26” sound bar with some added technology built-in, like HDMI ARC connectivity and both Amazon’s and Google’s voice assistants.  Sound comes through 4 amplified full range speakers and one amplified tweeter plus three passive radiators. Most professional reviewers seem to prefer the Beam both for its added tech and much lower price, but the Play Bar is the acknowledged winner on the basis of room filling sound.  In either case, a stand-alone sub woofer is recommended to complete the home theater experience.