Soundbar options for awkward room set-up

[admin_exported]

I am looking to add a sound system to my Sony 46W3500, Xbox, Sky+HD, Blue ray DVD player (to be purchased) and various music sources (iPod, CD mainly). I am looking for a minimalist solution and have decided on the soundbar route. I have had a demo of the Yamaha YSP40d and was very impressed, with addition of Rel T3 sub it sounded great for both hifi and movies. In the demo room surround sound was really convincing.

However, set up at home it not so ideal. TV is in corner next to bay window and chimney breast with sofas on opposite corner walls. Given that the Yamaha relies on bouncing sound off walls and works best in a demo room type setting would i be wasting my money on the 40d?

Would I be better off with another sound bar eg Marantz ES7001, Denon DHT FS3 or Polk Surround bar 50 which I understand are not so reliant on room set-up? I don't know anywhere where I can listen to these other soundbars locally (live in Balham, London) so am concerned about sound quality against Yamaha. I am not too hung up on getting the best most accurate surround, some level of immersiveness is enough. But I do want good hifi sound.

I don't have an amp as yet either so this is also a consideration. The Yamaha is attractive as amp is inbuilt - but i would be happy to purchase seperately if needed.

My budget is around £1k for speakers and amp - £1.5k at a push. I have considered the Q-AVs but don't want the rears.

 

Any help on this matter very much appreciated!

 

 

[shado]

Hiya, I have the 30D model as the 40D was too big for my room. I too have an awkward shaped room with stairs coming into the front room and my sofas are both up against the wall. The Yamaha has many settings including 5 Beam and 3 Beam plus stereo and these actually project the sound towards you rather than bouncing of walls. There is a manual set up function where you can adjust your room layout with the sound beams. I have not yet used this function Even with the automated set up with mic the yamaha projects the sound adequately for my needs, This shows up as My Surround on the menu. I did purchase a Sub Woofer but it works fine without it. Obviously a seperate Amp and 5 Speakers will do a better job but if you are stuck for space and do not require additional clutter then the Yamaha is a good purchase. Even What Hifi recommends the 40D you have auditioned.

 

[Anonymous]

Shado, can you tell me EXACTLY how long the 30D is - I have almost exactly 800 mm of space on my TV shelving so I'm not sure if the 30D will fit. Cheersÿ

 

[Anonymous]

I had the same problem and although this is somewhat different it worked for me.

I bought a pair of kef c20 center speakers fron richer sounds believe it or not for 30 sobs a peice. I then hooked them up side by side under my 42inch plasma on the next shelf down to my old cyrus 2 +psx and fed it with my old arcam dv 89.

I know its not surround sound with lots of gizmo speaker beams and special set ups but at the end of the day the results were truely astounding. I doubt whether any sound bar has an amp even on par with this old cyrus and the cheap kefs are bi-wirable, have pretty solid cabinets and sound pretty balanced with an adequate bottom end without the need for a sub.Whats more they fill the room with sound in a way I just did not think would happen.

At the time I bought the speakers for £60 a pair I took the attitude "what the heck ...it will have to be an inprovement over the plasma".I tried to explain what I had in mind to the guy in richer sounds but I guess thinking out of the box was not his forte.

I appreciate your budget is pretty reasonable but there are loads of this sort of equipment about both new as in the case of the kefs and second hand. My only advice would be to get an amp with remote as the cyrus 2 is a bit of a *** without one......sounds great though and to me was effectively free.

Alan

 

[shado]

Hansolo:Shado, can you tell me EXACTLY how long the 30D is - I have almost exactly 800 mm of space on my TV shelving so I'm not sure if the 30D will fit. Cheers

No problem it is exactly 80 cms long or 31.5 inches from both curved ends and is 15 cms height (just under 6 inches that sits fine on my Kenmark stand. I have roughly 2 inches to spare either side and 1 inch on top that seems to be adequate ventilation wise. However as I have a 37 inch Telly The Panasonic shop recommended a stand to fit 42 inch TVs and above. Mu subwoofer sits to one side of the room underneath a coffee table. Even my wife now puts it on now for the sound effect. My only criticism is plugging in the cables as they go in vertical underneath and is a pain to manoeuvre on any stand. Good prices for it on Sound and Vision and Digital Direct websites - well below the £600 asking price.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reassurance Shado. I am definately swaying towards the Yamaha 40d option. Especially as finding it hard to find the Marantz sound bar anywhere to demo. I have a 46in TV so it should sit well underneath that. However I will need a new TV stand as well to accomdate the soundbar and other boxes.

How do you find your Yamaha for listening to music?ÿI also thought about getting a 2.1 system instead like the Denon s302 as was advised this would be less of a hifi compromise, but I don't need the PC connectivity with my xbox, and also I don't think you can connect the Denon with a blue-ray player as it has no HDMI in which seems a bit lacking.

 

[shado]

The Yamaha is purely home cinema and is not a dedicated Music Amp. There is music options on the Soundbar whereas mine only has 3 options Cinema, Music and Sport., the 40D has more options like Jazz etc ( 3 settings for each option). I have The Panasonic LZD 37 LCD TV, Panasonic BD-30 Blu Ray player, Sky HD Box, Wii Console, YSP-30 and matching YSF Sub Woofer. The only down side with all Yamaha Soundbars is the lack of true Dolby HD from Blu Ray discs. Music sounds good on Music channel from Sky box but this is not in comparison to listening to a dedicated Hifi system. I would seriously advise auditioning a 2.1 system against the Yamaha. I have also used mid price cabling throughout so try to factor these into your purchase. Remember What Hifi has a £10 voucher for any Richer Sounds purchase. Good luck with your quest.

 

[Anonymous]

Any suggestions on decent 2.1 systems to try out?

 

[Anonymous]

I'm also looking at the 40D for my awkward room; in fact my room is so awkward that a soundbar is virtually the only solution. I'm concerned about the lack of support for HD audio formats on the 40D: no TrueHD and no multi-channel PCM, but what I'm trying to do is to find the best way round it by getting the right Blu-Ray player. On other forums the difficulties here have been widely reported, with many complaints about getting 2.0 PCM instead of 5.1 surround sound from their Blu-Ray discs.

I've been reading through the manual for the Panasonic DMP-BD35 player, and it includes a table which seems to suggest that it converts Dolby TrueHD to Dolby Digital and the DTS-HD formats to DTS Digital Surround. Does anyone know if this works---ie, will the 40D will then play 5.1 sound (albeit in a slightly degraded form) from TrueHD etc soundtracks?

The manual also seems to say that you can elect to send the resulting re-encoded DD or DTS either over optical (which is commonplace) or HDMI. Again, does anyone know if the HDMI route works? Do I expect any improvement in quality with HDMI given its greater bandwidth than optical?