This sound bar was a bit disappointing. I was looking for a convenient method of
improving the sound on my Toshiba 40” which has lousy sound quality. It is very inexpensive ($106.00 including
shipping at Amazon) so I wasn’t anticipating a $1000.00 Yamaha experience. Most of the inexpensive sound bars I could
find did not have an optical connection.
I figured if I was going to buy an inexpensive audio source the least I
could do was connect it with it’s best possible connection.
Of course the sound bar came with no cables to connect
it. That isn’t really too
surprising. I happened to have a wealth
of old RCA connectors and hooked it up via the RCA sound port. Sound was ok.
I ordered a SPDIF cable from Amazon and hooked it up via the optical
connection. Sound quality was better.
I have not figured out how to have the sound bar respond to
the TV remote. Phillips tells you to
hook up the sound bar and mute your TV sound but this means you now have one
more &%(*)(#* remote. It is a very
little remote but still one more piece of crap on the coffee table.
Bass is not particularly impressive. The sub-woofer works but it isn’t what you
would call booming.
The unit works just fine, particularly for the price. Considering how inexpensive cables are, I
would think it would behoove Phillips to toss a couple in the box. Add $2.00 to the SRP and you would be
covered. I also think it would be nice
to be able to run the sound bar from one of my existing remotes. So far I haven’t figured that out.
In closing, you get what you pay for. This is an inexpensive sound bar and
expecting bells and whistles is unrealistic.
It does have decent sound for the money.
If reviewing a product, it may have been received free of charge. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.
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