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Reviews (2)
Dec 27, 2020
Great compact Dolby Atmos capable soundbar!
1 of 1 found this helpful Great value for the price I got it (359 USD)! I read a lot of reviews from professional review sites and a lot of them ding this based on better units within the range of its retail price (699.99 USD), but this works great for me as a Dolby Atmos capable soundbar with subwoofer at the price I paid. I live in an apartment building and mainly wanted a soundbar that ouputs clear sound without needing to really pump up the volume and this delivers!
The independent center channel volume doesn't really seem to have that much of an effect to increase the volume of dialogue from most media sources. I specifically got this to try adressing the extreme changes in volume between dialogue and action scenes in...basically every movie or TV show these days. Having to throttle up and down the volume to compensate gets obnoxious when I'm trying to watch a show without bothering my neighbors. I was hoping this would solve it over the back-firing speakers built into the TV. It's obviously better than any built-in speakers and it's certainly improved my viewing experience, but even with the center channel pumped up and even with other sound settings, it hasn't totally solved the problem.
The small LED display on the front of the unit is enough to control the speakers via remote even though it's obscured by the speaker grill. Of course, as a smart soundbar, you can connect it to your WiFi network (even without a Samsung TV) and control it via Samsung's SmartThings app. Unfortunately, the app uses a slider bar to control the speaker volume, so don't expect fine control via their app. Instead, I use the smartphone app for my Vizio TV which offers a traditional +/- toggle on its virtual remote (it's connected to the TV via HDMI cable for eARC - something the included manual doesn't explain as an option).
Via the SmartThings app over Bluetooth, you can set up WiFi settings so you can cast to the speaker and control many, but not all, of the speaker's settings. And unlike other apps for smart devices that come with a remote, the app doesn't replicate the remote control to access those other settings (as of this writing). For settings like center volume control, you'll need to actually use the physical remote control. Note: if your TV is on, it'll prioritize whatever audio is coming out of that, even if there's no sound (e.g. your TV is sitting silent at a menu/screen saver). It'll let you connect to it to cast audio to it, but the speaker will keep its source trained on your TV.
The wireless subwoofer is compact but outputs room-filling sound without needing to pump the volume all the way up. The low profile of the sound bar itself keeps it clear underneath my TV (Vizio M55-E0).
Feb 21, 2008
The best display I've ever owned!
3 of 3 found this helpful I initially got this display because I was envious of a friend of mine for whom I had just bought this exact display. It worked great with my supplementary 20.1" Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW, but soon I realized how valuable that virtual real estate was when it came to working on really complex graphic design projects when I'm using several products from the Adobe suite all at the same time. So, I got a second one and my opinion has only grown warmer to this model of display.
This display is fully featured, reproduces a great range of the colour spectrum detectable to most humans, and ultimately big. It's just above the sweet spot in displays right now (~early 2008) but the premium for all the inputs (DVI, VGA, S-Video, Component, Composite) and the gymnastics (rotate, pivot, pan) this monitor can do are worth paying for.
If I had the money and could justify having three very wide displays on my desk, I'd get a third. Think I'll just save my money for a new camera.