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- Review count1
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- First reviewNovember 22, 2016
- Last reviewNovember 22, 2016
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Kevin's Reviews
This Sony soundbar features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities for high-quality music and analog sound streaming. The state-of-the-art soundbar has 330W output, 2.1 amplifier channels and Dolby Digital sound for powerful audio. You can enjoy sound throughout your home by linking other speakers to the Sony soundbar when using the SoundPal Link.
Customer Rating
2
Great sound -- when works / Caution when buying
on November 22, 2016
Posted by: Kevin
Do not purchase if Comcast / X1 customer...
The sound bar is great. It sounds great. However, I was unable to get it to work with the most basic setup. Comcast X1, Sony 65" XBR850D, and this sound bar. Connected HDMI to TV. HDMI on ARC between sound bar and TV. Volume was very low output... when turned up all the way, it was just slightly above low to average listening levels. Started researching this problem on the internet. Turns out it is prolific. Hooked up music to the sound bar via bluetooth and a phone... boom. Sound filled the room and bass started rocking... ok, sound bar is not broken, that's what we heard in the showroom. Called Sony support, they remoted into the TV via network, and verified settings on everything. Conclusion was that it was the source components fault. OK, i'm good with that, i understand that's a potential problem. So, hooked up a DVD player via HDMI to the sound bar, same problem, just very low volume and no real 'fill' to the sound.
After reading about the source component issues and testing the 'stereo' vs 'surround' output on the X1 device, with no change...came to a decision that the 2.1 soundbar was unable to process the signal properly over the HDMI cable. I think the key here is the 2 channels vs 3 channels. Somehow, somewhere, the compressing and or decoding of the signal is failing...
Returned the product, bought a Samsung of lesser price, but had the 3.1 channel configuration i was seeking to test against.... plugged it in, and wham, it played right out of the box, nice full sound, filling the room with volume and bass. It's admittedly not as crisp or precise as the Sony set was, but, it was also $80 less on the sale prices right now. Until Sony can address this issue with a major cable supplier's equipment, I would advise people to avoid this Brand's products in the 2 channel format. I am unwilling to purchase the next level up at $750 to get into a 3 channel + configuration (i know the $600 sound bar they have is doing the same thing, but, its 2 channels still- lots of online complaints)...
All that being said, sony was unable to fix my problem, and when i plugged in the samsung, the problem went away immediately, so, i have an issue blaming the 'source component' in this scenario. Buy this specific product with caution, and be prepared to return it quickly upon the simple test that I provided ... low volume sound on tv mode, connect via bluetooth, sound is very loud and nice....
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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