A Soundbar May Sound Daunting If You’ve Never Had One. Which Is Why the Sound Experts at Ahl Narrow Down How to Pick the Right Soundbar for Your TV, and All the Steps to Set It Up.
You just bought the most recent 4K TV for its incredible display. But you’re not fully satisfied with the quality of the sound. You want a more robust, room-filling sound. Which you’ll get by pairing the TV with a soundbar. A soundbar is wireless, looks sleek and gives you that home theatre experience without the hassle of multiple speakers.
But how do you pick the right soundbar? And how do you set up a soundbar?
In this article, All Home Living’s sound experts give you helpful tips on how to pick the right soundbar for your TV and your budget. And show you how you can easily set it up.
Picking Your Soundbar- Set a Budget & Do Your Research
Soundbars are an excellent way to enhance your television viewing experience. They give you the same sensation as sitting in front of your TV and listening to those all-important sound effects, but without the size and tangle of cords.
Soundbars are found in all price ranges. You can spend as little as Rs 7,000 or more than Rs 70,000. Research different soundbars of different companies. At AHL we carry soundbars from Dali, Denon, Focal, JBL and Q Acoustics. Maybe you want one that has Dolby Atmos. Do your research based on the features you want in the soundbar.
Once you’ve chosen which soundbar you’re going for, you’ll want to know how to set it up. Continue reading below.
Step 1: Consider The Size of Your TV
An important factor to consider when choosing TV screen size
The size of the TV you buy might have more to do with what you’re watching than the size of your entire living area. This is due to the fact that not all televisions are created equal. Some are more square than others, which is important because a large TV appears much larger in a small room and overly bulky in a large one. As a result, selecting a right size of the tv for a room is crucial.
Top 5 Sound Bars one of the most important factors to consider, of course, is your TV. Because you ARE getting a soundbar to amplify the sound of your TV. One of the main things to consider is the dimensions of your TV, to make sure the soundbar you want to get fits well when placed near your TV.
Some TV manufacturers have their own soundbar range to compliment their TVs. They make sure that the soundbar sits below the TV’s bezels and doesn’t obstruct the screen. You can consider this as an option if you’re struggling for space. But you might not get the sound quality you desire.
Here’s what you need to consider for your soundbar to sit well with your new TV:
The width of your TV. Make sure that the soundbar isn’t wider than the TV’s width, and vice versa.
The height of your TV. Make sure that when you place the soundbar in front of the TV, it doesn’t block the screen. Check if there’s enough space between the bottom of your TV and the top of your TV stand or shelf to fit the height of the soundbar. And if it doesn’t, check if the soundbar has an IR repeater that’ll allow signals to pass through to your TV.
The space between the TV and the stand. If there’s too little space between your TV and the stand, see if your soundbar can fit on the shelf below. Just make sure you don’t confine the sound from any up-firing drivers that might be required for Dolby Atmos.
Space around the bar. Try to keep as much room around the bar as possible. Maybe you won’t be able to reproduce the immersive audio effect of a dedicated Dolby Atmos surround-sound system, but keeping room around a big soundbar like the Denon DHT-S716 HEOS SoundBar helps it do what it does best.
Step 2: Placement of Your Soundbar
Where to place the soundbar for better experiecne is crucial for the best audio results.
Yes, this is different from the previous point. Because you have to consider exactly where and on what you’re placing the soundbar. And it’ll affect your buying decision.
Will your soundbar fit on the wall under the TV? Will it fit on a shelf, considering you have one? You don’t want the soundbar too close to, or hanging over the edge of your shelf. If it’s not properly supported, the sound quality will suffer. If you want to mount it on the wall, make sure that the soundbar comes with a wall-mounting kit. Or check if you have the option to get one.
Once you know where your soundbar goes, you have to consider where to position the subwoofer. Most soundbars come with their own subwoofer. Your sound quality will be better if you keep the subwoofer as close as possible to the soundbar. If there’s too much distance between the two, it’ll affect the merging of the sound.
But.. there are soundbars that don’t need a subwoofer. Like the Q Acoustics M3 or the Dali Kubik One.
Step 3: The Connections
A suitable ARC HDMI socket is required.
Another factor to consider is what you’ll need to connect to your soundbar. The most common one will be HDMI inputs. The HDMI cable can connect to 4K Blu-ray players, 4K games consoles and 4K set-top box.
You can also plug everything into your 4K TV and push the sound to your soundbar using ARC HDMI or eARC, or an digital optical cable. There are advantages and disadvantages to doing this. Enabling HDMI control means your soundbar can be turned on and off through your TV. Your optical digital connection is restricted in bandwidth, so you might not get the most of the audio decoding of the soundbar. For ARC, check that your TV has a compatible ARC HDMI socket. Then make sure it supports all the audio formats required for your TV.
Step 4: Wires and Wireless
Once you’ve decided on the above, connect the source to the relevant inputs and outputs. But don’t forget that you have wireless connections too.
Leverage the power of the wireless audio streaming feature
Most soundbars have a Bluetooth audio streaming feature and multi-room audio options. Check the settings on Bluetooth soundbar and switch on Bluetooth for the connections you need. Then connect the soundbar to the rest of the speakers in your home. Don’t forget to connect virtual voice assistants like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
The Last Step: Adjust The Sound Settings
Once all your connections are in place, adjust the sound settings to what you like best. You’ll most probably have an on-screen display showing all the different settings so you can adjust them easily.
Adjust the sound settings for the best result
Once all that’s done, test that your sound levels are balanced. You’ll find apps that you can use on your phone for testing sound levels. You can also do it through your own perception of sound. Choose a scene from a movie or series you know and love. If the sound is balanced, dialogues are crisp, music notes are clear, you’re good to go. You might also want to check how music sounds through the soundbar. Some soundbars have a different mode for music.
Or like the Dali Katch One, you might have two audio profiles- Wide and Focus. Make sure everything sounds great on both profiles.
In Conclusion
Congrats! You have a new TV, and an amazing soundbar that’s perfectly tweaked for the sound you love. Now you can enjoy your TV and home entertainment to the fullest. Don’t forget to update the software in your soundbar the way you do it on your phone. So that all features and tech is working perfectly.
Don’t forget that All Home Living delivers all over India. You can see what you want, live before you buy, with our video calling feature. Book your appointment – Quick call/ WhatsApp +91 9607929866/68. Our timings are from 10.30 am to 8 pm IST.
You can choose to pay through easy instalments when buying home tech. At 0% interest and no additional charges, in an easy 12 month EMI.