Finally, a client needs a sound bar. I'm hoping that the Polk 500 CHT is a good unit and works well. I looked up sound bars here and there wasn't much of anything; someone mentioned "the Polk sound bar" can learn commands, but the 500 CHT doesn't have the word "remote" in its manual, so I figure the discussion here could use some updating.

Nice to say, my client, who had seen so-called "sound bars" at Costco for $229 to $299, looked around some more at other product and came to the conclusion that we should probably stick with the Polk despite its much higher price. I'll let you know how it works out.

the 500 CHT is a passive sound bar. It will require a surround receiver and preferably a subwoofer. It is however a very nice speaker.

The original post does not specify whether the inquiry is about powered or passive sound bars. The post mentions learning commands, which suggests the former, but the 500 CHT is the latter.

well i would love to pick this post apart and give it the ole Ernie dissection but ill leave that up to you .First i guess we need to define sound bar. Currently I've only installed Leon sound bars(but i can't wait to give the Sonance SB46 a try here soon).So my definition would be one speaker with the front left center combined.Till last week i had to mount a customer supplied Sony sound bar.I tend to think of these more as a fancy home theater in a box.Inputs went into the sound bar and then a hdmi out to the panel.
So here are a few questions to further help figure out what sound-bar we are talking about !
1 Will there be a seperate receiver in the setup ?
2 For the Polk will you be using the wireless subwoofer ?
3 Is the length shooter or longer than the tv
4 Will the soundbar be mounted to the tv or the wall ?

[Link: polkaudio.com]

You will want to stick with the items in the "Instant HT Series" section. All of these will not require any other components and will be able to learn commands. The Yamaha sound bars are also nice for the money.

Jesus Ernie,

Powered or passive, how wide, how deep does it need to be, 3 channel or 5, what else is in the system, wall or table mount?

I mean for F-$k sake, sound bar can mean anything and you come out swinging this question, give it to me straight :). What do you need.

Passive I've been happy with Definitive, 3 and 5 channel, two powered models. Other powered models I've liked are atlantic technology and Martin Logan.

Sonos makes a cool bar as well that can have wireless speakers.

I've done some cheaper bars, Boston made one, but the remote barely worked off axis. I've done two customer supplied samsung bars, sounded like crap, but better than the TV.

What can you stretch the budget to?

I'll have more on this later as I'm just wrapping up for the day, but... I've got a surround receiver and this sound bar is to be passive, for the LCR outputs from that receiver's power amp front channels.

When I asked for information on speaker bars, I really did want this to be a wide open discussion.

Dave, if there are all that variety of sound bars, maybe we'd better set up a naming committee for all the types!

We use Leon, Episode and Sonos for 95% of our soundbar installs. If the customer cares about music at all I will typically avoid the Episode, but for a living room HT it is pretty good.

Though it has many features I will be the first to say the Sonos Bar does NOT sound good.

Thanks.


I thought most of them were described as having some leftness, rightness, and centerness. It never occurred to me that they would be "front left center combined," which I assume means the right is combined in there too.


And it was basically a mono speaker?


Yes.

No. There's already a sub.

It's about the same.

Yes.

We'll talk about it and the bar will probably go on the TV. I got a set of brackets for that. I expect to get the sound bar mounted tomorrow.

Really? I think they sound alright.

Ernie, avoid the cht 400, stick with the 500 in case you have a last minute mind change. The one I setup I wasn't happy with nor was the client. I'm trying to figure out if there is something wrong with mine or that's just how they are.

Episode 500T w/ Mini Amp & Evolution sub. Sounds awesome, looks awesome & you can make a dollar as well.

Be very careful in spec'ing this sound bar. It has a separate DSP box, 17x6x1.75 and connects to the speaker with about a 10ft umbilical cable (I believe I had to slice 23 speaker wires to extend it). Also note, it does not sound nearly as good as would be expected for the price in 5 or 7 channel mode...it does however sound decent in L+C+R mode...but has VERY little bass or mid bass output. I would not recommend it for someone critical of music quality...fine for most home theater's with a subwoofer.

On the plus side, the slim profile is great and the width matches most 55" slim bezel TV's almost perfectly.

...one more downside if your client price shops...mine found his for $600 include a free PSW150 subwoofer - told him it was a great deal and I couldn't match it.

Bruce, you may need to get your hearing checked...they don't sound good at all...better then the 1-300 powered kits...but not by much.

A decent solution for a small room with just a TV and a streaming media player in a house where the rest of the distributed audio system is also sonos.