Acquired a Samsung HW-MS651 Sound Bar - Very Pleased with it

[Pumpuynarak]

Yesterday BM Miko and i went out to source a Samsung Soundbar, after our 4th visit to electrical appliance outlets we finally found an all in one unit in the Mall here in Korat. I have an old (13 years) LCD Samsung TV which despite being very good with a great picture it has no bluetooth/wifi facility or ARC outlet so we had to ensure we got an all in one unit.

I have to say it does'nt compete with my pro gear that i have upstairs in the bedroom set up with my newly acquired Smart TV but the sound quality is excellent and for 12K baht i'm delighted. BM Miko was his usual helpful self and without him i would'nt have ever mastered the set up, we had to connect the optical cable to my Truevisions set top box as my old Samsung TV does'nt have an ARC outlet and i'm really in the dark regarding these sort of things.

I would recco to anyone considering purchasing, anyone else have experience of soundbars ? I'm learning all the time lol 

[Toy Boy]

1 hour ago, Pumpuynarak said:

Yesterday BM Miko and i went out to source a Samsung Soundbar, after our 4th visit to electrical appliance outlets we finally found an all in one unit in the Mall here in Korat. I have an old (13 years) LCD Samsung TV which despite being very good with a great picture it has no bluetooth/wifi facility or ARC outlet so we had to ensure we got an all in one unit.

I have to say it does'nt compete with my pro gear that i have upstairs in the bedroom set up with my newly acquired Smart TV but the sound quality is excellent and for 12K baht i'm delighted. BM Miko was his usual helpful self and without him i would'nt have ever mastered the set up, we had to connect the optical cable to my Truevisions set top box as my old Samsung TV does'nt have an ARC outlet and i'm really in the dark regarding these sort of things.

I would recco to anyone considering purchasing, anyone else have experience of soundbars ? I'm learning all the time lol 

I'm glad you're happy with it. My first TV here was a 48 inch Samsung with a home-entertainment system, i.e. a DVD player with sub-woofer and five speakers attached. These have gone well out of date now and the all-in-one soundbars are the must-have accessory.

When I bought the next TV a bit over three years ago, a 65 inch Samsung series 9, I listened to a couple of soundbars and decided that I preferred the version with a separate sub-woofer (it was also usefully cheaper than the version with the sub-woofer built-in, not that that influenced me, lol).

When they set the TV up the soundbar connected to it via Bluetooth automatically as soon as you switched the telly on. Then, after 6 months or so, the TV or soundbar forgot how to do that and now I have to manually tell the idiot box to change from the TV speakers to the soundbar. The automatic connection does resurface from time to time, but it never stays long, alas. Ive no idea what's going on there or how to fix it. It doesn't really bother me, but as the TV language is set to English the GF can't remember or figure out how to connect the soundbar, so she puts up with the TV speakers when she's here.

It's got a fibre-optic connection as well, which would save doing the reconnection every time I switch the blessed thing on, but the sound quality is definitely inferior that way to what I get via Bluetooth. Again, I've no idea why. Anyway, it's not perfect but it's a lot  better and much more compact than the old home entertainment system was. The GF got that, along with the old 48 inch TV as a present, so she's happy too.

I'm now looking for an 82 or 85 inch TV, but with Samsung your options seem to be limited to either their Crystal processor or their QLED system. The former is cheap and cheerful, while the latter is much more expensive but has (so they tell me, I'm not sure I can tell the difference) a far superior picture. The price difference is something like 45K Baht versus 75K, which is not nothing. I'm currently thinking it's probably best to go for the best Crystal display (the 8100 series, I think) and use some of the money saved over QLED to buy a top-of-the-range soundbar.

If anybody's bought one of these Crystal display Samsungs, or has looked at how they stack up against the QLED sets, I'd be interested to hear your views.

[Captain_B]

As a comparison l recently got a Panasonic soundbar here in UK for £150. Picked it as the TV was Panasonic and reviews stated it was easy to set up from same manufacturer which it was. Separate bluetooth woofer which is a fairly large unit but a definate improvement on the sound. Also got the home entertainment system in Thailand which was fine when l last saw it 11 months ago!!

Sent from my SM-J610F using Tapatalk

[john1000]

I still have an AV amp with 5.1 setup but often wondered about the comparison with sound bars. 

[Pumpuynarak]

On 1/7/2021 at 2:39 PM, Toy Boy said:

I'm glad you're happy with it. My first TV here was a 48 inch Samsung with a home-entertainment system, i.e. a DVD player with sub-woofer and five speakers attached. These have gone well out of date now and the all-in-one soundbars are the must-have accessory.

When I bought the next TV a bit over three years ago, a 65 inch Samsung series 9, I listened to a couple of soundbars and decided that I preferred the version with a separate sub-woofer (it was also usefully cheaper than the version with the sub-woofer built-in, not that that influenced me, lol).

Yes i too had a Samsung home entertainment system which finally bit the dust after 13 years. I too would have preferred the separate sub woofer but as my old TV cannot deal with BT/WIFI i was left with little choice but an all in one but no doubt my current old Samsung TV will need replacement soon and that will open up a few ideas, watch this space lol

I have to say i've stuck with Samsung because they've been excellent products with good build quality and their pricing is not out of this world.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Pumpuynarak

[Pumpuynarak]

On 1/7/2021 at 5:19 PM, john1000 said:

I still have an AV amp with 5.1 setup but often wondered about the comparison with sound bars. 

I also had a 5.1 setup which had good quality sound, i don't think there's a lot of difference so replace when you have to is my advice.

[john1000]

3 hours ago, Pumpuynarak said:

I also had a 5.1 setup which had good quality sound, i don't think there's a lot of difference so replace when you have to is my advice.

When I think how much I used to spend on amps and speakers 20 odd years ago, and now can potentially get a better sound out of a relatively inexpensive, given price comparison, sound bar. 

[KhunDon]

All our LG TV’s have Atmos sound systems built in, but I’ve considered getting one of their LG soundbars for a while now, just to give a bit of a boost to the sound from the tellies.
 

I don’t like the idea of loads of separate, wireless bass speakers, so I’d probably go for an all in one sound bar in front of the TV instead.  Seen a couple in the sales that have come down a bit, but still very costly. 

[Pumpuynarak]

6 minutes ago, KhunDon said:

 Seen a couple in the sales that have come down a bit, but still very costly. 

I've seen them for up to 30K bht but obviously good gear.

[KhunDon]

20 minutes ago, Pumpuynarak said:

I've seen them for up to 30K bht but obviously good gear.

Yes I’ve seen some at silly prices. 🤔

I figured on somewhere around £350 -£450 absolute max. At that price point, there are some good ones out there. 🤗

[forcebwithu]

I'm envious of those that still have hearing good enough to notice the difference between sound systems. With my tinnitus, it would be just wasted money buying a good sound system.

Can any BM's still pass the mosquito sound test? I failed after level 1 in this vid.

 

[Pumpuynarak]

1 hour ago, forcebwithu said:

With my tinnitus, it would be just wasted money buying a good sound system.

Well i've got tinnitus in one ear but as long as i turn the volume up everything is fine lol

I did the test and did'nt get pass L2.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Pumpuynarak

[forcebwithu]

2 hours ago, Pumpuynarak said:

Well i've got tinnitus in one ear but as long as i turn the volume up everything is fine lol

I did the test and did'nt get pass L2.

Tried the test again with the volume a bit higher and I passed level 2, but even with the volume cranked couldn't hear level 3.

[Scotty]

7 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

Tried the test again with the volume a bit higher and I passed level 2, but even with the volume cranked couldn't hear level 3.

I got level 3 but not 4.

I had an audiogram last week at the hospital as part of my medical and they told me I have deteriorated high frequency hearing in both ears. 

[KhunDon]

Level 7 (just) but couldn’t hear level 8😪

 

[john1000]

9 hours ago, Pumpuynarak said:

Well i've got tinnitus in one ear but as long as i turn the volume up everything is fine lol

I did the test and did'nt get pass L2.

I used to have tinnitus in my left ear, but one day it went. Not much is known about this condition apparently.

[boydeste]

8 hours ago, Scotty said:

I got level 3 but not 4.

I had an audiogram last week at the hospital as part of my medical and they told me I have deteriorated high frequency hearing in both ears. 

Ditto for me,

3 good 4 nothing.

[boydeste]

2 minutes ago, boydeste said:

Ditto for me,

3 good 4 nothing.

I just tried it on my phone instead of the laptop and could hear 4 and 5, so depends on what quality the sound is methinks.

[Bazle]

30 minutes ago, boydeste said:

I just tried it on my phone instead of the laptop and could hear 4 and 5, so depends on what quality the sound is methinks.

Oh dear! I've tried it on both my desktop and my phone. Both times, got only to 2.

I'm blaming it on Black Sabbath! I could hardly hear for 2 days after going to their concert in a small club.

[fygjam]

There's a web based tone generator

https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

or an app for Android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.luxdelux.frequencygenerator

You can test the whole audio spectrum (or at least up to 20kHz).