A soundbar, sound bar or media bar is a type of loudspeaker that projects audio from a wide enclosure. It is much wider than it is tall, partly for acoustic reasons, and partly so it can be mounted above or below a display device, e.g., above a computer monitor or under a home theater or television screen. Basically, in a soundbar multiple speakers are placed in a single cabinet, which helps to create surround sound and/or stereo effect. A separate subwoofer is typically included with, or may be used to supplement, a soundbar.
History
Early passive versions simply integrated left, centre and right speakers into one enclosure, sometimes called an "LCR soundbar". Altec Lansing introduced a multichannel soundbar in 1998 called the Voice Of The Digital Theatre or the ADA106. It was a powered speaker system that offered stereo, Dolby Pro-Logic and AC3 surround sound from the soundbar and a separate subwoofer. The soundbar housed four 3″ full range drivers and two 1″ tweeters while the subwoofer housed one 8″ dual voice coil driver. The Voice Of The Digital Theatre used Altec Lansing’s side-firing technology and algorithms to provide surround sound from the sides, rear and front. This configuration eliminated the wiring of separate speakers and the space they would require. Pioneer Electronics Inc. announced the PDSP-1 in 2002, the world's first digital sound projector that utilizes a single-source speaker panel to deliver discreet 5.1 channel surround sound audio with more than 500 watts of power. Polk Audio had a pre-existing method of widening a stereo image by cancelling crosstalk from the left speaker to the right ear and vice versa. They expanded this to give a surround effect from one cabinet which they call a SurroundBar around 2005. The tag-line was "Five channels. One speaker. Zero clutter." Philips worked on similar technology, called Ambisound, which was spawned in 2007 from an earlier technology called SonoWave. The latter had the sound bar split into two units, with a phased array of three full-range drivers in each. Yamaha's YSP-1 Digital Sound Projector won the Best of Show award at the January 2005Consumer Electronics Show. As well as large left and right drivers, it had a phased array of about 40 small centre drivers. These would be configured automatically by running a setup program with included test microphone to control sound reflected from the walls of the room. HEOS by Denon launched the HEOS HomeCinema system in June 2015. It includes a sub-woofer and soundbar featuring dual 2″ × 5″ precision drivers that produce upper bass and mid-range audio for high fidelity sound with response extending to 20 kHz.
Advantages and disadvantages
Soundbars are suitable for your TVs so that it takes less space around and also delivers quality sound. Sounders are differently made just to be perfect enough to complement your smart TV set with the help of additional features like the technology of Dolby Atmos, Bluetooth, etc, which is different in the case of speakers. For another instance, speakers come with availability in configurations like 5.1, 7.1, etc. It is on the need of a buyer to one of the two as per their requirement as we can definitely see that both of their core purposes stays the same.
Soundbar hybrid
To take advantages both from soundbar and stereo set system, some manufacturers produce soundbar hybrids in which the soundbar represents left, center, and right speakers plus subwoofer and rear-left and rear-right speakers. Sometimes producers make soundbars with left, center, and right speakers plus detachable charge rear-left and rear-right speakers.
Usage
Soundbars were primarily designed to generate strong sound with good bass response. Soundbar usage has increased steadily as the world has moved to flat-screen displays. Earlier television sets and display units were primarily CRT-based; hence the box was bigger, facilitating larger speakers with good response. But with flat-screen televisions the depth of the screen is reduced dramatically, leaving little room for speakers. As a result, the built-in speakers lack bass response. Soundbars help to bridge this gap. Manufacturers such as Bose, Pioneer, Polk, and Yamaha are leaders in the high-performance soundbar segment. Soundbars also eliminate the issue of inherent audio loss, when sound emitted from the rear of a TV or monitor immediately reflects off the wall behind the unit.
Soundbases
A soundbase is similar to a soundbar but designed for a TV to stand on. Because of their larger size, soundbases typically have better bass sound than soundbars, unless the latter has a separate subwoofer.
Popular Brands
Popular brands include: Bose, Boston Acoustics, Coby, Denon, Funai, Harman Kardon, Insignia, JBL, Klipsch, LG, Onkyo, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Polk Audio, Yamaha, Zvox Roku, Samsung, Sonos, Sony, Vizio, and Yamaha.
