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Best Soundbar System
Best Soundbar System
Soundbars have steadily increased in popularity because of their all-round capabilities and attractive form factor. Designed to complement today’s widescreen TVs, they are a simple and fuss-free in getting cinema-sized sound without sacrificing on space. Hence, we trawled through the biggest names in consumer electronics to suss out the best entry-level sound bar that was released in the past year.
Nominees:
- LG HLX55W
- Philips HTS9104
- Samsung HT-BD2000
- Sony HT-CT350
- Yamaha YHT-S400
And the Winner Is...
The Yamaha YHT-S400 punches well above its weight with its authoritative and solid sound. It’s not perfect though, as dialog was a tad soft, but thankfully that can be easily rectified by increasing the center channel volume level. More importantly, it impressed us by convincingly replicating the experience of a multi-speaker setup. Listened with your eyes close, you wouldn't think the sound was coming from a single speaker, and a very slim one at that. Simply put, Yamaha YHT-S400 provided the best cinematic experience in this category.
| Criteria/Model | LG HLX55W | Philips HTS9104 | Samsung HT-BD2000 | Sony HT-CT350 | Yamaha YHT-S400 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design | 8.5 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Features | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Performance | 7.5 | 8.5 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 9.0 |
| Value | 8.0 | 7.5 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Overall | 7.5 | 8.5 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 9.0 |
| Price | S$1,499 | S$1,699 | S$1,499 | S$949 | S$999 |
For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.
