Love the idea of cinema sound but simply don't have the room or budget for multiple speakers? Well, then your best bet is probably to get a good sound bar. Once merely a small step-up from what your television's speakers could provide, today’s sound bar systems come with angled drivers and support for the latest audio technologies from the cinema, giving you a much better viewing experience. For this year's comparison, we rounded up the best new models that are priced below S$2k.
When we look at sound bars, the ability to perform well with movies and audio is a definite must, and the HW-K950 delivered on both fronts, producing good details in the highs and just enough weight in the lower ranges to add excitement to videos. Having two rear wireless speakers also helped greatly with imaging, as the entire system combines to truly surround you with sound. The fact that the speakers are essentially plug and play with wireless capabilities certainly helps too, as ease of setup is always a plus. You can try to use clever positioning of drivers and bouncing of sound to get good surround, but the fact remains that there is no replacement for a physical source. So for music, games and video, the HW-K950 is the sound bar we’d choose.
Criteria |
Klipsch RSB-14 | LG SJ9 | Onkyo LS7200 |
Philips Fidelio SkyQuake |
Samsung HW-K950 |
Sonos Playbase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Performance | 8.0 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 6.5 | 8.5 | 8.0 |
| Design | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 7.5 |
| Features | 8.0 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 8.5 | 8.0 |
| Value | 9.0 | 8.0 | 8.5 | 6.0 | 9.0 | 8.0 |
| Overall | 8.0 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 6.5 | 8.5 | 8.0 |
| Price | S$1,399 | S$1,888 | S$1,799 | S$1,899 | S$1,899 | S$1,299 |
For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed in the References section at the end.
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