HT-SD40 2.1ch Soundbar for TV with powerful wireless subwoofer with Bluetooth

Absolute bargain from a premium brand. Sounds very clear with reasonable amount of bass and goes more than loud enough for anyone living in a flat/apartment. Looks super premium and expensive as well. Works perfectly with HDMI controls through my Apple TV so I can adjust the volume using the Apple Remote. It’s also handy to be able to connect directly via Bluetooth for music without having to turn on the TV, and then it even automatically switches inputs back to TV next time you turn it on. For £99 this soundbar is an absolute steal. You would have to spend £300+ to get something noticeably better than this.

I originally had an old TV, Blu Ray player and Sky box hooked into a traditional hi-fi amplifier, but when I bought a new Sony TV it didn’t have a line-out socket to allow this, and despite it being a very modern TV, the audio was never great. Budget was an issue and I wasn’t looking to spend a huge amount of money. And a full Surround Sound option wasn’t really an option as I didn’t want more wires threaded around the place. This Sony sound bar connects to the HDMI ARC input on the TV and channels audio from all connected HDMI devices. If you don’t have an ARC connection, you will need a vanilla HDMI port and Optical Digital Audio, for which a cable is provided. Audiophiles may criticise the sound quality but I find it much much better than the native TV audio. My only minor gripe is that it lacks a little bass but this isn’t a deal breaker. You will definitely notice the difference when switching between the sound bar and the TV audio. The sound is ‘fatter’. I’ve not tested Bluetooth music streaming much yet as the connection kept dropping, even when the phone was right next to the sound bar. However this might be down to my 4-year old phone that also has trouble connecting to my car stereo. All in all though, this is a great entry level sound bar for those on a limited budget. Pros: Very easy to setup with a single HDMI ARC connection. Channels audio from all connected HDMI devices. Excellent sound quality for a low price. Looks great. A simple black box with no extraneous frills. Cons: Lacks a little bass, which is quite noticeable when playing music over Bluetooth. Slight delay of 1-2 seconds in getting audio from power on and switching modes. HDMI cable not supplied.

This is a quick solution for needing sound on my new TV. It works quite well and the sound is pretty decent but it doesn't have a dedicated subwoofer. If I could go back I would definitely look for something that had a dedicated subwoofer as well as a volume indicator. My TCL TV does not display volume indicators for sound bars connected with arc and as the soundbar does not have its own volume indicator I have no more visual indication of what the volume level is. Still a decent product but definitely on the cheaper end and I would go for something a bit better but if on sale id say its worth it.

After trying two other cheap soundbars "2.1" and being disappointed with both I thought I would give it one more go and go with a well established brand. Specifically the entry level Sony soundbar :- "Sony HT-SF150 2ch Single Soundbar with Bluetooth and S-Force, Front Surround - Black" [120w] I didn't want a separate active subwoofer as its only for my bedroom and I tend to watch movies as I fall asleep so this seemed ideal. Compared to the previous two I bought this one was lacking in the connection/input side of things (RCA connection) but was far superior when it came to features namely Dolby signals/multiplex audio. F. Surround sounds good when the soundbar receives a Dolby signal, it has DRC (Dynamic Range Compression) which makes dialog/vocals easier to hear in Dolby enabled movies in the event they sound quiet, It has a separate vocal mode which works well, movie/music mode for a more punchy bass, The usual standard mode and an auto-select mode, which swaps it around (EQ-Modes) depending on the media you are playing. Each one is interchangeable and the mode is highlighted by the LED. For instance press the vocal button once and the led on the bar will light up once, press it again and it will blink twice (one blink = off, two = on) So on a night I tend to put both nightmode and vocal on, this limits gun shots / explosions but enhances dialog. ARC works fantastic (TV remote controls volume and standby/power) and the bar remembers your EQ settings/volume after coming out of standby unlike the cheaper bars. (With the exception of 'nightmode' that disables and goes back to normal after bringing the bar out of standby). When viewing a movie with a Dolby signal the bar can be set to play the front channels (with f.surround) / just the sub channel (both speakers dedicated to bass) or the front and sub channel, when you select the latter it will play the front channel through the left speaker and the sub channel is played through the right speaker, quite clever really. These are enabled with the remote. Too be honest though I've not needed to use that, this may not be a 2.1 speaker and a lot of reviewers say it has no bass but that hasn't been my experience at all, The reflex bass can be quite punchy especially with action movies (guns explosions) when viewing films from my PC the volume has never been higher than halfway, most of the time it's a few steps past quarter (and a few steps below when I'm trying to sleep). Let's be realistic though it's never going to be in your face bass rattling windows, vibrating under your feet... (making the neighbors hate you), You are going to need to buy a unit with an active sub for that .... and spend the extra coin to pay for it. Movie explosions/music sequences can still be heard downstairs a lot of the time during the day (small two bed house) Finally, in the event you have your speaker in front of your TV and it blocks the sensor, this bar has a iR repeater built into the back, when enabled it picks up your remote commands and duplicates them at the back of the soundbar, sending it to your TV sensor. I've not needed to use it even though the bar is in front of my TV my signal still reaches... But a very handy feature in the event you need to use it. Plus standard features, USB for music/podcast playback, Bluetooth mobile / tablet audio streaming (prob some other odds and ends I've forgot to mention) The only conclusion I can come too (in regards to some of the negative reviews) is a lot of reviewers didn't read the included instruction book and thought they activated modes when they infact turned them off (one light blink). I tried both the :- AZATOM 2.1 180W TOPVISION 2.1 120W The latter being in the top ten Amazon rank for soundbars (due to a sly free gift offer) Both of those offered big claims in regards to performance but they are greatly inferior to this soundbar in more ways then I've mentioned here. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this bar is perfect, but for the money it is a lot better than my previous purchases and I'm happy with it overall. (It's fit for purpose). I paid £87.97 for this bar and it's worth every penny, A much better sound presence then the standard downward facing speakers built into my LG-SmartTV. > July 2021 edit: This review was originally written with my LG smart TV paired to the Sony bar. I thought it was only fair to add, I have just linked it to my Philips ambilight smart TV via arc input and the audio is very low compared to the LG and the volume does not display on screen as was the case with the LG setup. (After playing around with this problem further, I can restore volume levels by going into the TV settings and selecting, Settings|All settings|sound|advanced|delta volume -and moving the slider up, As for the volume being displayed on the screen I've still not figured that out) Just wanted to add this information for full transparency. I hope this review helps.

Excellent Sony High Quality - unbeatable in test Modern TV slim sets have appalling pathetic inbuilt speakers, this overcomes the problems. tested against others in demo, this SONY one is unbeatable in quality and the price is astonishing! Build quality absolute excellent, solid, quality components and finish Sound - unbeatable- Excellent and VERY CLEAR vocals Choice of sound Vocal/Cinema/Music etc Choice of connection HDMI (with ARC Control) Optical SPDIF Bluetooth and USB Supplied with full EASY to understand instruction (plug&play) AND a remote control (remote is no long er needed when HDMI using ARC to the TV anyway) There are 'manual' discreet button should you need. Looks fanstatsic and not at all intrusive. (so can also play external music via Bluetooth connection or a USB) no need for Dolby surround etc at this price point - just VERY clear exceptional sound. SUMMARY: working in the sound industry can testify this unit has Excellent sound quality - as you would expect from Sony. No need for any others with pointless 'extras' and bad build/sound qulity. WOULD HIGHLY (and only) RECOMMEND THIS SONY bar

Typically great Sony build quality, great sound , easy setup and perfect size for chosen tv

Good. Meets my requirements

Early days with this sound bar and lots of tweaking and experimentation to try with the thing, but we basically bought this because we got sick and tired of the terrible audio mix on most Blu-Rays these days. Like the majority of folk who have bought a TV in the last 10 years, we found the TVs internal speakers (rear-facing, thin, quite frankly rubbish) drove us to distraction when trying to watch movies. Standard TV broadcasts seemed OK, but as soon as we watched a movie on any terrestrial service like Film 4 or put on a Blu-Ray we had the same problem we've always had - Mumbled dialogue but loud-as-heck music or sound effects. We'd tried just about everything to tweak the TV to get better sound (Sony's "voice boost" tech in their Bravia TVs is a pile of poo) so this was our desperation dive - a reasonably priced Sound Bar. A couple of observations straight off. This is ridiculously easy to connect, giving you a straight choice of optical cable connection or HDMI (if your telly can cope with the latter). Sound quality through both ways of connecting is identical but worth noting that the TV did NOT recognise that an external sound system was plugged in until we plugged in the optical cable (good job you get one supplied with the unit as you don't get a HDMI cable, you'll have to purchase one separately and I'd go for a high speed good quality one if you do). So set up was easy, first frustration came with the size of the unit. From the photos it looks like it snugly fits between the feet of the TV shown in the pics above, but it's about the length of our 40" Bravia (those of you with bigger tellies might be OK, but for us this means the height and the width of the sound bar covers the TV's remote / AR port, leaving us with no alternative but to try and raise the TV up on its plinth a bit. ARGHH!) Another frustration is that using the Sound Bar remote only triggers LEDs on the unit itself to show that anything's happening. There's no on-screen volume bar if you use the Sound Bar so you never quite know how loud / soft it is. Third frustration is that there are various 'modes' of operation with the unit itself, and the one we really wanted to work better for us (voice priority) really does absolutely nothing to boost speech in movies! ARGH! So we're back to the drawing board of trying to figure out what the problem is. On the positive side, music sounds great through this thing (but it's a bit of an expensive Blu-tooth speaker!) but I sincerely think Sony could've done better to integrate the sound bar with their own actual TVs with on-screen prompts for volume, modes etc. 3 stars mainly because it does actually mean we've got front-facing speakers on the TV now (I'm sure our neighbours appreciate this at least, as it means we're not jacking up the noise from the telly and projecting it backwards just to hear mumbled speech in movies) but overall pretty disappointed that this wasn't the golden solution for us.