My Smart Phone is smarter than I am, and an arrogant bastard, to boot. Totally unco-operative.

Ima order the sound bar and cable, as it seems it should work. If the cable is not compatible, I should be able to correct that here at Best Buy.

Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement, everybody. I'll continue once I get the stuff from Amazon.

Pretty happy with the Sonos system we built for our family room.

Sound bar
Sub woofer
Two side towers

And a single Sonos Roam that is at the rear of the family room when it’s not moving around with us outside, etc.

We purchased our components at Costco.

Hard “No” on anything BOSE…

quote:

Originally posted by x0225095:
Pretty happy with the Sonos system we built for our family room.

Sound bar
Sub woofer
Two side towers

And a single Sonos Roam that is at the rear of the family room when it’s not moving around with us outside, etc.

We purchased our components at Costco.

Hard “No” on anything BOSE…

I have the same setup. I’ve been very happy with it over the past 3 years.

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
The only brand I trust is Nakamichi

In the 80s, I went through two Nakamichi cassette recorder/players, the first one a BX150 and it crapped out after a couple of years. I then got the next best model, and that also crapped out after maybe four years. I then bought a decent Sony deck and that lasted me until I gave it away in the early 2000s, an action I regret.

As far as soundbars, there are many good makes and models, depending how much one is gonna spend. My JBL soundbar/wireless subwoofer setup is still going strong for almost 8 years, still sounds great.

That was the 1980’s. We are 40 years past that date.

I’ve had multiple sound bars crap out over the years because they were always cheap and you get what you pay for. Some people will have luck with them, some won’t. Just like many things you get what you pay for. Nakamichi sound bars are some of the best on the market. Price isn’t cheap but damn for a soundbar it’s pretty damn good. 9.2.4. Two subs, 4 satellites. True “decent” surround sound. I have a full HT and 7.1 in the MB. Wood paneling in the living room that I refused to drill into so I’ve always used soundbars in the LR. I got tired of cheap sound bars and them crapping out and finally bought a good system.

Looks like you ordered last night so maybe too late but your tv and the fire soundbar you ordered both support HDMI eARC and it even comes with the correct cable. The fire soundbar description even suggest connecting via eARC if possible because the soundbar does not even come with a remote control. So by connecting via eARC you will be using the tv remote to control the volume. I don't think you will need or want to use the optical cable in this case.

Just saw your comment, straightshooter. Both the sound bar and the cable are due here today, and if I get a chance I'll set it up tonight.

Another vote for SONOS. Have had it for years, make sure you have the ARC connection and SONOS has many different speakers and soundbars you can choose from

Not sure why you ordered a separate optical cable when the description of the soundbar says it includes an optical cable and a remote, I thought I saw someone say there was no remote. They refer to it as a "remote commander".

I missed that in the description.

Sorry I came too late to give my suggestion. I will post it for others to consider though. It's a ZVOX. They have several sizes. I have the one in the link below and it has surpassed my expectations in every way. Their warranty is unheard of too.

https://zvox.com/collections/z...-built-in-subwoofers

Their Accuvoice feature is awesome! It lets you raise the volume of the conversation and lower the background noise so you don't have to have the volume up really high to hear the conversation. My favorite other feature is auto volume leveling. Dumb apps like HULU blast their commercials so you really get annoyed by the volume doubling every time a commercial comes on. This feature makes all sound the same for every channel regardless of commercials or whatever they do within the app to make it so loud.

I got it working, and it only took about 2 hours.

I had to use the optical setup, as our DVD player is plugged into the HDMI ARC outlet, so I ended up using the extra cord I bought and saved myself a trip to Best Buy.

So far, the sound is better than the LG TV's was by a bit, and voices are clearer, but this is certainly not symphonic quality. I suspect there are still some tricks I have to learn to improve the sound.

It came with a remote, by the way.

Thanks to everybody for the advice. I tried to follow it to the extent I could, and much appreciate it. FLKev and anybody else interested, if you want to keep this thread going as a Sound Bar thread, that may be a good idea. I'll just change the name.

quote:

Originally posted by newtoSig765:
I got it working, and it only took about 2 hours.

I had to use the optical setup, as our DVD player is plugged into the HDMI ARC outlet, so I ended up using the extra cord I bought and saved myself a trip to Best Buy.

To clarify a couple of things, the spec sheet on your tv indicates that you have an eARC not ARC port. This is specifically designed for audio connections such as to a soundbar. Your DVD player should be perfectly happy using one of the other standard HDMI ports.

GROK has this to say:
To connect a DVD player to a TV, you should use the HDMI 2.0 port (or any standard HDMI port) on your TV, as the HDMI eARC port is specifically designed for audio output to devices like soundbars, not for input from source devices like DVD players.

Our Roku stick is plugged into the other HDMI port, and there are just those two. I'm open to suggestions, though. The DVD volume is way too low, set up this way, maybe it's related?

Pick up an HDMI switch/splitter. Plug the HDMI splitter into your non EArc HDMI. Plug your ROKU and DVD into the switch. Plug the soundbar into the EArc.

Make sure your TV audio is setup to output correctly. You may have to tinker with the settings.

That should get you there.

Also keep in mind most soundbars are not going to put out a ton awesome sound until you cross a certain price threshold and an external sub will help as well. Not to say you cannot get a decent setup with a moderately priced bar but just don’t set your expectations on “HOME THEATER!!!!” If you will.

I was wondering about the possibility of a splitter.

There are several on Amazon, none from any company I've heard of. Any recommendations? The first that came up had 3 ports, which is attractive if I have to add another device, about $15, but again I never heard of the manufacturer.

As to sound quality, all I'd like would be something like the sound of our Sony that died, causing us to get the LG. (When this one dies, definitely going back to Sony!)

HDMI/ARC will run a soundbar. eArc is enhanced audio return port and is necessary for Dolby Atmos (height speakers). If you're just running a soundbar an ARC port is fine and an optical output will give you the same audio, the ARC just reduces the number of cables needed. to run two things off one HDMI port you need a switch not a simple splitter.

cslinger did say "switch/splitter" as well. I'll check Amazon this afternoon. Thanks for mentioning the switch.

I have to shut down for a few hours as our power company is going to do some emergency work in the area. I'll check Amazon this evening.

quote:

Originally posted by newtoSig765:
Our Roku stick is plugged into the other HDMI port, and there are just those two. I'm open to suggestions, though. The DVD volume is way too low, set up this way, maybe it's related?

In that case you may just want to stay with what you have, it just means you have to use the soundbar remote for volume.

The specs on your tv were confusing since they indicated two HDMI and a HDMI eARC but in looking at a picture what they were indicating is that one of the two HDMI is eARC and there is only a total of two.

Sorry I did mean switch. Sometimes they are erroneously called splitters even though real splitters just send the same signal 2 places.

As for brand I wouldn’t stress. Make sure it has a remote control and is capable of handling the bandwidth needed such as 4K. Other than that much like cheap red dots they are all probably made in the same factories. .

The basic gist is the switch will be your source control. The output from the switch will go into the TV via one of the HDMI ports. The TV becomes your sound processor which sends the sound out via the other HDMI to the soundbar.