Vizio VSB200 Soundbar - Page 4

YSP - 800 Soundbar with Subwoofer. Sub now being used with the Vizio SB. My son is using the Yamaha. Both of us happy.

It was actually your review of the Vizio that made me decide to try it after being dissatisfied with both my original Yamaha and the brief audition of the Sony CT-100.

Also thought that you were getting ripped unfairly on your posts of the two televisions. I am a plasma guy. Tried several LCD's after moving to my condo with lots and lots (too much) sunlight for most of the day. My reason for returning to plasma was twofold. One, could not find an LCD with decent off angle viewing. We have people over regularly to watch college sports and could not find one that the picture did not degrade when more than 25-30 degrees off angle. Still watchable, but a totally different picture than what someone in the sweet spot saw. Recently purchased a V10 Pany and the anti-glare coating takes care of everything with the exception of about a one and one-half hour window in the morning. Since I am only home a few mornings a week and since it seems to rain all the time this year in Memphis, this has been mostly a non-issue.

Cool,,, glad my little Vizio review was of help and glad your happy with it.

Im still shocked by how good the Vizio w/sub sounds, I have had a ton of soundbars at my place including most of the YSP's ever made and the CT-100 and CT-500, the Vizio still is a shocker to me that it sounds as good as it does and sells for the price it sells for.

I can say I like almost everything about the Vizio, the ease of set up (one optical cable going from my panel to the bar), I like the remote and I even like the little LED's (as another poster here suggested, I did take off the grill and remove the foam around the LED's and it made a huge difference, very happy I removed the foam) and the wireless sub,,, LOVE that !!!!

Only "one" thing I dont like about the Vizio, I wish it had more of a surround effect,,, the Sony CT-500 and the YSP's in my opinion beat out the Vizio in the surround effect department, but then again, the Vizio does fill the room up pretty well with sound and I have found it works best if the sub is placed behind you, I put the Vizio wireless sub in the back of my room and it made a big difference for the better.

Another thing, the Vizio's Trusound feature works better than any system I have ever tried for watching late at night when you want to keep the volume even so as to not to piss off you neighbors late at night,,, I live in a condo/apartment and the Trusound works great for that.

Oppps,, sorry, I got off on a rant there.

Cheers
Davyo

I think you will be happy with either choice. They both do an outstanding job for someone that wants to better their tv sound at an inexpensive price.
I chose the Vizio, but I've listened to the Sony in the store, and I'd say both are excellent choices.
The Sony might have an edge in sound quality, but I don't think it matches the Vizio in volume, and the Vizio is much simpler - less cables involved,etc.

I have noticed the surround effect is somewhat dependant on where the soundbar is placed. I just happen to have mine on a swivel stand where the TV sits. I discovered there are certain angles which seem to enhance the FX. I think when the soundbar is placed in a corner, the sound bounces off the side walls at angles which seem to broaden the FX. Sometimes, I even have the sense that something is occurring behind me.

Btw, Davyo. I looked for your review but couldn't find it. Could you post the link? Tks :-)

Agreed on placement,,,, placement and room shape and size will make or break any soundbar.

Below are the links to two of my Vizio soundbar threads.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1193030

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ighlight=davyo

Cheers
Davyo

Davyo - your experiences sound very similar to my own.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was only looking for something with a higher fidelity than the built-in speakers. The Vizio is the first soundbar that I have tried that so far, I don't mind its surround effects. Since it is very mild, it seems to just expand the soundstage slightly. I have tried straight stereo and surround and really can't decide if I prefer one over the other. With both the Yamaha and the Sony, I did not like any of their surround modes. Felt it definitely colored the sound. Although this could have a lot to do with our living room. Due to a lack of walls and way too many windows and open connections to other rooms, the only place I can place a large screen TV at a proper viewing angle is in a corner. From this corner to my seat is 15'. It is another 20' until we reach the back wall of the connected dining room and another 18' until the final back wall in the connected kitchen. On one side of the corner where the TV lives, is an 8' x 8' door leading to our sunroom. Add in the 15' vaulted ceiling in the living room and 16' vaulted ceilings in the dining room and kitchen and this is a lot of space to try to fill with sound and very few walls for reflections.

Actually, if I were still in my 20's when every available cent (well not quite that bad) went to high end audio equipment, I would have killed for this room. Even before there were any surround formats, a good stereo (with a good recording) would reveal all sorts of information about the location where something was recorded and all sorts of sounds and timbres of musical instruments that usually stayed hidden to most people.

As heated as the battles seem to be over HDTV brands, media, types, this is all mild compared to what went on in the 70's concerning speaker technology, vacum tube vs. solid state, double blind listening tests and supposed golden ears who could hear things us mere mortals could not.

I got out of the whole high end scene when people started spending $100 for connecting cables and even $100 per foot for speaker wire. Then it was $100 for a power cord and green magic markers to put on your CD's.

I guess we haven't gone that far when I hear the salespeople at Best Buy pushing Monster HDMI cables for $100. Insanity.

drfreeman60,

I fully understand your previous post about vinyl, (which I am getting back INTO!). I am in my 50's now and when I can listen to some favorites from the old days. I love my vinyl as well as all the cleaning and adjustments to get the sound just right. Guess I am a purist, or just stupid I can't decide.

But I digress, I am sitting in my office with my recently purchased Vizio Soundbar and I am looking forward to hearing it. The reason for this purchase is to please my spouse who prefers the bedroom for watching TV and movies. I prefer the 7.1 monstrosity I have in the basement, but that is my prefrence not hers. Depending on the movie we usually watch in the bedroom.

Since I enjoy the time spent with my wife I have purchased the soundbar to bridge the gap so to speak. The LCD speakers are horrible and when the sound is coming from the Bluray player via HDMI the volume often is full on and I still have trouble with the soundtrack. So this will be an experiment for me to see if this little bugger delivers.

For $100 I can't complain. It is a refurbished unit and I am pleased with the price I paid for it. Since I am putting it in the bedroom I don't need the full Magilla (5.1/7.1). So I will review this and get back.

Also anyone willing to run the risk vs. value check out "BuyDakota.com"
The refurbished units are $99.00 with free shipping. Pretty good deal.

Anyway Long Live Vinyl!

Bakerman

I own this unit. I am pleased with it so far. And I am a "5.1 system" owner. Granted, it's not a top of the line system, it was pretty cheap, but I put it together myself (e.g., NOT a theater in a box) and it sound quite good. That's in my living room. This sound bar is in my bedroom. For a proper movie viewing, sure, I go into my living room and use the 5.1 setup. But for day to day TV and gaming, this sound bar is great, especially in a small room like a bedroom, where true 5.1 is not feasible. Bottom line, it sounds great and *blows away* the tinny TV speakers.

The only negative is it looks kind of funny sitting in front of my 32" bedroom TV because it's substantially wider than the TV .

Mount it on your wall above your TV, Im sure it would look better and I know for a fact it will sound better, having any soundbar at ear level really kills the sound.

CHeers
Davyo

This may be a stupid question, but how about having the soundbar below ear level? The location of my TV in a corner of the living room makes it impractical to place the soundbar on the wall. As it is now, the bar sits on the swivel stand at the base of the TV.

JRG - that is similar (exactly) like my setup. I have a corner cabinet that houses a plasma TV. The Vizio soundbar resides on the same shelf, directly in front of the plasma. The unit seems to have good dispersion. My impression is the dispersion is better on the horizontal plane than the vertical plane and therefore I like it as close to ear level as possible. The tweaters are probably 33" above the floor which places them about 10-12" below my ear-level when seated on the sofa or loveseat approx. 10-12' from the unit.

I do feel the sound does not noticeably deteriorate as much as 40-45 degrees off center. There are a lot of audiophile speakers costing tens of thousands that wish they could say that. Nah. As a former audiophile, we always had a sweet spot and said to heck with everyone else. I have grown much more accomodating in my old age.

I have mine just sitting on the floor in front of the tv stand, and it sounds great.

All I can say is I have done a whole bunch of experimenting with soundbar mounting and positioning (not just the Vizio) and what I have found is the higher you mount a soundbar the better the sound.

In the picture below you can see how high I have my Vizio bar mounted above my Vizio 551 LED/LCD.
Also, my setup does look much better than the picture, in the picture I had to increase the brightness drasticly so the Vizio bar would be visable against my all black wall,,,, increasing the brightness of the picture kinda made my black wall look like crap (in the picture).
But in looking at the picture Im also thinking I need to clean my screen and vacume the floor.

Cheers
Davyo

I'm in an apartment so wall mounting isn't the best option . It sounds quite good where it is though!

I live in an apartment as well,,,, my display, soundbar and my BluRay, HD-DVD and HD cable box are ALL wall mounted.

When I move out, I will fill the holes I made with some spackle and then do some touch-up painting and no one will ever know there was anything ever wall mounted.

You cant put two screws in the wall of your apartment ?

Cheers
Davyo

Hmm...interesting. I have to wonder if you are not getting bass enhancement by having it closer to the ceiling. Not to say that's a bad thing.

I dont know if Im getting any extra bass having so close to the ceiling or not, so if I dont know then perhaps I am not.

But one of the reason's I think the bar sounds better up so high is the sound is also bouncing/reflecting off the ceiling,,, instead of just having side walls to reflect off of.

With the sound reflecting off the ceiling AND the side walls it make's for a very big room filling sound.

Cheers
Davyo

I don't know if anybody else has run across this or not, but I've found that sometimes - not all - with older movies, made in the 50s,40s,etc, I get a really uneven sound, to the point that I have to raise the volume level really high to hear the lower parts, then the loud sounds blow me out of the room.
What I discovered, is that if you run into one of these - just turn off the sound limiter, and the "surround" option, and the sound will be fine.

BarnBurner - I leave both of the sound processing options off all of the time. The sound limiter definitely compresses all of the sound and gives it a muffled sound all of the time. I prefer to hear as much of the dynamic range as possible. I actually turned on the surround and left it on from about five days. Did not feel it added great amounts of distortion, which to my ears makes it better than most. Turned it back off to where I am now listening to just the stereo feed. When I did, my wife asked "What did you do?" It was liking cleaning the windows (my ears?). Everything, especially voices, sounded just a whole lot cleaner.

I wrote about this a few weeks ago, the fact that the TruVolume effect does not seem to be what its cracked up to be. I am wondering if its usefulness is dependant on the quality of the original soundtrack, or some aspect of the process that appears to be a bit hit & miss.

Re: placement and bass response, I would think that if you have a sub-woofer, it wouldn't matter where the soundbar is mounted.

On a side note, I want to thank all the audiophiles who contribute to this thread. I enjoy the tips and tricks which have come out of this discussion.

Below is what I posted a few weeks ago about the TruSound feature.


About the SRS TruSound on the Vizio and other systems volume limiters
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since purchasing the Vizio Soundbar w/wireless sub and having more time to play with it I wanted to bring up something that has not been touched on that much.

Every system, be it a soundbar or a full-on surround system all have some type of feature that even's out the sound for late night viewing or to help with TV commercials that blast the volume so loud it make's you want to throw something at the TV,,,,, (car commercials and personal injury attorney commercials are the worst I think).

Anyhow, being an apartment/condo dweller I have a wall I share with a neighbor, and besides that, I hate loud TV commercials.

Every system I have had in my place I have always experimented with the volume limiter of each system (soundbars and 5.1 systems) and I have never been happy until now.

On all the other systems I have tried, the volume limiter or night mode or silent mode (each company has their own name for it) have never really worked to well, they either distroy the overall sound or dont work as advertised, but the SRS TruSound feature on the Vizio really works great and it works better than any other volume limiter I have ever used on any system.
As in, I can clearly hear all the dialog and every sound and the overall sound does not suffer at all.

I do alot of late night movie watching and this the first time I have ever been able to set the volume and leave it.
I no longer have to make a mad dash for the remote during a heavy action scene when watching a BluRay or when a car commercial airs while watching cable.

As I said in another thread I think the Vizio bar with the wireless sub is very impressive and puts out a nice big full sound, I also said in that thread that I think the Sony CT-500 and YSP's do slightly a better job at a surround effect.

But Im also of the opinion that for me, and my viewing habbits, the TruSound feature of the Vizio more than makes up for the not as good as surround effect that the other bars have,,, hope that made sense.

Anyhow, I thought this post might be useful to anyone else that has, late night viewing habbits, neighbors you dont want to piss off, a sleeping baby or a couple of girlfriends that came over to spend the night and they fell asleep while you wanted to stay up and watch movies

Cheers
Davyo

BARNBURNER............... You mentioned you programed your Dish Network remote control. I have tried everything and cannot get my remote to program to this sound bar. I have a 5.0 IR remote. Could you tell me what type of remote you have, and if you do happen to have the same remote could you tell me what the code is??? I have tried the scan on every different mode and I can't get it to work. Thanks in advance...

Ryan

ok - bear with me.... it's sort of a round about trip to explain this. I have a dish hd dvr vip722. Came with a 20.0 ir remote. I had a problem with the remote that dish couldn't figure out how to fix, so they sent me another remote - a 21.0 which can be set to use ir or uhf. In the meantime, I fixed the problem myself, so I just set the new remote aside. I had to have the dvr replaced 3 times because of reception problems. The third one worked, but created another problem, where when I turned it on, I would get info box popups for the first half hour, and sometimes when someone would walk by the dvr. Out of desperation, I tried the new remote, and switched it to uhf instead of ir. That fixed my popup problem - plus gave me more range to control everything. I could not get the "scan" feature to work with the soundbar either. Then - as I read thru the manual, I noticed that this remote had a "learn" function, where you press the "aux" button on the remote, put the two remotes together, press a button on the vizio remote, press whatever button you want to use on the dish remote,etc. That's how I got the soundbar programmed to the dish remote.
Now - I don't know whether your remote has the learn function on it or not. Your manual for the remote or dvr should say if it does, and should explain how to use it.
Hope that helps. If I can provide anymore assistance, please let me know.

I think the model of remote is the key. I use universal remotes but I need to try that on my 21.0. It would work well that way except it might not work for a DVD player, which I use on occasion. Damn, you got to be asleep if you don't learn something everyday....

I was able to get it to work on my dvd player a limited bit, but basically, if I want to do anything beyond play,pause,stop, and skip - I'm better off just using the dvd remote.

The big problem using the DN remote, no macros. But I like the button size.

Hey guys,

My brother has a WD HDTV player in his room back home and most of the movies he downloads are DTS and dont work with the tv speakers.. I was wondering if this soundbar decodes DTS like the Sony HTC 100. If so, does he just connect all hdmi inputs to the tv and then digital out?

Thanks,

Eric

I don't think it does. However, with a soundbar I am less interested in decoding capability than audio quality, which IMHO is better in the Vizio.
YMMV.

+1

My dad is 83, a WWII vet with significant hearing loss at higher frequencies. Now that my mom has passed away, we are finally talking him into replacing his 27" CRT TV, we are buying him a Samsung LN40B500 TV, which has crappy speakers, but an optical output (no analog out).

This soundbar seems like a good option to improve the sound enough that he will be able to hear his new TV well. I am concerned that it will be sufficient for his hearing loss, he has a hard time hearing women with higher pitched voices. I don't know any way to see if this will be sufficient for his hearing needs, but he is not interested in surround sound or even HD, so he doesn't need anything fancy. Since the TV does have some equalization controls, I'm thinking we can just crank up the higher frequencies.

Hopefully we can talk him into HD later, as he is a big football fan, I don't think he knows what he is missing. Thanks for the reviews and info here, I appreciate it. I'm glad to see that the troll left.