The Official JVC TH-BA1 Owners Thread - Page 9

I'm in an apartment, where the living room is quite large and odd shaped. After reading much about the sony 150/350, samsung 450 and JVC BA1, I'm leaning towards the JVC BA1, so I can place the wireless subwoofer on the other end of the room, but am wondering what the range would be on the wireless. If I place it about 25ft away would it still work as well as it should? If someone has this setup, could you please try it out?

It might work but what I've heard about having the sub very far away from the soundbar is that you begin to hear & locate the subwoofer. Ideally you want the low frequencies to fill the room and to not be able to isolate the sound of the subwoofer as two seperate sources.

Ok, so I picked up the JVC BA1 from microcenter today along with a sound card with Optical out. My setup is an HTPC connected with Samsung 50" plasma. Sounds pretty good! I switched back to TV speakers for a while, and now is sounds like an old radio I'm loving it so far.

I set the audio output from HTPC to 24bit (the default was 16bit), I didn't notice a difference, maybe its negligible. What else are you guys configuring?

Those that have tried the Sony 350, does the sound get much louder (400W) than the BA1 (220W)? That's one thing I might consider, if there is a difference. Also, do you guys bother to turn off the speaker every time or can I just leave it on. I like to keep it on 40 and control the volume thru my HTPC windows media center.

Owning the JVC and hearing and playing with the Sony, the maximum volume on both is similar. Both units will start distorting way before you get to max SPL. Both will play cleanly at volumes loud enough to cause hearing damage (huh?).

The amplifier ratings for these units or any HTIB are 100% meaningless. There is not standardized method of measuring the advertised ratings. And even if there were, they are still 100% meaningless. An efficient speaker with a good 2-watt amplifier has the ability to play louder than an inefficient speaker with a 400 watt amplifier. Extreme examples, Altec Lansing Voice Of the Theater. Used as a single speaker in most theaters for years behind the screen. Typically powered by a single 5-watt amplifier. Infinity Quantum Line Source home speakers from the late 1970's. Required 200-300 watts per side to sound decent (not that these ever sounded really good), and still would not play as loud as the Altec. Electro-Voice made theater and sound reinforcement speakers that required even less power than the Altecs, and trust me these could definitely play loud enough for hearing loss with four or five watts of power. About 126db SPL before the speaker started to distort.

The JVC is very intriguing to me because of all of the great reviews from all of the knowledgeable members here. I wish more retailers would carry it so I could try it out and see it in person. That's one reason why my main choices were the Sony150 and Samsung450.

The JVC is no longer being manufactured, but still plenty of units in the supply chain.

Don't base your decision on anything you hear in the big box stores. Their setups are so bad, it is nearly impossible to make any type of informed decisions.

Best Buy did offer the JVC on-line only. If you try it and it doesn't work for you, you can always return it to one of their stores. You can also do in-store pickp up and save shipping.

true. I mean i was always aware while in BestBuy and Sears that I was in a terrible testing environment. I wish the JVC was still being manufactured and was also as readily available as Sony and Samsung. Especially if it pretty much is the "crowned winner" here. I still might order it to try it out.

I've had BA1 for the last 2 weeks now and I'm pretty impressed with it. I'm just wondering about some of the sound levels. Right now I have surround and center set to +5 and my sub set to +1. My volume is kept at 20 when watching blu ray movies and it's plenty loud. My question is will the surround sound effect improve if I lower the surround sound and center volume, but increase the system volume? Also can anyone shed some light on the difference between Surround Mode 1 and 2 and DRC? Thanks for any help.

+5 seens a little extreme for center or surround. Increasing the center channel is typically used to make dialog better. I get very good surround information with my system set at zero for surround. I have the center channel elevated to either +1 or +2. Surround mode 1 is for movies and mode 2 is for music. For older movies, I leave surround off. DRC is Dynamic Range Compression and works only for sources with Dolby Digital an DTS with two settings, med and max. I use max for broadcast TV and med or none for Blu-Ray/DVD.

Thanks for the info drfreeman. I'll change my settings a bit and see how they sound.

My memory is not so good. I checked settings when I got home and I actually have center channel set at either +3 or +4. Not that far off from yours. When I cut back to 0 or +1 it made a difference in the clarity of voices (worse, although other things still sounded good) so pushed it back to +3. Surround was at zero. Played with it just a little but decided zero sounded best in my room. Depending on your room, this could also vary.

drfreeman,
I backed it up to 3 on the center and surround and noticed a little difference. I'll load up the Matrix or something this week and do a little adjusting. I like Dolby Digital a little more than DTS. The sound on DD just seems more full than DTS. Any thoughts on DD vs DTS specifically with the JVC?

I'm old and deaf so I probably shouldn't be telling anybody anything. I usually hear little difference in either. I have my Blu-Ray set to output raw (bitstream) and I know that I hear detail missing with any of the PCM settings. Really don't know how much all of that relates to DD and DTS.

As info, my primary reason for a soundbar is enhanced sound compared to the built in speakers with the TV. Surround sensations are secondary to me. When I lived in my former home I had a wonderful 560 sq. ft. rectangular family room which was excellent for television and sound. At one point, I had over 21K invested in a state of the art (crica 1988-1997) hi-fi and surround sound system. Surround was strictly for movies (VHS/Laser/DVD over the years). Music was through front speakers and sub-woofers (2) only as I have yet to hear a surround music format that I felt actually enhanced what was already on a 2-channel stereo recording.

When we downsized to a condo four years ago, there was no place for the surround or even the hi-fi portion of the sound system in the new family room, so the basics of the sound system, front speakers, sub-woofer (1) and now a receiver ended up in our sun-room where we listen to music.

I was happy with a very expensive Yamaha YSP, but nevery really liked it or so far any Yamaha I have auditioned since that time. The new 2200 which is a much better design on paper than their larger units does show a lot of promise but have not heard it so far. I have also had units from Sony, Vizio and now the JVC.

Surround sound is a "nice to have", but not essential to my listening. I was thrilled with the JVC as it was a true 4-channel soundbar, something that could not be said about any of the others. The fact that I can actually hear all of the sound included on a soundtrack is enough to keep this one as my current favorite.

In my room, I do get a nice broad soundstage from the JVC. Something I also got from the Vizio but not from either the Sony or Yamaha. In defense of the Yamaha, because a lot of people can not wrap their thoughts around the idea that a $100 soundbar could possibly sound better than one costing ten to twenty times more, the Yamaha did have the best frequency balance and most natural sound as long as it remained in 2-ch (or 3-ch) only mode. As old as my ears are, I could immediately hear when the various sound processing modes of the Yamaha were activated. All had a great deal of electronic coloration and all reduced the Yamaha's already meager headroom and dynamics. My most recent Yamaha audition was the model 4100 (about 1.4k). Dynamics were better. Sound processing modes were somewhat improved compared to my memories of my previous unit, however, the electronic and phase colorations were still present and audible enough that I and the three others auditoning could all latch onto and easily hear them.

All of that is to say, I am usually looking more for sonic accuracy and dynamics. If I ever get decent surround to go along with it, I will gladly take the bonus. As it is, the JVC works better for me than any unit I have tried for home theater so far and will remain in my setup until I find a deserving replacement. I guess I just do not wish to mislead you on my sonic priorities and have you wondering why my settings may not sound all that great to you.

Hello,

Can someone measure the width of their JVC TH-BA1? I have a TV stand and the way things are setup the slot in my TV stand is 35.4" wide. I've read that the soundbar is 35 7/16" wide. That makes it about 1/32" too wide for my stand. I am hoping the manufacturing specs of the JVC are a rounded up value. I plan on purchasing this soon.

I cannot place it anywhere else but in the slot. I was thinking about cramming the system in there and excepting any physical damage that might occur.

Thank you.

I just ordered this soundbar. Wondering what kind of a power cord this has? Not a brick I hope.

I believe the 35-7/16" is pretty accurate. With a tape measure, the width is just a shade under 35-1/2". Since this is a closed box system, you would probably ruin the frequency respons and other factors if you damage the cabiet.

Have you thought of mounting on the wall above your television?

Power to the soundbar is DC through a supplied AC power adapter (Brick). Subwoofer is standard 120v AC.

I don't think my girlfriend would approve of that, but it definitely is worth considering.

Thank you.

I figure the TV stand, which still has to arrive, might be assembled in a way where I can squeeze out that extra 1/32" if I choose the right boards. The JVC wouldn't be damaged, it would just be very tightly squeezed into the slot. If anything the TY stand would receive some scrape marks.
Is it bad to have the JVC tightly fitted on the edges?

Thank you.

For those of you that wall mounted this thing, what kind of hoops did you have to jump through to accommodate the brick power supply?

I have mine wall mounted above my TV. The power brick is just laying on the floor behind my TV stand. I'll post pics in a few.

I have my entertainment center and TV pulled out from the wall a bit. You can see there is a space between it and the soundbar. The powerbrick is just laying on the floor behind it.

So maybe the cord coming out of the brick will be long enough to run through the wall. Not exactly code but who's gonna tell?

No reason why this will not work. Try to keep the following in mind when doing this:

1. Keep the soundbar as close to the front lip of the stand as possible. This will avoid possible early reflections from the shelves above and below. The relections can hae a tendency to muddy the sound. Also, if this is below ear level, some type of shim to angle the unit up slightly would make the sound clearer. I have used small furniture type shims for this. Something between 1/8" and 1/4" would be sufficient.
2. Once mounted, you will probably have to move the stand when or if you need to make changes. A stand with a flat screen TV, soundbar and other equipment can get quite heavy. Also, if the TV sits on top of the stand, it would be wise to remove the TV and sit on the floor or other location when moving the stand. Since these stands tend to be top heavy and certainly the TV's are, moving the stand could cause an accident damaging the TV or more importantly having the ability to fall on someone. A number of children have been killed this way over the last five or six years.

I ran the cord for the power brick through the wall for the Vizio SB in the master bedroom. Since this does not involve any type of electrical wiring, are you sure that this involves any code? If so, I'm glad I live down here in bubba land instead of Michigan.

I think code is involved for any kind of power cable running through your walls. Maybe I'm wrong but then again I'm not too worried about it.

I ordered one today! Should be here next week!

Is there a manual for this online somewhere? I can't believe they only send the one page setup sheet with this and nothing else.

edit: NM, got one online. A little clearer now