Clarity of purpose
It's easy to set up – effectively plug and play, with the sub finding the main unit in a few seconds and remaining connected ever after. As for the sound, the C450 delivers quality and clarity that belies its middling price. Speech clarity, in particular, was impressive, along with the overall soundstage proving convincingly broad. Bass from the slightly flimsy sub isn't of the first water and feels a little light, without the necessary grunt you'd expect from better systems. What there is though is respectably tight and focused, without resorting to needless boom.
The wireless sub minimises the set-up spaghetti
There's onboard decoding for Dolby Digital and DTS sound and it'll go fairly loud in a smallish to mid-sized room, with 45 watts on offer from the main unit and 20 watts from the sub. The various sound modes didn't seem to make a great deal of difference, besides reducing bass at various levels, so I ended up leaving the modes off, even when playing music, which it tended to deliver competently, but without any wow factor.
Verdict
The Samsung HW-C450 offers a pretty good sound upgrade from basic TV and delivers a clear, coherent soundstage that does a reasonable job of opening out film soundtracks. It's slim and reasonably discreet too, especially with that wireless subwoofer. At least one HDMI connection would have welcome however, or even a standard RCA analogue connection. There are cheaper soundbars, but the sound quality justifies the price, so long as you're not expecting to connect too many devices. ®
More AV Gear Reviews... |
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 Teufel
System 5 |
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 Sony
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 Panasonic
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Samsung HW-C450 2.1 soundbar
COMMENTS
More gruel please
Not sure about the UK but here all the in the states soundbars seem to be all the rage. Would be very curious how this one stacks up to the likes of Boston Acoustics (who I think might have been the first around). At the same time I've heard Vizio has the chreapest and that it's comparable to the rest.
Of course, Yamaha has a real surround sound soundbar but it requires a receiver/amp and costs at least double the rest.
Seriously 80%? With no HDMI? You have to be kidding me...
Reviewer- please? Optical inputs only??
Sync?
What no picture latency compensation?
Is anyone using this doomed to watching Films & TV that look as badly dubbed as a Ferrero Rocher advert? At least a TV's in-built speakers are time-aligned with the screen, as is any AV amplifier connected via HDMI.
Ah Monsieur Samsung, with this loose lip sync you are spoiling us!
Eh?
"This soundbar bar is not exactly bursting with connection options either. There are two optical digital connections and one analogue. This is less than ideal if you want to take your sound directly from several different inputs such as TV, Blu-ray player, Sky/cable box and games console"
Do most (modern) TV's not come with an optical digital out? Plug-in Sky box/Blu-Ray/Console via HDMI and it all gets pumped out via the optical digital out to whatever device you choose.
//Paris because she's got plenty of inputs
