Panasonic SC-HTB520

Pros: + Looking great infront of my 40" TV
+ Sound quality is good
+ Remote control
+ Two input sources 1 HDMI. 1 Optical
+ Wireless Sub Superb

Cons: - Only one HDMI Input (yet overcome this)
- Extra cables needed

Summary: Well I guess most of you are looking for sound bars as I did to eliminate the wires of a full 5/7.1 surround sound system. Over the years I have had surround sound systems and have always enjoyed the characteristics of them. I had been waiting around 6 months before jumping in to buy an alternative. I found this sound bar on amazon but before parting with my hard earned cash I wanted to hear this in action. I sourced a well known retailer that supplied this, went to the shop and kindly asked to have this set up as I would like a demonstration. As keen as the comission filled salesman was, he set it up in a few minutes from an unopened box that was in store and to be honest he handed me over the remote and away I went. Messed around with the settings and wacked up the volume to find I was very suprised how good it really was. Really like the sound generated from the preset 3D equalizer setting, this is one of three settings. Decided that I liked it, thanked the salesman and told him I will think about it. Came home to purchase this on Amazon at a much better price. Was delivered brand new in 20 hours. Even had a call from the supplier stating he had handed it over to the carrier and it will be with me in the morning, excellent service.

Ok recieved the following morning set it up straight from the box with an optional optical cable I bought from the tv optical out and wanted to hear some magic moments of my action filled movies from SKY HD but it would only access one of the three settings from the equalizer. No problem. I then set it up using the HDMI and hey presto all three were availible at much better clarity than the optical cable. I'm using a Samsung V-6 series tv that doesn't have ARC technology but its does exactly what ARC does on panasonic TV's. So those of you having Samsungs will have no issues with this advanced feature. Cant comment on other TV's so research may be required. So now I have a really nice sound coming from my sound bar and the wireless sub has a lovely low end thud at all settings.

Great stuff, so now I want to connect my PS3 so that blue rays can be played along with movies from its HDD. But...... there is only one HDMI port, so will I be stuck with only one of the three setting from the equalizer. And yes I was, reading in the manual that using the optical cable it would set the equalizer to the frequenzy from the source. Yet I wanted to the choice of this. So I went onto Amazon and purchased a 3 input one output HDMI splitter which arrived the following day. This is now working a treat and exactly as I wanted. I even have a extra HDMI input for adding another piece if hardware at a later date.

So overall I have now got want set out to buy and thought I would share will all. Oh It also comes with little feet for having it in front of your TV (I have it as it came) or if your are wall mounting it the brackets are also supplied. I really like it now its all up and running the way I want it. And turning it off to hear TV speakers again makes me so pleased that I have this alternative lovely sounding option.

*** P.S. If you will buy this SoundBar I suggest for best deal at: www.amazon.com/exec/******/****/B004MME6S4/cnet-offer-20

Updated on Sep 29, 2011

Update Broken Link

I suggest for best deal at: http://beam.to/SC-HTB520