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What's your favorite kind of bar?

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Ice cream, power, singles?

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Well, if you're suffering from tinny, unsatisfying audio

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from your expensive new TV,

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a soundbar might be the friend you never knew you needed.

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But why are they suddenly in vogue now?

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Well, there actually is a reason

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that TV speakers these days sound so flat and weak.

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Back when we were all using large, heavy CRTs,

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the additional space inside the chassis

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allowed manufacturers to build in bigger,

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more powerful speakers.

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And the simple fact is that richer sounds,

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especially in the bass range, need physical space,

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as well as large enough drivers to be reproduced correctly.

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But times have changed, and the trend these days

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is for TVs to keep getting thinner and sleeker,

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which is great for having more space

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to walk around in your living room,

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and saving on your power bill,

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but it's also left no room for a decent pair of speakers

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in most cases.

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That was a pun.

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So soundbars and soundbases,

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your TV actually sits atop the ladder,

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have become very popular

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because unlike traditional home theater kits,

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which are often bulky with complicated setup procedures

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involving a bunch of messy wires,

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most consumer soundbars are meant to be

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more or less self-contained units

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that don't take up a ton of space,

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but still contain larger speakers that can reproduce,

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and that's why they're so popular.

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Soundbars can produce sound more faithfully

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than the tiny ones built into your TV.

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And the growing market for soundbars

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has driven a lot of innovation in the space.

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Nowadays, they aren't just strictly replacements

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for stereo TV speakers,

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and many soundbars have built-in subwoofers,

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an additional driver to enable center channel,

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or even multiple additional drivers

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to enable virtual surround sound,

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which you can learn about more right up here.

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In fact, the fanciest soundbars

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include upward firing drivers,

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and can even simulate speakers on your ceiling

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for next-gen object-based sound implementations

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like Dolby Atmos.

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This is often indicated as a third number

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in the soundbar's channel description.

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So that's pretty cool, I guess,

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but what else should you consider

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once you've decided whether you want

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a simple stereo soundbar

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or something that will make your living room

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sound like a cinema?

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That partially depends on the size of your room.

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Larger soundbars might be able to fill a larger space,

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but make sure you check on this before you buy,

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as some larger soundbars don't actually dedicate

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more space to drivers

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and are just longer, mostly empty chassis

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without much substance under the hood,

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like Michael Bay movies.

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On that note, if action flicks are your thing,

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check to make sure your soundbar supports

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the audio formats you'd like to use.

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If you wanna use it for high-quality lossless audio

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from something like a Blu-ray player,

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it needs to be certified for those formats

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and have HDMI inputs instead of optical only,

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as optical connections don't have the bandwidth

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for your fancier standards like DTS master audio,

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and the aforementioned Dolby Atmos.

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With all of that said,

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if you really want to faithfully reproduce sound,

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it is true that many AV enthusiasts

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prefer a traditional setup

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with a receiver, an amplifier, and speakers.

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Even the highest-end soundbars often struggle

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to reproduce the most accurate positional sound

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the way speakers can,

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and while some models of soundbars allow you

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to connect to separate subwoofer

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or even wireless satellite speakers,

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most are tightly integrated with non-upgradable components.

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So think about whether simplicity or performance

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are worth more to you in the long run

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so you can make a sound investment.

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To claim it, just go to freshbooks.com slash techquickie

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in the how did you hear about us section.

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So thanks for watching, guys.

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Thumbs up the video, subscribe for more,

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and make sure you go into the comments section

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Bye-bye.

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Bye.