Why is EVERYONE Buying This Sound Bar?? - Vizio SB2920-C6
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,439 words · ~7 min read
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for as long as there have been audio files with high-fidelity multi-speaker
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surround setups there have been scrubs
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who are fully satisfied with the speakers that came built into their tvs
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but then in the early 2000s a curious thing
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happened a middle class appeared the scrubs started buying
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sound bars the first sound bar came about in 1998
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and since then they've been gobbling up sales from other speaker categories at
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an ever increasing rate with no sign of slowing down in the future
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and in this installment of why the algebra
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are you buying this we're going to discover
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why why your tv speakers suck more now than
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ever before and whether or not this best-selling
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75 dollar sound bar off amazon.com can
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solve the problem speaking of problem solving Colton
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the link below to learn more
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unlike most technology trends the speakers built into tvs have not been
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getting better and better every year in fact they've generally been getting
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worse and the reason is that tv speaker quality is not something that people
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think about when they're buying a tv with many customers wheeling their new
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set out of the local best buy without ever having listened to it
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so since the mainstream mostly cares about screen size
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picture quality and price manufacturers that are trying to push
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price down without sacrificing picture quality while driving screen sizes up
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naturally look to speaker quality as a logical corner to cut
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but there's actually another reason that tv speakers are getting worse
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tvs are getting thinner your dad's old crt was big enough to
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crush a juvenile hippo so there was lots of space for the sound coming out of
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proper speaker drivers to bounce around in
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and the speakers could actually face the viewer a fairly obvious advantage
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but the design language of modern tvs dictates that bezels be as thin as
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possible so speakers either have to fire downward at the tv stand or backwards
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towards the wall and then bounce back at the viewer which which is not ideal
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since the reflecting surfaces can color the sound dramatically
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that is why you'll see people even snooty elitist ones recommend that you
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upgrade to just about anything other than your tv speakers
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which is exactly where this puppy comes in
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at 75 dollars it's unlikely that the two two and a half inch drivers inside the
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vizio sb2920-c6
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or as i call it this soundbar
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are much higher quality than what you would find already on board a tv
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but at least they're actually pointing at
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you and the sound can resonate within its 29
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inch cabinet setup is super easy you just plug it
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into the wall and then well you could actually just stop there and use it as a
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bluetooth speaker or you could use the included rca coaxial or digital optical
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cable to connect it to your tv and you're done
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this simplicity is one of the big reasons that sound bars have captured so
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much market share from home theater in a box solutions i mean just because i'm
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not satisfied with my tv speakers doesn't mean that i have the inclination
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not to mention the space to run a bunch of wires underneath my carpet or along
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my baseboards or whatever from my receiver to my satellite speakers behind
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the couch and yada yada yada and some of them actually
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sound pretty good like the sonos beam oh
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it's got four full range woofers and one high frequency tweeter it's got voice
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control via alexa and soon the google assistant and it's got support for the
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brand new apple airplay 2 standard for synchronizing multiple speakers
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wirelessly the this sound bar has none of that stuff
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but considering the price another big sound bar advantage over
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multi-speaker setups it's only really got one job
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be better than tv speakers so
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let's see if it can do that we're comparing our budget sound bar
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against the internal speakers of two displays that we had lying around the
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wasabi mango uhd430 monitor equipped
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with two down firing 10 watt speakers
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and the high-end lg 65ks 9500 with two
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20 watt speakers also aimed towards the floor
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none of our solutions sound great
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but this sound bar is a definite improvement
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over both of our displays in multiple ways fuller sound
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deeper bass and most of all better clarity especially when listening
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to low quality recordings of people with accents the most interesting takeaway
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here though at least from a normie perspective is that this cheap sound bar
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achieves all of this despite being advertised as being way less powerful
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only 5 watts compared to the 20 and 40
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watts combined of the displays and this might sound a little unintuitive but
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part of why it sounds better is due to the directional stuff we talked about
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earlier and another factor especially with the cheaper wasabi mango is that
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the sound can be muddied by low quality
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chassis materials that resonate with the audio playing along and reducing clarity
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but with that said low power is still low power so while this budget bar is a
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worthy upgrade when watching tv don't expect to be able to fill your house
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with your favorite tunes during a house party this sound bar is not great at max
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volume not only does it not get very loud but it can struggle to power itself
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resulting in a skipping effect that is totally unlistenable
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so conclusion time should you join the throngs of people who have bought this
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sound bar well if your hearing's going and everyone on tv sounds like they're
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mumbling it will help a lot and it even
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has dts true volume to help equalize the volume differences between say regular
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videos and freaking streaming ads so it's not a bad buy but if 75 is still
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too rich for your blood well you could always try sound scoops
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pieces of plastic that you velcro to your tv in an attempt to redirect your
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down firing audio toward the couch i am not even kidding
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i mean it's worth a shot right do you want to see a review brandon
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should we review that no let us know in the comments if you agree
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or disagree with brandon he's saying no i think we should
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and on your way down to the comments check out the link to ting ting is the
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mobile carrier that does rates not plans you pay just six dollars per phone line
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plus the minutes messages and data that you actually use each month usage is
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shared across all your devices so the more phones you have on one ting account
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the less you pay per phone and with an average bill of just 23 bucks a month
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per phone king is the smarter choice for mobile they offer service on two
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nationwide lte networks so the phone you already own will probably work with ting
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there are no contracts no overage fees and you can try it for a
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month with no commitment so get 25 bucks off your bill or towards a new phone in
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the ting shop at Linus.ting.com we're going to have that linked below
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so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if it's awesome get subscribed hit that
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like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description also linked in our
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description is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which you should totally
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join oh we missed a key benefit of the this sound bar it's a lot lighter than the
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sonos one if someone drops it on your face
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we should we should have worked that in there i think we should have worked that
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can we can we work that in there i think we should work that in there
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oh oh so first you hit me in the nose you
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make it swell up then you make fun of me for it being big