Michael S.
29 de septiembre de 2021
Bought the whole system to see if I would want or need them, glad I did.
I figured I needed to add to this review since there have been updates to the system which changed the volume control of the surround speaker system that most of us surround speaker users do not like at all. Don't get me wrong, the system as a whole is still worth the cost and the sound quality still on par as when I originally reviewed below. The change made to control the sound, however, went from being able to adjust the sound volume by selecting from loud, louder, loudest, off, normal, which was simple, to slide controls for bass, treble, and surround volume. While the original configuration allowed us to control the loud, louder, etc. for both the sub-woofer and the surround speakers in the system setup area, these new sound adjustments are only accessable when streaming something and are accessed during the viewing by pressing the "*" button on the remote. Nobody would complain about this change if it didn't come down to the fact that it was made without explaination on how to operate under the new change. The labeling could've been a little better since the surround level setting (now a slide bar) appears like it would be to adjust the left and right channels like the old stereo slides use to do. Further muddying up the works are the video tips. None of them have been changed to reflect the updates. They still have the original details. Okay, I've vented my frustration. Don't let this rant cause you to decide not to purchase them. The whole system is well worth the price as far as I'm concerned. The surround adjustment issue came without instructions but after testing the whole procedure out, there is actually more control. But, the older I get the harder it is and the longer it takes to figure stuff out and this change was a doosy. My suggestion to Roku would be to also give us the ability to adjust within the System/Audio settings like we had before.Original post:I got tired of my old 5.1 system constantly drowning out voices or becoming drastically louder during certain scenes and commercials. No matter how I adjusted, one adjustment would kill or enhance another sound to where it just got to where I felt like I was paying more attention to adjusting the sound than what I was watching. I was a little leary about purchasing the whole Roku set, the streambar, sub-woofer, and the surround speakers, but I was glad I did because it gave me the opportunity to try each unit individually to see if I really needed them. The streambar has great sound quality with unusually good bass. Not wall shaking, window breaking, roof collapsing, bone jellifying bass, but bass that is noticible and doesn't drown out the other sounds. The sound leveling and voice enhancement features really work. They do require some adjustment and I'll get to that in a moment.After 2 days I realized the streambar was doing its job as advertised, so I installed the sub-woofer. Now this is tricky, you plug it in, and then you have to go into the streambar setup app and configure the streambar to recognize it. But there are instructions going step by step, 1, 2, 3, and it's done. And it has some boom to it. I mean real boom. You kinda have to adjust that too. But for me, it's a keeper.Again after 2 days, I decided to give the surround speakers their shot. Each speaker is bluetooth connected, there are no wires other than each one requireing an electrical outlet. Each speaker also must be setup individually, but the setup is identicle to the sub-woofer, with instructions included. The only difference here is during setup you discover which speaker goes on the left and which goes on the right. There is a test during the serup. Of course I was wrong the first time, but easily fixed. These too have separate adjustments.I see a lot of comments about the inability to not have as much control over each portion of the system as you would with most sound systems. My old system had a remote that let me adjust the back, woofer, bass boost, cinematic features, etc. In fact it was confusing at times trying to get just the right setup. Of course there would always be something different coming out of the system based on whatever I was listenting to, DVD, regular TV, music, streaming from Netflix or Hulu, etc. And I would have to readjust again. Voices were constantly being drowned out, no matter how hard I tried. The Auto/PCM/Dolby.... settings made no difference.With the Roku Streambar and friends, I really don't see a problem, in fact I appreciate the simplicity of the settings and I've found that once set to my liking, I'm done. I get sound leveling, voice enhanced, big butt bass, and nice even surround sound no matter what watching. The various sound settings aren't on the remote, they are in the Roku itself. Easy to get in the settings. The levels you get are loud, louder, loudest, off, normal, that's all I can remember off the top of my head, but you get the picture. The volume itself is handled by the remote and you can set it up to use your TV remote sound and power if you have HDMI/ARC on your TV. I do and it works. There's even a setting to turn off sound leveling, although I can't figure out why you'd want to. I tried it and it sort of messed everything up.I'm a cable cutter. Antenna TV and streaming. I'm very happy I bought the whole settup at one time and tried them out. Because I was used to surround sound from the get go I believe it's why I decided to keep them all. You may feel differently, it's all a matter of preference. The streambar does an excellent job of attempting to give you surround. Sounds do ping off the walls and behind you at various times. The surround speakers just makes sure I get all of it. My sub-woofer settings are a low. It rocks, and with a small house, the neighborhood knows when I'm watching an action movie.Expensive? For the complete system yes. But so much simpler to deal with as far as adjustments. Like I said, set once to my liking and done.Ver másVer menos
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