|  | | | Used and New: | | |
| All | |
| $124.00+ $9.49 *Shipping | Used
- VeryGood | | |
| $124.19 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | Used
- VeryGood | | |
| $124.19 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | Used
- VeryGood | | |
| $126.92 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | Used
- Mint | | |
| $134.97+ $9.49 *Shipping | Refurbished | | |
| $165.00Shipping Free | Used
- Mint | | |
| Used | |
| $124.00+ $9.49 *Shipping | Used
- VeryGood | | |
| $124.19 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | Used
- VeryGood | | |
| $124.19 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | Used
- VeryGood | | |
| $126.92 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | Used
- Mint | | |
| $165.00Shipping Free | Used
- Mint | | |
| Refurbished | |
| $134.97+ $9.49 *Shipping | Refurbished | | |
| | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review: ( 103 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
177 of 178 found the following review helpful:
Excellent for those on a budget or in an apartment... Aug 18, 2010
By atomx
I bought this unit to pair with my Panasonic TC-P42S2 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV, and am generally pleased. I live in an apartment, so a unit with a booming external subwoofer or a complete home theater setup would not be very neighborly of me. The sound is a great improvement over the TV's stock speakers--there is more than enough bass for me, especially when playing films like The Dark Knight on Blu-Ray--the sound was surprisingly good. The sound from the TV's stock speakers seemed to go down and a bit behind the TV; the sound bar sends sound forward (which allows me to lower the volume). The sound is not surround. I also found that playing with the settings helps a lot. For example, the Dolby virtual effect sounds great when watching Blu-Ray movies, but sometimes doesn't sound so good when watching sports--depending on the quality of the audio feed, announcers may sound a little tinny. You will therefore want to keep the sound bar remote handy, in order to make adjustments as needed.
As my TV has an ARC connection (the sound bar is connected to the TV via a single HDMI cable), I am able to adjust sound volume from my TV, DirecTV, and Panny Blu-Ray remotes--the sound bar also turns on and off when I activate or shut off the TV. So integration is pretty seamless, once you get all the settings correctly entered. Speaking of settings, the directions for changing the TV's settings are awful--they are general to all TVs and not specific for Panasonic products, so you will have to mess around with the menu settings by trial and error in both Audio and Viera Link to synch everything up. In spite of this, set up is actually pretty easy.
If you plan on placing the sound bar in front of your TV on a level surface, I recommend that you place the TV on a 2" or 3" platform, as the height of the sound bar blocks the TV's infrared sensor. I made a simple platform with a channel for the sound bar's cords, so it looks uncluttered.
Also, there are no separate bass and treble controls at all--one can only adjust the internal subwoofer. I have my subwoofer set one or two notches below maximum for films like The Dark Knight (which has extremely high audio quality and a ton of bass), and maximum for the sports I watch, which have lower quality sound.
Finally, it is worth noting that the sound bar matches Panasonic TV's aesthetic form, so they look really good together.
EDIT: The curves and glossy plastic match, but the accent styling does not match--the TV has a bluish line below the Panasonic label, and the sound bar has a silver line below the label. In this respect, they look a bit different. Perhaps other Panny TVs have the silver accent.
This sound bar is not a home theater system--it's not even close. However, if you are on a budget, do not need or want surround effects blasted at high volumes, or live in an apartment where you have to minimize sound levels, this is a great way to improve upon your TV's stock speakers.
65 of 67 found the following review helpful:
 One cable setup, works flawlessly Nov 25, 2010
By Anthony Chiappette
"chippe01"
I bought this to compensate for the less-than-stellar sounding speakers on my new Panasonic TC-P42GT25 42-Inch 1080p Full HD 3D/2D THX Certified Plasma Television, Black. The Panasonic Viera link technology really works well with the right components.
In addition to the power cable, I've only connected one HDMI cable via the TV's ARC HDMI port, and the unit's ARC HDMI port. That's it. Whatever sound came from the TV is now routed through the soundbar. My cable box, Blu-Ray player, and Wii system all play through the soundbar, with just the one HDMI connection.
Setup took all of 3 minutes, and the sound runs rings around the internal TV speakers. It's nowhere near a full HT surround setup, but at least now I do get to hear the low frequencies and can boost the volume without distortion. It provides a much more pleasant sound environment which is perfect for my somewhat smallish bedroom.
The TV remote can be used to control this soundbar, and my Panasonic Blu Ray player. No need to worry about turning the unit off, because turning the TV off will also turn off the soundbar. In fact, with the Viera link technology, if I want to watch a blu-ray or DVD disc, all I need to do is turn on the blu-ray player. When the disc is read, it will turn on the TV, switch to the proper input for the blu-ray player, and power up the soundbar. Turning off the TV will shut down both the soundbar and blu-ray player. It doesn't get more convenient than this. You can control the volume of the soundbar with the TV remote, which shows an on screen setting.
This unit is perfect for what I wanted it for - improved sound over the TV audio without being overpowering. A definate must-have if you own or are thinking of buying a newer ARC compatible Panasonic TV, and don't need wall shaking sound.
The only minor flaws are that the audio settings don't show on-screen (only volume), and you can only adjust the BASS setting. It would be perfect if there were a MID and TREBLE adjustment as well. You'll still need the soundbar remote to adjust the BASS response, and the three audio modes (Clear Voice, Sound Enhancement and Virtual Dolby).
One last thought - the soundbar cannot be placed in front of the TV (at least MY TV) because it will block the remote sensor and 3D glasses signal. Why weren't these put on TOP of the TV?
All in all, I think I've made the right choice.
UPDATED 11/29/2010: Let me clarify, by "1 cable setup" I mean to say it only takes 1 HDMI cable from the ARC port on the TV to the ARC port on the sound bar.
66 of 69 found the following review helpful:
Average sound, excellent integration with Panasonic TV Jul 21, 2010
By Chris Crawford
I was happy with my new Plasma TV (Panasonic VIERA TC-P46G25 46-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV) but found the sound from the built-in speakers was not as good as I wanted. I didn't want to have to use the "big" home theater receiver just to watch TV, just something simple. I tried the VIZIO VSB200 Universal HD Sound Bar but it was not compatible with the TV.
This Panasonic sound bar has ok sound. Much better than the built-in, but it's no substitute for a full-powered home theater system. The best feature of this soundbar is it's ability to use the Panasonic Viera Link and HDMI/ARC features. When you use an HDMI cable to connect the two, the soundbar works perfectly with the TV...no need for another remote to control power or volume, and the TV shows the volume setting and changes on screen.
Recommended for newer Panasonic TV owners who are looking for a simple solution to improve built-in sound, just make sure you use HDMI to connect the two.
25 of 26 found the following review helpful:
 Mediocre replacement for terrible sound Sep 26, 2011
By Wayne
When I purchased my Panasonic VIERA HDTV I wasn't expecting great sound. I would have settled for mediocre sound. Instead, I got terrible sound. I had replaced an older Magnavox HDTV, which had come with a sound bar. For the Magnavox, the sound bar was for those who did not have full fledged audio systems. That TV had hookups for RCA audio output, optical output, and even speaker output. That allowed me to add external speakers to replace the so-so ones in the included sound bar.
Panasonic wasn't so nice. My TV came with an optical output, and built in speakers. The built in speakers were so bad, that it was hard to make out voices, let alone have anything that approached decent sound quality. In all fairness, people who buy HDTVs should not expect great sound for something in the price range of the TV, but considering that they had wires going to the internal speakers, they could have had external terminals for the same wires. People who buy smaller TVs, such as for bedrooms, are less likely to buy full fledged sound systems as add ons.
Panasonic's solution was for me to buy this sound bar. It replaced the terrible sound of the built in speakers with mediocre sound. There's nothing really bad about the sound of this sound bar, but I can't say that it's really much of a step up from what comes built into better TVs. This is the type of sound that I'd normally be replacing with something better, rather than stepping up to. But the way my TV is designed, there's no intermediate option short of this sound bar. You either get a full fledged sound system with an optical input, get this sound bar, or live with the built in speakers.
This sound bar purportedly comes with a sub-woofer. By definition, sub-woofers deal with frequencies below 100Hz. Good quality standard speakers can reproduce sounds in those frequencies, but they will typically be attenuated and lack any feel. With this sound bar, the opposite is true--you don't get anything akin to a sub-woofer, but the speaker makes sounds in those frequency range discernible. Test tones at 80Hz are audible, but sound far quieter than those at 100Hz (above the sub-woofer frequency range.) Tones going down to 20Hz are audible, but certainly nothing that will reproduce the sounds on a Blu-ray disc with any degree of realism.
The sound bar is easy enough to hook up. It uses part of the HDMI cable to pass sound, so it can share an input with a Blu-ray disc player. If you are using a Panasonic TV or BD player that are anything like mine, you already need the latest standard HDMI cable to handle the 3d picture, so it's nice not needing to tie up an extra input on the TV.
The sound bar has a series of contradicting "features." You get a "sound effect" setting that gives a "dynamic sound with a natural expansion." Realistically, you can't expect it to live up to the hype. If surround sound could be reproduced in this manner, nobody would make any money selling surround sound systems. While this option is far from a replacement for a true surround system, it's about as good as you should expect from this sort of sound bar.
Another feature is called "clear mode dialog." It's supposed to make the dialog stand out from background noise and sound as if it's coming from the center of the TV. This feature works relatively well, at least compared to the built in speakers. While it is not true high fidelity, you should have no trouble making out dialog far better with this feature. Another way of describing a feature that moves the sound to the center would have been to refer to it as an "OFF" button for the sound effect. It's a bit beyond doing that literally, but Panasonic has still managed to give a name to features ranging from this one to "a surround sound effect similar to" Dolby Digital or DTS.
In reality, you can't expect anything similar to Dolby or DTS, anything with the dynamics of a good sound system, or anything that sounds like a system with a sub-woofer, but if you want something that's a step up from what comes with Panasonic TVs similar to mine, this will give you good sound by the standard of what comes included with televisions these days.
20 of 21 found the following review helpful:
Confusing Set up with non-Panasonic TV Jul 13, 2011
By S. Scheide
"S.R.S."
I am adding to this review--and boy do I feel dumb now! I maintain that the instructions for this product are bad--
The ONLY cable I needed to use was the digital optical cable, from my TV to the sound bar. My blu ray player and cable box are connect to my TV via HDMI. All sound now plays via the sound bar AND my TV (although I can mute that if I want).
Had the instructions been simple, it would have taken less than 5 minutes to set this up! There are two HDMI ports and a digital optical port on the bar; the instructions make you believe you need to connect a "sound in" and "sound out" but don't really give details.
They need to change them to read "connect a digital optical cable to the bar; connect the other end to your TV. Connect your other devices to your TV via HDMI. Now you're finished!"
I guess if you own a Panasonic TV, setting this up is easy. And if you have a TV and one component, and don't use a cable box, it's probably easy as well. But, if like me, you have a Samsung TV, a Blu Ray, a cable box, and want to add this, the instructions are woefully inadequate, and I found no support on the Panasonic web site.
Now that it's working, the sound is pretty darn good! Much better than the TV's rear--facing speakers. It also looks good. I put it on top of the cable box and blu ray player, on the shelf of my stand. Doesn't obstruct the TV that way.
I also found the code to use my cable box's remote to turn the bar on and off with the TV. You can also control the volume, but unfortunately I can't figure out how to mute both the TV and the bar without using the mute button twice (once for TV and once for "Aux"). That's a bit of an issue when the phone rings.
All in all, I'm glad I got it, but it was much more difficult than it should have been to get it working.
See all 103 customer reviews on Amazon.com
|
| | |
|
* Estimated shipping rate for US 48 states. Final rate calculated at checkout. |
