In this episode of Know Your Stuff, Editors Steve Mazzucchi and Tucker Bowe, our resident audio expert, dive into the world of home theater audio and the major trends that define it today, including the rise of soundbars.
Welcome to Know Your Stuff, a podcast where we unbox trends in consumer culture, one topic at a time.
In this episode, Editors Steve Mazzucchi and Tucker Bowe, our resident audio expert, dive into the world of home theater audio and the major trends that define it today, including the rise of soundbars.
Steve also reveals his own embarrassing home theater setup while getting advice on what to buy next. If you've ever struggled to hear dialogue on your TV or felt like your movie-watching experience was lacking that cinematic punch, this is an episode for you.
Guest(s):
Background Reading and Referenced Articles
The podcast is produced by our Director of Video and Platforms, Mykim Dang.
For more information on Gear Patrol or Know Your Stuff, visit the Gear Patrol Podcast Hub and our about us page.
Tucker Bowe: Alright Steve, tell us what your current setup is like.
Steve Mazzucchi: I can tell you a fair amount about bikes and motorcycles and knives and things like that. But when it comes to home theater, I'm definitely much more of a caveman. I have a pretty old school flat screen Samsung TV, and then I just have this, like, giant Sony outdoor party speaker that's just, like, Bluetoothed to my TV.
Steve Mazzucchi: I settled upon that because the stock sound on my TV just wasn't cutting it. A lot of times I would be putting on subtitles, watching movies and stuff because the sound just wasn't loud enough. So every time you
Tucker Bowe: turn on your TV, does your speaker automatically connect to it via Bluetooth or do you have to have something there?
Steve Mazzucchi: It is Bluetooth, but I do have to manually turn the speaker on and make sure it's paired.
Tucker Bowe: So where's your speaker positioned?
Steve Mazzucchi: It's just kind of in the corner.
Tucker Bowe: You're just like watching something and sounds blasting you from the side.
Steve Mazzucchi: If there's one word for it, the word is shameful. I know you obviously.
Steve Mazzucchi: As somebody who's covered tech for a long time, uh, you're super knowledgeable about this topic and I'm sure you have some ideas about how I could improve my situation.
Tucker Bowe: Yes, your situation could definitely be improved, but it's not uncommon. One of the trends in tech over the last decade is TVs have gotten bigger and bigger yet slimmer and slimmer.
Tucker Bowe: One of the sacrifices. With that design is that the speakers within those TVs have gotten considerably worse. A lot of these TV brands are now in the soundbar and home theater business. Sony, LG, Vizio, Samsung, all these guys, they also make soundbars too. And they also make multi channel home theater systems.
Tucker Bowe: The expectation is like, Oh, you're going to buy this super expensive TV, but you're also going to buy a home theater system. A common complaint is that people, um, can't really make out the dialogue. They hear the bass or they hear the high end. It's not uncommon to what you were saying and having to turn the subtitles on.
Tucker Bowe: Also, as people get older, with hearing loss, one of the first things to go is the mid range. Hearing dialogue is, uh, a common problem. And these days, soundbars are the easy way for anyone to upgrade their, their TV's audio.
Steve Mazzucchi: I'm definitely interested. I don't mind the subtitles, but I find that sometimes They are set up in a way where they come out before the person actually says the stuff, which is a brutal watch, especially with like comedies, you know, and all your punchlines are getting spoiled.
Steve Mazzucchi: What are kind of my options for upgrading my home theater
Tucker Bowe: kind of home theater setup is a classic stereo setup. You have an AVR receiver and kind of some bookshelf speakers, or you can get the soundbar. Both of those are pretty cost efficient and deliver a very good sound. Um, soundbars are popular today because they're easy.
Tucker Bowe: They're a one box solution. They plug directly into your TV. You don't have to worry about rearranging your room to get them set up. You plug them into power, plug them into TV, and you're done. AV receivers, you got to worry about speaker placement with the left and right channels of your speakers.
Tucker Bowe: Soundbars are the go to easy solution for people who want to set it and forget it. That
Steve Mazzucchi: sounds intriguing, but what's the selling point for somebody that wanted to go the other direction with an AV setup? What's the downside of a soundbar?
Tucker Bowe: The AV receiver affords you more flexibility in terms of, you can pair kind of a Denon receiver with different speakers.
Tucker Bowe: You can kind of upgrade your speakers over time. Generally bookshelf speakers are going to sound bigger, get louder than kind of most soundbars. So it just offers you more flexibility and it also creates a more immersive sound. So it delivers a wider, bigger sound than most soundbars. Today there's some incredibly big sound bars that are able to deliver some really big and great sound.
Steve Mazzucchi: Hmm. And obviously for someone like me. Is a bit of a caveman. Like I said, the, the plug and play solution may be the better bet. So let's say I decided to go for one of these, what should I be looking for in a soundbar?
Tucker Bowe: The most obvious and first thing you should look for is kind of the price of the soundbar and also the size of the soundbar.
Tucker Bowe: These days, kind of 55 inch TVs are considered relatively small. I remember getting a 42 inch TV when I was a senior in college and thinking I was, you know, hot shit. But these days, 65 inches is the standard. Most mid range soundbars cost, you know, between 300 and 500. They're about 2 feet long, and they're best for pairing with TVs that are 55 inches or below.
Tucker Bowe: So if you have a smaller TV, Your TV is positioned in a smaller to mid sized room. If you have a big room, you're probably going to have a big TV, and you probably want a big soundbar. How big is your TV? Do you have any idea? My TV is a 55. So I have a 55 inch TV in my office and I have Sonos's kind of mid range sound bar.
Tucker Bowe: The beam, it's actually the beam gen two, and that's like perfect kind of size comparison, like downstairs, my TV. We have actually, we moved into a house a little over two years ago. It was my chance to go big, real big. We got a 75 inch TV and it swallows you up. It's the best. I have a Sonos ARC, their flagship soundbar, and that's, you know, most flagship sound, Dolby Atmos soundbars.
Tucker Bowe: We'll go on to talk about Dolby Atmos in a second, but most of them are, you know, like 900 to a thousand bucks. You probably don't need a huge soundbar for your little TV in your small.
Steve Mazzucchi: Yeah. I mean, I, I prefer to think of it as compact, but, um, it sounds like your setup, you know, your, the hobbits on your screen are like life size, I'm guessing.
Tucker Bowe: Yeah. I mentioned it before, we're transitioning to Dolby Atmos. What do you think Dolby Atmos is?
Steve Mazzucchi: Oh boy, good question. I mean, I guess
Tucker Bowe: Have you heard of Dolby Atmos
Steve Mazzucchi: Yeah, and I hear dolby and I think of theater quality sound I presume atmos. It's probably a latin word. I'm guessing Atmospheric.
Steve Mazzucchi: So I'm guessing it's more immersive in some way than your typical setup.
Tucker Bowe: Yeah, exactly. There's a difference between Dolby audio, which is a 2d technology and Dolby Atmos, which is 3d Dolby Atmos is a technology that is able to trick you into thinking there are more speakers in the room than they really are.
Tucker Bowe: And it's, and it's really, really popular. Whenever you go shopping for a sound bar or a home theater setup, you're going to get sold by Dolby Atmos. And, and, and a lot of sound bars support Dolby Atmos today.
Steve Mazzucchi: What is it exactly that they have that gets them to sound differently and create this multi directional experience?
Tucker Bowe: One of the things is, you know, all Dolby Atmos soundbars aren't the same. You can get a smaller soundbar that supports Dolby Atmos and it can create an immersive experience and trick you a little bit. But the best Dolby Atmos soundbars, the flagship quality, the biggest ones have dedicated up, upward firing drivers.
Tucker Bowe: So they actually shoot sound up into the air. Actual speakers are going to sound better than not speakers. They do a more convincing job of tricking you into thinking like you're at the battle Helms Deep or in Minas Tirith or like, you know, flying a jet plane or doing something like that. When shopping for a soundbar, You wanna look for a soundbar that also has these kind of up firing drivers.
Tucker Bowe: You're spending like, you know, seven, eight, $900 on Adobe Atmos soundbar. The chances are they're gonna properly have these, these up firing drivers. Like, so the Sonos arc has upward firing drivers o's flagship soundbar has them.
Steve Mazzucchi: Gotcha. So the things I wanna look for are not only Dolby Atmos, but upward firing drivers as a key ingredient.
Tucker Bowe: yes, they're the things that are gonna make them. Whatever you're watching, you know, sound incredibly immersive.
Steve Mazzucchi: Now, as far as the actual shopping process goes, does it matter which brand I get? Like I have a Samsung TV. Should I get a Samsung soundbar? What should be my guiding principle in terms of a brand to invest in?
Tucker Bowe: If you buy a Sonos soundbar and want to upgrade your sound system over time, you can add a subwoofer or rear channel speakers, but you have to buy that subwoofer. Those satellite speakers from Sonos and the same thing is true with Bose or Samsung or any other TV soundbar company, they kind of trap you into their ecosystem.
Tucker Bowe: It's not as simple as like, I want to mix and match these speakers with the soundbar going back to like the AV, AV receiver to kind of for soundbar kind of a debate. Oh, when you buy an AV receiver and hook it up to speakers, you have the flexibility of upgrading the speakers over time without, you know, having to replace your AV receiver where you can mix and match depending on the AV receiver you're having.
Tucker Bowe: And then if you want to add a subwoofer by another company, you can. And if you want to add root channel speakers by a different company, you can. It just gives you more flexibility. It's a more expensive endeavor, obviously, but with soundbars, you're kind of locked in. If you want upgrade to a different brand, you have to replace your entire system, which is an investment.
Steve Mazzucchi: You're basically buying into this ecosystem in the same way with Peak Design, which I'm a huge fan of, they make a phone case and it's very specific to all the mounts they make. Once you have that case. You want the bicycle mount, the motorcycle mount, all the products in that family, because they all play together much more nicely.
Steve Mazzucchi: So that is a very important consideration. One other thing I'm wondering before I shell out for a soundbar is, what's on the horizon? Am I going to buy something and a year from now be like, eh, I should have waited?
Tucker Bowe: I would say the general cadence of these companies releasing new flagship Dolby Atmos soundbars is every few years.
Tucker Bowe: So it's not like, it's not like new iPhones where you're going to buy a soundbar and then the next year the company is going to come out with a, a new one that one ups it and has a key feature. You're safer in that sense.
Steve Mazzucchi: It's interesting when you're talking about this AV receiver stuff, I'm like, uh, it sounds like a headache.
Steve Mazzucchi: It sounds like a much more bespoke thing for somebody who's super into this stuff, and certainly for somebody who Wants to improve their sound and hear the dialogue and not put the subtitles on soundbar seems like, seems like a quicker, easier path to a solution.
Tucker Bowe: Yeah. Soundbars are this kind of, uh, one box plug and play solution that are easy to sound set up, sound good, and you don't have to rearrange your whole room to get them set up.
Tucker Bowe: Also, now that you know they work as these wireless speaker systems, you can buy a soundbar and if you want to improve it, you can buy a wireless sound subwoofer or. Uh, rear channel speakers, and you can use that soundbar. They're kind of upgradable. Sonos just released a new flagship soundbar, um, called the ARC Ultra.
Tucker Bowe: The ARC Ultra, they're calling it. That's, that's what they went with. Yeah, it's, it's funny. It seems like a lot of these tech companies have settled in on the Ultra name with Apple with the Apple Watch Ultra and Bose has their, you know, quiet comfort Ultra headphones. The Arc Ultra is basically an upgraded version of the Arc.
Tucker Bowe: It's essentially the same size, but it's got more drivers and Sonos integrated it with a new kind of driver technology that essentially doubles the base. The most interesting kind of new technology when it comes to soundbars or in surround sound systems is actually done by Sony. They have this innovative four speaker system that works with like a control box and the control box plugs into your TV and you place these four speakers around your room as left and right channels and rear left and right channels and it creates this immersive sound.
Tucker Bowe: It works just like a Bose or Sonos speaker system. But it's four speakers that you place around the room. And if you have one of Sony's top of the line TVs, you can actually designate the TV speakers as the center channel. So the four speaker system combined with the TV creates this kind of immersive, immersive surround sound system.
Tucker Bowe: It's not for everyone because it's going to be expensive and you have to have a particular type of TV. Interesting. Cool. One quick question about this, about the ARC. Versus the Ark Ultra. I am curious how much more the new one costs, and also, do you anticipate the original getting its price reduced as they push this new system?
Tucker Bowe: The new Ark Ultra is, uh, a thousand bucks, while the, you know, the Ark is a thousand bucks. This Ark Ultra was rumored to be coming out for several months. They didn't know the names, which is why, yeah, they should have named it after some kind of Uruk hai or some medieval creature. It's only a hundred bucks more.
Tucker Bowe: It's practically the same size as the Ark. So I would anticipate that Sonos is going to phase it out. And then during this holiday season, I could imagine that, yeah, the Ark will probably be discounted by substantial sum. So yeah, it could be a good deal. I feel like we've covered it all. Is there anything else we haven't talked about that I need to know before I upgrade my Extremely shameful system.
Tucker Bowe: No, just know that like once you do, you're going to be happy that you did because you're going to be living in the 21st century. I guess it's about time.