Samsung HW-C451 Soundbar Review

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(More customer reviews)We recently got a Samsung UN46C8000 and to say the on board speakers sucked is a kindness. We have a large bay window dominating our living room with an open floor plan. That left us very few options with the TV. We the room setup for the TV to be in the corner made my the window-wall and half high built in bookshelf that separates the rest of the room from the door to the house. With two large (100lbs) dogs, setting a very light weight TV on the stand, even on a heavy wooded one, seems a disaster waiting to happen. I found a great articulating wall mount (designed mainly for corners) at monoprice that let up "hover" the TV over our stand. Well this made the TV speakers, designed to bounce sound of the wall it was mounted to, sound very washed out. Instead of having the wall to push the sound at us, the sound was muddled by the air and objects behind the TV. We struggled with getting a soundbar and a 7.1 receiver (I have a few speakers that we could set up a 5.1 system and add/replace better speakers as money was available). In the end we didn't want to add to a room on the edge of feeling cluttered.

Enter the HW-C541. This device was a giant step up. Generally I don't care for wireless anything when it comes to sound but the SW does an OK job. The quality of this system falls pretty much dead center between on-board TV speakers and a 7.1 dedicated system. Its a great step forward when another step beyond, if you want/need it.

The system just worked out of the box. The remove is not as pretty as the TVs but at least it has real buttons instead of that horrid flat design of the TVs. The buttons are clearly labeled though not all of the labels are obvious to what they do, but a quick scan of the right page of the instructions squared me away. It just worked right out of the box, and a good thing, the SW pairing instructions seemed a little complicated (nothing I couldn't handle but non-technical people might find it difficult).

Samsung included a slip in the packaging with a number for technical support setting up and using the device. They encouraged it and wanted you to call if and prior to returning the unit. They seem to want to improve customer relations, something I have heard the struggle with. So that is a good sign, I think, and should help pairing the SW if need be.

There is something to be aware of. The mounting plate to "flush" mount the soundbar to the wall (which Samsung assumes you did with your TV using their "flush" TV mount) is not idea. It seems easy to use but it connects to the soundbar in two places about 4" apart (2" off center). This is a wobbly and twisty way to mount your soundbar. For us, we were left with no way to attach it to the TV. The metal pieces I have seen sold that would allow one to mount a soundbar to the TV (above or below) would not work as this soundbar does not attach to the included mounting bracket with screws and there is no way to screw another mounting bracket to the soundbar.

Our main goal was sound we could clearly hear at every frequency (well, at low, mid, and high). This soundbar does that and it definitely filled the room...err, house.

The good:
- price
- sound
- size
- ease of use (sans pairing)
- matches TV
- wireless SW

The bad:
- sound
- pairing instruction
- mounting
- wireless SW

I haven't really tested the virtual surround sound much, I can tell it is trying to make things sound behind me. Even in 2.1 mode you feel encompassed by non-directional (well, left-right) sound. In the virtual mode you get that and things that sound louder/softer in different directions. So not a complete (or really very good surround) but better then 2.1 alone.

Thanks for reading!

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Product Description:
2.1 Channel,Wireless Active Subwoofer,Optical Input,Smart Volume,Virtual Surround (C451 will have a brushed aluminum finish to match TV)

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