I would not say that I am old school but brought up with separate audio receiver and many separate speakers for cinema surround experience. Living room full of Zarus 5000. Music connoisseurs will know what these are.

As all people are aware, bigger and flatter TVs get, the more pathetic the speakers are. Allbeit there may be made out of super rare materials that your iPhone speaker will be made out of. This might not be a problem as it might be the fact that I’m just getting older (46)
So I have decided to treat myself to a sound bar that seems to be the goto nowadays especially with Dolby Atmos. This gives me a lot extra room without having eight or 12 speakers dotted around the living room and also the cables. And also at this point anyone who has heard of DTSX, that is a competitor to Dolby Atmos.
So after doing some research and also reading a lot of reviews which is where I believe the truth lies nowadays. I decided to go for the majority Sierra 2.1.2 system which I think is their latest sound bar setup. And I will say that I am very pleasantly surprised with how full my living room seems to be now with a true cinematic experience audio wise.
I did look at other variations which use Bluetooth via speakers but been there done that I just want simple nowadays. And also the branded variance of said system and getting close to the thousand pound mark and over.
I went for this particular sound bar not just for the 400 W of power and separate subwoofer which I will say does give out some really nice base, also it’s Bluetooth connectivity but does need to be obviously plugged into a wall socket, and it connected to sound bar straight away when turned on, but if you do have an issue with connectivity there is a connect button on the rear of the subwoofer that you press to pair with the sound bar. Back to main reason for buying this is due to the HDMI inputs at the back of the sound bar, in my set up I have both Xbox series X and 4K player going into the back of the sound bar and then the visualisation goes into the back of the TV using the arc HDMI on pass through with no degradation in visuals. The tv picks up and knows there is a 4K signal there.
The reason this is important if you do not know is because the arc (Audio return channel) will not pass Dolby Atmos from the TV to the sound bar, you will only get it in some sort of Dolby surround mode. This is due to ARC only working at a maximum 16 GBPS where as an enhanced audio return channel (EARC) can move around 48 gbps. So on the majority of later TV sets with EARC it is possible to get Dolby Atmos to go from the TV to a sound bar, but this is not always guaranteed regarding what software and hardware is in your TV set. in other words if you have a new set you would only need one HDMI cable (ultra high speed) between the TV and sound bar, but if your TV is a few years old like mine is Albeit it is Panasonic’s flagship model from 2016, only has ARC hdmi output.
So if your TV is pre-EARC you do want to be going for a sound bar with extra HDMI inputs and arc out to get Dolby Atmos. you will still get pure 4K visualisation as it passes through. I will also add new TVs now come with an HDMI 2.1. This is to allow extra gigabytes per second GBPS. These are required not only for Dolby Atmos to be passed down to a sound bar or amplifier receiver, but also if you are to be playing a video game on a TV which has 120 Hz refresh rate, whereas older and I only mean by three or four years, TVs only probably go up to about 60 Hz refresh rate. You only need 120 Hz if you are a heavy game person and you want the games to be really really Fluid. I play the Xbox series X with 4K at 60 Hz refresh rate and the visualisations are stunning.
TVs with ARC Will only have 2.0 HDMI terminals but these are ample for what an average person needs.
And just for anyone who has been bamboozled by HDCP either 1.4 or 2.2, HDCP means high dynamic band content protection. This is basically to stop people copying either Blu-ray or 4K films from a player to a recorder or pc. It is a digital handshake between your source (4K Blu ray player) and the receiver (tv). But in this case I have obviously the sound bar in between and it all works fine.
For all of you out there who has an extra streaming service dongle et cetera like myself who has a Amazon fire 4K fire stick, this is plugged into the back of theTV in another HDMI input, I could connect Amazon fire stick into back of sound bar by using an HDMI splitter but too much hassle and not really gaining anything. I know that Netflix and Amazon et cetera do stream 4K films but this is still with a degregated signal. The only way to get pure 4K UHD visualisation et cetera is from a disc. when I am watching said Amazon Fire, the audio is returned to the sound bar via the ARC hdmi. (Hence why it is called an audio return channel). Video and audio one way, audio can return.
Real reason for trying a sound bar is that I do struggle a lot now to hear vocal audio on a lot of mainly films via streaming or even from the 4K player. Reason for this is probably too much clubbing when I was younger, and also old-age. But I do find that a lot of soundtracks on films are way too loud for what they should be? the problem is that vocal speech is roughly on the same hertz wavelength as mid range music so the music can drown out the vocals and one has to use subtitles to grasp what is going on like myself. You can try messing around with audio frequency channels on TV equaliser by adjusting mid range frequencies but this just changes vocals as well so it defeats the object. One of the worst films for said vocal problem is the tomorrow War with Chris Pratt, on Amazon prime. an enjoyable film,terrible vocals, but I will be very honest and say this particular sound bar made me turn subtitles off and vocalisation on the film is 100% better.
So can it be controlled with just one remote? In some instances yes in others no which I will explain. This may be different to you depending on how your sources and receiver are set up. If you are using Amazon fire, and you go into equipment connected menu and go to sound bar, majority is not listed there but if you were to use the BOAT brand, that connects great.
When watching either terrestrial TV or Amazon fire the volume can be controlled Either through TV, Amazon fire or majority remote, the majority of remote has to be used for different equaliser settings et cetera but yes volume is adjustable through the other remote controls. This is because the TV audio goes to sound bar through the ARC hdmi cable. so adjusting what would be the TV volume instead adjusts the Sound bar volume. TV should say something like home cinema in the speaker selection as it is going down the ARC.
The TV remote or Amazon fire remote will not adjust the volume if playing or watching what is plugged in To The rear of the sound bar, this is due to the direction that the video and audio signal is going. 4K player to sound bar to tv.
The sound bar does come on whenever the TV is switched on from standby and it will also activate if I was to turn 4K player on or Xbox series X. When putting TV into standby it also puts the sound bar into standby. One has to mess around with settings in Xbox audio visual menu, and also settings on individual TVs for this to happen. Panasonic is the Viera system but other brands have their own wording for this, I believe it is commonly called HDMI CEC
So to sum it up vocalisation is 100% better so watching films programs et cetera where I struggled before is way better now.
Playing my music from iPhone through sound bar via Bluetooth is awesome really enjoyed my music again.
All in all I think a very good purchase for a reasonable amount of money. I do not think you would be disappointed if you were to purchase one.
The sound bar does come with very sturdy black anodised L-shaped brackets if you were to fix the sound bar under a TV when it is flat to a wall
But my TV is in the corner on an adjustable outward bracket so I had to make some brackets to hang from the back of the TV for it to fit under said TV. Cheaper than going out and buying a bracket set which are not guaranteed to fit said TV As I have read from reviews where they are supposed to fit the standard VERA configuration.
The sound bar for the top and front panels have very sturdy black metal grills going from one end to the other. The side ends rear and bottom panels are made from shiny piano plastic. If the bar is to be fitted to brackets, it’s fixed using double sided foam supplied. There are no holes for screws. If the bar is to be placed on top of fireplace or a shelf it is already fitted with foam feet.
If your TV does not have ARC return to sound bar, One can either use The 3 RCA cables supplied or use a digital toss link. This is for sound to go to the sound bar from the TV, the HDMI cable from the sound bar can be connected to any HDMI connection on the back of the TV but audio and visualisation will only go one way from the sound bar to TV.
For size reference, this is installed under 65” tv.
The sound bar does not come with an HDMI cable, but these are cheap enough to be purchased especially through Amazon at no more than £8 for a ultra high speed one meter long 8k hdmi cable.
I play music through Bluetooth from iPhone. The remote will adjust volume and also ff and rew tracks. All very handy.
Been using a couple days now. Speakers have softened up to give clear voice on films, tv etc.
I believe volume on bar goes upto 32. But 15 I find is ample for music. Fills all the house and awesome bass. Try on older house dance tracks.
Really pleased with this purchase.
One thing I will add is the lip sync was way off with using Amazon fire stick with it going to tv and then vocals to sound bar. This was easily fixed on fire stick settings using sound sync settings on audio section.
Instructions little vague but worked it out. One has to move dot at bottom on sliding bar, then press apply every time you move it to try for best results.