Is it possible that soundbars are losing popularity? More and more loudspeaker manufacturers seem to be releasing traditional loudspeaker designs that have HDMI ARC connectivity. I don’t have the sales figures in front of me, but I don’t think that the explosion in active loudspeakers with HDMI connectivity would occur unless there was a demand for them. That could only come at the cost of soundbars. Perhaps buyers are realizing that they can do better than the inherently compromised sound that soundbars produce. Whatever the cause, I welcome the new trend. Better sound can be had, but how much better? That is what we will be looking at in today’s review of the new Fluance Ri71 powered bluetooth bookshelf speaker review. Read on to see what we thought of these speakers...
READ: Fluance Ri71 Powered Bookshelf Loudspeaker Review
This is a step in the right direction. To leave out the grill was a bad mistake and limit sales. It excludes families with young children and many to not like looking at loudspeaker cones. I know my wife would not tolerate that. They would be a huge temptation to the great grandchildren
Two of the most absurd products in the history of audio and AV, has been the AV receiver and the Atmos Soundbar.
Since Atmos and the addition of those channels, the space for power amps has got further squeezed and now only one channel driven can produce full power. This makes the design of the power supplies and power amps increasingly problematic. There is only one way to describe it and that is; - Bad design and engineering. Just because it is familiar and ubiquitous does not make it right, and close examination shows it to be severely compromised.
The right, and intelligent place to put the amps is the speakers.
This allows for the amp/amps to be designed and sized for the speaker it is driving and an end to this one and all channels driven power specs. The fact there is such a spec. just advertises what a lunatic approach it is.
Then we get to sound bars which are only marginally better then the TV speakers due to the size of the drivers.
So with eARC a decent pair of speakers like these and the possible addition of a sub, gets you a really nice affordable system. It can play the TV sound, and TVs these days have streaming function and HDMI inputs to connect items like disc players.
Better still one only buy the amps you actually need. You can add speakers as required, starting to add a powered center if you want and then add other speakers if you want, assuming the room is suitable and frankly most are not.
This can lead us back to a time were many more homes will have good audio, which could easily become the majority, rather than the few.
If I were the Harmon CEO, my first edict would be to decree a date certain the end AVR production and passive speaker production.
Now let the screaming begin. Change for many is frequently difficult to accept as rigid thinking is prevalent, but a curse on humanity nevertheless.
