Spice up your TV and video enjoyment with this sound bar from Edifier
TV’s offer good imagery, but are not so good at enriching the experience with quality audio. Towards the end of CRT production, the large cabinets allowed the installation of fairly decent speakers, so these heavy-weights were getting closer to what might be called Hi-Fi. However the latest slimline TFT and Plasma TV’s simply don't have the real-estate available to fit decent speakers into their ever thinner cases.
Consequently many people turned to surround sound systems to improve the sound output, yet these have also fallen out of fashion; to be replaced by sound bars like this latest release from Edifier, the CineSound B3 Soundbar.
It’s a rather smart looking unit, that’s basically a mains powered metre long enclosure, fitted with four speakers and two tweeters. These combine to widen the sound output, producing a rich, full and distortion-free sound to compliment the video your new Smart TV is capable of. Incidentally if you’re one of those people who feel that the cloth covering in front of the speaker impedes the sound quality, you’re in luck, because B3 Cinesound's is removable.
Moving to the side profile you’ll see it has four small circles with associated legends; these provide the on/off, volume and mode controls. While we're on the subject modes are simply preset sound settings, designed to give the best experience while listening to different genres of entertainment. The default mode is Movie, which for my room and the music I play, suited me best; there are others to choose from.
While the sound from this unit is a marked improvement on most integral systems, it doesn’t have the powerful bass element you’d get from a dedicated bass speaker. Having said that in all the tests I did it performed faultlessly; there is no discernible hiss at any volume, or any induced electrical distortion while changing the volume itself. In fact the overall output is superb; and if you want to ramp up the volume, the unit can be used at its maximum settings without overdriving the speaker cones.
The Edifier designers have not stinted on the input options either; you have optical, coaxial, line in, AUX in and, if you want to add a more powerful Subwoofer, a sub out socket. Here again it’s clear that some thought has gone into the design, because the connections sit in quite a deep cut-out under the unit, which of course protects and to some extent hides the cables. One other important feature of this speaker is it’s built in Bluetooth connectivity; which naturally adds another potential use for it. Like other Edifier speakers I’ve reviewed, this is straightforward to use and pairs with my Smartphone or iPod in seconds.
To complete the package Edifier has provided a small handset, so you don’t have to leave your chair to change the input and output modes, or indeed the volume. Unusually they’ve also included a high quality fibre optic cable, a twin RCA plugs to 3.5mm jack audio cable, and a 3.5mm socket to twin RCA plugs cable. Together they cover just about any input combination you might have.
Finally, the unit ships with quite a sturdy black powder coated steel bracket, so you can hang it on the wall below or above your TV. Certainly a logical way to mount it, particularly if your TV is already fitted with a wall mount. Alternatively you can simply stand it in front of your TV, where the rubber strips on the bottom keep it firmly in place regardless of the volume setting. Joe Lavery
An excellent way to improve your TV or media player’s sound quality.