Michael has been comparing his waistline with that of a soundbar. He lost
Described as the "World's Slimmest Soundbar", the STA-1200BSW has been developed by Humax, a company better known for its settop boxes (STB). This product consists of the actual soundbar, a subwoofer, a remote control unit and various leads packaged in a box whose size might make you wonder about the slimmest claim.
Once everything is unpacked you quickly realise that the 'World's Slimmest' claim takes no account of the soundbar's width, which stretches to 1200mm. Other dimensions are a depth of 20mm and a height of 37mm. The subwoofer, by comparison, is box-shaped with dimensions of 195 x266 x265mm.
The soundbar can be freestanding or mounted on a wall using the supplied brackets and screws. In either case, the unit needs to be positioned within 270cm of an available power source due to the length of the two-piece power lead. All the physical connections to the soundbar are located at the rear of the device. Tucked away in a recessed compartment are connections for auxiliary and optical linking to a television or STB. There are also connections for mains power and the subwoofer. All the necessary leads are supplied.
Along with the physical connections, it supports Bluetooth for audio output. I felt that Bluetooth pairing, using various devices, was among the quickest I have encountered.
Taking up a central position on the grilled front of this soundbar is a touch-sensitive control panel. Forming part of this control panel is an IR receiver allowing you to initiate controls using the supplied remote unit. This feature is particularly useful if you’ve opted for the wall-mounted option. Other features available from the control panel include a Bluetooth indicator light, power button and volume adjustment with an option to turn off the sub-woofer.
Humax has packed four speaker units into the soundbar. Arranged along the front of the soundbar, these speakers can combine to deliver 80W of output. Add in the subwoofer and you get a further 100W of output, which should be plenty for most rooms in ordinary households.
As mentioned earlier, you can either control this soundbar from its front panel or the remote unit as you sit in your favourite armchair (my chair lets me raise the front and lower the back so that I can recline in comfort - if you're going to be a couch potato why not go the whole hog?). You can use the remote to activate a pairing process as you link a smartphone or tablet. Any volume adjustment can be carried out using the remote. You can also turn on/off the surround sound feature and the subwoofer plus mute everything.
Not unnaturally, this soundbar is at its most useful when connected to different devices for receiving content. Rather than allow the user to set the priority for connected devices, the Humax device comes with its own preset instructions. This soundbar will give priority to a Bluetooth stream, with an aux connection taking second place. This means the optical option is placed on the lowest rung on the ladder.
The Humax soundbar is capable of adding depth and bass to its output with an increase in the volume level. While you would not use this product in a large hall or assembly room, it‘s fine for use in a family room in most homes. Michael Fereday
A wide expanse of reasonable sound quality.