Don’t Expect Miracles From a Cheap Soundbar

Cheap soundbars are a lot like meretricious headphones . Many of them will do the job . Few of them will do it well . The new boob tube Mate by Samsung fit firmly in the first category . It will indeed make the audio on your TV louder and better . It will not , however , trick your friends into think you have a soup - up household theater of operations system .

That might be okay ! The thickset piece of hardware will fit neatly underneath most display . It also sports a lot of the basic feature you ’d need from a habitation audio frequency product , including HDMI ARC support , an optical audio input , surround intelligent capabilities , and even Bluetooth functionality . Samsung sum up up this up on its website as “ good TV phone , ” and I can confidently say that the company is correct . The TV Mate is better than your TV . But it ’s far from the best soundbar you could buy .

Samsung TV Mate Soundbar

Photo: Adam Clark Estes (Gizmodo)

What is it ?

A brassy soundbar

terms

$ 200

low-cost and easy - to - utilization

No Like

Not much basso or any standout audio features

At $ 200 , the TV Mate is about as cheap as soundbars come . There are four speakers inside , but there is no subwoofer . There is no wifi audio recording support either — just the Bluetooth and the option to set up a wireless surround sound system . The TV Mate is also not A-one slim , but it is rather short in terms of length . In terms of audio quality , the soundbar is absolutely intermediate . It sounded to me like the speakers on my TV got louder , and for every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. television watching , that was all I really needed .

I just would n’t get my hope up and consider that Samsung is selling a $ 200 home audio frequency solution with theater - gauge results . Without an international subwoofer or palisade sound speakers , the new TV Mate can only do so much to enhance your entertainment experience . You ’re not go to feel the deep gang fight of the cod racers in Star Wars : Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace . The big Gorilla gorilla in Kong : Skull Island will voice tatty but not peculiarly growly . I think I ’d even prefer to catch Blade Runner with earphone rather of this soundbar . But it is flash !

Consider this though . If you ’re unforced to pass a few more dollars , you may get the HT - J4500 Home Theater System from Samsungfor $ 220 . That includes a subwoofer and five artificial satellite speaker . It ’s not a soundbar , so it will be more complex to set up , but the sound will be better too . You could also get thehighly recommendedVizio SB3651 - E6 5.1 environs speech sound system , which includes not only a subwoofer but also two orbiter speakers . squirt is presently selling that set upfor $ 230 . Vizio is also sellinga novel $ 140 soundbarwith built in subwoofer , if you want to pass less money . You might also want to consider one of these fancy Modern soundbars with a built - in vocalization assistantlike the $ 400 Sonos Beamorthe TCL Roku Smart Sound Bar , which goes on sales event later this year . I ca n’t say which of these sounds the full because I did n’t test them against the TV Mate , but spending a few more dollar will definitely get you more features than this barebones bar .

At the ending of the day , buying the young Samsung TV Mate ought to be a question of budget . Is $ 200 really all you want to spend on a soundbar ? If you really just require a super sleazy soundbar , you might want to check out the cheap Vizio , which offer a lot of the same features as the Samsung . If you ’re a Samsung loyalist , though , the television Mate will surely work well with your TV . you could always tot up that home dramatics system on top of it and still walk aside with less than $ 500 invest in your entertainment experience . And that ’s the beauty of home audio recording : you may always spend more money and get more Speaker . They might not be the good , but anything will be better than your shitty built - in telecasting speakers .