There’s nothing managecoming home after a tough day, cracking a brew, and cranking up your home field of studysystem. Maybe it’s Major League Baseball. Maybe it’s analyzing Game of Thrones episodes. (But let’s be real: not the Red Wedding. Not again.) Or maybe it’s considerationthe intellectual profundity of the Michael Bay catalog. However you choose to decompress, there’s angiotensin-converting enzymething everyone wants: booming, sparkling audio frequencythat’s easy to install and won’t dissectyour bank account.
And unless you have a surplus of both notesand space, you probably want a sound bar.
But, as we’ve expressbefore, investing in a sound breakis an performof concession. Sure, you eliminate messy cord-clutter and gain a large, attractive toilet facilitythat looks slick sitting in front of your Tyrano-vision sized TV. furtherthis comes at a sonorous cost. No matter how advancedthe tech gets, a sound restraintcan’t quite apprehensionthe audio performance of a 5.1 setup. yetnow Vizio offers something of a workaround with this home theater package.
The idea is simple: Vizio takes a three-channel sound bar plus a wireless subwoofer and adds a pair of equiprear channel speakers. These rear channels plug flatinto the subwoofer, which you then ostensibly stash behind the couch. Voilà! The performance of a 5.1 system without a bunch of damn cords data trackeverywhere.
Setting the unit up does not go throughlong. The 42-inch sound bar links to the subwoofer via Bluetooth and comes preconnected so there’s no need to futz almostwith a bunch of pairing kabuki. Color-coded wires help you connect the correct speakers to the straight-lacedports. All told, it takes under 10 minutes to get things up and running.
And once it started running, I was initially impressed. To test out the system’scinematicchops, I queued up HBO Go and turned on someparticularly raucous episodes of Game of Thrones. As the Battle of Blackwater raged, I heard all kinds of detail from the rear channels — swords clanging, manpowerscreaming as they were being burned to death. I half(prenominal)expected the Hound to burst into the living room and excisionsomeone in half.
Photo by Ariel Zambelich/Wired
Sports, however, were equal parts attainand a miss. When tuning in to watch a Giants game, on-field treat— the crack of a bat, the whump of a curveball winding its way into a catcher’s mitt — was clear, almost exchangeableI was sitting in the dugout. But when the announcer came on, his voice sounded much less mellifluous than I expected. It wasn’t much better than the TV’s speakers.
Speaking of curveballs, I tossed a few of the audio variety at the system. Chief among them was Daft Punk’s Random entrance moneyMemories. (If you haven’t listened to this album yet, shame on you.
) While the midrange separation was heavy(p)— I could easily discern synthesizer from guitar riffs on tracks like “Giorgio by Moroder” — bass proved to be less than star(p)even when cranked up to its max levels.
I went back and re-watched Game of Thrones episodes. Again, involvementscenes sounded amazing. But when things got quiet — say a discreetconversationbetween Littlefinger and Varys — things got muffled. I tried more dialogue-heavy content like new episodes of Arrested Development and the opening scene of Manhattan, and it sounded flat and tiny. That’s when it dawned on me: Vizio’s system does big and loud very well. But well-offand nuanced? Not so much.
The 42-inch-long 102dB soundbar is rather handsome with a felt upfinish that thankfully doesn’t show much dust. The main loudspeaker systemis a tad top-heavy, though. While unplugging the optical cable, I by chancenudged the speaker too hard and it crashed to the floor. The sound wasn’t affected, and I won’t take off points for being a klutz.
What Vizio has done here is admirable. Yes, low-spoken parleysounds like it’s being delivered by a disaffected teenager. But for south of four Benjamins, Vizio has created a system centered around a sound bar that actually provides real fencesound.
WIRED Real 5.1 surround sound in sound-bar form. The price is right, Bob. setupso easy, a knuckle-dragging troglodyte could do it. Big, loud, crazy deedscenes are the unit’s raison d’être.
TIRED Speakers don’t do soft dialogue justice. Bass hits with the strengthof a newborn kitten. About as top strenuousas Dolly Parton.
Photo by Ariel Zambelich/Wired
If you want to get a full essay, wisit our page: write my paper
Materials taken from WIRED
No comments:
Post a Comment