$6,000 sound bar from Creative Labs getting rave reviews

[Craig234]

Wow. That criminal who burglarized my soundbar and much more I hadn't heard from in years just knocked at the door, asking for a pen and paper to write something down at her car, promising to return the pen, and disappearing. Time to make sure everything is locked.

 

[rstrohkirch]

It's amusing see pictures of very expensive speakers advertised in beautiful homes/locations that are completely unsuited as an actual listening environment. Glass and wood all over the place with no treatment what so ever resulting in terrible reproduction. It's like buying a Ferrari and slapping on General tires fresh off the sale at Walmart.

 

[JSt0rm]

It's amusing see pictures of very expensive speakers advertised in beautiful homes/locations that are completely unsuited as an actual listening environment. Glass and wood all over the place with no treatment what so ever resulting in terrible reproduction. It's like buying a Ferrari and slapping on General tires fresh off the sale at Walmart.

Oh you have never been to the Blank (not gonna reveal the company- professional interest) listening space in nyc? Its down right cavernous.

 

[rstrohkirch]

There is a cavernous =] difference between a venue that was designed with acoustics in mind regardless of materials and a living room in a residential home.

 

[Chaotic42]

I'll bet my 128Kbps MP3s will sound great on that.

 

[JSt0rm]

I'll bet my 128Kbps MP3s will sound great on that.

probably. Your 128kbs mp3s wont sound great on my system though 😉

 

[rchunter]

It's amusing see pictures of very expensive speakers advertised in beautiful homes/locations that are completely unsuited as an actual listening environment. Glass and wood all over the place with no treatment what so ever resulting in terrible reproduction. It's like buying a Ferrari and slapping on General tires fresh off the sale at Walmart.

Yeah my place is full of windows everywhere and the main reason why I refuse to spend a bunch of money on audio gear. Waste of money until I can get a proper listening room.

 

[sdifox]

Yeah my place is full of windows everywhere and the main reason why I refuse to spend a bunch of money on audio gear. Waste of money until I can get a proper listening room.

Curtains.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Thinking...$6000 can buy a tremendous surround setup depending on the room size one has to work with. Why settle for a soundbar?

 

[rstrohkirch]

Hey now, soundbar AND sub.

 

[Craig234]

I'd like to hear one.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The trick is it uses a ton of reflective drivers. Basically it tries to bounce sound off the walls and ceiling area. Very room specific. That sub is pretty small as well IMO.

 

[Craig234]

The trick is it uses a ton of reflective drivers. Basically it tries to bounce sound off the walls and ceiling area. Very room specific. That sub is pretty small as well IMO.

That's what my never-opened Yamaha YSP-4100 would have done.

It said you let it configure itself as it bounced sounds around the room and customized its configuration to fit.

 

[cmdrdredd]

That's what my never-opened Yamaha YSP-4100 would have done.

It said you let it configure itself as it bounced sounds around the room and customized its configuration to fit.

I have some Atmos Enabled speakers that have a driver specifically designed and angled to bounce audio off the ceiling and down to the listening area in a dispersed pattern. It doesn't work more than 6-7 feet out from the speaker placement due to my ceiling height. Higher ceilings may be better for getting distance but too high and you lose the effect entirely. Some people have experimented with different angles to get more distance but then you risk getting too much localization. Further only certain frequencies actually work this way in my experience. I don't see how this would work at all trying to bounce audio behind you for an actual "surround" experience. Creative says it does some audio trickery not very different from how EAX worked in games years ago to achieve effects like echo etc. According to AVS, the first 100 pre-orders got it for $1700 and it went up $200 for every so many after that. Some have had it pre-ordered for over a year with no delivery.

 

[Craig234]

Ya, it's still listed as pre-order, but clearly they have demos.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Further only certain frequencies actually work this way in my experience. I don't see how this would work at all trying to bounce audio behind you for an actual "surround" experience. Creative says it does some audio trickery not very different from how EAX worked in games years ago to achieve effects like echo etc.

Exactly. This is why out of all the soundbars I ever listened to (or owned), only the Polk ones seemed to really work well due to the SDA tech. Sure you can simply throw more and more processing power at using drivers to bounce different audio at specific phases around each room. Or, you could have done all the math up front and have it work for anyone sitting between the speakers to be able to hear sounds that seem to be coming directly from the sides/rear by creating a phased cancellation wave pattern that is roughly 8.5 inches (about the distance between human's ears) in length from valley to peak (such that the sound from the left speaker is cancelled when it reaches the right ear and vice versa).

 

[sf101]

First issue..I've dealt with Creative via soundblaster issues etc in the past , So many problems with long term support and long means like after 1-2 years in their world.

Second problem is obviously price on a sound bar , regardless of how many "Chips" they toss into the mix/propoganda its alot esp for a bar.

Third overall I personally have a 7.1 Surround sound system from Yamaha . it works fine but literally a large chunk of things i've found to hear on it don't 100% or at all support surround or proper surround anyways.

Either its 2.0 or 2.1 or fake 5.1 rarely full dolby etc Very VERY rare is it 7.1 5.1 is somewhat common now but even when its full dolby if i tell the unit to do 5.1 or 7.1 it sounds the same over all usually. Often even if i force 7.1 it mimics front back and bass and it sounds the same as 5.1 .. not much has changed unless its the absolute top quality stuff which is rare and then you can tell.

Sound bars are cool in a way they mimic surround sound often well enough for what ever.. and they dont require wiring etc this is a given if you have a limited room esp id wait for user personal reviews myself before buying into creative videos or even bought off reviews from AV sites is all im saying, maybe its amazing but wait to see.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Exactly. This is why out of all the soundbars I ever listened to (or owned), only the Polk ones seemed to really work well due to the SDA tech. Sure you can simply throw more and more processing power at using drivers to bounce different audio at specific phases around each room. Or, you could have done all the math up front and have it work for anyone sitting between the speakers to be able to hear sounds that seem to be coming directly from the sides/rear by creating a phased cancellation wave pattern that is roughly 8.5 inches (about the distance between human's ears) in length from valley to peak (such that the sound from the left speaker is cancelled when it reaches the right ear and vice versa).

This sounds like how Dolby Atmos object audio works with your speakers. They can place any sound in 3D space around the listening environment and the processing inside the AVR or pre-pro will place the audio according to your configuration. They can make audio sound like it's 10 feet off to your left when it's really coming out of speakers in front of you. However that usually requires the proper bed layer (at least 5.1) and the atmos height speakers (at least 2). I've never heard a soundbar do Atmos but I know Yamaha has one available as I'm sure others. I just wouldn't expect miracles.

 

[cmdrdredd]

First issue..I've dealt with Creative via soundblaster issues etc in the past , So many problems with long term support and long means like after 1-2 years in their world.

Second problem is obviously price on a sound bar , regardless of how many "Chips" they toss into the mix/propoganda its alot esp for a bar.

Third overall I personally have a 7.1 Surround sound system from Yamaha . it works fine but literally a large chunk of things i've found to hear on it don't 100% or at all support surround or proper surround anyways.

Either its 2.0 or 2.1 or fake 5.1 rarely full dolby etc Very VERY rare is it 7.1 5.1 is somewhat common now but even when its full dolby if i tell the unit to do 5.1 or 7.1 it sounds the same over all usually. Often even if i force 7.1 it mimics front back and bass and it sounds the same as 5.1 .. not much has changed unless its the absolute top quality stuff which is rare and then you can tell.

Sound bars are cool in a way they mimic surround sound often well enough for what ever.. and they dont require wiring etc this is a given if you have a limited room esp id wait for user personal reviews myself before buying into creative videos or even bought off reviews from AV sites is all im saying, maybe its amazing but wait to see.

I guess it depends on your usage. All Blu-Ray movies have at least 5.1 audio. Most have lossless audio, either Dolby TrueHD up to 7.1, Dolby Atmos up to 32channels(saw someone on AVS Forum with a 13.1.6 for example. it's a 13.1 system with 6 height channel speakers), DTS-HD MA 5.1/7.1, or DTS-X(similar to Atmos as it also uses height channels). Almost everything on Netflix is 5.1 as is Amazon Prime. Netflix recently started adding Dolby Atmos to their movies. All games I've played in the past couple of years have supported 5.1 and many will scale up to 7.1. A couple games support Atmos too.

As for music, it's mostly stereo with a few recordings made with multichannel audio.