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5stars
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64 reviews
Excellent
Great price, delivery and item like new. Highly recommended seller.
The soundbar itself performs very well indeed. The bass can be a little overwhelming as it is so powerful even when the subwoofer volume is turned to minimum.
A few reviews I read prior to buying this mentioned the soundbar is not pwerful enough...well, IT IS !!
Our living area is 13ftx22ft, the sound fills the room easily even at low volume/sub settings. I feel a bit sorry for the neighbours,...not really !!
Obviously a 3.1 system cannot better a 5.1 full set up but this system comes pretty close with CINEMA & SURROUND settings selected.
The soundbar is not really designed to be fitted below the TV; the controls are fitted at the top rear of the unit so would be obscured. The remote works well though so not a big issue even if it were mounted here.. There are wall mounting brackets supplied.
The settings indicator LED's are located at the top front face & are not intrusive.
As with most sounbars no input cables are supplied (HDMI/Optical) We are using the optical input as the TV has limited HDMI inputs.
Overall I would recommend this product.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes • Condition: refurbished • Sold by: panasonic_outlet
Great value but deeply flawed in areas. The sound is far better than the built-in TV speakers.
Pros:
- Big sound (if that's what you're after).
- 3.1 is welcome - the centre channel does make a big difference.
- Good options for Movie, News, Music etc.
- Virtual Surround is room filling.
- Nice build quality.
- Fits well behind my Panasonic 4K 40" TV.
Cons:
- Generally too much bass even on lowest setting resulting in the "stuffed t-shirt" technique in the sub port (the only way to tame the bass).
- Lip sync issue on all devices - Panasonic 4K Blu Ray, Human PVR, Sky Box and the TV itself - especially prevalent in Netflix streamed from all devices. HDMI ARC is worse than optical with the sound sync issue. No fix found for this after exhaustive tweaking (I've spent hours). Lip sync is perfect through the TV speakers. It is worth noting that various optical outputs to my old home cinema 5.1 receiver do not suffer from lip sync issues so I am 100% sure that the sound bar is at fault.
- Sometimes the sound sync issue can "suddenly" become 500ms or more. No idea why.
- When placing in front of the TV the sound bar is slightly too high resulting in the IR sensor being blocked.
- No display on the front of the sound bar so you have to check on top to see which settings are selected.
- Irritating small remote.
- After turning off power saving mode the sound bar still turns itself off. This really irritates me when you hit pause on the Human PVR.
Conclusion:
Quality sound bars with a sub are generally expensive. This one was great value being a refurb but I know why it's a refurb (refer to cons above). My view; spend at least £200 on a refurb sound bar or £300+ new. Eventually I'll replace this setup with an Atoms but I doubt it will be from Panasonic.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes • Condition: refurbished • Sold by: panasonic_outlet
Panasonic Sound Bar SC-HTB688
Works well with my Panasonic TV TX-400X700B. Much better integration than the more expensive Cambridge Audio TVB2 soundbar I bought with the TV back in 2016. Uses HMDI ARC to communicate with the TV (the TVB2 had to use optical).
The only negative points are:
1. the mains cable is hard wired. Had to cut off the plug to wire it behind the TV wall mount.
2. The wall mount brackets and wires are very visible in the recommended location (100mm below TV).
3. The wall mount brackets don't fit securely to the wall because you have to drop the soundbar onto two screws protruding from the wall which you can't tighten after mounting.
4. You can't level the soundbar once it has been mounted for the same reason. Need to be very accurate in wall drilling to avoid squiffy result.
5. You need to keep the remote control handy to set the sound modes as no buttons for this on the main body nor can you set modes via the TV remote.
Currys gave me a good discount for a damaged/open box but the contents were complete and pristine.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: currys
Great value soundbar package
A great soundbar, very easy to set up and nice clear audio. The sub isn't the most musical of subs but if you are just after a bit of oomph to your TV sound it's perfect. The Bluetooth connection is a nice feature which connected to my Amazon Echo device first time with no issues.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes • Condition: refurbished • Sold by: panasonic_outlet
Good bang for your buck
If you can find this at a reasonable price ( not the £270 wanted by retail park seller) then this is worth considering for those smaller rooms.
Pros:-
Sound output is pretty good - I like the fact its 3.1 so vocal detail is not lost when viewing movies containing lots of peripheral sound, good boomy base (and its wireless so can be hidden) individual volume controls for sub and main speakers, and 5 sound modes.
Cons
The cutover for the sub appears to be too sharp - you occasionally get bleed through of low frequency content when not expecting it. Have to turn sub volume right down to reduce this effect. The system leds are located on top of the sound bar - makes it nigh on impossible to see what sound mode you are in unless you stand up.
Overall a good buy.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes • Condition: refurbished • Sold by: panasonic_outlet
3.1 Surround Sound
Impressive piece of kit given the normal RRP is almost £300.00. I was very impressed with the sound as the centre speaker makes a big difference over the 2.1 system it replaced, so I bought two of these. The only downside for me is both of my tv's are equipped with ARC HDMI and both soundbars switch off with the TV but only one of them switches on. I will switch them around to identify if it's the TV or the soundbar but overall I am impressed given the quality brand and exceptionally low price.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes • Condition: refurbished • Sold by: panasonic_outlet
Spend your hard earned on something else.
Almost £200 for a soundbar and sub so you would expect decent audio, sadly you won't get it with this model.
Pro -
Easy to setup
Its a big unit
Bass is loud
Cons -
Music in programs drown out all speech, it really is atrocious
Like others have noted, the top facing LED's are in a silly place
If I mute a program to answer the phone or something, the soundbar unmutes itself. Constantly. So annoying.
You must keep the mini remote handy to change modes..
I'm sure there is a lot more I could mention but the main thing wrong with this product is the inability to hear dialog in programs, any music in the background is instantly brought to the same level as the speech.
Would I recommend this soundbar? No.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: panasonic_outlet
worse than TV speakers, but goes louder
If you play the sound without the sub woofer then you can tell that the higher frequencies are awfully reproduced. It sounds like an old PA system from a pub. Obviously the power of the system means you can play music or films at high volume with deep base but what I think most people want is clarity compared to their TV speakers, and this is worse than my Panasonic TV speakers. I went to RicherSounds to listen to this (after i bought it) and compared it to a similarly priced Cambridge Audio (no separate sub woofer, just a sound base) and the Cambridge blew this out of the water. Panasonic make great Tvs but their sound equipment is poor and is counting on brand to sell, which to quote a certain president, is sad.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes • Condition: refurbished • Sold by: panasonic_outlet
Poor controls
Bought this Panasonic soundbar to go with a Panasonic TV that has a Optical Connector.
When you turn TV on bar doesn't recognise the TV so you have to press the Optical Source switch every time. Frustrating
Also cannot use the TV remote to control the volume or Connect with the soundbar. The soundbar remote is easily lost as so small
Often don't bother using the soundbar as a result and use the Tv speaker which makes the purchase worthlessRead full review
Verified purchase: Yes • Condition: refurbished • Sold by: panasonic_outlet
soundbar with excellent sound
The sound is great compared to the inbuilt sound of my Sony TV. I bought the Panasonic for listening classic music programs from my TV. I am very satisfied. The only con is that the remote control stick is very small. It tends to vanish easily and to slip from your hands.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes • Condition: refurbished • Sold by: bizitshopuk