A soundbar is a new word in the world of acoustics. Well, do you know, what it means? If you don’t know, then we are ready to explain simply everything and even to illustrate by one very interesting example. So, what is it a «beast»?

A word «soundbar» can be translated as a «sound stripe», «sound bar» or even «sound horizontal bar» – it is possible even to write jokes for this subject. Anyway, the sense does not change due to this. Actually, the soundbar is a cross between TV loudspeakers and large speaker systems for home theatres composed of 5-6 speakers. After adding such a device to your TV-set you will get high quality and surrounding sounding of movies, and in this case, you do away with a necessity to drill walls, lift plinths and break your head how to place satellites.

Let’s take the splendid model of SVEN SB-550 soundbar of the Finnish company as an example.

Even judging by appearance of its carton, it is clear that something impressive and serious is hidden inside. Really, the item has the appearance of such a giant black cigar almost one meter long – it looks very originally and modern. It is supplied, though, disassembled; however even an inexperienced user will assemble such a construction set without any difficulties at all. Besides the «cigar» proper there is a subwoofer, which is an indispensable part for lovers of deep basses, a kit of necessary cables, power supply unit and bracket for the wall mounting in the carton.

A possibility to mount the item on a wall cannot but makes happy – due to this, quite a lot of space is saved in an apartment. It is worth noting as well that by its design this soundbar will make a good pair for the classic flat TV-sets, although due to aesthetic considerations it is preferably to purchase it for models with diagonal size from 37″ to 50″.

Mat surfaces of the soundbar are harmonized with glossy surfaces superbly, and its loudspeakers are hidden behind the grill. By the way, the item can be mounted not on the wall only, but can be placed on a cabinet as well, for this purpose, what you will have to do is to fix a small plastic pillar to it with soft protective pads to avoid scratches on the furniture.

Let us look at the subwoofer. Developers decided not to experiment with this component design and gave a compact rectangular form to it. You can place this «small box» practically in any free plot of space, its loudspeaker is located in such a way that the speaker will sound well even from a corner, and its appearance will not imbalance the interior harmony.

The subwoofer is connected to the main unit with wireless connection: first, you will have to plug it into a socket, then press the PAIR button on the soundbar and only after that press the similar button on the subwoofer. It doesn't require much wisdom.

It should be noted that the data are transferred over 2.4 GHz channel from the basic part to the low-frequency speaker. Such method provides not only a good radius of action, but also the absence of jerking and interferences during the signal transmission.

The system proper is also connected very simply; it is possible to connect it by digital or analog methods. The first case provides the maximum sound quality. HDMI cable and corresponding inputs are used for connection. There are only two inputs on the case, so you can connect both a DVD-player and game console simultaneously to the speaker system. A TV-set will be connected to the HDMI-output in its turn. All interface jacks are located on the rear side of the speaker “bar” not to spoil the beauty of the speaker system.

The second version will do for those cases, when not so modern sound equipment is used, for this purpose two RCA jacks of old standard are provided in the model case. The audio jack for MP3-players is also available there. Therefore, the sound can be input to this soundbar practically from any carriers, and the universality, as is well-known, plays into our hands.

Naturally, a user is given a chance to «indulge» with settings and achieve the desired sounding. You can do it both from the button panel located on the speaker system and using the remote control after making yourself comfortable on a sofa, through an off-wire control stand. The remote control is included, of course.

As is often the case, there are a little bit less options while controlling the system from the button panel, only volume control and input selection options will be accessible in this case. There is an indispensable on/off button on the front side. In its turn, besides all above-mentioned options the remote control allows setting the separate volume control for the main part and the subwoofer, pressing the «mute» button to turn the sound off, as well as selecting one of available equalizer presets – a useful option for lazy users. In this case, the whole information will be displayed on a small screen of the speaker system.

And, finally, above all, i.e. about the sound. In this respect, the soundbar surprised us indeed. By power, clearness, density and volume of sounding the soundbar can be compared with confidence with the best 2.1 speaker systems. Of course, by specification the model yields to 5.1 speaker systems placed according to the principle of acoustic “feng shui”, however due to this the sound stage does not change its brilliance and dynamism. SVEN SB-550 provides quite decent picture with good high basses, clear highest sound and the excellent volume reserve.

In any event, TV-set loudspeakers can hardly offer one third of abilities that this speaker system demonstrates. Movies with the sound from such a soundbar are watched with much more pleasure. Go to a hardware store, test the model – and you will be convinced of that!