Samsung HW-E550 2.1 Channel 310-Watt Sound bar (Old Version)

I was looking for compact home theaters for a really long time. My requirements were the following: - great sound quality, of course - no wires running all over my living room - wireless connectivity to play music from my ipad ( air play or bluetooth) - more recent model, preferably 2012 one - hdmi or optical connectivity - seamless integration with my tv and switch between dish network cable programming, netflix, vudu apps without additional buttons to press - look elegant and match my new 46" led tv - reasonably sized subwoofer (not like the ugly Bose ones) I did a lot of research, looked at compact home theater systems and sound bars, including Bose cinemate, Energy Power Bar elite, Polk audio, Boston accoistic sound bars, and other stanadard Sony, LG ones, and finally settled on this. Pros: - meets all my requirements listed above (this was in fact the only system that did) - as a bonus, I could split the sound bar into two separate towers with attached base- looks awesome - sound bar remote automatically operates my Samsung tv- another bonus feature Cons: - expected Samsung to provide better instructions to asemble. Took quite a while for me to figure out the optimal connectivity. Bluetooth connection with my ipad was easy and I could wirelessly listen to my Pandora staions immediately. But for seamless integration with Tv, I figured out after some google searches that I should use the HDMI-ARC port in my TV. ARC stands for Audio Return Cable. - unit turns off with my tv when using my tv remote, but does not turn on. Have to use the sound bar remote to turn it on. Overall I am pleased with the functionality, sound quality and the looks, and would highly recommend this product.

I was looking at the other sound bars but decided on this one because it showed you could split the speakers versus having one long sound bar, which was better for my living room. This system works very well with my Samsung TV. I would say the remote could be much better designed and integrated into other Samsung device but I was buying a sound system not a fancy remote. This system puts out good deal of bass and has a compact size. It says wireless sub but that seems a bit misleading as all of the connections plug into the sub and the speakers are wireless.

I got this as a display model at the Big Box store. It came with no remote or instruction, and was scratched, but I love how it sounded - Plus I got a nice discount. HOWEVER, I found it here at Amazon Warehouse Deals for less money - AND- it came as new (original packaging and everything). 1st, let's get this out of the way: it is not surround. Who expects true surround out of a sound bar? Plus, my room is asymmetrical anyway. This thing is fantastic. I love when people come over and can't believe the crisp sound (and deep bass). I have it set up with my 50inch Panasonic Viera Plasma. This bar compliments it perfectly. The sound is on par with the TV's great picture, and the styling/aesthetics match it too. I would give 6 stars if it were possible. Almost forgot, it has ARC. This allows me to plug my components in the TV, and use only 1 HDMI cable to connect to the soundbar. I then use only the TV remote (ARC enables the TV to control the soundbar).

Liked the idea of two vertical speakers vs a horizontal soundbar. The two speakers are connected via speaker wire and power only connected to the right speaker. HDMI or optical cable from TV and other devices connect to the subwoofer and sends sound to the two speakers wirelessly. This means the sub must be close to the TV. Problem started day one. It took almost 10 minutes trying to figure out how to sync the sub wirelessly to the speakers. Instructions for this is a joke. I'm still not sure how I eventually got it working but I did. Less that an hour later I hear loud static and then nothing. Only sound was coming from the sub and the speaker was showing an error message 'Check Subwoofer'. So I look-up this error in the manual but nothing. So I try powering off each speaker and try to re-sync. I finally got it to work. A day or two later same thing. Now it happens on a daily basis. NOTE: My sub and the right speaker are less that 10 inches apart so it's not a distance issue. I'm returning it now before I'm stuck with a +$300 non-working speaker. Be warned.