Customer Reviews

Boston Acoustics TVEEM20B TVee Model 20 Home Entertainment System (Black)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I bought this item as an impulse purchase,was sick of turning up the volume of my Sony Bravia up to like 65-70 just to hear it.Read the reviews and got to admit I was a little hesitant,but I ordered it anyway.Overnight I was self doubting the purchase and contemplating just returning it when it came in.Sooo... glad I didn't.This thing is awesome!Very easy to set up and programmed it to my cable remote.The sound is unreal.Deep rich bass and the voices are so much clearer and easier to hear.I have it turned up to #5 for normal viewing and #10 is borderline too loud.Best $220 I've ever spent,absolutely no regrets.One tip...hook it up to the tv itself and not the cablebox because unless you turn off the cablebox you'll get the program sound even if the tv isn't on.(at least the way mine is set up...cable on 24/7 I just on/off the tv)

I have tinkered with a few companion systems since buying my Panasonic Plasma about 4 yrs ago but I never found one that really improved the sound in relation to the TV speakers. I received my system yesterday and was blown away by the sound that was produced by just two speakers. The dialogue is clear and crisp and the Bass is all you want. Both cable and DVD media have been heard and performed very well. The set up was very easy and since you can use your existing remote to control volume, muting, and power, it doesn't get much easier. This is not a surround bar so don't mistake it as such but for a 2.1 channel stereo product it is very effective. If you are in the market for a speaker enhancement package, look no further.

The sound quality on both the sound bar and the wireless sub-woofer are very, very good. The unit is sleak and easy to hook-up. However, after several hours and attempts at following instructions to the letter, I have had both a telephone conversation and exchanged e-mail messages with the Boston Acoustics tech. support center trying to get either my Direct TV or Samsung TV remote control units to work and control the volume and mute functions of the speaker system. Those efforts were fruitless and I finally asked to speak with a manager at the BA tech. support number. I was transferred to a "Steven" who essentially told me he did not know what the problem was, but would look into it and call me back. After waiting three (3) days for that return call and trying different remote control units on my own, I finally gave up and requested a return authorization and am returning the unit. The Boston Acoustics tech support center was a waste of time, both telephone contact and on-line exchanges.

Great unit. I'm hardly crazily into audio stuff, and I'm sure nitpickers can find plenty wrong with this budget system, but if you're like me and wanted upgrade your 42" to a 60" and were disappointed to find the audio was a definite downgrade (boo, right?) this will knock your socks off. The sub really kicks nintendo games into high gear.

REMOTE PROGRAMMING: The directions are REALLY unclear.

Step 1: Press Power and Volume Up, and hold. In a few seconds, the light will BLINK ORANGE.
Step 2: Now press the button on the SOUNDBAR you want to program. For example, press VOLUME UP ON THE SOUNDBAR. The light will SOLID ORANGE
Step 3: It nows want you to program the Volume Up button, so push VOLUME UP ON THE REMOTE a couple times, you'll see the ORANGE FLICKER with each press until it TURNS GREEN.

You have now programmed Volume up.

Step 4: Press Power and Volume Up and hold AGAIN to put in in programming mode - BLINK ORANGE.
Step 5: Press VOL DOWN ON SOUNDBAR and light will SOLID ORANGE.
Step 6: Push VOLUME DOWN ON REMOTE a few times until GREEN LIGHT.

Step 7,8,9: Programming mode, press mute on soundbar, press mute on remote a few times.

This is an update to my original review from May, 2010. At first everything worked perfectly. Now, the sound is extremely erratic. Sometimes the mute works, sometimes not at all. Volume numbers do not correspond to actual volume the same way every time the TV is used. Actually right now, the system is frozen up. No mute and no volume change. Remote is not able to re-program. Waiting for help from the manufacturer (no phone number) and/or Amazon for warranty. Hope I didn't throw away good money.

Another update (11-29-10): I did make email contact with the company who offered to look at the sound bar if I shipped it to them (and promised a quick return). However, I have sort of solved the problem. Part of it was unclear directions for programming the TV remote. I didn't figure it out until I looked in a new box containing a new sound bar and noticed that the directions for programming on a "quick start" sheet (which I lost), was different and more clear than the small manual. So, nothing was ever wrong with the sound bar. Another part of it is that on my particular TV, I cannot turn off the TV sound. Somehow the incremental changes of the TV volume is different than the changes of the sound bar. That gets the adjustment out of wack, and then I need to reprogram the remote. The other problem is that my TV has both a mute and half-mute on the same remote control that the sound bar just cannot learn. So, we just don't use the mute. Rather, we use the pause button, which works because we have a DVR on our satellite system. In conclusion, I do believe the product is a good one and definitely improves the crappy sound from the TV. And, the room is quite large, 18 x18 with a high ceiling. The woofer can get boomy, but that is easily adjustable. I would buy the product again mainly for the ability of it learning the remote of the TV.

Original review:

After reviewing a lot of soundbars, it was one great feature that pushed me to the Boston Acoustics TVEEM20B: the ability of the system to learn your remote commands (volume and mute). We have Dish programming and I did not want to have another remote or give up the great remote from Dish (with its skip forward and backward features to easily skip through TV commercials). Not only did the system learn the remote commands easily, the thing sounds great. We paired it with a new Toshiba 55 inch LED TV. Originally, we were impressed that the TV sounded not that bad, once I had tweaked the default settings to eliminate the enhanced bass (which made it sound hollow). But, after watching a music concert we thought the sound could improve. Tested the TVEEM20B on that same concert and it sounded great. The room is large, 18' x 18' with a high ceiling. No problem filling the room with sound. And the adjustable wireless woofer can be hidden easily as well. The whole thing set up in minutes.

I bought this BA soundbar at a large electronics store after listening to several other brands of soundbars that were set up as demos in the TV section. All were in the $250 range and I listened to all of them. The BA product seemed to me the best sound reproduction. I was interested in getting a soundbar because both my wife and I have trouble deciphering the sound of dialogue coming from our Vizio 42-inch TV. We have to resort to using the captions, which is annoying. Increasing the volume did not seem to help, the words just seemed muddy Though some of our difficulty is probably due to age (I am 70 and she is 65), I was hoping to get crisper dialogue from movies, etc. so as to be more understandable.

I was very pleased with the unit after setting it up (what a great big box!). The sound is a big improvement over the TV speakers, especially on the music channels. This was no doubt due to the BA speaker system in the soundbar and the addition of the subwoofer, which I placed in one corner of the room per instructions. It was definitely worth the money for the overall improvement in sound quality.

On the other hand, we did not get much improvement with regards to dialogue, though the soundbar does seem to crisp up voices. I have come to the conclusion that, based on listening to old movies and new movies, that actors nowadays tend to slur their words or have the dialogue overridden by music or special effects. Actors in old movies probably had more practice in enunciation and projection on the legitimate stage. So I believe that while you may get some improvement in speech with a soundbar, do not look for a lot, but the overall sound is worth buying this unit.

I note that the poor ratings for this unit are mostly related to technical issues, such as remote controls, etc. I did find that the instructions could be somewhat vague, but if you read them closely and follow them word for word, they will make sense. I also suggest that you should turn off the TV speakers if possible when installing the soundbar for better sound.

All, in all, we are very pleased with the BA unit, and I would certainly recommend it to a friend.

I bought this for my aging parents primarily because you can program the existing remote to control the volume. Having a separate remote or a multi-function remote was not acceptable. They listen to the music channels a lot and I wanted to give them an upgrade over the existing TV speakers. The sound quality is a step up from the existing TV speakers (Panasonic 37" LCD), though not as much as I would have thought. The subwoofer does pack quite a punch for a small to mid-size room, but the overall quality of the soundbar speakers leaves a bit to be desired - especially for the $250 sale price. It's not bad and the soundbar does pack quite a punch, but for $250 I think I can do better (I have a Panasonic HT for $400 that far exceeds what this system does). I would recommend going to Best Buy and listening to this system before buying. I believe the demo may have been an older model of this system, but it should give you some idea of what you will get.

The biggest problem that Boston Acoustics (BA) has yet to resolve is the range of the remote. For my parent's TV, the remote would work up to about 10' (6' really well). I removed the front cover exposing the remote sensor (it just pops off) and the remote worked well up to 20'. Once open, I was disappointed to find only 2 small speakers in the soundbar. I would have thought there would have been both midrange and tweeters, perhaps angled outward to give more of a stereo effect. Anyway, I cut a round hole in the material on the front cover and the remote works well now. I don't understand why BA doesn't do something like this themselves.

Another problem was the height of the soundbar. It is tall enough that it would hide the TV's remote sensor such that the TV remote did not work well. We has to raise the TV about 2.5" to 3" to resolve this problem.

Another problem for my parent's TV is that once the speakers are plugged in and the remote is programmed, using the volume buttons on the remote would cause a "no speakers" message to appear on the TV. The sound level would not show as well. While setting the system up, my parents asked me 4 or 5 times why the "no speaker" message appeared and why the sound level indicator no longer showed up:-) So this was not going to be acceptable. Fortunately, the TV had an override that would allow you to turn the TV's internal speakers back on while still using the external speakers. This eliminates both the message and the restored the sound level indicator. This brought a smill to their faces.

I had to play with the TV's audio settings (turn AI sound and surround sound off, plus tweak the other settings) to get the sound to be acceptable for watching football games. With the default sound settings, the background noises (band playing, fans cheering, etc.) would drown out the announcer (OK, maybe in some cases this would be better, ha, ha).

In Summary, for my parents this is without a doubt the best speaker upgrade I could give them due to being able to program the TV remote. For myself, I would look for something better, even if I had to use a separate remote.

I stumbled on this in a magazine and bought it based on others' reviews. I was not disappointed. Set up was easy as far as the cords are concerned. I did experience some difficulty getting my DirecTV remote to work with this unit. But, that could have been my mistake. A call to tech support at Boston Accoustics solved my issue. Sound is very good and the base is so strong I only turn it to about 1/3 the "volume."

As an fyi, both the sound bar and the subwoofer need to be plugged into a wall outlet - there seemed to be inconsistency on places about whether the woofer needed AC power. It does.

Our flat-panel TV has a beautiful picture, but its sound is lacking, both in quality and volume. The Boston Acoustics TVEE20B makes up for any deficiency in the TV; in fact, we now keep the volume at a much lower level, yet hear every word of whatever we're watching. We couldn't be more pleased.

this sound bar is by far a great improvement over factory sound. simple. works great for bedrooms, apartment renters, and house renters, or home owners that want a very easy fix to poor factory sound. no wiring necessary. i just wish i could have got it for $209 vs. $250 that i just purchased it for on amazon.com. buy this item if you want an inexpensive was to GREATLY improve your sound. it is worth every penny. great highs and rumbling lows. good job boston acoustic. i checked this soundbar against 9 other soundbars at best buy before i purchased it and it hard by far the best sound.