Customer Reviews

Samsung HW-C450 Soundbar Speaker

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Ok let's start by telling you, that I am not just some guy doing a review. I have purchased and tested 3 other Soundbars and tested all the rest in the stores... First was the Vizio Bar - Ok sound, but did not produce a real surround sound effect. And I was able to max... out the volume at 3am in the morning with out waking anyone up... Needless to say it ain't all that loud... Although it had easy one wire hookup with a fiber optic cable... Second was the Sony HTC100 with HDMI hookups. This one was loved for it"s ease to hookup HMDI components straight to it and it acted as a switch. The big thing is, this unit was horrible on sound. I turned it up to it's max of 50 and could still hear my dishwasher in the background... As a matter of fact when me and best buy guy Dave tried it, we could talk over it on max vol... Now for the Samsung HW-C450: Amazing - amazing- amazing... This unit out did all the others on volume of only 26 with a max of I don't know (I think 60), because I'm afraid to turn it up because it may bust the speakers it's so loud... This Sound bar is great for the person who knows nothing about 5.1 and 7.2 channel theater systems. You will be very happy. Now I am a owner of a old Sherwood Receiver and 5.1 Dolby Surround System, with Cerwin Vega speakers... And it doesn"t give the back noise as great, but it definitely stands it's ground for a one pc speaker... Now for someone who knows about theater systems, don't get scare, this is the best low cost unit you can get and you will be amazed, but all I'm saying is, don't expect a 5.1 Dolby Sound from this. It is amazing sound, but doesn't hit every corner like your seperate speakers will. Now for design, A+++... Samsung gets thumbs up from me. It's not a big as the others @38" I think... But this thing hits harder then the rest. But the look is classy with revealed speakers with the crome tone tips... Just nice... Oh and I almost forgot it's touch operated, which is a nice added feature... Now for room size, mine covers a petty good sized family room. And still rattles the walls upstairs. And clearly heard outside the house. This one has 2 options for sound hook up, Analog RCA (Provided) and Fiber Optic (Provided). I opted for Fiber Optic, because my TV automatically sends the sound from the TV to the Soundbar. Which is the easiest thing for me, because it saves you from having to hook up and waste money on a receiver. All you would have to do if you had all HDMI hookup (Seeing if your TV didn't already have enough of them) is buy a HDMI switch from online or Best Buy. I use my Cable box HDMI, Blu Ray Player HDMI, DVD/VCR HMDI. But if you havee more things like Wii, Xbox360, etc. The switch will help you send the signal to the TV. I have not found any negatives with the unit as of yet. It has played both, burned DVDs well and regular ones with great sound... So there has not been any problems... Great sound, Great look, and Great price... And the Wireless Sub is fantastic. Use Cinema for Music, not Music... Under the equalizer. Has about 5 options...

Bought this soundbar to go along with my 52" Samsung LCD. What a big improvement over the TV speakers! Watched 2 Blu-ray movies with it already and was very impressed by the sound. It was very easy to hookup. Just used the provided optical cable to connect the sound bar to the TV. Plugged in the subwoofer, plugged in the soundbar, turned on.... and the sub was instantly connected to the soundbar. It was up and running literally in minutes. The volume of the soundbar can be controlled by the TV remote so that's nice. You may or may not want to turn off the TV speakers. The problem with turning off your TV speakers is it will say "not available" on your TV when you adjust the volume with the TV remote, but that is a minor problem.

The sound from this system is great. Not necessarily surround sound, but it's much better than the tv speakers. I have this connected to a new Samsung TV. When using the TV speakers AND the SoundBar unit together it sounds like you are in a cave. I use the soundbar exclusively now, with the TV speakers turned off. My biggest complaint is that every once in a while the TV remote, and the SoundBar remote do not work. You can hit every button on the soundbar remote, or the volume on the tv remote, and it does nothing. This problem does not happen all the time, just randomly. It could happen twice in an hour or once a week. Every once in a while it also switches itself from Dital 1 input to the Digital 2 input (which there is nothing connected to). This usually happens in the middle of a movie, and again, it's totally random. Most of the time I love this soundbar, MOST of the time.

Mine just arrived today, and I am pretty pleased with it thus far. Take note that you will have to supply your own screws and wall anchors to place the hanging bracket on the wall, because Samsung doesn't provide them. I have this in my bedroom placed right below my Samsung LN46B550. I used to have an LN40A550, and that had a headphone jack that I connected a set of JBL Spyro speakers and sub-woofer to add some volumn to the volume. This allowed me to control the volume with just the TV remote. But starting with the 2009 models, Samsung decided to do away with the headphone jack, and connecting the JBL via A/V cable wouldn't let me control the volume remotely. I would have to get up to manually adjust the sound. This was particularly a pain, because I watch a lot of streamed content from my little Dell Zino home theater PC (don't have cable, and haven't missed any of my shows or sports), and each stream would have its own volume setting. So, on one site I'd have to really pump up the volume, and get blasted out of my socks when I'd visit another. Those problems have been solved with using the HW-C340, because I can use my TV's remote to control the mute and volume (on the TV's menu set the sound to external speakers). When you use your TV remote to turn on the mute or make volume change there will be a message that displays on the screen that says, "Not Available". However, the sound bar does perform according to what you've pushed on the remote. That extra feature alone is worth a few extra stars. I put the small remote away in my night stand.

Synching the sub-woofer with the sound bar was easy, and worked immediately. I have them on opposite walls with the sub tucked away in a corner (Yeah, wireless!). I do agree with what another buyer said in that it is difficult to see the unit's display without getting up close to read it, and it would be good if the panel lights only illuminated when a setting was being changed. In stand-by mode the bar has a little red light just like my TV, so they look like siblings. Since my room isn't that large I don't need a true surround system, but the TV speakers are a little too tinny for my liking. The output from the HW-C450 is about on par with my JBL kit; which is sufficient for me. We have a 7.1 surround sound system in the living and the difference is quite apparent, but like I said it's not need in my smallish room. This set up provides enough sound to fill the room whenever I want to turn it up. I haven't played with all of the settings or played it with a movie, but I am pretty happy with its performance with the TV and the HTPC.

The bar is pretty stylish, and should look well with any of the LCDs/plasmas that are on the market. My TV has the touch of red color, but the sound bar looks great with it. The sub is alright looking, but I don't care so much about it since it's not in plain view.

I would highly recommend this sound bar, because of ease of set up, the accompanying remote has a solid feel, the sound will boost your TV's sound, and it looks nice.

Most of the other reviews cover the subject very well Appearance and easy installation are 5 stars. A tip I found on a Samsung site might save some uses aggravation. My bar is set on a black TV table. It is about 6 inches forward of the TV, just in front of the base of my Samsung LN52A560A1F 52" LCD TV purchased about 2 years ago. If you place the bar about 2" lower and six inches in front (TV footing in my case meets this criteria) the bar sound is extremely clear. Setting the volume on the TV 4 to 6 numbers below the volume setting on the bar works perfect without cross interference. Also on the TV if you set the voice for speech the bar can be set for the various sound mode selections and the voice clarity is excellent and the wide sound on Dolby -
when offered is outstanding for this priced unit. I find no problem with the sub-woofer on the floor about 3 feet from the bar/TV placement to the right side 4'' from a wall facing me. The base is natural and sound appears to be coming out of the TV when canons, or other loud bass responses are required. Also set the bar for auto volume adjust and Dolby to max (when available) and enjoy a fine purchase.

Our LED TV has rear facing built-in speakers making it difficult to hear unless the room is very quiet. The Samsung speakers look great mounted on the wall with the TV and sound very good. The wireless subwoofer can be put anywhere in the room ( hidden in our case) and has really good sound. While not a replacement for true surround sound it is a drastic improvement over TV Speakers and well worth the cost. We are very happy with this purchase.

Background -- We finally got rid of our 15 year old set and bought a 63" inch Samsung plasma, which has been great so far. The TV room is mid-sized. Before buying the sound bar, I bought two of the home-theater-in-a-box systems that had 5 speakers each (maybe more) and an integrated a blu-ray player. They each turned out to be too temperamental for this amateur, and I returned them. (Amazon was great about the returns). This soundbar is a vastly better solution for me. It's much simpler; it fits nicely on the wall (supply your own anchors); and the soundbar, plus the included wireless woofer, sound almost as good to my ear as the bigger systems (and much, much better than the TV speaker). I bought a cheap blu-ray separately, which also turned out to be the better option. Standing on its own, the blu-ray is nice and small, and we don't really use it that much given the number of on-demand options from cable.

Bottom line -- just right!

The new generation of flat screens are great; the best picture ever. The sound however has gotten as small and thin as the new panels themselves. The soundbar goes a long way to bringing back the days of having a good picture and good sound. Make no mistake, you will not be getting theater sound with this unit. You will not be turning your head wondering if something just whizzed by your head. You won't hear people talking behind you. This is not a surround sound system. What you will get is full rich volume that you can actually hear and there is a merciful setting that will normalize the audio is that it's never too soft or too loud.

All the cables are included -- one optical cable and one component cable for however you choose to get your audio. I plugged the optical cable into my samsung TV, told the tv to use external speakers then plugged in the sub-woofer and basically forgot about it. Once set up, it basically becomes a part of your TV which was my goal. It's parent friendly as well, if you have elderly parents, this unit will not be confusing to them and they can get the volume they need to hear the TV.

The subwoofer can be put anywhere, it just adds rumble and depth to the audio so it's not like a real sound source behind you.

Now the glitches. The soundbar has a tendency to switch from optical input 1 to optical input 2 at random even when no remote is being used. I fought it for about a day then just plugged the optical cable into input 2 and it's been fine ever since. That's enough to knock off a star.

If you just need extra volume and a little rich bass and you stick to optical input 2 the unit is a decent buy.

I did a good amount of research for my 65 in plasma in my man cave. After It was shipped I unpacked it and had everything working in about 20 minutes. The sound is good and It really has good bass. As others have stated this is not true surround but it comes close or as close as you can without rear speakers.

After spending the last couple months going through 4 or 5 different Soundbars I have to say this Samsung model takes the cake! Not only is it not to obtrusive it packs plenty of punch. Both with the highs and lows and using the Wireless subwoofer. It was a breeze to set up as well. I really like the classly look it adds to my set up. Perfect for using in my family room or outdoors when I roll my LCD by the hot tub. The remote is nice and easy to use. Overall I am very pleased with the crisp sound I am hearing. If this model is in your price range do not waste your time with another brand.