Samsung HW-J250 Sound Bar, Black (Renewed)

I received a Samsung TV as a Christmas gift and the picture is fantastic. Unfortunately the sound is not. Seriously, if I have to crank it up to 50 to hear what the Doctor is saying to River Song and I am less than 10 feet from the TV, then the sound is awful.I was very happy to find a refurbished Samsung sound bar for about half the price of a new one. This thing arrived in 2 days even though it wasn't prime eligible. I had it connected in less than 5 minutes and boom! Sounds amazing. Now I can lower the volume to 20 even after a few drinks when my ability to hear seems to vanish along with my balance and good judgement.

Excellent sound quality. A perfect fit for my Samsung 32" HDTV. There are a lot of settings on the TV and in the soundbar to adjust things. It is a bit of a puzzle getting it to work. The included Toslink cable is very handy, The remote control is fine. The USB cable is a short pigtail and is a thoughtful addition to the package.JImP.S.Bluetooth is flawless.JimUpdate February 26, 2016I don't get CNN video so last night I tuned in CNN radio on my smart phone to listen to the "debate". I turned on the phone's Bluetooth to throw it to a 20w speaker. I had forgotten that the last speaker that I had thrown audio to was this 80w one. This speaker reconnected immediately and automatically. The volume and clarity were absolutely perfect. It was a pleasure to listen to the debate on this one. The extra power was a definite plus.JimUpdate December 22, 2016The sound quality is the same as the TV (UN32J5003] sound quality, which is to say very, very good, except that there is much more power (volume} availablr.Jim

While my own home theater is based on HD projection and a screen, plus a home theater sound system, I was recently asked to set up a small home theater for an older couple who both have hearing problems, and she also suffers from poor vision. But their 'theater' room was only a 9' x 9' bedroom with a small sofa in it, so we ended up with a good sized flat screen LED 'smart' TV by Samsung. They were only going to use it to watch DVDs, nothing online or streaming. So they ended up with a new TV that has a remote control and also their DVD player which has a remote control. They HATE remote controls.Then they realized that the built-in speakers on the TV were not loud enough for them to hear, and the sound clarity was not that great either. They could not understand what anyone in the videos was saying.Because the TV sits on its stand on top of a credenza which takes up the entire wall of the room next to its doorway, there was no room to add speakers on the credenza or the floor next to it. The bottom of the TV screen is only about 3" above the top of the credenza, so I investigated 'strip speakers' or 'sound bars' that could be placed on top of the credenza, in front of the TV screen, and still not have the speaker blocking the screen (or the receiver for the remote control).There was no room, or desire, to have a subwoofer, so I looked for sound bar speakers that did not come with a subwoofer. This narrowed the options down a lot. Then I decided to stay with the same manufacturer as the TV, in order to maximize integration between them, so I looked only at Samsung. The options were now only a couple of models, and this HW-J250 was the better rated of the two, and had mostly very good reviews on Amazon and elsewhere.This speaker can accept its audio from a number of sources, including via a fiber-optic cable from the TV, via a stereo audio cable similar to those used on computer speakers (i.e. from an MP3 player or a computer sound card), wirelessly via Bluetooth (i.e. from a smart phone or computer), and wirelessly from the TV over a Samsung proprietary connection ("TV SoundConnect") that is reportedly based on Bluetooth but which has improved integration between TV and speaker. This sounds bar also apparently can play from a USB connected drive or flash memory stick (thumb drive), but I did not investigate this feature in any detail.I called Samsung pre-sales support to ask about options for connecting this speaker to the TV in question. I learned that not all current Samsung smart TVs support the proprietary wireless "TV SoundConnect" connection, and that included the TV in question. Samsung recommended that we use the fiber-optic cable connection, saying that with this connection, the speaker would turn on of off automatically with the TV, and the speaker volume would be controlled using the TV's remote control.......no need to use a THIRD remote control for the speaker (although it does come with its own remote control).When the speaker was received, we plugged its included fiber-optic cable between it and the TV, and connected the wall-wart style speaker power supply. Immediately the speaker recognized that there was a digital input, and it switched automatically over to its "D-IN' (digital input) mode, and sound came out of the speaker when a program was playing on the TV. Great!The Samsung TV's on-screen menu had previously been grayed out in the area where options related to the TV speaker could be selected. But the TV also seemed to automatically recognize that it was connected digitally to the new speaker, and those menu options became selectable. We were able to turn off the TV's built-in speaker, and also turn on the feature for 'clear voice' which enhances speech for better clarity.However, we were disappointed to learn that Samsung's agent had given us bad information, and we called back and confirmed with another agent that this speaker does NOT automatically turn itself on and off with the TV, and worse, it does NOT get its volume control from the TV's remote control. Apparently it DOES do those things if connected via the proprietary wireless "TV SoundConnect" method, but not over the fiber-optic connection. So, the old folks now need to use three remote controls. The TV remote control is required to turn the TV on and off, the speaker remote control is required to turn the speaker on and off, and to adjust the volume, and off course the DVD player's remote control is required for its functions. I might investigate setting up a universal remote control for them.Overall, the speaker looks and sounds very good, and has in fact improved the ability of its older owners to adequately hear and understand the audio programming of their DVD movies. It just would have been nice if the speaker's integration with the TV of the same brand and vintage was more complete.Some specifications:-This sound bar is supposedly "2.2" channels. Samsung does not explain what this means, but from other sources I understand that the number on the left of the decimal point means the number of primary speakers, 2 in this instance, or plain old stereo. I also believe that the number to the right of the decimal point refers to the subwoofer. I have seen lots of home theater audio setups that have x.1 channels, meaning however many primary channels plus one subwoofer. But how about when there is a 2 in that position? Does that mean this sound bar has 2 subwoofers? Maybe it does. It certainly does not come with a separate subwoofer.- Built in 80W amplifier.- Dimensions are 28.35" x 2.64" x 2.95".- Weight is 4 pounds.- Color is matte black with a black cloth grille.

Quirky is the only way to describe this product. It has an "auto-power-off" function that you can't get rid of. If you use the wired (1/8" jack) interface, the bar turns itself OFF after 8 hours of no signal. Trouble is, it doesn't turn itself back ON when a signal returns to that input (when you turn on the TV). You have to locate the bar's remote to turn it back on. I considered that an unacceptable nuisance.Oh, did I mention that there's a red LED on the face that turns ON when the unit is OFF?? Somebody must have stayed awake one night in Korea convincing himself that was a good idea. Actually, after a failed conversation with Samsung Tech Support, I sent one of these back, thinking it was defective. I'm pretty sure I was expecting it to be ON when the LED was on - who wouldn't?So, the other option is the Optical port. My TV has an Optical Out port, but it's not controlled by the TV volume control -- it's like a LINE out. Of course, the UVerse S10 remote doesn't happen to be compatible with controlling the bar directly. Luckily, in trying the wired input, I had to feed it from my Uverse box (no RCA or Phone out on TV), and had changed the remote programming to control volume from the Uverse box. That meant I had turned the TV volume all the way to O. So the Uverse box somehow controls the level of output through the Optical port.Then, I turned ON the auto-power feature, which for whatever reason, DOES power the bar back up with the signal returns (when you turn on the TV) to the OPTICAL port. Of course, the manual is WRONG about how to turn that on. It says hold the PLAY/PAUSE button for 5 seconds. Doesn't work. Instead, hold the Auto Power button for 5 seconds, and note the flash color of the LEDs to know whether Auto Power is on or off.So, with it now working it's"- Using the Optical interface from TV (the wired interface is pretty much useless unless you plan to operate the bar from its own remote - a design defect, in my view, as you can't prevent the bar from timing out and turning itself off)- Controlling Volume from the Uverse box -- TV speakers OFF- Enabled the Auto-Power feature - Bar times out after TV turned off, but turns ON automatically when TV turned on.Whew -- this took about 3-4 days of trying different combinations, AFTER the wait on the replacement bar (I'm pretty sure the original wasn't defective, it was just so difficult to set up I gave up on it). I have about $1,000 of time in this $100 bar, but it's working now and works GREAT.