Samsung HW-M450/ZA 320W 2.1ch Soundbar w/ Wireless Subwoofer - (Renewed)

The media could not be loaded.  Sounds just like the new one I bought for my mother in law a few weeks ago from best buy. Like others, the voices are still hard to hear and what not but I don't think that is the soundbars fault, dedicated center channel is most likely needed to get clear voices.I don't usually buy refurbs but on this one I gave it a try due to the $100 savings (50%).I have deducted one start due to the presentation and delivery. I was pretty bummed and worried when I first opened the item (See picture and video). If you can get past this and you actually get a solid working device I would recommend.For those who had issues getting their TV remote to work with this or any soundbar, it will only work if your TV supports ARC (Audio Return Channel) over HDMI. In the last few years TVs have started offering this feature as a standard. I use this soundbar on the 42 inch TCL Roku TV. Once you connect it to the ARC designated HDMI input you need to go into your TV settings and turn on CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) for supporting devices. Once you turn it on or search for CEC devices it will link up to your soundbar. You can then disable your TV speakers under the Audio settings. This has worked perfectly for me. I have purchase 4 different sound bars from Samsung and used them on Sony, Samsung, Sharp, TCL TVs with no issues.

I'm really impressed with the sound quality of the combo. The bar is has a clean aesthetic to it and the sub woofer is very solidly built. The system is very complete and comes with an optical audio cable, HDMI cable, batteries for the remote and mounting bracket for the bar if you want to mount it on the wall. (and of course power cables)The majority of the setup and use is intuitive, Bluetooth is a tad finicky but I haven't read the manual yet. Speaking of which, a manual is not included. That was easy enough to download from Samsung's website and I would've provided a link but, Amazon didn't like that.The bass is very clear and can get pretty loud with the right settings but it's never muddy or boomy. Samsung did a great job of matching the woofer size with the enclosure and the subwoofer to the bar. So many times (and even with other Samsung models), you get a tiny sub woofer with a tiny enclosure which leads to an itty bitty sub trying to sound like a big sub. Or, you get an over sized sub woofer that gets plenty loud but just doesn't have any control and just sounds flat (muddy). One piece of advice about location of the subwoofer. A subwoofer is always best placed in a corner. It doesn't have to be a wall corner but a corner and it can be anywhere in the room. This helps to amplify the low frequencies and makes the sound more omni-directional. If you place it somewhere without a corner, it might make the bass distracting since you will be able to more easily identify where the sound is coming from.The audio modes really do work as labeled so that's awesome!I've tested these types of devices before and what usually happens is there is a difference in sound equalization but the enhancements don't really work well. Like Clear Voice doesn't really enhance voices, it just broadly enhances the midrange or treble. Or movie doesn't provide for better separation like it's supposed to, it just lowers the audio level of certain things. The Samsung ones work very well! The only negative thing I will say is the packaging was horrible. The box is ginormous with a ton of empty space. The sub woofer was well protected in a styrofoam clam-shell but that was "floating" in the box. The bar though....left on the bottom of the box, not even wrapped in anything. It ended up having two minor dings (no paint damage) on the bottom of the mesh grill. It's not visible when it's setup so no biggie.Final word, totally worth it. This is currently set up in a 11' x 13' guest room with a 42" LED and the bar is the perfect length. The audio quality is great and at this price point you will be hard pressed to find anything else that sounds this good!

I am not an audiophile but I purchased this to connect to my computer just to listen to online radio and watch YouTube. The sound is rich & loud (especially since I am only 1 feet away from the speaker) but the bass even at max levels disappoints me so I don't think it'll be powerful enough for a good movie experience. For what I need it to do, it's plenty of speaker.I was hoping to connect this via HDMI but I was unable to do so for some reason. Computer screen was blank so I had to connect via Bluetooth. I don't much issues with it maintaining a connection and no weird noises but my Bluetooth adapter Asus USB Bluetooth 4.0 (probably 2-3 years old) does often times have issues that can create a blue screen of death or connection issues that requires a restart to fix. Maybe a newer Bluetooth adapter would help.AUGUST 16th - 82 days of ownershipThe speaker bar just became unresponsive. First, I was unable to turn the speaker bar on from the side buttons but I was able to use the remote to turn it on. After a while, the entire unit became unresponsive - both side buttons and remote doesn't work. I tested the voltage at the plug and it showed 24v so the power adapter is providing power as expected.Will have to RMA this bar - shipping for the bar will probably be $20 to $30 due to the size of it.