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 featureCons:- 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.

This soundbar is awesome. It's worth every penny. The subwoofer boomed when I watched the Dark Knight Rises, and all the sounds were crisp and clear. So why only 4 stars? It doesn't come with all of the parts you might need. My (Samsung, ironically) TV is digital sound output only. What that means is that I can't connect it with an auxillary jack, or an HDMI cable. This is a big problem with most of the reviewers. You really need to read up on what your TV does before you buy these speakers because you might not have the necessary qualifications from your TV to work this.To summarize, make sure that your TV can hook up properly with a sound system before you buy, and if you configure everything properly, you won't be disappointing with the results.

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.

I love the look of the sound bar and the sub-woofer. I bought this system after reading the reviews thinking I'd have a different experience, turns out I was wrong.The Good:The system looks great, it has LED display behind the speaker grill that I think just looks awesome. The can be split into to two separate speakers or can be connect together to rest on you TV stand or it can be easily be mounted on a wall. When you change the controls by remote a light displays on the right side of the speaker to let you know that a command was recognized, a very nice touch. The subwoofer's shape looks good and it has a nice piano black finish to boot. The remote has very simple layout and can control Samsung branded TVs. The sound quality is decent in my opinion, it's clear and the bass is solid and not overpowering.The Bad:The design, I have to say wasn't fleshed out enough. All of the ports and I mean all are on the subwoofer which requires an outlet. Which causes the subwoofer to stay very close to your TV. Is it wireless, Yes, that's if you go all bluetooth! As for that, the bluetooth feature didn't work well across all my devices that well. With my iPhone it worked perfectly, my iPad not so good for some reason, and with my PC it was unplayable. Basically the signal or connection would constantly drop in and out causes the audio to skip heavily or disconnect. The speaker itself also requires an outlet, if you want to split the speaker in two you will have to run a speaker cable. between the two which is very tacky looking. Also, bluetooth aside, the audio had syncing issues from using my digital optical cable which is pretty much my preference of audio cable. I discovered the same issue with the HDMI passthrough connection. After tinking around a bit, I found that the best solution was to use a audio cable, the one that are used for PC speakers or headphones to hookup to this device. That's the only way to get a solid performance from it.