B3
or not B3...
New
TV? Yes, the picture might be incredible, and yes it might be able to
read what mood you're in and suggest a show to cheer you up, but how
is the sound? TVs might have gotten thinner and cleverer these days,
but the quality of the sound they produce has yet to catch up with
the picture. What you need is a soundbar to complete your home cinema
set up, and we've found a pretty good on. We review the Edifier B3
soundbar.
Your
headlines here are that the B3 Soundbar is equipped with four speaker
units and two tweeters, and can be connected to your TV, DVD, and
game consoles via a multitude of ways... including Bluetooth. This
means that as well as serving your TV watching habits, it can also be
used as a dedicated Bluetooth speaker for your phone, tablet, and
laptop. Nice. But for wiring it up for good, there's an optical
input, coaxial, RCA Line In, and a good ol' fashioned auxiliary
In
cross section the B3 looks like a chubby triangle, which actually
give it a lot of stability when placed on a flat surface. It can also
be wall-mounted should you wish, and Edifier have included all the
gubbins you'll need to do so relatively easily. The whole thing isn't
too heavy so there's no need to worry about it dropping off the wall
under your telly and killing the cat, and at exactly one metre wide
it isn't too big.
Before
we get onto how it actually sounds, one quite clever thing to point
out is the standby function. The B3 knows when it hasn't been used
for ten minutes and so shuts itself down. This not only saves you
power, but also extends the life of the unit, and as gadgets tend to
use just as much electricity when on standby mode as when they're
actually being used, the planet ain't complaining about this ability,
either.
We
first fired ours up along with a selection of shows on Netflix while
the soundbar was connected to the TV via Bluetooth. As expected, the
wireless stream of sound was flawless and lagless, and we were glad
to hear that conversational vocals were rich, deep and clear. All
other sounds were strong and lacked that weird empty quality that
thin TVs tend to make, while the bass was exceptional.
We
also connected it up via the included optical cable and found the
sound to be just as good. The true advantage to so many connection
options is that a number of different inputs can be permanently
connected, negating the need to reach behind the soundbar every time
you want to play a game, or use the DVD player. Needless to say, no
matter what we tried it with, the sound reproduction was complex,
clear, and powerful.
A
well-designed speaker with some nice clever features, the Edifier B3
Soundbar would look great on your wall or sitting upon your TV
cabinet. We love the connection options (especially Bluetooth), the
metal finish to the ends, and the rich sound this thing chucks out.
This is another product that proves that Edifier really don't get the
recognition they deserve.
Around
£127.99
Available from www.amazon.co.uk