home theater subwoofer

Dayton Audio's almost-too-good-to-be-true Sub-800 subwoofer

The best I can say about most cheap subwoofers is they make bass. The bass won't be the deepest, most powerful, or the clearest, or blend all that well with most speakers, but all subs make bass. Better subs, like the $449 Hsu Research VTF-1 MK2, generate deeper, less distorted sound, so you can actually hear distinct bass notes, and can play louder and fill larger rooms better than most cheap subs.

So my expectations for Dayton Audio's $79 Sub-800 weren't high. Still, I can't say enough nice things about Dayton's B652 bookshelf speakers. There'… Read more

Get a Philips sound bar and subwoofer for $69.99

One quick (and hopefully final) note about the SiriusXM Internet Radio fiasco from a couple weeks ago: It's over. The company appears to have pulled the plug on nearly all the giveaways, even if you received a confirmation e-mail. Fortunately, you can still get Pandora, Slacker, Songza, and plenty of other music-streaming services for free. Let it go, OK?

If you're unhappy with the audio quality from your TV's built-in speakers, you may have considered the Vizio sound bar I've written about countless times in this space. It often dips below $50, a hard bargain to … Read more

Klipsch G-42, a sound bar speaker with 'horns'

Lets face it: sound bars are popular mostly because they reduce home theater clutter. The other big plus is that they eliminate the need to buy an AV receiver, and the cost savings can be considerable. That's all good, but I'm still waiting to hear a sound bar an audiophile could love.

I had hopes for Klipsch's new Gallery G-42 sound bar ($699), but it doesn't have internal amplifiers, so it must be used with a receiver. That's potentially a very positive sign, because the amps built into sound bars aren't as good or as powerful as the ones in Denon, NAD, Onkyo, Pioneer, or Yamaha receivers. Like all Klipsch speakers, the G-42 sports horn-loaded tweeters (more on that later). The sound bar is part of a new Klipsch series of Gallery speakers and 5.1 channel speaker packages.

Decked out with a gorgeous glossy black finish, the G-42 has a high-end sheen, and its 6-inch-high, 42-inch-wide, and 2.4-inch-deep cabinet feels sturdy. The 12-pound speaker can be wall-mounted or set on a cabinet with the included table top stand. The rear panel houses all-metal connectors for the speaker's left, center, and right channels. … Read more