Blaupunkt SBA01 100W Soundbar with Built in Subwoofer, HDMI-Arc, Optical, Aux-in, USB & Bluetooth, Black

Amazing product. Good sound quality. Value for money.

Four months after usage – My earlier rating was a 5 star rating and a great review. I’ve still left it below for anyone interested. However after just 4 months, the speaker started developing problems. The remote would not work at times and everytime I power the speakers on, it automatically increases to max volume, which cannot be reduced. Was very disappointed, but called the customer care. They thought the problem was the remote and asked me to courier the remote to them so they can fix it. Anytime a brand asked you to take the pain to courier the faulty product, that’s a red flag right there. It’s a sign of poor customer service. After multiple calls with them and convincing them that the soundbar itself is malfunctioning, they agreed to send a technician. After following up with them for 2 weeks, the technician made a visit and replaced my speaker. On the whole, the service is okay but I feel the product is not of great quality and may not last long.

Edit : Remote stopped working about a month back. At this point I’m too lazy to call customer service. Just buying a JBL

************ Old review below ********************

I rarely review products (unless I really like them or hate them). It’s the former in this case.

Setting up a point of reference – I consider myself a moderate audiophile… not one that spends huge sums of money for expensive equipment and preparing the acoustics for the room kind, but the kind that appreciates decent equipment that can reproduce good quality sound that is true to it’s source. For my music I use a simple Harmon Kardon Soundsticks speakers which though not super fancy, has high fidelity in reproducing the perfect sound for my music needs.

My need – Was for a decent soundbar for my TV which has $#itty sound to put it mildly. I needed a speaker for my movie viewing: which means clear audible dialog, decent panning of sound, good mids and all this without loud jarring bass. I’ve been very skeptical of soundbars from my experience with muffled sounds, loud bass, poor balance, etc but I decided to try this since Blaupunkt is quite an old brand that has survived a market rife with terrible new brands of speakers with deep pockets for marketting and branding that have become popular thanks to the decline of music in itself, where it’s all about thumping bass and over-processed music. Also it was a risk worth taking because I got it for 5,299 for which you can’t even think of getting good speakers. I’ll end my rant here and list some pros and cons.

Pros:
1. Great build quality – Has a nice glossy top surface and is heavier than it looks. Does not have a cheap feel to it. The hard buttons on the speaker for power, volume etc are also quite hardy and responsive.
2. Quite slim and can be placed right below my TV without it obstructing my view.
3. Comes with a good quality line-in cable and an aux cable, which is refreshing as opposed to the new trend (thanks to apple) where you buy something and they don’t even come with basic set of accessories to start using it right out of box. Good user experience Blaupunkt.
4. Sound for movies – Really good reproduction of sound that is true to it’s source. Has the feel of watching it in a cinema hall. The range is really good where dialogues and small sounds are clearly heard but still don’t overpower the other sounds. Sections of movies where you need that extra thump and boom come through smoothly without any jarring. It’s just so beautiful how this speaker is tuned, I can’t believe how less I paid for it. Note that all this is with aux cable. I’m yet to get my HDMI ARC cable to see how much better that will be.
5. Unsupported sound formats – Now this is a 2.1 speaker which means it normally does not handle 5.1 or 7.1 that well, but to my surprise, this speaker can handle 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos etc better than I expected.
6. Presets – This speaker comes with a few sound presets for movie, music, etc. These presets are quite good and make a difference based on the content you’re watching.
8. Remote – The layout and functionality of the remote is excellent. It’s not overly cluttered with buttons, not does it lack basic buttons. It’s minimalistic and has everything I need without much searching.
9. Has an LED display inside the speaker mesh that’ll indicate when you change presets or sources, which is standard and quite helpful. I’m happy that this display is not too bright that it takes away from the movie viewing experience.
10. Another small but delightful detail is the fact that the remote comes with Duracell batts.

Cons:
1. Remote – Buttons are a little sloppy like cheap remotes are and are flimsy and not super responsive.
2. Manual does not list and elaborate every functionality. I feel it underplays how good the speaker is.
3. Would have been nice if the speaker could remember my preset and volume level everytime I turn it off and on. This is an inconvenience.

Overall – I highly recommend these speakers for your TV if you can’t afford a Harman Kardon or Bose. Also I use it only for my TV and movie viewing and not for my music needs and I haven’t tested it for music.

With a mouth-watering price, this punches above its weight in terms of cost-benefit ratio. It has a clever resting angle and a length that keeps the soundbar portable but the speakers are sufficiently apart for radiating sound. Tuning is balanced and 25 watts produce beefy sound in a good quality chassis. BT connection including TWS is a breeze. Ordered two for projector and as a music player in the living room. Pick one up above the screen after movie and keep it at the far end of the room for music playing. It’s further suitable as it has aux input for playing CDs which is the highest music quality. GIGO principle guys – Garbage In Garbage Out. CDs and lossless WAV and FLAC files sound awesome. Cannot comment on battery life as the units have just arrived. The music-controlled RGBs will be turned off in my case but are pretty to look at. Very happy with the purchase considering the price.

Ya the sound is awesome and it’s worth the price paid for i
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