Side by Side Comparison of: Samsung vs WALI vs AmazonBasics vs Mount-It!

This is not the absolute best quality soundbar on the market. This is not the smallest soundbar on the market. This is not the bassiest soundbar on the market. But this IS a great addition to a bedroom TV and blows the built-in speakers of any LCD out of the water. Decent range and acceptable clarity make this a great choice for those who need a significant upgrade but don't need a full subwoofer system in a small space. Perfect for my purposes and light years beyond the built-in speakers of even a nice new Samsung 32" TV.

I used a pair of sound bar mounting brackets to mount this under our wall bracket mounted Samsung 32" TV. Looks great and sounds much better than regular TV speakers. It will not rattle a room but it is great for TV in the bedroom especially. It has Bluetooth capabilities but our TV has only an optical audio out port. This sound bar also has an optical audio in port so hookup was easy. I just had to buy a very short optical cable so as to not tie up a lot of slack. It came with a cable however.

This is a nice sound bar. I was specifically looking for one without a sub woofer. I have it hooked up to my TV using the included optical cable (make sure to take the little caps off the ends first). I was able to program my cable remote to turn on/off and control the volume of the sound bar. This was great since now I don't have use the included remote to control the sound bar. The sound is really good. We were noticing that the sound from our TV speakers were getting worn out (we kept saying to each each other...what did they just say). Now after hooking up this soundbar we can understand people speaking again.

I got this to pair up with a 40" Samsung in a small living room and it's more than fine. I like that it's also a bluetooth speaker; I like to listen to my mp3 books and music on my Note 4 through it. And if you're having issues getting the optical audio cable plugged in, it's because you haven't taken off those white plastic nipple caps off the cable tips...Those who complain it doesn't have enough bass, IT DOESN'T; spend some money and buy one with a subwoofer. If you've got a big room where you're watching your 60"+ tv, this soundbar probably won't be loud enough; spend some money and buy a bigger soundbar unit.

Works great my wife loves it.!! Easy to install and mount

Great sound. Voices are very clear. Perfect for those that don't want big speaker boxes, and don't need the base blowing out the neighbors. Used with my cell phone for music very easy hook up.

I got this to be "ready" for the new TV that Black Friday will provide! So I have not used the item yet to speak to in service quality. However the impression I get from the product and quality design and materials is very good. They are not flashy and covered in a gimmick style first design. Just good logical design and quality materials. Basics.. what you need and at a good price. If you have not priced these local you may not realize what a great deal Amazon has on Basics.

For the price and quality this is the best cable on the market. In terms of issues there aren't any that hurt your experience but there are a few that could make it better. For instance the head of the cable is a larger making it a little difficult to get it into slots on sound bars but it still does fit snug and work great. I think these minor inconviences may bother some but for the price and quality I still think this is the best in the market

AmazonBasics strikes again! Amazon has once again been able to produce a high quality audio cable for a great, great price! I realized that I needed a Toslink to Toslink cord after purchasing the Audioengine D-1 DAC/Amp to go with my Audioengine A5+ speakers. I needed a cord that I could connect between my computer and the DAC and I didnt want to send the audio through the usb port. This cord has been working out perfectly thus far! The cord feels sturdy, well made and of a high quality and it cant be beat for the price!

These are good quality optical digital audio cables. The plugs fit perfectly into the sockets on my CD recorder. I also like the expanded diameter of the cable, feels more like an audio cable rather than a tiny fragile piece of glass.I'll buy more of these when I need more.Good music to you!

I bought this cable to replace the extra thin one that came with my Sony sound bar. With the old cable, my wife complained about voice sync being off. With this cable, I haven't heard any complaints!The cable shielding is thick, but flexible. The ends of the cake feel durable and reliable. The length is perfect to go from one side of my 65 inch TV to the middle of my entertainment center without tugging or being exposed. Overall, a great and affordable choice.

I got the product pictured, not any "smaller" version. Other reviewers are correct that if you have a tight spot for this connector, they are a bit large. In my case though on the back of my TV and my soundbar there was tons of room, so no issue, no tight angles for me either (not good with an optical cable to have a sharp angle). It feels like a decent cable and I don't feel like I had to be as careful with it as I did those cables with tiny wire. I know the wire inside is tiny but these have a good size rubber outing about as thick as an HDMI cable. Works great.

great sound. one problem, it has no indication of a level of volume (like no number or bar indicting level). but it works great with wall mounted TV and other blue tooth devices. crisp clear sound, especially for the price. was easy to mount as well.

It does the job. I was disappointed that the bass wasn't a little deeper, but I guess that's why it's best to buy a unit with a separate subwoofer. Because of that, it's a bit pricey. Also, you can program it to power on with your TV, but it's doesn't power down when you turn it off. That doesn't make sense to me. If you're looking for a soundbar just to have the sound directed towards you, rather than it echoing from the back of your TV, like I was, then this is suitable.

While my own home theater is based on HD projection and a screen, plus a home theater sound system, I was recently asked to set up a small home theater for an older couple who both have hearing problems, and she also suffers from poor vision. But their 'theater' room was only a 9' x 9' bedroom with a small sofa in it, so we ended up with a good sized flat screen LED 'smart' TV by Samsung. They were only going to use it to watch DVDs, nothing online or streaming. So they ended up with a new TV that has a remote control and also their DVD player which has a remote control. They HATE remote controls.Then they realized that the built-in speakers on the TV were not loud enough for them to hear, and the sound clarity was not that great either. They could not understand what anyone in the videos was saying.Because the TV sits on its stand on top of a credenza which takes up the entire wall of the room next to its doorway, there was no room to add speakers on the credenza or the floor next to it. The bottom of the TV screen is only about 3" above the top of the credenza, so I investigated 'strip speakers' or 'sound bars' that could be placed on top of the credenza, in front of the TV screen, and still not have the speaker blocking the screen (or the receiver for the remote control).There was no room, or desire, to have a subwoofer, so I looked for sound bar speakers that did not come with a subwoofer. This narrowed the options down a lot. Then I decided to stay with the same manufacturer as the TV, in order to maximize integration between them, so I looked only at Samsung. The options were now only a couple of models, and this HW-J250 was the better rated of the two, and had mostly very good reviews on Amazon and elsewhere.This speaker can accept its audio from a number of sources, including via a fiber-optic cable from the TV, via a stereo audio cable similar to those used on computer speakers (i.e. from an MP3 player or a computer sound card), wirelessly via Bluetooth (i.e. from a smart phone or computer), and wirelessly from the TV over a Samsung proprietary connection ("TV SoundConnect") that is reportedly based on Bluetooth but which has improved integration between TV and speaker. This sounds bar also apparently can play from a USB connected drive or flash memory stick (thumb drive), but I did not investigate this feature in any detail.I called Samsung pre-sales support to ask about options for connecting this speaker to the TV in question. I learned that not all current Samsung smart TVs support the proprietary wireless "TV SoundConnect" connection, and that included the TV in question. Samsung recommended that we use the fiber-optic cable connection, saying that with this connection, the speaker would turn on of off automatically with the TV, and the speaker volume would be controlled using the TV's remote control.......no need to use a THIRD remote control for the speaker (although it does come with its own remote control).When the speaker was received, we plugged its included fiber-optic cable between it and the TV, and connected the wall-wart style speaker power supply. Immediately the speaker recognized that there was a digital input, and it switched automatically over to its "D-IN' (digital input) mode, and sound came out of the speaker when a program was playing on the TV. Great!The Samsung TV's on-screen menu had previously been grayed out in the area where options related to the TV speaker could be selected. But the TV also seemed to automatically recognize that it was connected digitally to the new speaker, and those menu options became selectable. We were able to turn off the TV's built-in speaker, and also turn on the feature for 'clear voice' which enhances speech for better clarity.However, we were disappointed to learn that Samsung's agent had given us bad information, and we called back and confirmed with another agent that this speaker does NOT automatically turn itself on and off with the TV, and worse, it does NOT get its volume control from the TV's remote control. Apparently it DOES do those things if connected via the proprietary wireless "TV SoundConnect" method, but not over the fiber-optic connection. So, the old folks now need to use three remote controls. The TV remote control is required to turn the TV on and off, the speaker remote control is required to turn the speaker on and off, and to adjust the volume, and off course the DVD player's remote control is required for its functions. I might investigate setting up a universal remote control for them.Overall, the speaker looks and sounds very good, and has in fact improved the ability of its older owners to adequately hear and understand the audio programming of their DVD movies. It just would have been nice if the speaker's integration with the TV of the same brand and vintage was more complete.Some specifications:-This sound bar is supposedly "2.2" channels. Samsung does not explain what this means, but from other sources I understand that the number on the left of the decimal point means the number of primary speakers, 2 in this instance, or plain old stereo. I also believe that the number to the right of the decimal point refers to the subwoofer. I have seen lots of home theater audio setups that have x.1 channels, meaning however many primary channels plus one subwoofer. But how about when there is a 2 in that position? Does that mean this sound bar has 2 subwoofers? Maybe it does. It certainly does not come with a separate subwoofer.- Built in 80W amplifier.- Dimensions are 28.35" x 2.64" x 2.95".- Weight is 4 pounds.- Color is matte black with a black cloth grille.

My plan was to use the included digital optical cable to connect my new 32" Samsung TV to this new soundbar but the digital optical cable provided in the package did not securely snap into the sound bar. It fell out very easily just like some other reviewers. Assuming this to be an problem with just some of the soundbars I asked Amazon to replace mine with a new one which promptly showed up on my porch. Alas, the second soundbar had the same problem. Not believing that Samsung would ship a product with such an obvious flaw I purchased a new digital optical cable from my local Radio Shack. Amazingly it snapped firmly in place and my soundbar sounds great. A big improvement from the very weak and tinny internal speakers in my new TV.The digital optical cable issue is not the fault of the soundbar but is the fault of the very cheap (and flawed) digital optical cable they included in my boxes. If you expect to use digital optical do not fret if your included cable does not stay in place. Replace it with a higher quality cable and all will be well.

This sound bar is just right. We did not need the 5 speaker surround system for our average size living room. Sound bar clearly better than just TV speakers. It has 4 different modes (standard, voice, sports, and 3D sound plus) and comes with a simple remote. Easy install and it looks great underneath our wall mounted TV. This sound bar is synced with our Samsung 60" TV and we only use one remote for viewing. Yes, I would recommend this product.

I bought this to go with a 32" flat-screen. I didn't have the space for a separate sub-woofer, so this fit the bill. The built-in sub isn't going to make the windows shake, but it's adequate for my application. The connection and set-up is easy and it's a definite improvement over the TV speakers.

Works okay most of the time but I hear distorted sounds over a longer period of time. I am yet to figure if that is coming from the speaker or due to the wire. That said, it's good quality so hopefully I will find and fix the issue soon

For some reason I have to reset the cable connection about once a month but I don't know if it's this cable or the adapter it's plugged into.Regardless it does it's job and I get nice clean audio into my surround sound system. Love it.

I'm giving this 4 stars even though I ended up returning it. For some reason I couldn't get any sound from my TV to my receiver. I thought I had a bad cable so Amazon sent me another one the next day --- EXCELLENT customer service --- but still it didn't work. So I am going to assume it's something either with my TV or receiver and not the cable.

The cord works great but comes with clear plastic caps on the ends and if you're like me and never owned an optical cable before you may not have any idea what the ends are supposed to look like. I ordered a longer one months ago, plugged it right in no problem. Never had an issue with sound. Bought the 1 meter cord and one end kept popping out. I thought it was the plug and returned it, got another one. Same thing. Couldn't understand why the longer cord worked and the shorter one didn't. (Still don't. Even when nothing was pulling on it the shorter one just didn't stay plugged in.) Finally, after reading reviews I realized all of them, even the ones currently working in my house with no problem had those caps on them. Oops. LolNo packaging = No instructions = One star removed for not telling consumers how to properly use the product.

fine. no complaints. but I prefer cables that are colored. I bought one with blue at each end for same price. It makes it easier to keep track of which is going where if color coded. personal preference.

These AmazonBasics optical audio cables work fine and look like good quality, but be aware that the plugs are rather large and the cables rather thick. For connecting one end to my Klipsch soundbar it made for a tight turn. Works, but probably not ideal. Note in picture attached, AmazonBasics plug on left, factory cable I replaced because it was too short on right. Other picture shows how cable had to be bent to fit the space.

The sound is fine, but not the best. I read other comments, which I will corroborate here. First, the red light at the front is kind of a nuisance to let you know the thing is off. If they had to put a red light there, make it fade a few seconds after the unit is turned off. Second, the woofer volume on the remote does absolutely nothing, and this unit is advertised on the Samsung website as having built-in woofers. Third, you're supposed to get four different options for the different types of sound, and changing those does absolutely nothing either. And one more peculiarity... when you increase or decrease the volume, the different icons at the top right of the unit circulate, which is OK, just kind of a strange way of doing things. Will be returning. One good thing is that it's controllable directly with a Harmony remote. And BTW, I compared this to a Vizio in the same price range, and the Vizio sounds, and is just designed, better.

No volume level...just one single light that blinks when you do anything...sound quality is better than a normal TV's speakers tho...bass boost is also nice but does not compare with a separate subwoofer

It's ok for the price. Design could have been better. When it's off, there is a red light in the front center. When it's on, the light will go away. I installed this in my bedroom; I don't want to see any light when it's off. All other indicators are on top, and I have installed this on the wall above eye level, when I lay down on my bed to enjoy the TV, I can't really tell what sound setting I am changing it to. I would be nice if the indicators are in the front, light up for couple seconds and go off. Sound quality is expected with this price range; don't expect big sound coming out from a small soundbar. I only use it at night watching TV before falling asleep, so I don't need big sound. One absolute good thing about this little soundbar is that it will turn on by itself when you turn on the TV (optically connected, not sure with other connection types).

soundbar audio volume has a default level which is lower than I want to hear on my Samsung smart tv therefore everytime I turn on my tv I must either turn up the sound on the soundbar or the remote. I spent hours with Samsung soundbar and smart tv technicians even upgrading the tv software on the smart tv that was bought month earlier but to no avail. also I do not hear any difference using the woofer level and very little difference using the sound effect on the remote. soundbar is an improvement over the small 32 inch Samsung smart tv speakers however.

Sounds good and decent for pushing movies. I received this sound-bar as a "deal" when I ordered a Samsung TV. It makes for a really good combination buy. I'm not an audiophile or "speaker" guy. There are multiple inputs (bluetooth) so you can use it as a stereo speaker as well. It comes with an optical cable and wall mount. It matches and sounds great with a TV. It doesn't get massively loud like a full surround sound system or more expensive brand, but can really give a more filling sound when watching a video or playing a video game. Overall, a awesome buy and addition.

It's important to be realistic about what this sound bar can do.This is not going to win any awards for loudness or bass or dimension. It's a short sound bar with a couple of small drivers inside it. The signal-to-noise ratio is 65 dB, according to the included manual. You can connect it via optical cable, aux (3.5 mm) cable, USB, or Bluetooth. Simple and straightforward.I purchased it for my Samsung 43" plasma set. No issues at all during setup. But, it was immediately obvious that my TV's internal speakers were already close to the level of this sound bar. I would describe the sound as warm, but lacking punch. Clear, but without character. To my ear, all three of the included sound presets were flat. Flat is not a bad thing, if the speakers are adequate. For my TV, they weren't.It's not a bad sound bar, per se. If I had a smaller TV (in the 32" to 36" range), I would imagine that I would be happy with it. At 40" and up, a larger sound bar becomes necessary to hear a marked improvement.I sympathize with other reviewers who purchased this because they don't want a subwoofer. I live in a second-floor apartment and worry about how much sound a subwoofer would leak downstairs. At this price point, I'll likely give the new 38" sub-less Vizio sound bar a try.

I may not be the best person to write a review. As far as length of cord and ease of use it is good. Fit into the openings, etc. as expected. We needed it to hook to an adapter for a bluetooth headset 3.5 mm jack and our 4K TV didn't have one. Overall our TV to cord to adapter to jack on headset didn't work. All we got was white noise. My belief is that the headset isn't compatible with the 4K. The fact that I got white noise, to me, meant that the cord was working. So, yeah, it works.

This is a very good quality cable. That being said, it didn't work for me because the plug is so large. I had a fairly small space to connect it and the plug is large and cable fairly stiff. Just be careful that it will actually fit.

Although the cables work, they are very thick and heavy. If your device has an optical port facing out (not down), the weight of the cable pulls it slightly out of socket, causing audio loss. I fixed the issue by running the wire through a clip above the port on my TV to lift the weight of the wire off the plug, but other optical cables do not have this issue.

The cable keeps unplugging from the tv. The cable does not click in and just sits in the slot. A tiny pull will make it fall out. Other theb that good quality and works great

They would not fin into my Vizio 60 in 4k TV, It may be something with the VIZIO's because I see now that other people have had the same issue. Other than this major issue the cable appeared to be of good quality. Very thick cable.

I typically buy "Amazon Basic Cables" and I am usually very pleased with them. This one did not work out for me and Amazon quickly refunded my money. Cable would not stay connected at either end. I purchased this one instead and I am very pleased with it. Will still buy "Amazon Basic Cables" in the future.https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LT2C5W/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_33

Sound is better then TV speakers, sometimes it will turn on by itself and hear the TV channel audio since it's connected to the cable box with the TV off which can get freaky in the middle of the night.

Hugely disappointing. After about a week, returned it for the Vizio SB2920-C6 29-Inch sound bar, which is a gem. The Samsung bar produces flat, dull sound (very hard to hear dialogue) and is nearly impossible to get connected to Bluetooth. And if you are lucky enough to connect, good luck getting back to the optical output. Frustrating product & experience.

As of now I'm very unhappy with this product. After setting it up which was very easy and the sound was really good, but the sound would only work for 25 minutes and then just cut off - after 3 calls with Samsung the issue couldn't be resolved. So now I'm sending it back to Samsung for them to try to repair. Not happy at all....

The sound bar produces good quality sound, the only reason I give it a low score is the sound bar was very difficult to set up. Even Samsung Tech support could not help (Tech Support was definitely not in the U.S.). Accidentally, I pushed a button that was not clearly identified on the instructions or identified by tech support and the sound began to work fine and continues trouble free to this day.

The sound is muffled and should be purchased for smaller TV's less than 40". Didn't care for the sound quality. Also the remote has ability to change sound profiles, but you can't determine which profiles those are on, unless you walk up to the speaker and look at the incon on the top right of the speaker.

Could not get it to connect with my non-Samsung TV via the fiber optic cable.

Not sure how to rate this product. It seems like a decent-quality cable but I'm not getting any input from the TV to the converter. I need to try another cable to see if the problem is this cable or the TV, or what?

it is too thick and big. I am connecting it to my sound bar and it just comes right out. if i hold it in, everything works, but once i let go it slides right out. I have a samsung surround sound

I have purchased other similarly priced cables and have had very good experiences. I purchased 4 of these cables for a new project and when I opened these cables, I was impressed with how sturdy and well made they were. However after trying to install these, it became painfully obvious that the ends are not suitable for many devices. I had 6 different types of devices that I connected to and none of them had any problem with the thickness of the cable causing an issue with turns. But, the ends only clicked in to 1 device firmly and on 2 devices they need help to stay in place.

Fits perfectly into my Samsung one multi HDMI and audio control unit but no click fit into sound bar? Just went ahead and wired via HDMI cause optical audio didn't function properly... Could be me & I don't setup entertainment equip for a living BUT you know when you get a good fit / secure connection & when you don't. Just my thoughts, maybe another brand. Maybe don't buy samsung.

Bought this to connect my computer to this headphone amp: SMSL SD793-II PCM1793 DIR9001 DAC Digital Audio Decoder Amplifier, BlackConnectors do not push all the way in for either of my devices. They hang out a bit, and any bump will dislodge them. Despite this, the cable worked fine for about a month without issues. However, now my headphones are making an occasional popping noise (every minute or two), and the amp makes an audible click at the same time. I tried another (shorter) optical cable I had lying around and it solved the issue. The spare also actually connects all the way.

It works ok, but I ordered 4 of these cables. Only one of those four came as pictured from the site. The other 3 cables did say amazonbasic on them, but were clearly different optical cables, they looked different, they were less thick and generally felt less sturdy than the one cable I actually got that was the same as what I ordered.Seeing that I ordered 4 of these, and 75% of that order came in as "not-what-I-ordered-or-expected", I would say this is kind of lame.Functionality wise, they probably work (haven't gotten to hook them up).

Two months after it was installed, the Bluetooth connection failed and numerous attempts to reconnect it to my Samsung Smart TV and phone were unsuccessful.Next stop: a landfill.

Unable to connect to my LR set. I repacked and returned it.

For a product that should be so easy to hook up and use, this one fails badly. Like a lot of instruction booklets these days, it's hard to find what you need, and what's there is not very clear. Best example is a simple matter of the little, annoying red light in the middle of the bar. There is no mention as to whether this light indicates the unit is on, or off. It apparently stays on when the unit is off?! Why? What purpose does that serve?Now, as far as connecting the bar to your TV, that's a whole new experience...use the optical cable, or, it has bluetooth, oh, but it comes with a usb cable, yea, but is my tv compatible because, after all, it connects via wireless, right? Yea, it does, maybe, if you've got the right TV...all confusing instructions that assume the user is an audio expert.And then, there is the sound produced by the bar...yuck! All bass, all the time. Woofer control button on remote - does nothing, why is it there? Sound effect button on remote - does nothing, what's it for? Instructions say there are three listening modes. Pushing the Sound Effects button is supposed to change the sound; it does nothing.Nice try Samsung. It's coming back to you so you can resell it. It's worthless to me.

Speakers on TV sounded better. That is sad.

Sound Quality Good. Design HORRIBLE. If you don't have bluetooth DON'T Buy. The Digital Optical Cable is a Joke, doesn't snap in and keeps falling out. Horrible design Flaw, some serious carelessness on samsungs part.

I was very excited to get this Until I set it up and didn't work Call them talked with three different people unfortunately it was hard to understand them and for them to understand me it seems They sent me a new cord to plug into my TV it works the minute you turn the TV on you change the channel though and it stops working again if I could've given this no stars I would've

Would not secure in optical port and would just fall out. So it fell into the trash can.

Very poor quality, it does not plug in well and actually frayed.

The ends are big & hard to fit in, broke the little black tab off my tv optical port trying to fit it in but it works once its in.

The optical won't plug into any inputs. I push it in but it doesn't fully plug in. My other optical fits great and plays audio but this one won't fit so I cant play through it. Extremely frustrating knowing I can't trust Amazon's approved items.

it does not fit in back of my ty optical connection, the end is too bulky. Its in my collecting dust collection

The plug keeps falling out. Both sides.