ZVOX AccuVoice AV455 Dialogue Clarifying Sound Bar with Hearing Aid Technology and HDMI-ARC Compatible Connectivity - Home Theater Audio TV Speakers Soundbar - Black

Good one

I have had this unit for a few weeks and used it to replace a 10 year old zvox 200. These are my impressions: It does do a better job with voice clarification over my previous unit. This has 5 accuvoice settings and the one I replaced had 1. You can tell the difference even though the old one still worked. Technology has just gotten better over the last ten years. Also, the surround sound is noticeably better. Is it the same as a higher end unit, especially with a stand alone subwoofer? No way, but if you are like me and crisper dialogue is the main priority, this certainly fills the bill. The improved surround sound is an added bonus. Now the not so good news. Due to the fact that my tv is a little older, it did not have an HDMI-aRC connection. Even though this soundbar has it, I cannot use it since my tv does not have it as well. I knew this going in, no problem. So I hooked up the unit with the optical audio port, the next best thing. I discovered two things. First off, and it took an email to Zvox to confirm, unlike my zvox 200, this av455 unit did not have a learning program so I could teach it to run the volume control through my roku remote like my old unit. Not a big deal to me but nonetheless, a difference. The bigger issue was this...if I turned the tv off, and I had made the necessary settings adjustments to have the soundbar automatically come on, the soundbar did not come on. Apparently after doing research, when the unit could be connected with HDMI-aRC connector like this av455, something internally would screw this up with any other type connection like the optical audio. Seems that by turning off the tv, all that was happening is the soundbar was it put it in standby and the audio signal was not strong enough to wake up the sound bar. I woud have to maually turn on the soundbar each time with the remote.To me, this was a big deal. I was convinced I would send the unit back but then I did some research and found a cheap and effective, workaround. I changed my power strip on the back that everything was plugged into, to a Smart Power strip for about $16. The tv is plugged into the master outlet, the soundbar is plugged into one of the "slave" outlets. When the tv is shut off, anything plugged into the slave outlets automatically turn off, not go into standby. When the tv is turned on, anything plugged into the slave outlets automatically turn on. How the soundbar interprets this is totally different than needing a audio signal to get it going. Basically, since then, no issue. The sound bar auto comes on automatically, even if I have to manually adjust volume. Since it is just the wife and I, the volume usually just stays at the same setting. I really did not want to sent the unit back. I liked the fact that the dialogue was crisper, the surround sound was obviously better, and it had a HDMI-aRC connection. Even though I cannot use this connection now, it future proofed me in case I ever need a new tv that come with the HDMI-aRC connection. If, or when that happens, I will then be able to use the Roku remote to control volume as well. Thought I would post this because I doubt I am the only one who has seen this issue. Basically the $16 Smart Power Strip made the difference. In any case, it is wise to change power strips anyway over time, especially of they offer some sort of surge protection that will diminish over time

Have had zvox soundbases for years, over 15 to be exact, still working great and sound great! This little soundbar sounds very good also, not to the level of their large soundbases but non the less, very clear, easy to hear and a good amount of depth. Very happy with this unit.

customer service is by email. Instalation questions take days to answer. In my opinion this is an intentional sales trick. a faulse sense of "caring" is potraed but not lived up to. Secondly their "patented technology " is no more than volume & midrange adjustments that can be done with almost any sound system with tone controls. Thirdly, their systems are lagging behind with modern technology. It will not allow control of the TV and soundbar by a single remote control. That was the real deal killer to me. Fourthly, the refund took weeks to get after they had reciept of the product being delivered back to their possession.

Dramatic improvement of speech quality. With HDMI-ARC I can control volume with my remote and made setup a breeze. Sleek black color and size blends with TV color. Looks great. Great value for what it does. Makes a world of difference in understanding what is being said on my TV. Highly recommended.

if you have hearing issues get one of these sound bar best ever

I bought this after reading a number of positive reviews. I'm not an audio purist and voice quality is more important to me, so this seemed like a perfect fit. I also like the fact that using the HDMI with ARC cable made it an easy integration with the TV. I'm using it with a low-end Roku TV with an HDMI/ARC interface. First, I found that using the HDMI/ARC interface with the TV did not always work. The sound bar would come on and the TV setting indicated that it was sending audio to the sound bar, but no sound came out. After playing with a few settings, it seemed to work and I could turn the TV on and off with the sound bar going on and off. I tried a number of different TV apps and they all worked. The next day, I turned the TV on and got no sound again. I played with some of the setting again and finally got sound again. But now I felt like I could not trust the unit to always work. I don't know if it was a problem with the Roku TV or the sound bar itself. The second issue was with the AccuVoice quality when it was working. I could not detect any better sound quality of voices, even with the level set to 5 (the highest). The overall sound level was lower, but the voice quality did not seem any better for me. So, given these 2 issues, I decided to return the unit rather than going through the additional trouble shooting effort to figure out why the audio was not always coming on. Even if I solved this problem, the audio quality was not what I expected - so why bother. The connection may work better with different TVs or different sound bar unit. Plus, some people may hear the difference better than me. But for me, this did not work.

Voice clarification is pretty good