Sony HTCT260H Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer

What a great replacement for a receiver/5 speaker system! 3 wires. Audio input, power cable for bar, power cable for sub (to put wherever you want!). No more rat's nest of speaker cables snaking their way around your room, no more receiver as part of your 'component stack'.The box it comes in is huge. They had to come up with a box that is long enough to fit the bar plus sub (like 50") and tall and wide enough to fit the sub. So the result is A LOT of styrofoam packing compared to what you will usually find in consumer electronics. As much as UPS hates to handle boxes this huge (I worked there for many years), this thing is really well protected and I think the chances of it being damaged in shipping is smaller than for most other electronics (like TV's). That's a nice little plus if you are considering if it's worth the risk to save $15 on amazon vs picking it up locally.The 'effect' thing. This was my biggest question after reading the other reviews that led me to purchase. Several other reviews mentioned this comes out of the box with the 'effect' turned on, which significantly reduces loudness. After playing around with it and reading the manual, here's the scoop on that. First, some background. These bars are supposed to simulate surround sound. They will never be as good as actual speakers sitting behind you, but they can fake it really well! All I was really looking for was 'decent' sound from this for movies. Solid thump from the base, clear dialogue, sharp sound effects, etc. Any 'surround' effect would be bonus but not important to me. I've only watched some tv and streamed a netflix show so far but am already very impressed by sound immersion this thing creates. It really is AS IF sound is coming from all around you. Not in that direct bird-tweeting from that left-rear surround speaker way but in a general 'I really feel like I'm walking through the park in this scene' sort of way. I really didn't expect it to change much about quiet, non-movie watching but it's really does! I have no idea what the wizardry is behind this is. All sound is just vibrations in the air and all speakers do is move to create those pressure waves. So I guess that speakers that need to fool your ear into thinking the sound is coming from somewhere else is just a matter of them subtly changing the timing of sending out the individual sounds. The wider the soundbar and the better the tuning will create more of a 'soundfield'. I have no idea how it knows which frequencies to 'mix' and which ones to just send out clearly (dialogue is incredibly clear!) but it seems to do it very well. The remote lets you toggle between several pre-set effects like 'movie', 'tv', 'music', 'sports' etc. I was surprised at how much of a difference it makes. 'Movie' really makes for great ambient sounds and crystal clear dialogue. 'Music' makes for a good balance of all the sounds and doesn't attempt to sharpen dialogue while subtly tickling you with ambient sounds like 'movie' does.Back to the 'effect'. You can only toggle between the pre-set's when the 'effect' is on. When you turn 'effect' off the sound volume really does go way up. I'd say about double. Apparently that is the difference between all the speakers just pumping the sound straight out vs 'mixing' it between the speakers as it applies all sorts of depth simulation and sound cancellation trickery. If I'm sitting close to the tv and want to feel like I'm 'in' the movie, I'll be leaving that effect on because it's doing something more than just lowering the volume. If I want to fill a great area with louder music then I'll turn it off. Maybe that is a key difference with higher end units is that they don't need to sacrifice volume to create that sound field. Even with 'effect' on it seems to get as loud as I'd ever need it to be.I replaced a 10 year old mid-range kenwood receiver with mid-range stereo speakers and lower end sub, center, and surround speakers. The only thing my older setup MIGHT have been better at was booming out strong mid-range sound from the stereo speakers when cranking music. Even when I bothered to properly try to position and tune my rear surround speakers it never created anything close to the immersive impression that this soundbar does.Easy to set up, sub was already synced. Bluetooth sync to my phone worked right away and I was surprised that I could walk about 30 feet away before it started to lose the signal. Got rid of all sorts of eye-clutter with this upgrade. The only component I have is the xbox (mostly for streaming) and I set that behind the tv because the controllers are wireless and don't need a line-of-sight remote. Mounted the soundbar to the top of the tv and have the kinect sitting on top of that. All you can see is the tv, the sound bar, and the kinect. Not very long ago your 'main' setup implied having many speakers and a visible component stack (receiver, dvd/blue ray, ps3, xbox etc). Now it can be so simple without sacrificing the experience.I do realize that I can get a better sound with a 7 speaker dolby digital setup. But to get a nearly-as-good solution and eliminate all that clutter is a trade-off I'm very happy with!

I bought this model mainly because I wanted HDMI-CEC (a.k.a. Bravia Sync, SIMPLINK, Anynet+, etc.), and it works great. CEC turns the sound bar on and off with the TV, and it also lets you use the TV remote to control the volume. You get slightly better sound quality by feeding the source directly into the sound system with HDMI and then out to the TV instead of from the TV into the sound system. Many TVs downgrade the audio signal to stereo over digital coaxial audio out and optical audio out if the TV input is HDMI (has something to do with HDCP).This sound bar supports ARC (Audio Return Channel). ARC lets you plug your TV cable, Roku stick (if you have MHL), Chromecast, or USB drive into your TV, and the sound can travel "backwards" through the HDMI cable to the sound bar. It also works with Smart TVs. For ARC, the audio input function on the sound bar is "TV", but it usually automatically switches, so you do not have to manually change the input.Since the Sony spec sheet is unclear, here are all the ports for this sound bar:Inputs:1x HDMI1x Optical1x Stereo Mini (This is used to connect a media player like an iPod without Bluetooth using a 3.5 mm male to male cable. It is not an output, so connecting headphones will not work.)Outputs:1x HDMIThis model is mid-range so while the speakers definitely sound better than the built-in TV speakers, they can sound a little thin at times (I'm used to nice Polk bookshelf speakers). To put it another way, the treble can sound a little muddled at times due to the lack of tweeters. The subwoofer makes a huge difference though. 2x the price would get you only a slight improvement in sound quality. 5x the price would get you a big increase in sound quality. Then there's a lot of in-between quality as well. My point is that if you want to pay more, there are better options, but at this price, this sound bar is solid. I wouldn't consider buying a sound bar under $150 because the increase in performance over TV speakers would not be enough to justify it (to me anyway).Everything is basically plug and play. The subwoofer is already paired. My iPhone and iPad paired perfectly, and I was playing music in no time. An interesting tip is that you can switch the audio input to Bluetooth, and the image will still stay on the TV screen because of HDMI video passthrough (e.g. You can play a PS4 game while listening to music from your iPhone over Bluetooth. The PS4 audio will be muted).The only thing I can really knock on this model is that it only has 1 HDMI input, so this means I will have to use an HDMI switcher to hook up multiple devices. If you have a little more cash, you may want to get the  HT-CT660  for the extra HDMI inputs. Using some apps like HBOGo, the 260's audio is quieter than I would like it to be at max setting, but for the majority of apps like Netflix, the sound is louder and just fine. Since the sound level is different between apps, I have determined it is mostly the apps' fault for outputting a lower gain. I have the speaker bar in a smaller room (less than 3 m x 3 m), so the lower volume doesn't matter too much. The 660 model is a bit louder than the 260 and has clearer treble and voice because of the added tweeters. 40 sound volume on the 660 sounds like 50 (max) on the 260; however, the 660 becomes distorted much past 44. The 260 can strain at higher volumes as well. The 660 is not as "plug and play" as the 260 because you have to really tweak the settings for it to sound good, and you have to change them (mainly voice and sub level) depending on whether you're listening to music or a movie. The 660 can sound better, but you have to work for it more than the 260. The 260 sounds great if you just turn up the treble and bass a couple notches. Depending on the room, sub position, and personal preferences sub level will vary (default is 2).I think Sony could have left a little more space in the back for the HDMI cables. It's a little difficult to get both of them in at that angle. That's a minor annoyance though.The remote is nothing amazing. It actually has more buttons than it needs. I would rather it be slightly more simplified by getting rid of the numbers and color buttons. It does have bluetooth controls at the bottom, so you can control your bluetooth device. I'm not sure how useful the bluetooth buttons are because you have to have the phone or bluetooth device in the same room anyway or else it skips, so I guess the benefit is not having to wake up the device's screen. The downside of the bluetooth buttons is that I can't use it to control my Blu-Ray player. I wish the remote had backlights. I may have to get a Logitech universal remote eventually. I like the ease of changing the equalizer presets. I mostly use Game, Music, and Movie. The Amp Menu settings are simple enough to change when you get to know the layout.Bottom line -- This sound bar is the best under $300!Note: I had an issue with the subwoofer dropping out randomly. It was being caused by WiFi interference (2.4 GHz). I turned off my G network (mixed) for N only (5 GHz), and the sub is working as it should now. You shouldn't have any problems with Wireless-N (802.11n) networks on the 5 GHz band. If you have close neighbors (or other networks in range), be aware of what they use. Fortunately, mine use Wireless-N.UPDATE: And now it is way under $300! I would have to say the 660 model is now technically the best sound bar under $300 because it adds tweeters and is a little louder, but it does require a bit more configuration and tweaking than the 260 to sound right.