Philips SoundBar (HTS5120) Review

Philips SoundBar (HTS5120) Review

Review: Philips Soundbar

Philips SoundBar Review (HTS5120)

When Philips sent over their latest SoundBar for testing, I was hesitant to do the review since I had to set it up and then remove it again after the loan period (hassle, lol). However it turned out it was easy to set-up and it’s more than just your average speakers since it actually has a built-in DVD/CD player. The subwoofer is also wireless. What this means is that you get a complete home theater system without the clutter. Awesome stuff.

Here’s a 1-minute video which goes over all the key features.

Cool right? Anyway, check out our full review below.

Easy to Set-up

Setting up the Philips SoundBar was a much easier experience than what I expected. The box was huge but that’s mostly because it had eggshell like cartons inside to give the SoundBar better cushioning. There are only actually a few things inside the mammoth carton container (lol). There’s the SoundBar, the SubWoofer, the manuals, and a bunch of wires (coaxial, charger, video cable, FM radio antenna, etc). Sadly it didn’t come with an HDMI cable but you can easily get one from the mall.

Philips SoundBar Box… It looks huge!
The ports of the SoundBar itself is at the back covered by a plastic plate. Just remove it and you get access to everything you need from coaxial, HDMI, video, USB, etc. Despite the size it’s also good to point out that the SoundBar is still light making it easy to move around if needed.
The wireless SubWoofer automatically connects to the SoundBar once you turn them both on. This one has pretty good bass for it’s size!

So how to set it up? Just remove the backplate of the SoundBar, plug in whatever cable you want to use (coaxial, RCA, HDMI) to your TV, plug both the SoundBar and the SubWoofer in their respective outlets, and there you go. It should be working.

For our initial set-up we used the coaxial cable (came with the box) to connect the audio output from the TV to the SoundBar and a standard video RCA cable from the SoundBar to the TV. We didn’t bother wall-mounting the SoundBar. We just placed it in front of the TV since it had some sort of built-in stand anyway.

Here’s what it looks like when we quickly put it together for the review.

DVD Playback… cool!

What surprised me was that this was actually a complet theater system with the DVD player, lol. The SoundBar has several controls at the front and one of them is “Open”. If you press on this the front panel will slide sidewards revealing the DVD slot. Awesomeness.

Ain’t that cool? Haha
Let’s put a DVD inside…

There’s an LED panel at the front also which shows you the status of the player.

LED panel

Sound Quality Check

When it comes to the acoustics, the Philips SoundBar utilizes some sort of audio virtualization technology which simulates what you get with a multi-speaker surround sound set-up. We tried watching several movies with it and it’s definitely impressive. It performs much better than the home theater systems that you can get under Php15,000. To get the full effect though, note that you really have to be seated a few feet away from your system.

Watching Justin Timberlake’s Madison Square Garden concert DVD

Value for Money

Unfortunately Philips Philippines hasn’t given us the official SRP yet for the SoundBar. My estimate though is that it should be anywhere between Php23,000 – Php30,000.

Verdict

The Philips SoundBar is perfect for people who live in condos that have limited space to work with with their home theater system. It’s a compact and elegant audio solution that will not disappoint and it’s surely to get compliments with the design and the features.

Here’s the hoping we get to see a model that can also play BluRay discs! 😛

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