JVC TH-WL515B Sound Bar - my Review 2* out of 5*

[macabethiel]

We bought a new TV a couple of months ago it's a JVC 55 " LED and was the cheapest for it's size we could find at the time. We wanted a Blaupunkt like our old smaller set but they appear to be discontinued or sold out everywhere.

Anyway the new TV is OK but as I wear a hearing aid I have trouble making out speech especially if no sub titles are available. The Virgin Media Film 24 channel is especially inaudible for me so we decided to get a sound bar to improve the Treble & Mid Range and rather than go for the cheaper model with no sub-woofer we went for the above model on offer at £119.00 rated at 200 Watts output with a wireless sub-woofer.

I should have saved my money and gone for the basic sound bar with no sub-woofer. At lowish volume levels the sub-woofer just comes in suddenly like a bad hum or buzzing. At high volume levels its better but just too loud. I now leave the sub-woofer unplugged. I have tried all the usual things such as moving the base unit and trying the various modes but to no avail.

[Monaro Pete]

I fell out with JVC many years back.
I purchased a in car CD player by them. All was ok (ish) for the first week or so, it would only jump on the bad bumps in the road, but got progressively worse. I returned it back to the store & got a replacement. This one was crap from the very first moment I drove up the road.
Altogether I had three identical units. JVC where supposed to be sending an engineer out, because they couldn't understand three units failing, he never turned up after quite a few no shows by the engineer, I retuned back to store & demanded a full refund (which I got).
I'll never buy any of their products again & I still advise folk not to even after all the time that has passed.

Same goes for Baumatic. I had a fully fitted kitchen a couple of years back with all Baumatic appliances. The biggest pile of donkey crap ever. The Induction hob failed just after two years, the dishwasher only got used once as the dishes came out dirtier than they went in, The freezer ices up like there's no tomorrow. The Microwave used to make five ear piecing screeches until I took it apart & killed it's little speaker.
The fridge does it's job. I can't fault the oven, but it only comes with one shelf & Baumatic want £60.00 for another

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by Monaro Pete

I fell out with JVC many years back.
I purchased a in car CD player by them. All was ok (ish) for the first week or so, it would only jump on the bad bumps in the road, but got progressively worse. I returned it back to the store & got a replacement. This one was crap from the very first moment I drove up the road.
Altogether I had three identical units. JVC where supposed to be sending an engineer out, because they couldn't understand three units failing, he never turned up after quite a few no shows by the engineer, I retuned back to store & demanded a full refund (which I got).
I'll never buy any of their products again & I still advise folk not to even after all the time that has passed.

Same goes for Baumatic. I had a fully fitted kitchen a couple of years back with all Baumatic appliances. The biggest pile of donkey crap ever. The Induction hob failed just after two years, the dishwasher only got used once as the dishes came out dirtier than they went in, The freezer ices up like there's no tomorrow. The Microwave used to make five ear piecing screeches until I took it apart & killed it's little speaker.
The fridge does it's job. I can't fault the oven, but it only comes with one shelf & Baumatic want £60.00 for another

Strangely enough I went for JVC as my next door neighbor going back to our old house circa 1983 had a JVC Mini Hi-Fi that was really good, we had many a good night there drinking wine & dancing in his lounge at impromptu parties ! The brand just stuck me as inexpensive but reliable - clearly not.

TBH the name Baumatic is not known to me but it sounds German and high end. Not sure methinks its Italian !

[Monaro Pete]

Yes Italian.
It was an offer the company were having............. Buy a fitted kitchen & get all your appliances for £X.XX
Never again

[macabethiel]

Have fiddled with some TV settings and added some extra cables and the Base cut off is much better but still would not buy again.

[don simon]

Do JVC still sponsor Arsenal?
No a hope in hell of using the stuff.

[terranosaurusdoug]

Has it improved things for you though? My Dad has the same problem, he can't hear dialogue on the tv so he turns the sound up, then some action happens on the program and deafens us all. I don't think standard speakers are upto much, they seem to be on the back of tv's now.

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by terranosaurusdoug

Has it improved things for you though? My Dad has the same problem, he can't hear dialogue on the tv so he turns the sound up, then some action happens on the program and deafens us all. I don't think standard speakers are upto much, they seem to be on the back of tv's now.

The Sound Bar does mean that I can hear the speech on the TV channels that do not have subtitles but I leave the Sub-Woofer unplugged and just crank up the volume it's quite good with Treble & Mid range sounds that come out of the Horizontal Bar part and the wife does not find it too loud for her normal hearing.

I will just switch on the Sub-Woofer for Bond Films and the like. I might have been better to just get something like (below Link) without the Sub-Woofer - the base comes out of the Bar - the price put me off.

Some sound bars are described as having "dialogue enhancement". The more expensive sound bars also have separate fully adjustable Base & Treble controls rather than presets like "Sport", "TV" & "Movies"

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-...ml#srcid=11026

[terranosaurusdoug]

He's not bothered about bass too much, I'm going to look into the voice enhancing ones.

Thank you, you've given me a good idea for a christmas present for him