Samsung HW-C450

Samsung has its fingers in a lot of pies: from household appliances to high-tech mobile devices, they make it all.

Unfortunately, though, when resources are spread this thinly, it's hard to offer excellent quality in every area.

Hardware: connectivity cutbacks

We had hoped that a company that makes both TVs and Blu-ray players would have included a whole array of inputs on its sound bar, but the truth is the exact opposite.  The HW-C450 is the sound bar with the fewest connectivity options that we've tested so far.

Of course, when all you have to connect is a simple pair of optical audio inputs, then setting it up is childs' play.  But if you have several audio/video sources, you'll have to hope that your TV doesn't have any problems with passthrough (see inset), otherwise things will be a lot harder.

Obviously, without more advanced inputs, there is very little information to be shown-which is the case.  You get the volume, levels for bass and treble and a few spatialisation options.

A wall mount is included. 

Audio Quality: limited spatialisation

Unsurprisingly, the C450 produces mediocre sound, but given its physical dimensions, we weren't really expecting it to work wonders.  Forget about any hope of spatialisation, which is incredibly dodgy.  You end up with an unholy racket when you rely on its internal audio handling. You'll feel right at home if you're used to watching films in a cave.  If, as is likely, you spend more time in the comfort of your front room, then your patience will most likely be tried.

Even using a real multi-channel signal doesn't change things much.  We tried in vain to find the slightest suggestion of depth.

With pure stereo, the results are more intelligible, but we're still a long way from anything approaching decent sound.  The treble is shouty and the mid-range ridiculously soft, while the sub-woofer, which has to produce much higher sounds than it really should to reinforce the bar itself, leaving it to bark away so incessantly it has no impact, especially for anything with a beat.  It does have one stength, though: it's wireless.  You still need to connnect it to the mains, but it means you don't have to trail a wire to it from the bar itself.

Samsung's sound bar is something of a failure.  With no flexibility on the connections, mediocre audio and spatialisation that isn't worth speaking about, there's not much chance that the C450 will win many fans.