Sony S100F 2.0ch Soundbar with Bass Reflex Speaker, Integrated Tweeter and Bluetooth, (HTS100F), easy setup, compact, home office use with clear sound black

I am giving this sound bar 5 stars, but with reservations. It is compact and not overly large. It fits on my mantle under the mounted tv. This is the second sound bar sent to me. The first one only worked a few days before I had to call Sony and troubleshoot it to find out it was defective. The price was good, however I had to pay UPS to return it to Amazon. I was told I would recoup the loss but as of yesterday that credit had not shown up in my account. First: pros- sleek, lightweight, good sound, good pricing, several ways to connect, seamless hookup with remotes, TVs, streaming devices, good sound. - Cons: I turn my tv off at night and then when I want to watch again, the sound bar won’t work. I am forever having to unplug the bar, tv, and fire stick to have any audio. This does not make sense. There is notations of the bar going into mute when you turn the device off, and it depending on what configuration you start up again, ie: tv first, sound bar first, streaming device, etc., it can go into mute mode. This is ridiculous. You want, or at least I do, one remote for everything so you don’t have to keep up with remotes for each device. I have a Sharp, interactive smart tv, and use a fire stick for my “cable”. I have no choice as I use the “gig” internet and that provider for my cable channels. My provider encourages you to use your own devices to receive the channels they offer so for us it’s the fire stick for cable and streaming. This should not be the problem with the bar not connecting and/or going into mute mode because of you turning your tv on. Since the description of this sound bar uses the seamless hookup as one of the advantages of purchasing this product, the manufacturer should design it to come on and work, regardless of what sequence your remote turns all the devices on. Amazon replaced the first unit (had it about two weeks, one using it, one trying to figure out what was wrong). Sony was good at troubleshooting but was no help at replacing the unit, even with me supplying the invoice, etc. After the troubleshooting, and me providing the invoice by email, I never heard from Sony again, so any compliment I give for customer service is to Amazon, which had me a new one ASAP. I might note that this didn’t start happening until this week. We have had the replacement only about two weeks now, so this occurrence may possibly be another defective unit. I bought a protection plan because of the reviews about this product. I maybe should have just bought another product than this one. Independent analysis of sound bars at the time I purchased the first one had this one as #1. I will update later if I continue to have to reboot everything to get it to work. I forgot to mention I am using the HDMI-ARC hookup which is the one suggested. Update: I think I found the answer on Sony’s website. Using an option on the remote - ie:voice - turns the HDMI-ARC option off. Since that is my connection method unconsciously I have been muting for restarting my connection, when trying to set the bar for better voice, less background. This bar does have good sound, very decent wattage and a reasonable price. I will stick with - now - 5 stars.

This sound bar is a solid choice that does not break the bank. The sound quality is overall good. Not super hi-def and immersive, but not cheap and flabby either. It sounds just right for the price. The frequencies are tight, and it has decent enough bass that surpasses my TV's built in speakers. I also appreciate how the soundbar turns on and off with my TV's remote using HDMI ARC, which is the main reason I bought it as my TV did not take my older aux cable speakers well. I feel like this soundbar sits at the intersection of price and quality quite well.