Energy Power Bar, yes you heard it right, Energy has released its first sound bar. Known for providing affordable audio solutions, it’s about time Energy made the most of the booming soundbar market. The Energy Power Bar with its Proprietary Convergent Source Module technology and two way speaker driver designs are just one of the few features that look very promising.
Design
The design of the Energy Power Bar is glaring evidence that Energy is still new to the game. Soundbars are getting slimmer by the day but with dimensions of 4.4 inch tall x 30 inch wide and 4.1 inch thick, the Energy Power Bar is really one huge cylinder. Yes, it’s got a cylindrical design, so you have to use the rubber feet that comes with the soundbar so that it does not roll off your table. Otherwise you can also choose to mount it on the wall with the two built-in keyhole mounts. Again, Energy’s infancy in the soundbar industry shows with the omission of a display on the front. There is one LED on the front to notify the user whenever it obtains a signal from the remote control. In the center of the sound bar are all the buttons that you need to use to program it to work with your TV remote since no remote is provided with the Energy Power Bar. The subwoofer is also nothing smaller as it measures in at 11.5 inch tall x 9.5 inch wide x 14 inches thick. Nothing much to say in terms of design apart from it being box shaped much like almost all other subwoofers. Its wireless, so you can hide it away behind your couch.
Features
It is sad to note that the Energy Power Bar doesn’t come with many connectivity options. The TV is going to play a big part for switching between devices. On the back of the soundbar there is only one optical audio input and one stereo analog input. So in order to work around this issue, all the devices should be connected to the TV and then the audio output of the TV can be connected to the Energy Power Bar. This works out ok for this soundbar in particular since it relies on the TV remote control anyway. It is important to note that this soundbar doesn’t do any Dolby or DTS soundtracks decoding. Therefore it is vital not to send any bit stream audio to it.
The Energy Power Bar is a two way soundbar and it is home to two domed tweeters and two 3 inch drivers which translate into clear and distortion free sound reproductions. These drivers are aligned in Energy’s very own Convergent Source Module (CSM). What this module does is that it places the tweeters and mid-woofers close to each other making them act as a single source that produces coherent and seamless dispersion. The 8 inch subwoofer also comes with a down-firing fiber composite cone and ported enclosure that guarantees precise, room filling bass performance.
Setting up the Energy Power Bar
Setting up the Energy Power Bar isn’t as easy as other soundbars as you need to do some programming to the sound bar so it can accept instructions from your TV remote. This is because there is no remote control that comes out of the box with this audio bar. However programming the Energy Power Bar is not rocket science, as all you have to do is just press and hold the source and mute buttons until the status light flashes. This is the cue for you to press the button that you want to program on your TV remote, like volume down. Also, don’t forget to turn of the TV’s internal speakers once you have done programming all the buttons. So with your TV remote programmed, that means you only need one remote to do it all. Well that’s what you think, but the end product isn’t as rosy that way.
So when you try to increase or decrease the volume using the TV remote with the TV’s internal speakers off, an error message is bound to pop up on most TVs since the internal speakers are off. This doesn’t mean you cannot increase or decrease the volume of the Energy Power Bar, it just means you will have to get used to the error message every time you intend to adjust the volume.
Sound Quality
There aren’t that many features onboard the Energy Power Bar, so it seems like the guys at Energy has decided to go with the minimalist approach like the Haier SBEV 40-SLIM for instance. From the testing that was done the 8 inch subwoofer wasn’t giving us any amazing bass and the soundbar could definitely have been a lot better. Its sound balance is quite simple and that is quite pleasing but not enough for those who are looking for an audio upgrade from a soundbar as you can get that sound balance from a TV. Watching movies with the Energy Power Bar connected resulted in us loosing much of the effects of the background music. When watching a concert for instance, the soundbar’s stereo was cramped especially when compared with the likes of Yamaha’s YAS-101. The performance of the Energy Power Bar improved when playing music. Both the subwoofer and sound bar just synced well and it was literally music to our ears.
Pros and Cons
The Energy Power Bar is great when it comes to music. The wireless subwoofer was also compact and easy to hide away somewhere out of plain sight. The keyhole slots on the back really helps make the wall mounting process a lot easier.
This soundbar is a major downer in terms of sound quality when it comes to movies. Programming the sound bar isn’t a mean feat but it can turn out to be a problem with some TVs.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the Energy Power Bar does a great job with music, but it is evident that Energy has a lot to do in order to come up with a sound bar that will be able to stand tall in the long list of sound bars out there.
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