Gadgetory

hey I'm Matthew miskovic from cnet.com and we're taking a look at the Atlantic technology PB 235 power bar this is an innovative sound bar that claims it can deliver true deep bass without a separate subwoofer and it's currently selling for a little over seven hundred dollars the first thing you'll notice is that it is huge this is nothing like the slim plasticky sound bars you'll see lining the shells at Best Buy and that size is more than just an aesthetic problem as its 6.5 inch height will likely obscure part of your screen if you try and just place it in front of your TV so you're either going to need a riser to lift up your TV or you'll have to wall mount either your TV or sound bar now that's a bit more work than the typical sound bar requires especially because wall mounting is no easy task with the bars 26 pound weight the design is mostly symmetrical except for an awkward bump in the middle on the front that bowl tells us some of the front panel controls and a display which is nicely you can see how loud the system is playing on the back are the inputs and it's a generous selection including two optical inputs one coaxial and an analog input that's nice but you won't need to take advantage of all those ports on the back if you end up using your TV as the switcher the included remote is a bit of a disappointment for a system this expensive it's just a chintzy credit card style remote with mushy buttons and it feels cheap at least the buttons are laid out well but you'll want to plan on replacing it with a solid universal remote like a Logitech Harmony the real draw of this system is its sound quality specifically its ability to make true deep bass without a separate sub woofer I was pretty skeptical of the marketing claims but we had resident audiophile Steve Guttenberg give it a listen and he was seriously impressed with the amount and quality of the basic produces even head-to-head with our reference Harman Kardon SB 16 sound bar which has a huge wireless subwoofer the PB 235 actually sounded better with plenty of low-end for home theater now it's still a sound bar so it's not going to sound better than a pair of tower speakers with an AV receiver especially with music but it does deliver best-in-class sound quality for sound bar which is incredible for a system without a subwoofer the real question is whether the PB 235 is worth its high price and impractical design personally I don't find a subwoofer to be that imposing on a living room so the PB 235 seems like a lot of work to avoid a problem that might not bother you that much but if you want the no subwoofer sound bar experience the PB 235 is offering and you're willing to pay for it it's an outstanding performer with some truly innovative speaker technology I'm Matthew miskovic and this is the Atlantic technology PB 235 sound bar