Taotronics Bluetooth Sound Bar (TT-SK15) Review

Taotronics Bluetooth Sound Bar (TT-SK15) Review

Buy it at Amazon: Taotronics Bluetooth Sound Bar (TT-SK15) [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Okay sound for a budget unit, loud enough for a small room, lacks bass but sound is clear.

The soundbar comes with a 5' power cable, 45" RCA audio cable, remote control, and an instruction manual. The speaker measures 34" across, 3" wide, and 2.5" high. The front is wrapped in a simple mesh cloth. On the back there are two centrally located hanging holes for wall mounting and cutouts with the input ports and power input. On the right side of the speaker is an AUX input port, but it doesn't come with a cable for this connection. The on-board touch controls are along this gray strip in the middle. On top you have the power button, then volume control and then input selection. The LED indicators are for standby, Bluetooth, Aux in or RCA, and Coaxial or Optical. The only setup up required is to plug in the power cable. Then if you'll be using the RCA input, plug that cable in the white and red ports respectively. The black coaxial port is for digital coaxial connections (cable not included). If you'll be using an optical cable (not included), make sure to remove the tip protector first, then align it with the optical port before plugging it in.

The remote control is pretty basic. It's got the power button, a button for each input mode, track navigation, volume control, play/pause, and mute. The remote requires 1 AAA battery which is not included. To connect to the speaker over Bluetooth, touch the Power button to turn it on. You'll see all the LED indicators light up and then shut off one by one. Then press the 'Input' key until you've selected BT mode and you'll see the LED indicator blink blue. Select ‘Taotronics Soundbar' in your device's Bluetooth menu to pair with the sound bar. A couple of folks said that the LED indicators are confusing, but I guess I never really thought about how it's weird to have one LED do double duty by changing colors. Also the Standby/On button just means the unit has the power plugged in, but it's actually 'Off' and won't be outputting any sound.

So far I've used the optical input with my TV, which was confusing at first because the light was green but in coax mode, so pressing the input key again changed the light to red which was optical mode. I was also able to try AUX-in mode while plugged into the headphone jack of my phone; just remember this light should be green as red is used for RCA. I wasn't able to test RCA with my TV because it lacks this type of output. Make sure you are NOT trying to connect the red/white RCA cables to any of the input RCA ports on your TV because, of course, there would be no sound transmitted out of any input ports. I also did not try out the digital coax since I don't have this output on any device either.

However, with the inputs that I did try, they worked fine including Bluetooth and the sound from the speaker is clear and crisp. It tends to lean on the bright side adding extra sibilance to the trebles, and it doesn't have a lot of sub bass response. You'll get a little mid and high bass, enough to elicit tight drum beats, but not enough for a feel-it-in-your-bones kind of rumble. The soundbar does get pretty loud for its size, but the sound tends to crackle at max volume and vibrate the housing a lot. You may also hear an electronic whisper during quiet passages, so it works much better at moderate volumes.

When using the optical output with the soundbar hookup to my TV, there was a very minor delay between what was happening onscreen and the sound coming from the soundbar. With the TV speaker on, you could tell they weren't in sync (slight echo), but with the TV sound off, the delay was almost imperceptible. Overall, the soundbar has decent quality for a budget unit and definitely projects and has better sound than the one built into the TV. It can't compete with higher end soundbars of course, but works well in a small room.

Buy it at Amazon: Taotronics Bluetooth Sound Bar (TT-SK15) [Affiliate Link]

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