Soundbars increasingly provide a cinema atmosphere at home

Regardless of whether they are placed under or in front of the television, soundbars currently provide an increasingly better sound experience and therefore a cinema atmosphere in the living room. Thereby soundbars promise surround sound without having to install many visible loudspeakers or cables. In Germany, the demand for the popular alternative to a traditional home theatre solution remained unrestrained. From January to August 2015 around 371 thousand soundbars were sold which represents an increase of 22 percent compared to the previous year period. With a plus of 15 percent in turnover, also the value-based development was significantly above the result of the same period last year.

In particular, soundbar systems with an external subwoofer still enjoyed great popularity and were responsible for more than half of the sales in the soundbar segment in the first eight months of the year. But also soundbases were increasingly in consumer’s demand in 2015. They represented around a quarter of all soundbar sales. In addition, a Bluetooth connection is instrumental in the purchase decision, as it is in the entire audio segment. If your own music collection is stored in MP3 format on a smartphone or tablet or if you’re using one of the increasingly popular online music streaming services, it is important that the transmission to the sound system should be carried out as quickly and simply as possible. In August 2015, 74 percent of all soundbars sold had a Bluetooth function. Meanwhile only a smaller part of sold soundbars is equipped with Near Field Communication technology.

Due to the success of soundbars and soundbases, the demand for typical home theater systems with integrated DVD or Blu-ray players in Germany shrunk by approximately 20 percent in 2015. Nevertheless, the prospect of the Ultra HD successor to Blu-ray discs gives reason to hope. Potentially it might be introduced by the holiday shopping season creating demand for new playback devices.