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- First reviewJanuary 4, 2016
- Last reviewJanuary 4, 2016
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my2cents's Reviews
Enhance your home entertainment with this Bowers and Wilkins Panorama 2 PANO2 soundbar system, which features a 50W subwoofer and a 1" metal-dome tweeter to deliver a wide range of frequencies. The included wall bracket enables easy mounting.
Customer Rating
4
Great sound
on January 4, 2016
Posted by: my2cents
Bought this as open box and got a great deal. I would not have bought this bar otherwise. Was willing to spend $1,000.
This replaced a JBL SB400 that sounds pretty darn good. Picked it up on a Black Friday Deal for $350. At the time didn't want to spend over $500.
After listening to the JBL for a week, seemed to me the midtones and dialogue were a bit flat and muted. (Compared to everything else in that price range, the JBL won hands down.)
Went to Best Buy day after Christmas wanting to listen to the next level of soundbars. Noticed two open boxes, a Martin Logan Vision and the Panorama 2. Had the helpful Best Buy guy play some action scenes to compare the two. They were both pretty close. the thing that sold me was panorama 2 had 3 HDMI inputs, and the Vision had no HDMI inputs. (BTW, the Sonos soundbar by itself sounds terrible. If you add the sub woffer and two extra speakers, it sounds great. Didn't want to spend $2,000.)
I conected the panorama 2 to a Samsung 7100 (60 inch) via the ARC. I have a Verizon Fios cable box and a Sony Blue Ray player connected to the TV HDMI inputs with the TV ARC output connected to the panorama 2 ARC input. (Some people have complained about the ARC not working properly. You must use HDMI cables ver 1.4. Ver 1.3 cables do not support the ARC function.) Bar turns on and off with TV. Can also adjust soundbar volume with TV remote. Put a DVD in the Sony and TV changes the inputs automatically passing the sound through the ARC to the soundbar. No hassles.
Wanted to to test the soundbars set up features to compare to the ARC setup. The only way to make any adjustments on the sounbar is to pass a signal through one of the inputs. I connected the cable box and Sony blue ray player to HDMI inputs on the soundbar and connected the soundbar to the TV through the ARC. With the set up menu you can adjust treble and bass, distance from speaker, type of walls on side of speaker, listening offset from center. Tested with a scene from "Saving Private Ryan" Went back and forth between passing signals from TV to soundbar and passing signals from soundbar to TV. I actually liked the way it sounded passing signal from TV to the soundbar. I think my TV has a better Dolby DTS decoder. (Not Sure?) I then tested against the JBL SB400 (just for fun). Much more detail is picked up with the Panorama 2. The dedicated center channel really helps. No its not surround sound, but it is a wide sound stage with depth. This system has pretty good bass. I might go out and buy a cheap sub woffer just to see if it makes a huge difference. By the way my listening area is aprox 12 feet x 18 feet and its plenty loud for me.
Also tested scenes from "Batman" and "Ironman". The Panorama 2 sounded the best each time. Also tested with several cable channels, sounds natural.
(Recommended to also check settings on how your cable box and DVD player output sound. Some people complained of dropouts. I did not experience any during my testing).
Only four stars due to the remote being awkward, however with my setup I do not need it. There is no bluetooth to stream music from a phone or tablet. (Haven't put too much effort into it, but I'm sure I can get something to play from my router to the Sony or cable box through the ARC to the soundbar). Not worth paying full price. I wouldn't pay over $1,000 for a soundbar. If I were to get a full blown 5.1 surround I wouldn't spend over $1,800.
This replaced a JBL SB400 that sounds pretty darn good. Picked it up on a Black Friday Deal for $350. At the time didn't want to spend over $500.
After listening to the JBL for a week, seemed to me the midtones and dialogue were a bit flat and muted. (Compared to everything else in that price range, the JBL won hands down.)
Went to Best Buy day after Christmas wanting to listen to the next level of soundbars. Noticed two open boxes, a Martin Logan Vision and the Panorama 2. Had the helpful Best Buy guy play some action scenes to compare the two. They were both pretty close. the thing that sold me was panorama 2 had 3 HDMI inputs, and the Vision had no HDMI inputs. (BTW, the Sonos soundbar by itself sounds terrible. If you add the sub woffer and two extra speakers, it sounds great. Didn't want to spend $2,000.)
I conected the panorama 2 to a Samsung 7100 (60 inch) via the ARC. I have a Verizon Fios cable box and a Sony Blue Ray player connected to the TV HDMI inputs with the TV ARC output connected to the panorama 2 ARC input. (Some people have complained about the ARC not working properly. You must use HDMI cables ver 1.4. Ver 1.3 cables do not support the ARC function.) Bar turns on and off with TV. Can also adjust soundbar volume with TV remote. Put a DVD in the Sony and TV changes the inputs automatically passing the sound through the ARC to the soundbar. No hassles.
Wanted to to test the soundbars set up features to compare to the ARC setup. The only way to make any adjustments on the sounbar is to pass a signal through one of the inputs. I connected the cable box and Sony blue ray player to HDMI inputs on the soundbar and connected the soundbar to the TV through the ARC. With the set up menu you can adjust treble and bass, distance from speaker, type of walls on side of speaker, listening offset from center. Tested with a scene from "Saving Private Ryan" Went back and forth between passing signals from TV to soundbar and passing signals from soundbar to TV. I actually liked the way it sounded passing signal from TV to the soundbar. I think my TV has a better Dolby DTS decoder. (Not Sure?) I then tested against the JBL SB400 (just for fun). Much more detail is picked up with the Panorama 2. The dedicated center channel really helps. No its not surround sound, but it is a wide sound stage with depth. This system has pretty good bass. I might go out and buy a cheap sub woffer just to see if it makes a huge difference. By the way my listening area is aprox 12 feet x 18 feet and its plenty loud for me.
Also tested scenes from "Batman" and "Ironman". The Panorama 2 sounded the best each time. Also tested with several cable channels, sounds natural.
(Recommended to also check settings on how your cable box and DVD player output sound. Some people complained of dropouts. I did not experience any during my testing).
Only four stars due to the remote being awkward, however with my setup I do not need it. There is no bluetooth to stream music from a phone or tablet. (Haven't put too much effort into it, but I'm sure I can get something to play from my router to the Sony or cable box through the ARC to the soundbar). Not worth paying full price. I wouldn't pay over $1,000 for a soundbar. If I were to get a full blown 5.1 surround I wouldn't spend over $1,800.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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