A few years ago (in 2016) for my living room I purchased a Micromax 42″ TV at a cost of Rs.35,990 (USD 500) and my mom is quite happy with it for her viewing needs. The one downside with the TV was the low sound and the poor audio quality – this is a widespread problem with most LCD TVs as there is no space to put a good speaker in such a thin frame.

Disclosure: I write reviews about products that I have bought for my usage or my friends and paid in full. There were no sponsorship or advertisement, or commission of any sort involved in this post.

Unlike in my Home theatre where I went for a Sony 5.1 Channel System, here I wanted a simple soundbar speaker to complement the TV and one that cost less than Rs.10,000. I didn’t want the speaker to have a remote control or a sub-woofer – nothing to clutter the space further or complicate the usage for my mom. This ruled out Bose Solo 5 Soundbar at Rs.22,000 and the likes. I was impressed with JBL Bar 2.0 Wireless Soundbar – at Rs.6,999 with Amazon India it was not expensive, unfortunately, it didn’t have RCA Line-In ports and it had a remote control.

Disclosure: I write reviews about products that I have bought for my usage and paid in full. There were no sponsorship or advertisement, or commission of any sort involved in this post. 

Finally, I went with Xiaomi’s Mi Soundbar 8 Speaker Drivers. At a price of Rs.4,999 (USD 72) it fitted my requirements. Just now I had installed, and so far, I like it. The white colour is a poor choice as it is a fingerprint magnet.

Mi Soundbar 8 has a good selection of ports apart from Bluetooth Wireless - Optical Audio, SPDIF, Audio Line-in (RCA) and Aux-In (3,5mm)

Mi Soundbar 8 has a broad selection of ports apart from Bluetooth Wireless – Optical Audio, SPDIF, Audio Line-in (RCA) and Aux-In (3.5mm)

I bypassed the TV (after switching off the speakers in the menu settings in the TV) and connected the speakers to my DTH set-top box using Line-In (RCA) cables. This way my mom must use only one remote to adjust the volume (which will be the DTH). The RCA cables don’t ship in the box with the speaker, only a SPDIF cable comes. I couldn’t connect using the superior port (Optical Audio) has the Micromax or the set-top box didn’t have that port. You can choose the Audio input through the simple buttons on the top along with volume control

You can choose the Audio input through the simple buttons on the top along with volume control

Mi Soundbar 8 Speaker comes with provision to hang them on any nails on the wall

Mi Soundbar 8 Speaker can be hung on the wall. I decided to just place it on top of my TV (as seen on the top of this page) and it sat there firmly.

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