SonicGear has been well known for its affordable and good sounding speakers, the brand has expanded its Reference Series lineup with the StudioBar 500HD Maverick, and unlike the StudioPods and StudioBox that’s priced more expensive, this soundbar is surprisingly affordable with a RM329 price tag and it offers the brand’s reference sound, albeit it doesn’t come with a subwoofer, does this soundbar truly offer ‘reference sound’ to our ears?
The StudioBar 500HD Maverick has a pretty simple design with a glossy top and a plastic grille on the front, there’s no LED display to show you the status of the speaker and you are only provided a multi-color LED on the right to indicate the source you are on.
The power, volume and source buttons are located on the right side.
Behind the soundbar, you will find two wall mounts, the inputs reside in a gap that can keep your cables in place, you get one HDMI ARC, optical, AUX In and USB port, which makes it a versatile soundbar that can be used for your PC or TV.
The sound system of the StudioBar 500HD consist of four 3-inch woofers and two 1-inch tweeters, they deliver a 2.0-channel sound with a total output of 50W RMS.
With this setup, the soundbar can produce very clear instruments and vocals, bass is present but can sound weak on some songs I listened to.
Despite that, the lack of a subwoofer means you won’t get the needed oomph in movies, and there isn’t much you can tune the sound to your liking, even though the remote control comes with three sound presets and allows you to adjust the bass and treble levels.
As someone who has come across SonicGear’s Reference series speakers, I am not entirely impressed with what the StudioBar 500HD offers, I would be more forgivable if it hadn’t considered this as its ‘reference’ speakers because it is far from being one, though to be fair, it is a really good sounding soundbar just for music that mainly plays vocals and instruments, and it does better than some expensive soundbars I have heard.
Nonetheless, the StudioBar 500HD definitely sounds better than most TV speakers and if you are someone who doesn’t need the deep rumbling bass in your home entertainment setup, this is a no brainer.
The SonicGear StudioBar 500HD can be purchased at Lazada and Shopee.