Cluttered wires and soundbars marring your sleek new TV viewing experience?
Strategically concealing your soundbar can create a streamlined, integrated media room aesthetic without sacrificing booming audio quality.
Let’s explore creative techniques for discretely tucking away soundbars while retaining phenomenal theater-like sound.
How Do I Hide a Soundbar?
The best way to hide a soundbar is by mounting it behind your wall-mounted TV or building a custom enclosure inside a media console to seamlessly integrate it.
This conceals the soundbar from view for a streamlined look while allowing sound to freely radiate outward.
We’ll explore various creative hiding tactics in more detail below.
Determine Why You Want to Hide the Soundbar
There are several reasons why you may want to hide or conceal your soundbar.
The most common reason is for aesthetics – you may feel the soundbar is an eyesore that clashes with your room décor and design.
Visible cables and wires trailing from the soundbar can also make your entertainment setup look messy and cluttered.
Hiding the soundbar helps minimize visual distractions so the focal point is your gorgeous new flat screen television.
You want that expensive TV to shine without anything competing for attention.
Another reason to hide a soundbar is simply to reduce visible clutter in your space.
The clean, minimalist look is popular in home trends right now.
Eliminating or concealing devices like soundbars helps create that streamlined appearance.
There are creative ways to tuck the soundbar out of sight that do not require completely getting rid of it.
Before hiding your soundbar, consider whether doing so will impact its functionality or audio performance.
Soundbars are designed and calibrated to project sound in specific directions.
Placing a soundbar inside an enclosed space or obstructing the speakers can muffle audio quality.
Proper ventilation is also key to prevent overheating.
As long as the install location allows adequate airflow and does not block sound waves, hiding a soundbar can work beautifully without sacrifices.
Soundbar Hiding Options
When determining the optimal method for concealing your soundbar, there are several clever localization tactics to evaluate.
Carefully considering your room layout, furniture dimensions, wall positioning and spatial constraints will guide intelligent placement.
The most seamless audio integration balances discretely tucking away the soundbar itself while allowing dynamic sound to freely fill the space.
We will explore techniques for hiding soundbars inside cabinetry, behind wall mounts, within custom built-ins or under furniture.
With creative positioning and room treatment, soundbars can “disappear” from view while their cinematic sound remains vibrant.
Place Inside TV Stand or Entertainment Center
One effective way to hide a soundbar is by placing it inside your TV stand or entertainment center.
Measure the internal dimensions of your furniture to ensure the soundbar can fit comfortably.
Look for an open compartment, shelf, or media cabinet with enough depth and clearance to house the soundbar.
The opening should be wider than your soundbar so sound can radiate outward.
Before installing your soundbar inside furniture, double check ventilation.
There needs to be enough open air space so heat from the electronic components can dissipate.
Ventilation prevents moisture and humidity build up which can damage devices over time.
If enclosing the soundbar in a glass cabinet, make sure doors can open to improve airflow.
Get creative with cable management to reduce visible wires and cords trailing out of the TV stand.
Use wire routing kits and cable raceways to run cables neatly against the back panel and out of sight.
Conceal power cords and use streamlined cable wraps behind the TV stand to minimize tripping hazards.
Using wireless speakers or streaming devices can also eliminate unsightly cables.
Mount on Wall Behind TV
Wall mounting your soundbar out of direct eyesight is an clever option to hide it in plain sight.
Mount the bracket securely to studs, concrete, or drywall anchors strong enough to support the weight.
Make sure the mount orientates the soundbar upright or angled facing toward the listening area.
When mounted behind a wall-mounted television, the soundbar is completely obscured from view but still easily accessible.
This creates a clean, streamlined appearance focusing attention on the picture quality of the gorgeous TV display.
For optimal audio, the soundbar should be mounted just below or above the center of the screen.
Since the soundbar will be mounted out of sight, cable management is less of an issue visually.
However, neatly organizing wires and cords can make accessing ports and connections easier for future service needs.
Recessed cable channels, wire hides, and removable raceways enable you to route cables against the flat mounting surface to keep them tidy.
Build Enclosure Around Soundbar
For a truly seamless integrated appearance, construct an enclosure around the soundbar designed to blend into your room’s décor.
One approach is building an insert like a box or alcove into the wall to embed the soundbar flush.
Frame it with finishing trims to conceal the edges.
Install grilles or perforated metal over the speaker opening to protect drivers while allowing sound through.
Another creative tactic is designing a custom built-in media console with a compartment precisely fitting your make and model soundbar.
Construct the enclosure from wood, MDF, or other finishing materials matching your room’s aesthetic.
The soundbar compartment can feature vents and ports for wire management similar to the back of an entertainment center.
Top surfaces can accommodate media players, plants, decor, or anything complementing your room.
No matter the design, proper ventilation should be incorporated into any soundbar enclosure.
Carefully measure and cut ventilation ports or permeable speaker grilles allowing airflow.
The enclosure should not cram electronics tightly without room to breathe.
Access ports can allow adjusting controls without completely removing the soundbar.
Integrating the soundbar into custom built-ins or architectural elements conceals it beautifully while allowing intended operation.
Place Under Furniture
In some home theater configurations, there may be enough space to discreetly place the soundbar under furniture like a media console table or couch.
Measure under the furniture frame to ensure adequate height clearance for the soundbar.
Also confirm the furniture is elevated high enough off the floor with open sides or legs to allow sound projection.
The benefit of locating a soundbar under furniture is it becomes essentially invisible.
Guests and visitors may not even realize additional audio components are present making TV and movie watching more immersive.
This strategy also gets the soundbar off the floor away from potential damage by vacuum cleaners or pets.
However, prolonged vibrations from a powerful soundbar could transfer through furniture over time.
Make sure to place the soundbar on a soft, anti-vibration mat especially if under leather or microfiber upholstery.
Also try to avoid direct contact with any furniture struts or supports that could reverberate sound.
Experiment with exact positioning to minimize buzzing furniture while preserving audio quality.
Test Audio Quality After Hiding
Once your soundbar is installed neatly out of sight, the final step is testing audio performance.
Power on your TV and cue up a movie scene or concert video with dynamic high, mid and low range frequencies.
Listen critically to the balance, clarity and distortion at varying volumes.
Since the soundbar speakers are now likely obstructed, the calibrated acoustics may need adjustment.
If the volume seems low or muffled, determine if speaker grilles or furniture panels are inhibiting sound waves.
You may need to angle the soundbar differently or widen ventilation gaps.
Running room correction calibration on the soundbar can digitally compensate for acoustic changes.
Also try adjusting relevant settings like virtual surround effects.
In some instances after hiding a soundbar, annoying buzzing or vibration may occur due to contact with wall studs or furniture.
Apply adhesive foam pads or anti-vibration mounts to isolate and dampen resonance issues.
Moving the soundbar just an inch or two can prevent harmonic frequencies amplifying destructive interference.
For ultimate convenience, consider adding wireless streaming adapters or a wireless subwoofer.
Streaming over Bluetooth to the soundbar avoids messy wire concealment.
Separating the subwoofer to a distant corner or under a sofa hides bass and eliminates potential buzzing entirely from the hidden soundbar.
A wireless sub paired with a cleanly mounted invisible soundbar creates theater-quality audio free of visible clutter and cables.
Conclusion
Hiding soundbars while retaining pristine cinematic audio is achievable through clever positioning and acoustic treatment.
Evaluate optimal speaker locations hidden inside furniture, behind wall mounts or subtly integrated into custom built-ins.
Proper ventilation, vibration dampening and room calibration adjustments can fine tune performance to sound just as immersive as a visible sound system.
Concealing audio components helps reduce clutter for a clean aesthetic without sacrificing an ounce of booming sound quality for your ultimate home theater experience.