Philips Fidelio B5 HTL9100/79

Works fine until it doesn't – My philips HTL9100 soundbar stopped working out of nowhere. It was unplugged for a few hours then when switched back on all eight white lights at the front stay on, but not the power light. After switching off and on and trying everything the manual suggests (couldn't do anything because remote buttons don't do anything - even after I replaced… Read more

them), nothing changed. The lights are still on 12 hours later.

The detachable speakers flahsed red and now have no light flashing at all, suggesting that they're dead and no longer capable of charging. Although given they both died at the same time it seems more likely that the main unit is the faulty part.

This seems all too familiar with many other reviews in here. First and last Philips product I ever purchase, planned obsolescence after four years for something at this price is a bit rich. Avoid.

Found it in hard rubbish – Someone had kicked it to the curb. Remote was missing, and with no buttons on the unit(who thought that was a good idea) there was no way to use it... I discovered you can use the NFC feature with an android device and that puts it into Bluetooth mode which you can then connect any blue tooth device to. I ended up ordering a remote online for… Read more

$30...

One of the removable tweeter speakers was also not holding charge, $20 online for a replacement battery.

All in all, sounds great, sub is powerful, wireless sub+surround sound tweeters is a pretty awesome...

$50 worth of replacement bits... definitely worth it.

For all these people complaining about dying batteries, remotes etc.... You can order new ones online pretty cheaply, but I get it, if you spent $1000 on this unit back in the day you'd be annoyed.

Philips is a big company that cares – Hi all here with your soundbar you purchased, My story: First all the same thing diagnosed, faulty speaker, main bar, calibration. Out of warranty now and being a high priced item I took it to Philips, same as I did with another product different brand that was handled nicely and replaced. You just need to be patient and accept you got a faulty… Read more

product, instant gratification can go so far. Forget about the ACCC, persevere nicely with the manufacturer and you will eventually come to an agreement. I did and got a full credit back to buy whatever at the retailer. (Yes it took 3 months and 2 repairs but never worked as it should.) You get that sometimes I still give 5 star for the product while it was working, brilliant.....Take care

Worked fine then breaks – When I first bought this sound bar I was really happy with it however it hasn’t lasted well. The buttons on the remote control started to peel, and when I contacted customer service I was told tough luck, pay $100 for a new one. Even though the remote is essential to the operation of the soundbar it is not covered by the warranty. Clearly Philips… Read more

do not back their own products to last a reasonable period of time. I would expect a $1000 soundbar (and remote) should last more than four years. Recently one of the speakers has started flashing orange and does not play sound when disconnected from the main unit. I reached out to customer service, describing the fault and explaining I had followed the troubleshooting to try and reconnect the speak but that I suspected it may be a battery issue. Anyway when they got back to me all I was told was to follow the steps to reconnect the speaker... there is nothing more infuriating than customer service staff that do No read what you have written. This is an OK product if you don’t want it to last more than four years, but Philips appalling customer service doesn’t make it a worth while purchase, and I would seriously consider avoiding any Philips products in future if this is the level of service.

Here we go again. AVOID PHILIPS in general! This has been a terrible soundbar – I wrote a review two years ago and now two years on, this soundbar has died again with the analysis being the same problem with the motherboard. This time, the unit was left with the recommended repairer for about 6 weeks with no resolution until it was revealed that the company that owned(?), distributed(?) anyway IN CHARGE of Philips has gone… Read more

into receivership and whilst another company has taken up the distribution rights for Asia Pacific, it seems there is nothing they can do to help me with a speaker that is only 4 years old. That's about $200+ per year I've spent to use it. I can no longer get parts for it and there is no goodwill being shown by Philips (or their reps) for a product that is clearly terrible. (see other reviews)

I'm not one to use aggressive language but I wouldn't be writing an honest review if I didn't reflect how crap this soundbar has been. The sound quality itself when it was working was ok. Not super, not terrible but not worth how much it was retailing for.

No one is probably reading this because hopefully they've pulled this terrible model from the shelves. It's no wonder they've gone into receivership if this product is at all representative of their other products.

Battery died in less than a year – Love the sound quality and the slim design. However the battery of the right speaker died very soon, and won’t recharge anymore, it could be powered on, but within 5 seconds, it will shut itself. We have quite a few Philips products in the house, this is the first one that failed our trust in the brand.  Show details

Avoid like the plague to save unnecessary costs down the line! – When we first got it, it was great. But then the warranty ran out and honestly THE VERY NEXT DAY the batteries in the speakers died. Attempted to get replacement batteries, but Philips no longer makes them. Was told to take it to a service centre, but there isn’t one in New Zealand. Philips support literally told me that it is now a glorified paperweight.  Show details

Main unit not working after 2 years of use – We had a good initial experience with this soundbar. Was a bit expensive but overall liked the sound and nifty rear speakers. However within 2 years into it's use the main unit totally failed with no sound coming from the centre unit. We brought it into a Philips registered service centre who diagnosed the problem as "no sound from main… Read more

speaker" and that the main unit has to be completely changed which would cost $450 which is more than half the cost of the soundbar itself!

We contacted the customer service hotline (Australia) that asked us to try resetting the unit. This did not work. They were also not helpful and told us to bring it in to the registered service centre for repair as they are not able to see that there is anything wrong with the HTL9100 model (according to their technical team). Based on this forum we can see that multiple users internationally have had a similar issue with this very same model of soundbar about 2 years into its use. So this seems to be a design or quality escape that shouldnt be happening with a brand like Phillips.

We've generally been avid users of Philips electronics but this particular one has fallen short of expectations and we now have a unit that we are totally unable to use. The customer service sadly has also not resolved our issue for what seems like a common problem with this particular unit. We hope Phillips can do something about this as we now have a completely useless unit and are not going to fork out more than half its value to fix it.

Great sound. Nice design. Bad quality electronics – Same issue as some other users. After a year or 2 the main unit doesn't give anymore sound. Only the tweeters of the wireless speakers. I also have to pay at least the halve of the price for repair. I'm from the Netherlands. But i saw that some others have the same problem over here. Bad product of Philips. For that much money.  Show details

one of the detachable speakers wont work anymore – the left speaker wont work at anytime the little red light is on so its obviously getting power but wont play music. is there something i can do to fix or somewhere to take it or get a new speaker whats the best option. i love the sound and quailty but this is a shame as its so expensive in the first place  Show details

Love it. Good sound quality – My only issue is that it cuts out on Bluetooth after it's been on for a while and then I have trouble re-connecting it. It only happens with Bluetooth. We can still play all our CD's etc through it as we have a media player connected to it and we play our movies through it also and pull the end speakers off for the surround sound. We are very… Read more ·  1

happy with the product. The quality of sound is really good and it has simple setting adjustments to make it work for your needs.

Handy speakers – We love the fact 3 of us can blue tooth too the speaker at once. The sound is very clean. It makes music very crisp. The surround sound is very handy to have just charge the 2 smaller speakers then place them around the room. We only use it on a small portion of its power normally it's got a kick.  Show details ·  1

Lucky I had extended warranty! – The main speakers keep cutting in and out constantly. I'm lucky that I have extended warranty on it considering it was $875 at the time of purchase...just hoping it will get repaired in a timely manner. It was a great unit whilst it was working, with great sound and the fact that the speakers can separate wirelessly is nice.  Show details

Clashes with the Foxtel remote – Love the sound bar, but Phillips aren't interested in fixing the issue of clash with the Foxtel remote. Otherwise I would have rated it a lot higher. I shouldn't have to point my Foxtel remote in another direction. Phillips answer- put Foxtel in another room. Great technical guru answer. That's it!!  Show details

Philips Fidelio Foxtel remote issues – We have a Philips Fidelio soundbar which was a great unit which we loved until the Foxtel remote started to effect the setting on the soundbar. The unit is now 19 months old and we just had the power supply replaced which Philips helped with but unfortunately it seems to made the Foxtel remote interference much, much worse making it all but… Read more

impossible to use when watching Cable TV . I see that I am not the only one who has suffered this Foxtel remote problem so If anyone knows of a fix then please let me know. I have rated it two stars only because of the early failure. If that was not the case it would get 4-5 stars

Peter

Great sound bar speakers under $1,000 – Great soundbar. The ability to split the side speakers and gain 4.1 audio is fantastic. No annoying cords. Looks good. I spent considerable time researching soundbars and it was between this or the Yamaha YSP-2500. This one won for its rear Bluetooth speakers and sale price (under $900 on sale).  Show details ·  1

Great product offering you a 4.1 system in a box – I spent quite some time looking for a sound bar, reading reviews and auditioning them in show rooms. This is what I ended up with. Overall I am very happy with it. Pros - - A complete 4.1 system at a reasonable price - Great for watching movies - Decent sound for music (but still not a replacement for a component hifi system) - So many… Read more ·  1

connection options, including the aptx bluetooth implmentation for best sound from your phone

- So easy to set up the rear speakers when you want the home cinema experience

- The HDMI ARC implementations means you don't need to touch the remote, you can just turn your TV on, this unit comes on allowing you to control the sound volume from the TV.

Cons

- No infrared remote pass-through. I have to hold the TV remote over my head for the line-of-sight signal to reach the IR sensor on the bottom of the TV

- While perfect for my needs, if you want to listen at very high volumes, you may find this unit runs out of steam

- The sub unit, again while fine for most homes, is ultimately limited in performance by its smaller size.

- Although the rear wireless / battery powered speakers have an on switch, these don't work. You need to plug these in to the main unit to get them turned back on

Third physical unit- same problem! Does not work! 2 years old! AVOID! – We purchased this in Mar 2014 and by June 2014, we had the unit replaced twice with the same problem as it was still under warranty. Basically the main speaker stopped working. Now two years on, we're having the same problem but it is no longer under warranty. Maybe there was a batch of speakers that were manufactured badly but I am extremely… Read more

disappointed with the quality as this was a top speaker retailing for close to $1000.

Definitely would not recommend it as now having read other reviews, this doesn't seem to be an isolated incident.

I've been in touch with Philips customer care and have been advised to take it to a service centre. After reading other reviews on here, I fear I'll be quoted $450 to repair it which is almost half of what I paid for it in the first place and after having all these problems I'd be very hesitant to get it repaired for it to happen again within a short time.

Wished I had purchased the JBL instead.

Unhappy with lifespan...Unhappy Customer – We have had the same problem with our Fidelio Sound Bar HTL9100 also, we change Station on Foxtel and it plays havoc with the soundbar remote. Let me say while it did work it had magnificent sound. We then have to continually mess around trying to get sound again. Now it seems to have given up the ghost altogether. After trying to contact… Read more

Philips and finally them answering, they couldn't have cared less. Our unit was not long out of warranty not even a year , and they didn't want to know about it.

We are so angry and annoyed we will never purchase another Philips product again.

As someone else said on this forum, they must give reasonable warranty service buy Consumer Law. But really can I be bother? When you have to wait so long to go through all the correct channels, back and forth, not sure. But then again I may try.

After spending nearly $1000 that's nothing to sneeze at I guess.

Also just getting some platitude of a email from Philips doesn't fix anything, especially if they send a bill of over $400 to fix the problem, when it shouldn't have cost anything.

There is obviously something wrong with these sound bars as there are quiet a few complaints about them, not just one, and it seems to be about the same probe time and time again.

So Philips, instead of just selling something that I'm sure you are aware by now has ongoing problems,you should be offering customers an extra 2 yrs extension on the warranty.

eg: I bought my Holden new it had a fault on its paint job and after 3 years out of warranty, Holden stood by their product and didn't charge me to repair the problem.

You should take a leaf out of another Huge Corporates books . All big corporates have P&L so just put it down to that.

Please fix these small problems for your customers....I'm sure it's not all that hard, and they will be so much happier with your Company.

Of course if you would like a copy of the invoice I'm more than happy to email a copy to you.

From one very unhappy customer.

Experience cinema in my doorstep – This Sound bar B5 make my room like TGV cinema.. Really awesome!! It's small but powerful. Experiencing new era of sound system without any problem with wayering, easy installment even in limited space. It is user friendly without need an expert to adjust the sound bar. The sound came out perfectly as we wish.  Show reply

Short lifespan -- less than 2 years – I previously reviewed this product, originally giving it 5 stars (first impressions were great), then downgrading to 4 stars (after using it for a few months .. some annoying "features" were making themselves apparent), and now I wanted to edit my original review but ProductReview doesn't allow it. So I'm writing a new, updated review giving it… Read more

only 1 star for "Terrible". Why is it terrible? Because today (13th December 2015) the central speaker stopped working and it sounds terrible. Because having spent about a thousand dollars for this premium soundbar, it has died less than 2 years after purchase (I bought it on 28th December 2013) .. and the warranty is only 1 year. This has been a huge disappointment.

Very happy – Just purchased the Fidelio Sound bar. Had it plugged in and connected in literally a few minutes. Our living situation had changed by choice and we downsized to a Townhouse. Have had my Denon 5.1 home theatre for 8 years and it no longer fitted into our lifestyle. Sold it for good $$$ and put towards the soundbar. Was going in to buy a JBL kit… Read more ·  2

and the salesman told me to check this out. Sounded no better of worse than the JBL on display but when we went surround sound in the store by detaching the speakers (wholly molly), It changed the whole deal. Not often something exceeds my expectation but this does. Its loud and clear enough for movies and music. The surround effect works brilliantly. I have connected via optical and HDMI through ARC and only need to use the tv remote. So bloody simple. As far as having to get up and pull off two speakers and place them behind me its no problem, If for some it is, im surprised they can be bothered going out to buy one. We watch our movies, reconnect the speakers and go to bed, simples.

So if you are tight on for room, this is a good option. Yeh yeh, Its not meant to take the place of a full home theatre but from someone who has had both. Im happy.

Had I known of it's flaws, would not have bought – This is a product that promises much and does deliver much but is not user friendly in the way it does it. I am in agreement with another reviewer, weng393, about the sound quality and has the advantage of a subwoofer. The surround sound with the speakers positioned behind you is clear but somewhat overpowering. Surround sound is supposed to bring… Read more

out sounds that would be 'off stage' so to speak, such as say, a horses hoof beats approaching or leaving or a car horn in the distance, or the rumble of thunder fading away. Good maybe for someone with hearing difficulties, might save the need for headphones. What in fact happens is your hear the speech and sounds that should be coming from only in front of you. It's also necessary to have the V.Surr button 'on' when the speakers are docked with the s/bar to get a richer sound from your TV, otherwise the sound is not that good.

The remote control is an odd design, elliptical in shape and somewhat like a small boat, sits in the hand (if it's large) comfortably but impossible to stand up in a holder. (it is 1cm wider than a Panasonic PVR remote and 1.2-1.3cm than my 55" LG TV's, with far less buttons) Without good room lighting, the writing on the buttons is very hard to see, especially the power button which is close to an input/source button.

The most annoying problem me and my wife find is getting the volume adjusted to a comfortable level. There seems to be no way to get a smooth transition of volume. There is a row of led's across the centre of the bar that light up in succession, or go out, as you hold the volume + or - on the remote and the volume goes in steps accordingly, either too little or too much. There is an Auto Volume on-off button and according to the instruction book, this when 'on', keeps the volume constant when changing to another source, doesn't seem to account for differences in the volume that those other sources might be outputting at though. Also, if you adjust the volume with it switched off to a level and then switch it on, the volume leaps up and you have to readjust. Can't see any point in this feature.

This soundbar is replacing a very old Tandy (yes that old) Amp system which had Dolby digital output 5-1 surround (hardwired) sound and although it was way out dated as far as connections were concerned, the only manual operation on the unit was the source switch, everything else was via it's remote( quite small by the way). By comparison with the product under review, sound adjustment was a breeze, it had a powered rotary control that you operated with the remote (or manually) and you could 'nudge' it to get the exact level required including the treble and bass. This Philips unit is, I consider, as I said, not very user friendly and overpriced. I guess the fact that it was heavily discounted should have been a warning.

Sounded good in the shop, but not a patch in performance or ease of use over our previous (and old) system. Clear sound Too expensive, even at it's reduced price. Too demanding of attention and adjustment.