Dell Stereo SoundBar- AC511M

Price point and quality awesome. I needed speakers when I can not have my headset on…and this gave me everything I asked for.Official Dell product. Awesome.

I was hesitant to buy this speaker for my Dell U2415 monitor based on so many reviews that said it didn't work as advertised (i.e. that it needed both a USB connection for power as well as an aux cable for the sound signal "THAT ISN'T EVEN INCLUDED!!!). Some folks even said that it didn't work with both a USB and aux cable connected.But I wanted a speaker that wouldn't take up any space on my desk and I don't need disco club volume nor thumping base, so I went for it. I figured worst case I'd need to use an aux cable (or worst worst-case it wouldn't work for me at all and I have to return it, but hey, returning stuff is one of Amazon's strengths, right?)So anyway it delivered next day after ordering (the joys of living in a metropolitan area!), I pulled it out of the box and connected the speaker's USB cable into one of the monitor's USB hub outlets and voila, sound was coming out of the speaker even before Skype and all of the other annoying Microsoft bloat-ware had finished starting up after I powered my computer on. Absolutely no setup of any sort required from me on the computer side of things. See the attached picture to this review for how the computer shows the speaker in the audio output section after all is said and done. So easy and I'm running Windows 8 on this machine, for Pete's Sake!Which leads me to wonder; do people not realize that if you plug this speaker's USB plug into one of the monitor's USB ports that the monitor itself has to ALSO be connected to the computer independently via its own USB cord?Even if you don't have your monitor hub connected (or don't have a monitor hub at all), the attached USB plug on the speaker has quite a long cord so hypothetically it would easily plug directly into the computer itself. I haven't tried that, but am absolutely confident it would work just fine. Even better, theoretically, since plugging the speaker into the monitor USB port instead of the computer's means the audio has the extra complexity of going through the USB hub in the monitor. Not that I've noticed any problems at all with that but I suppose if you were doing high data-rate transfers through the hub the sound could take a hit because of it.Sound is perfectly fine, even great, for the size and price of this thing. Again, I don't need disco club volume nor thumping base nor battlefield realistic sound for my application so you may feel differently.Actually I had to lower the speaker, computer, and music app volumes all down to the lower ends of their respective sliders while playing some test tracks since my kid's bedroom is right next to my "office" and the sound output was pretty significant when I first plugged it in.My U2415 has two slots in the bottom of it that were covered up with some glorified tape pieces. Once I pulled the tape off with a mini-screwdriver the two tabs on top of the speaker slotted right into the monitor slots and it looks just like one of the photos Amazon has posted for this item.If you go to Dell's page for this speaker, click on the "Tech Specs" tab, and scroll down to "Compatibility" you'll see a long list of Dell monitors this speaker is designed to work with. I'd guesstimate 2 out of 3 or maybe even 4 out of 5 in that list don't need the included monitor stand mount (the list differentiates which do or don't). Mine was one of those that don't so I can't speak to people's issues with the monitor stand mount, but I'm wondering if their monitor is even on that list at all.

Works well with my Dell P2715Q and Chromecast Ultra. The speakers USB goes into one of the downstream ports, I attach an Aux cable from the monitor to the speaker in, and the Chromecast into the HDMI port. All works. I use it as a hanging standalone TV in a wall and anyone can cast something to it watch YouTube Hulu whatever.It's four stars instead of five because I wish there were better documentation in this because before I tried it out it was a gamble in whether or not the whole setup would even work.

Does the thing, though w USB connection don't expect Hi-Fi sound quality.

This is not a good sounding sound bar. It's not too bad at lower sound levels, but once past one-third volume, the sound quality really starts to suffer and becomes painfully so above two-thirds volume.Of course, I do not expect it to sound all that good, given they are small computer speakers. I have had very nice computer speakers in the past that sounded much better than these, but I need speakers more for video meetings than I do music, so I'm making the compromise to de-clutter my desk.The worst part about these speakers is they are terribly noisy when nothing it playing. There's a distinct level of hiss that emanates from them. It doesn't matter how loud or soft (or even off) the volume is, there is always hiss. It's soft enough you can ignore it, but it can be annoying.However, these are very nice when it comes to getting the clutter and cables off your desk, as they attach to the bottom of my Dell monitor and all the cables for it are hidden in the monitor's "cable alcove" at the back of the monitor. This is the *only* reason I keep them.Would I buy it again or recommend this to friend: Probably not, unless they really wanted an uncluttered desk.