Help with Bedroom speaker system

[phillyman36]

Hey I have never owned any sort of speaker system before. A lot of media players will bitstream/passthru Hd audio but will not decode it. Can someone suggest a couple of sound bars/ speaker systems for my Samsung HU8550 tv? I was told to make sure what I get decodes HD audio but having a hard time seeing those in different manufacturers specs.

Needs to decode blu ray audio, Dolby True HD, DTS-HD etc etc.
Would like to stay around $200 and under. Thanks for any help.

 

[giantpandaman2]

At that price range you're looking at fairly cheap soundbars. I'm not actually sure that would be a worthy upgrade over your TV speakers. At $350+ you start to get decent soundbars. If you actually want to get the most out of HD audio...well, I'd say you're looking at $300 for the speakers and another $200+ for a cheap as you can get receiver.

My recommendation: unless your tv speakers are horrendous just stick with them. If not, get some decent powered computer speakers and just run stereo RCA. Your TV can do the downmix to stereo. Going higher level decoding just isn't worth it until you get to a far higher budget.

 

[funboy6942]

Getting one that decodes all that is kinda pointless considering you will be hearing it from 2 speakers, which is kinda why you wont find it really in sound bars.

I mean if you need to have that, then this is pretty much what you will need to get to take advantage of the decoding, in a soundbar, bedroom set up...

http://www.amazon.com/VIZIO-SB4051-...TF8&qid=1451269844&sr=1-24&keywords=sound+bar

 

[tnt118]

It's not always a waste, in that streaming files (such as from Plex) may be encoded with Dolby or DTS and it is nice to be able to Direct Play those files. I'm in a less-than-ideal situation right now on one of my TV's for that reason.

As for soundbars, I've been a fan of the Samsung HW-x450's. At least the ones from about 4 years ago, I haven't looked at reviews for their more recent models.

 

[truckerCLOCK]

I'm not a big fan of Polk Audio. But I just watched some movies at a friends house and I was very impressed with the Polk soundbar they have. This is what he has Polk MagniFi

He got it from Best Buy

A little more than the $200 but your gonna have a hard time finding anything decent for that price point.