Soundbar or basic speaker setup?

[gross]

Hi,

I am finally getting rid of the old LCD and getting a new one. Would also like to stop using the amplified 5.1 generic brand from walmart that I won at my old company's bingo!

Trying to find out how is the quality of a decent sound bar compared to a basic 3.1 or 2.0 setup with decent speakers. With a toddler at home, fI don't plan to setup any more extra speakers for now. I guess the disadvantage of the speaker setup is having to buy a bulky receiver.



suggestions for brand/models are very welcomed.

Hoping I can figure this out soon and take advantage of potential BF offers.

I appreciate your help.

Thanks

Yan

 

[evilspoons]

A sound bar has the advantage of being compact and a single unit; a speaker setup will almost always sound better. My 2.0 setup, however, is on speaker stands and a toddler would probably knock it over onto its head in like five minutes, so a sound bar would be better in that situation. Kind of depends on your room.

Keep in mind that expensive does not equal good with speakers... there is a hell of a lot of marketing in the way of the truth. You can get really damn good sound by picking up some cheap Monoprice bookshelf speakers and a cheap amplifier - if you're just doing stereo, basically ANYTHING used that isn't broken will work - and away you go. Just remember not to judge what the speakers sound like until you've broken them in (try playing pink noise into them for like 24 hours if you're impatient.)

 

[gross]

Hi, thanks for the response.

My front and center speakers just go on top of the media center, and the subw goes on one of the sides.

Would still be nice to have bluetooth, which simple receiver would you recommend?

Thanks

 

[evilspoons]

I am very happy with my Pioneer VSX-1122; I'm sure there are variations or competition that are a little better for a little cheaper (and it's a year or two out of date now). I plan on upgrading to 5.1 or even 7.2 in the future when I move to a house, but the VSX-1122 was only like fifty bucks more than the featureless stereo-only version because of a huge sale so I went with it.

Auto room calibration (uses a microphone) is an excellent feature, it isn't perfect as I've had to override some odd decisions my head unit has made, but it's also given me a great head start on a bunch of setup problems I had vs trying to figure them out by ear!

As for Bluetooth I'm not sure which Pioneer model in particular has it now, I know you can get a module for mine to add it but it didn't come with it (lame). Bluetooth is a pretty lossy codec though and once you start playing high-quality audio into good speakers the disadvantages of bluetooth start to rear their head.

 

[TeeJay1952]

I have a $100 Walmart Chinese 5.1 surround that is over 10 years old and I love it and will be sad once it goes. (the Grand Canyon was a mountain, everything goes eventually)

Never had it more than 1/2 way up. I do not have "Golden Ears" but sure sounds good to me.

 

[gross]

One potential issue for soudbar is that the TV sits on the media center. This is the TV I am buying:

http://www.samsung.com/us/video/tvs/UN48H6350AFXZA

This TV's stand is only about 3.2" high, so I would need a soundbar that wouldn't cover the screen. Also, see how the stands spreads "spider" style, I would probably have to put the TV way back to set a soundbar in front of it, right?

Thanks again

 

[DigDog]

basic speakers.

 

[biostud]

What's your budget?

 

[Slappy00]

Actual positional audio (5.1+) will always be better than a soundbar, provided that the speakers are setup properly. Actual speakers always produce a more convincing sound than emulation, however a full speaker setup might not be practical due to toddlers or space concerns, so in that case a sound bar might be a better idea.