For people with home theaters. Soundbars?

[groganfan]

I'm looking to get a new surround sound set up for my home theater. I'm leaning to this 5.1 Sony Surround sound system. The reason being as that recenlty I have been purchasing newer DVDs/Blu-Rays that do not support the normal 5.1, but support 5.1 DTS. I'm stuck using mono or stereo with thes discs. It's annoying as hell! Anyways, while looking up the different home theaters that are available, I came across some sound bars. They're more expensive than your typical 5 speaker set, but I was wondering, do they really work? I like the idea that it allows you to save space for other things, but I can't see how something that sits in front of your TV set, would give you a true surround sound experience. Has to be vitural surround, not true surround. Bose makes two speaker, and three speaker surround sound systems too, and I'm more willing to give more creedence to those than those soundbars.

 

[Wiluven]

What does your room layout look like? For those Soundbars to work accurately you have to have the perfect layout for them to bounce the sound around the room to get to you from the right direction. I was considering the Yamaha soundbar a while back and after hearing my buddies and also countless hours of research I decided against it. There's no soundbar that will sound like true surround. Also note - after a few months my buddy moved his Yamaha soundbar out of his living room and into his office and went with a 5.1 system.

I'm not sure what your budget is but check out Ascend Acoustics. They are an internet direct company with excellent customer service and a product that sounds 10x better than anything in it's price range.

 

[groganfan]

not a huge area, but have room for 6 speakers. not looking to blow a lot of dough on a surround sound system. was looking to spend around 200 dollars, which is the cost of the system i cited in my opening thread. i know enough not getting a sound bar, but was curious if they actually work.

 

[jayShomp]

If sound isn't really that important to you then buy a $200 HTIB(home theater in a box). If it is at all important to you, you'll need to spend about 3 times as much and piece together a nice budget system.

 

[Undertaker #59*]

There is no substitute to having the surround sound speakers. Virtual surround systems suck, IMO. Also, don't fall for Bose marketing. If you have the money for Bose, you have the money for much better systems than they offer.

Most modern surround receivers will support both Dolby 5.1 and DTS. Many will support 6.1 or 7.1 too, but unless you have a pretty large room, 5.1 is enough for most people.

For more information than you can process, head over to avsforums or or home theaterforum.com. There are always HTIB systems that people recommend if you are on a small budget.