[hilde45]

I just built a basement room meant for both TV/media and 2 channel listening. At first I thought I'd split the room and have my two channel at one end, the TV and 5.1 system at the other.

I'm having second thoughts. The room is about 27 feet long and 16 feet wide, and if I divide it, then the most I can get from the front wall for my two channel listening is about 12 feet. Feels a bit cramped.

If I do decide to put everything on one wall, I really need to get rid of my 5.1 system and go with a soundbar and sub — for movies.

I know soundbars are not audiophile things, but I'm wondering how many of you bit the bullet to economize space, ditched the 5.1 and what did you get as a good soundbar? I'm thinking I could spend up to $1k. (I would cut my losses by selling my Klipsch R/L and Center channel speakers.)

[mcgsxr]

Not sure about a soundbar recommendation, but I use the same room for HT and 2 channel.  The systems are separate, but in the same room.

Yes, my wife and kids bust my chops about running a speaker showroom, but I like all 9 speakers.  Full 5.1 HT (on wall), and separate 2 channel with sub for music.

On the main floor we use an older Definitive Technologies 3 channel soundbar in a 3.1 setup.  I like it fine for TV.  For movies it's not quite there, but any movie watching done on the main floor is casual and it's OK for that.

Are you looking for a passive soundbar, or a powered one?

[hilde45]

Thanks -- we just built the room and you know how it is -- clutter is the devil. So I sympathize about the urge to have a speaker showroom, but I'm not sure my marriage can take the strain produced by clutter.

So, active soundbar -- something which can hug the wall and do its own thing.

[ctviggen]

Supposedly, the new Sonos with Atmos is not bad.

This one, I think:

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/arc.html

For our basement system, which uses a projector, we used a soundbar.  It's a Yamaha from Costco.  It's OK.  I chose this mainly because it was cheaper than receiver + 5 speakers.

One of the issues with these is that they have few inputs.  As in one, usually. I had to buy an HDMI switcher to be able to use this in a simple system (computer, Wii, Fire TV), as mine only had one input.

The one I bought does allow me to control Alexa, which I use for lights.  But it basically requires that you an app to adjust anything.