HomeTheater

3 readers

1 users here now

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

jayrod@lemmy.film

Soundbar vs old AVR 2.1 setup? (lemmy.one)

submitted 2 years ago by funnyletter@lemmy.one to c/hometheater@lemmy.film

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Right now my audio solution is a Pioneer VSX-832 receiver, Audioengine P4 stereo speakers, and am Audioengine subwoofer. It sounds fine but is kind of a cable management nightmare and the speakers don't actually fit on our TV stand right now so it looks a mess.

I'm considering replacing that setup with a soundbar and small subwoofer. I know real home theater nerds sneer at soundbars, but realistically we're not going to do surround sound. Our living room is super narrow so the sofa is only about 6 feet from the TV and that's with it up against a wall, so there's no putting rear speakers in here. When we tried we hated it. It just doesn't work well in the room.

I'm okay with basically a 2.1 system but I'm wondering if I could do that in a way that's compact, looks nice, and has a center channel so we can hear some goddamn dialog occasionally.

Would a nice soundbar actually be an upgrade from this situation?

top 4 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] finemike@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

Pioneer VSX-832 is 5.1 capable, you can buy a center channel speaker to improve dialogs.

[–] verycoolusername@lemm.ee 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Sound-wise, I think you will not see a huge improvement. Are you able to go to a store near you to test the soundbar?

[–] funnyletter@lemmy.one 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Realistically probably not. I think the only place around here that carries the ones I'm interested in is Best Buy, and I don't think testing something in a Best Buy would give me much insight to how it would sound in my house. :( I'm looking at like $800-1200 stuff and the local fancy home theater place mostly carries $2000 stuff.

[–] achance4cheese@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago

I never bought anything from Best Buy but I visited one near me to preview a few speakers that I eventually bought from accessories4less for my 5.1 setup. I was using a soundbar for years before that and I’ll never go back. Just my recommendation based on my experience. I have a 2.0 setup also that I just upgrade my AVR for and am very happy with it.