Considering ditching 5.1 for a soundbar; suggestions?


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.)


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Showing 1 response by lonemountain

Why not use the LR thoughput on a surround receiver or preamp to feed your audiophile preamp which feeds your audiophile amp and audiophile L/R speakers? Most of these receivers/preamps are set up to allow pass through in stereo and then those channels become the L/R in the surround set up when you are in surround mode (watching movies)? All that’s required is to make sure the LR levels are matched with the whole group when in surround.  Your audiophile system is integrated with your surround system and you operate the system differently depending on stereo or surround. 
Brad