Considering ditching 5.1 for a soundbar; suggestions?

I'd never go with a soundbar if I had a decent home theater.   What I did was put both on the same wall, wired the surround speakers where they are supposed to be, and set the 2 channel speakers to an optimum position.   It worked great until I moved and I now have two separate, but slightly smaller, rooms.  Frankly, if I had to buy another house, I would go with the one big room approach again.

@spatialking Noted.

If anyone else wants to say, "I wouldn’t do it", Spatialking has that covered. Your work is done.

Anyone with advice about soundbars, please weigh in. I like movies but the fetish about surround sound/movie conditions doesn't grab me. A separate AVR, wires all over the place, additional speakers -- it's too much clutter. I have read there are good soundbars that can throw a decent soundfield for movies which can be cleanly mounted on the wall. That would be enough for me, especially if it meant preserving the maximum utility of the room for listening. Which is, for me, the priority.

i have always suggested to members that if they want to have 2 channel and a ht setup, that they do it in different rooms if possible.

you are the one that has to live with the decision of selling the ht gear and going with a sound bar if you decide to go that route.

is it going to sound the same, definitely not …..and i guess you have to ask yourself can you live with it ?

I used to be a big 5.1 guy…but when got into high end 2 channel …sold the home theatre stuff and ended up with a klipsch sound bar and wireless sub..Sounds great…. Ironically, get unsolicited comments on how good the tv sounds more than the 2 channel.

My bar is 20 years old and has functioned flawlessly….it is a Best Buy purchase…and, if I remember correctly, cost about $300. Suspect you could buy better now…especially if willing to spend more.

For me….I’d never go back to all that equipment and wires.  But that’s just me.

@riley804

The hope is that there will be a further renovation to the whole house. In that case, the TV will move upstairs and I’ll have the whole basement to myself. If that happens, there certainly won’t be a 5.1 in our living room.

I have to live with the decision of selling the ht gear; I also have to live with the decision of NOT selling. (WAF, in my case.) It’s an ancient Greek dilemma in 21st c. trivial form.

@ml8764ag
Great to know. I have a Klipsch sub, wired. Could that be hooked to a Klipsch soundbar?

@tvad
Thanks so much for weighing in. I think I agree with you. The content of what we watch is so good — so engaging at the level of meaning — that we need to hear a reasonable spectrum of tonality and clear dialogue. We want there to be a soundstage but we don’t need helicopters circling our heads. No disrespect to those who want the "movie" experience, but we can live without that Disney ride.

Re. “Great to know. I have a Klipsch sub, wired. Could that be hooked to a Klipsch soundbar?”

I dont know for sure…but doubt it….and …(at least for me) would defeat my goal of eliminating wires and clutter….I also think that many good bars already come with a Bluetooth connected sub….making it a moot point if needing to purchase sound bar anyway.

There are better solutions if you only had a...

FWIW, I’ve a soundbar and wireless sub in an upstairs room and it’s reasonably good for TV.

I've purged my entire surround sound system from the house. Now only use 2 channel for both main room and bedrooms for all program material. Subs only in the main listening room. Sound bar just didn't cut it for me, even in the bedroom.

auditioned a bunch of soundbars with a coworker and wound up with the yamaha yas-208 for around $200--it sounded a lot better than many of the pricier ones we heard

@hilde45, I recently faced a similar situation and share much of your perspective. IME, the sound quality from all the sound bars I heard demoed greatly underwhelmed. I was surprised that they’ve grown so in popularity given the huge red flag sound quality. I’d just upgraded to a Sony tv with great picture and a totally unserviceable built-in speaker, so I had to get something.
Long story short, consider a pair of small powered speakers & sub. Edifier, Kanto & Vanatoo are some of the better contenders all under $1K depending on sub or not and finishes etc. I chose an Edifier 2.1 setup and place the 10"h speakers on a tv stand shelf below the screen, with the sub on the floor nearby. For ~$400, sound quality crushes about a dozen of the sound bars I heard from all the usual suspect brands. These and others are visually unobtrusive and surprisingly pleasant sounding. They’re so enjoyable I find myself watching more musical performance documentaries and videos and getting more pleasure from them.
For perspective I’ve previously owned a full surround system including Aerial/Sunfire/Classe/Marantz that cost $10K and didn’t provide noticeably more pleasure than what I’m using now. Cheers,

Spencer

@spencer Thanks for the suggestion for self-powered speakers. That's a great idea. And while I'm clearly willing to settle for lesser sound, it's clear that I don't want terrible sound. Self-powered speakers might really fit the bill. Will consider and hopefully audition. Vanatoo on my list for a while, now.

@hilde45, For myself I would divide the space giving two separate systems offering a unique possibility for acoustic treatment.
That being said I find my Stereo System Images admirably for AV purposes.
A Sound Bar should be able to lock in vocals but I think I would miss the surround effect.

@rego I'm going to do my best to see if a back-to-back arrangement can work.

If not, powered monitors seems like the way to gol

NEXTLEVEL ACOUSTICS looks pretty interesting 

If you are considering a soundbar do have the Sonos 5.1 speakers system included in the mix. The playbar, with wireless subwoofer and surround speakers is great in convenience and casual movie experience. We have it in our living room and love it. No receivers, wires etc and hardly takes up much space.

Please forgive me, I just can’t help myself. You’ve got a great space to merge your 2-channel and HT into one system and have the best of both worlds with no more added complexity. I’d suggest selling the Klipsch L/R/C speakers and getting a better center speaker that’d be more inline with the quality of your 2-channel speakers. Then all you’d need is an AVR with front L/R pre outs to run to an input on your stereo pre and you’re done — switch between HT and stereo just by changing the input on your stereo pre, and for critical 2-channel listening the AVR is completely out of the signal path. If you’re running tubes for 2-channel this doesn’t work as well, but you’re all SS I think you’d be much happier all around with no compromises necessary on either front.

Ok, now that you’re probably mad at me I’ll try to make amends. I’ve also heard very happy comments about the Sonos soundbar, but for about $200 the Yammy recommended by @loomisjohnson above would probably serve you well on the cheap.  Hope this helps more than hurts, and best of luck whichever way you go. 

@soix No, no --I appreciate the suggestion. I have an all tube 2 channel system and I already have a Denon AVR. This might work, though it would run down my tubes in my two channel unnecessarily.

The other issue, I am realizing, is that the room now has a large L shaped sectional. (I didn't consider this when I posted.

IF the two channel and TV are combined on one wall, well, one speaker will be firing directly into the long vertical length of the sectional. D'oh! 

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

@lonemountain Interesting idea. Might be a good way to trim things down. Thank you!

I'm in a similar situation.
Our older home had a great  sounding 5.1 system .
We have been in a much smaller space for the past 3 years.
Presently have the Bose soundbar -well,you can kind of hear it .Still better than the putrid TV speaker.
Bought the Klipsch "the fives" and will try out in our new home next month.That air ahed been labeled by one pro reviewer as being the "soundbar slayer".
Anyone have that as a source for TV audio?

I was debating to have a sound bar in my bedroom. I got the Vifa Copenhagen from Ebay for under 1k. It sounds ok. I was also considering Dali Katch 2. Now I wanna get the LS50 wireless 2 to serve as 2 ch and TV stereo sound.