Small speakers or a soundbar system

Soundbar != nice 5.1 setup.
And they dont look nice.

Get 2 speakers you both like for the front, be it wall or floor mount to start with.
ie use your full budget for something decent just for the 2 front speakers.
Get the rest of the speakers later.

This isnt something you need to replace every few years, it can last you 30+ years.
Get decent kit you can enjoy for that long.

I highly recommend Ribbon tweeter speakers.
All the systems I have set up with these I have been able to remove the centre speaker entirely.
When the centre is disabled in the amp/processor, the sound for the centre channel is fed to the fronts.
Stereo ribbon speakers still produce a pin sharp centre image even with a low quality source/amp.
And boy do they make TV sound clear!
What they do for music is a dream.
 
Things would go a whole lot smoother in a relationship if women liked small cocks and large speakers.

If she insists on a soundbar I'd go with Yamaha instead of the Sony. The Onyx are pretty small speakers if I'm thinking the Harman Kardon ones. Any smaller than that and you might as well go with a soundbar.

Emotiva makes passive speakers with ribbon tweeters but their design is decidedly more studio than modern. Price/performance is excellent though.

https://emotiva.com/products/speakers/airmotiv-b1
 
The onyx is the x-series which measure like 6 x 6 x 10. This is really starting to piss me off though.... I was looking at some orb speakers or the minx cubes even.
 
There are some decent soundbars... in your price range. Also is this t.v. going to be wall mounted? If not don't count out sound bases as well. They seem to have a bit more room. You can also get some that have a sub out for extra kick. Might be a good compromise..
 
I do not plan on wall mounting the television. I looked at soundbases, but from my understanding the sonos playbar is better than the playbase. A sub will definitely be added.
 
Tell her we are having speakers and go get some nice wood grain ones or something she likes they will sound a lot better then a soundbar. Or make a dedcated ht room/man cave
 
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I would watch Slickdeals. Not that I would suggest making all your purchasing decisions off of getting the best price (because somethings are garbage at any price), but you never know what you can snag.

I've noticed a lot of speaker sales happening recently, here is one example:
https://slickdeals.net/f/10360012-k...utm_source=rss&utm_content=fp&utm_medium=RSS2

All the way on the other end of the spectrum is a HTIB.
https://slickdeals.net/f/10352784-p...utm_source=rss&utm_content=fp&utm_medium=RSS2

I'm not endorsing either of these systems. You should do your own research to make sure you're not buying garbage. Although it's probably fairly likely that the Klipsch setup is at least half-way decent.
 
Also watch amazon. I got this as a used/return model for only 200$ this thing normally goes for 699 to 799$. Based on reviews I just wish it did dts but for 200$ you can't expect much. Also I love how it's made out of aluminum.
 
I went from a nice 7.1 setup that i had for 15 years (infinity betas and a huge velodyne) to a soundbar due to years of boss displeasure and toddler arrival. Worst move ever as far as sound quality.

That being said, I will be building a dedicated theater post 1st retirement, so I can deal with it. Soundbars definitely fall into the marginal "good enough" category if you have competing life interests.
 
To me, I love the look of some monkey coffins in the room. Speakers can not only be beautiful but awesome to listen too.

I love good sound over a room that "looks" nice.
 

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jevans64 said:
Things would go a whole lot smoother in a relationship if women liked small cocks and large speakers.
Click to expand...

Is... is it too early to start voting on "Quotable Remark of the Year" awards, 'cause that's a fuckin' winner for sure right there. :D

Personally I'd say get the discrete speakers myself, I've auditioned maybe 30 soundbars from various manufacturers over the past 2-3 years and I still haven't found one that comes anywhere near what proper (and properly placed) discrete speakers can accomplish but that's my personal opinion on the matter.

Oddly enough, the best sounding 2.1 system I've still ever heard in my lifetime was the original Bose AM-5 setup, introduced way back in late 1986 when I was working for Circuit City back home in southeastern VA. The Bose rep came in, threw everyone out of the demo room save for our store's Ops Manager who helped him set up the speakers - they even covered the door with a shipping blanket, I kid you not.

Anyway, when it was all done the Bose rep invited a few of us in, and of course they had the AM-5 satellites mounted on the stands but with a black draped cloth over them - mind you in 1985 nobody had ever created a 2.1 setup like that before: separating the tweeter/midrange focused drivers from the bass drivers which then became the now ubiquitous subwoofer. So with the two satellites in front of us the Bose rep hit play on a CD player in the demo hardware rack and the room filled with sound unlike anything any of us had ever heard in that particular location (and I was one of the people on staff that hooked up and replaced old hardware with new so I knew that room quite well). The highs were razor sharp, mids were spectacular and placed on a sound stage to the front of us like nothing I'd ever experienced before save for a live performance and the bass was just pounding in the chest, it was felt as much as it was heard.

Then after about a minute of playback he stopped the CD and asked "Ok, where's the sound coming from?" and of course we all either said "Right there..." pointing at the draped objects/stands or something similar. I kept my mouth shut and was looking around the room for evidence when I noticed a box of some kind placed between two fairly large floor speakers behind me about 5 feet away. I noticed it because the day before I had put one of those floor speakers in place myself and the new box there in between them stood about 1.5 feet tall and maybe 7-8 inches wide at first glance.

After another moment or so I actually raised my hand to ask the guy a question and he said go for it: I then turned and pointed at what became known as the subwoofer module and said "That's your bass module, and obviously you've got something fairly small under the curtains/drapes there... spill it" and he laughed, then lifted the drapes and of course that was the first time we ever saw the original AM-5 speakers.

Bose has made many variations of the original AM-5 over the decades and I've demoed them all but none of them hold a candle to the original hardware, IMO, I wish that I had a set of those original speakers to this day and regret never really seriously pursuing acquiring a set.

But yeah, moral of the story: soundbars, nope, discrete speakers, fuck yeah. :D

These, folks, these were works of art for audio purposes, the original Bose Acoustimass-5 Series 1:

Bose_Acoustimass_5_Series_1.jpg


ps
I had my Telarc "1812 Overture" with the digital cannons in my backpack in the warehouse that day so I asked the Bose rep if I could give it a demo on the AM-5 (we were the first location in the entire state to get them on display, actually, I don't know why but I was damned glad we did). If people know that Telarc material it can damage and utterly destroy speakers, literally - I've seen 4000W Cerwin Vega 18" subwoofer speaker cones pushed clean out of the housing from the bass those digital cannon recordings captured.

Anyway, the Bose AM-5 played it without skipping a beat, even at significant volume (enough to rattle the windows of the demo room itself and prompt the store manager himself to come in and tell us "TURN IT DOWN..." and laughed about it. :D

Damned amazing speakers, really, and the only Bose product I ever considered purchasing because 99% of their stuff is craptastic and marketing mainly.

Sorry for the mild hijack... </ducks_and_runs>
 
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Consider that if you go with seperate speakers you will have to amplify them somehow. This means either a receiver, which is yet another thing your misses will have to live with or you can get active speakers (monitors) and let the TV dictate the volume. The downside to the actives is you don't get the input switching and extra features of a receiver.

There are lots of actives in the "pro" world. A local Guitar Center will probably have 5-6 different models on display. There are also actives in the "Audio" world. Input types would be the big difference between the two classification.

Actives also means a power cord going to each one too.
 
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It is not $5700, it is $5800. Piano Gloss is $6100. It is awesome!! It has, not one, not two, but FOUR!! SD card slots for the hookers with blow that want to bring their porn. It is a perfect match for that $10k desk. It does 15.2 surround. Just count the drivers and you'll get 15.2. It is from Creative, the folks that make the X-Fi sound cards and GigaWorks speakers for our gaming rigs.

On a more serious note. The Emotiva RMC-1 16-channel processor had me opening up my wallet when I saw/heard it.
 
jevans64 said:
It is not $5700, it is $5800. Piano Gloss is $6100. It is awesome!! It has, not one, not two, but FOUR!! SD card slots for the hookers with blow that want to bring their porn. It is a perfect match for that $10k desk. It does 15.2 surround. Just count the drivers and you'll get 15.2. It is from Creative, the folks that make the X-Fi sound cards and GigaWorks speakers for our gaming rigs.

On a more serious note. The Emotiva RMC-1 16-channel processor had me opening up my wallet when I saw/heard it.
Click to expand...
Is it really a 16 channel pre though? I heared it was still 11.
 
jevans64 said:
Would this soundbar be acceptable?

https://us.creative.com/soniccarrier/
Click to expand...
I saw this was at CEDIA, with some pretty outrageous claims (15 speaker system??? Wtf). It's essentially a fully LCR system, with 2 upfiring atmos speakers, the x-fi is used for post processing of the material. It comes with a dual 10" sub but they priced that sucker at $2100 on its own!!!

It's also not released yet.
 
I'll add my 2c: I've never heard a soundbar that could even come close to competing with even a mediocre separate speaker setup. The bonus with going for a separate speaker/receiver setup is that you can upgrade your system incrementally, just as you would a PC.

I respect your decision to try and appease your fiance. I did that at first when I met my wife, then slowly crept the tech back so she didn't notice. Now I have a full dolby atmos system, 2 subwoofers, and a projector in the living room. You just need to bide your time and be patient... It took me 7 years, but was totally worth it. I haven't been able to sell her on some towers (KEF R900) I have my eye on, but I'm sure I'll get there.

On a more serious note, and for the time being: I've heard decent things about the Klipsch flat-panel series speakers. They're pretty thin and can be mounted right on the wall. They're roughly in your price range and can be found pretty cheap around black friday. They're about ~$170 per speaker right now. I run some cheap Klipsch speakers in my office and they're pretty good for casual listening/computer stuff. At first, if you can't budget it, I'd run a simulated center channel (most receivers can do this) and then get the center when you can.

Edit: I'm not sure if your $1,500 budget includes the TV. If it does, then go with the advice of an earlier poster and buy 2 good speakers for your front and add more as you go. Discrete systems can, most of the time, be improved. Soundbars, on the other hand, suck forever.
 
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Trimlock said:
Is it really a 16 channel pre though? I heared it was still 11.
Click to expand...

Right now it is still 11 channels because Dolby hasn't finished coding for the new DSP ( Analog Devices ADSP-SC573 ) yet. Trinnov works because it is a PC-based system. Trinnov went through the same coding process. Dan says it should be ready by Christmas but these things almost never happen on time. Any other processor ( Denon, Marantz, Anthem... ) is waiting on the same code. I think Emotiva will be out of the gate first simply because the hardware is basically done. The ADSP-SC573 is a monster and has 4 times the processing power of the current DSPs found in top-tier A/V receivers and processors. The RMC-1 will have two of these.
 
I really want to hear some feedback from folks buying the new Atmos soundbars. I am using a 5.1 system that I pieced together like 8-9 years ago with Polk towers, polk bookshelf speakers, and a Bic F12 subwoofer. I didn't have a ton of money to spend on the setup, but it still sounds good. I wonder if the sounds of the Atmos soundbar can come close to sounding as good as my setup.
 
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