Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Soundbar or other 2.1 recommendations?

OK, I have a friend that is looking for a simple setup for a small 40" tv in one of his rooms. He does not want to go with a full blown 5.1 setup. I know some people have been happy with some of the Soundbar/Sub setups available today. I have a friend that has a Sony that sounds pretty darn good.

Just looking for advice or feedback on what they should be looking for when shopping...thanks Randy

I would have him take a good look at the Yamaha stuff since they were pretty much the first who had a product like this on the market. I have a neighbor that has a set-up with a Klipsch sub and all things being equal, it sounds not bad. Obviously, the sub is critical to the equation because the speakers in the bar are just too small to handle much below 100hz. it certainly does not come anywhere near the sound quality of a full blown system with the appropriately placed speakers(regardless of the ads saying otherwise), but it is fine for his application.

The problem is with this kind of electronics, convenience doesn't necessarily come cheap.

3 M0s glued together?

Seriously, why not the M0s instead of a soundbar? I just don't see how you get good stereo separation with a soundbar.

<waves hands> Magic!

I have a friend with one of the earlier generation Yamaha sound projectors and a good Velodyne sub. Because it is in a rectangular room of moderate size, it really sounds pretty darn good.

Some of the Zvox products get good reviews and they claim to be a bit more full-range if he balks at a subwoofer.

My friends Sony Bravia one from Bestbuy sounds pretty decent for 300 bucks. They don't have a receiver, so this would feed the digital signal to the sub on the Sony.

Phillips used to make some good looking models in that lower price range, too.

I'm also interested in this thread. I'm moving my older plasma to my bedroom (upgrade time!) and need to figure out a 'low profile' speaker solution.

I heard the YSP400/800 at CES a few years back in a special rectangular room. They were mounted on the long wall so the throw was shorter. W/ a sub, I was VERY impressed w/ the ability to produce the surround channels. I know there are a few others now, some are on Crutchfield. I'm curious which ones are better.

At one point recently, I was thinking about hanging a 50-60 inch on the living room wall with a sound bar beneigh it, so I investegated sound bars at several Best Buy stores, Magnolia stores have better stuff. Of those I saw, the inexpensive ones were crap. Those around $1000 sounded good, as long as you didn't expect much in the way of low or high end. But the midrange was pretty good. Acoustic guitars sounded excellent on it, but you would strain to hear any cymbals.

Oops, accidentally added this twice.