Considering ditching 5.1 for a soundbar; suggestions?

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.