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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.)


128x128hilde45
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hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
4,813 posts
 
@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
mrupgrade
23 posts
 
NEXTLEVEL ACOUSTICS looks pretty interesting 
rajivhifi's avatar
rajivhifi
57 posts
 
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.
soix
8,729 posts
 
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. 
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