Soundbars vs Surround Sound Speakers: Which is Best for You?
Soundbars vs Surround Sound Speakers: Which is Best for You?
People constantly argue whether or not soundbars are a good alternative to a traditional surround sound system. Some will say that soundbars are absolutely terrible and some will live by soundbars and want nothing to do with traditional sound systems.
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I’m so confused with everything.
Could I not just connect top of the range speakers to a soundbar? And avoid the avr?
What’s the benefit of the avr exactly?
Right, so, initially i was a hater of soundbars and wireless subwoofers and for years i had my 5.2 (yea, 2 subwoofers 🙂 ) surround system that still works fine till this day.
Couple of months ago, i moved into an apartment and the previous owner left me an LG smart tv in the bedroom and i tried to watch a couple of shows on Netflix and Amazon. The sound quality of that tv can’t even be called rubbish..
So, of course, i didn’t want to invest in another surround system + to deal with the cables and thus, a soundbar 2.1 appeared.
I know it’s not a fair comparison with the 5.2; but hear me out; that sound bar thing is not terrible, especially with these AI features that check and adjust the sound.
My Bedroom tv went from unwatchable to enjoyable.
So yes, i get those that like soundbars; i’ve installed mine in 5 minutes and configured the settings in a few seconds; where as with my 5.2 sour round, i spent a few days with cable management and fitting stuff back together so that everything looks and works fine.
In conclusion, if you’re not a nerd with Sennheiser’s, Hifiman, headphone amps and other crazy stuff, just go with the soundbar; you’ll thank me in the end
Thanks for the basic information and comparison on soundbars and surround sound speakers!
I farted three times during the beginning of this video. By the end of the video, I was on toilet, pewpin! You talked me through a rough time in my life. Thank you
I have a dilemma in that I have two great wired speakers installed up in the walls to the side and a little behind where the couch is that make music and movies sound great. We also have 2 wired floor speakers on either side of the TV. Everything runs through the receiver. My wife wants to eliminate the two floor speakers and go with a cleaner look. Is there a setup that will preserve the use of the two built in wired speakers while adding two more modern low profile speakers? Seems everything is wireless now but I do not want to abandon those wired wall speakers.
I do not like soundbars anymore because they lack the true discrete movie theater surround sound quality of a traditional home theater surround sound system I am a huge fan of both movie theater surround sound & Dolby Atmos and I am both an audiophile and love traditional Dolby Atmos home theater surround sound systems that are not too expensive In fact I use to own a Sony HTZ9F 3.1 Channel Wireless Dolby Atmos Soundbar System with a Wireless Subwoofer and without upward-firing height speakers then added Sony SAZ9R 2.0 Channel Wireless Surround Rear Speakers for my Sony Dolby Atmos Wireless Soundbar and Subwoofer Combo for a complete surround sound system for watching listening and enjoying many films tv shows and music even though it both gets loud sounds a lot better than my television I have owned in my house: LG 55-Inch B6 OLED 4K Multi HDR with Dolby Vision Smart Flat Big Screen Television (2016 Model) it does not sound as awesome cinematic premium powerful state of the art atmospheric three-dimensional dynamic room-filling impactful immersive punchy as a Dolby Atmos Premium Home Theater Surround Sound System with REAL Upward-Firing Height Elevation Speakers originally I wanted one of the two Nakamichi Shockwafe Spatial Surround Elevation Dolby Atmos Premium Home Theater Surround Soundbar System Series with a Soundbar with High Quality/Performance Full-Range Woofers and Two High Quality/Performance Tweeters that bounce sound off walls & ceiling Two Big Subwoofers Two or Four 2-Way Surround Speakers w/ High-Quality Tweeters Full-Range Woofer Drivers that sounds the same as both a real life commercial Dolby Atmos/IMAX movie theater & a traditional Dolby Atmos home theater surround sound system but since I already owned a 5-year-old solid good Onkyo TXSR444 7-Channel Dolby Atmos Premium Home Theater Surround Audio/Video Receiver (2015 Model) since April 2016 I got a Traditional Klipsch 5.1.2 Channel Dolby Atmos Premium Home Theater Surround Sound Loudspeaker System that includes Two Front Tower Floorstanding Loudspeakers with Two REAL Dolby Atmos Upward-Firing Height Elevation Loudspeaker Two Bipolar Surround Loudspeakers One Center Loudspeaker and One Big 12-Inch Subwoofer all with High-Quality/Performance Woofers & Tweeters for nearly $2,500 with additional speaker wires I bought for the money then hooked it up to my Onkyo TXSR444 Dolby Atmos 4K Premium Home Theater Surround Audio/Video Receiver (2015 Model) calibrated the loudspeakers with the included eq room correction calibration microphone I got on eBay and while enjoying watching and listening to films tv shows and music it felt & sounded a lot much better greater and more awesome cinematic premium powerful dynamic room-filling impactful immersive punchy in which it very much sounded like a real life commercial movie theater and changes the way I’m how I enjoy and listen to films tv shows and music I gave my Sony HTZ9F/SAZ9R 5.1 Channel Dolby Atmos Surround Soundbar & Subwoofer Combo System to my twin sister and boyfriend’s condo where their new TV is located in their bedroom LG C1 55-Inch 4K UHD Multi-HDR with Dolby Vision Smart OLED TV with Dolby Atmos/eARC is located in order to vastly improve their tv watching experience and they both liked there new 5.1 Ch. Dolby Atmos Sony Surround Soundbar/Subwoofer Combo System Later in June 2023 I got a much more newer state of the art advanced better immersive premium cinematic advanced critically acclaimed Denon AVRS970H 7.2 Channel Dolby Atmos Premium Home Theater Surround Audio/Video Receiver with a Highly Advanced Greater Powerful Robust Cinematic Premium Rich Punchy 32-Bit/192kHz Digital-to-Analogue Converter/Discrete High Power Amplification Technology/Room Correction Calibration Software Technology Audyssey MultEQ with Dynamic Volume & Dynamic EQ and 8K-60/4K-120 Passthrough/Upscaling Multi-HDR with Dolby Vision for nearly $800 w/ tax hooked it up to my one year old Klipsch 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos Home Theater Surround Sound System calibrated the loudspeakers with Audyssey and after getting everything working flawlessly correctly and perfectly adjusting the sound quality via Audyssey MultEQ Editor app and enjoying watching and listening to many films tv shows sports and music it sounded a lot much better greater and more advanced awesome cinematic premium powerful dynamic room-filling impactful immersive richer punchy three dimensional atmospheric advanced realistic detailed nuanced cleaner crystal clearer and didn’t just change the way how I enjoy watch and listen to films music sports and tv shows it honestly extremely much sounds and feels a lot like a real life commercial Dolby Atmos/IMAX Laser movie theater that I can clearly hear 3D surround sound objects above around through behind and everywhere in the room with my newer Denon AVRS970H Dolby Atmos Receiver than my older Onkyo TXSR444 Dolby Atmos Receiver even though with my older Onkyo Dolby Atmos Receiver I can clearly hear surround sound objects above around through behind and everywhere in the room my newer Denon AVRS970H Dolby Atmos Receiver is much much better than my older Onkyo Dolby Atmos Receiver in which it not only rivals my nearby Dolby Atmos commercial movie theaters commercial IMAX Laser movie theaters or even commercial movie theaters with 4K RGB HDR Laser Projection & Dolby Atmos but I am enjoying the content in which the filmmakers sound team & music team intended them to experience it as it was originally mixed in the recording studio that is unmatched by a lot of soundbars
Has anything changed of importance?
Would I benefit from a external soundbar, if the TV im planning to buy is a Panasonic MZ2000 with a integrated speaker power of 165w?
I mean specs wise seams a beast
Going from a fairly average soundbar (bought new) to a 5.1 system bought cheap used was completely gamechaning. Never going back!
My husband and I are up in years and we’re having a horrible difficult time hearing our TV.
I’m looking to buy different speakers so we can hear movies. We can hear the news and normal TV fine but not the movies.
I hear movies fine on my phone with my Bluetooth.
Excellent presentation. Helpful.
Thank you very much
never listen to an idiot on YouTube that tells you $50 soundbars would barely sound better than a built-in speakers in a flat TV I can assure you this is completely false I guess he feels like most people have $5,000 to spend on sound bars most people don’t own TVs over $200
Love speakers rather than a sound bar, have a centre that does the trick. ❤
Even a half decent set of computer speakers with a sub will do way better than TV speakers, especially regarding stereo separation, sound stage and bass performance. If you’re just looking at a budget less than $250 or only 2.1 channels, and you don’t need all the Spotify stuff and maybe not even need Bluetooth, you might be way better off with a $100 set of Logitech computer speakers.
SURROUND SOUND, NO QUESTION !
Hello,
Home theater 5.1 sets, like Sony Blu-ray player with 5.1 set .. not upgradable with 1000W of power
Are these good option in comparison to AV receivers ?
It’s only available in 2nd hand market … all brand new staff are bars which is either week or good but very expensive atmos and drsX
good
There is also a very few surround sound systems that have the rear speakers truly wireless: the speakers are battery charged and receive the sound signal wirelessly. For reasons I cannot understand, this is highly uncommon.
You look like chris weidman
What about just hooking up two powered shelf speakers to a tv instead of a soundbar? Or a Bose Wave Sound System? Or are there any powered floor speakers that you can plug in to a tv?
This is very generic and we can get all this info by looking into any brochures.
Reviews should be based on Personal experience with the different setups!
Helpful! Thanks
Thanks.
I just watched two of your videos so far but I can already tell you’ll be one of my favorite channel. No non sense intro and direct to the point. How I wish I can also have one of those speakers or soundbars your have…. keep it up Bro.
Great video lad loads of information there 👍
Whoa!! That’s a lot of information!! Thank you so much for all of it. 😮😮
Why does my soundbar buzz & vibrate with my Apple TV ?
If it came to the very best home theatre set up, here’s one soundboard system you won’t beat with a traditional system short of having a literal purpose built theatre room.
That would normally be a big claim to make but we ARE talking about a system with the Nakamichi Dragon name here, a name given to only two other pieces of equipment which when released, were the state of the art best available and this system more than lives up to the name.
https://youtu.be/fuelZAhH_OQ
Comments
Unbiased review thank you. For me I’m a sort of audiophile. Before getting my reasonable traditional speaker system I’ve visited my local technology store and I was blown away by the store’s soundbar system sound output. I’ve never head such perfection of music and film sound quality like this before and i repeatedly visited this store just to listen. Store manager felt sorry for me and wanted to give me a discounted deal.
I then went online to know the difference between the traditional and soundbar systems. Base on reviews I’ve opted for the traditional costing me about £1,500.00
I’ve returned to the tech store after listening to my new traditional system and realised even though my traditional system wasn’t the most expensive yet discovered that the soundbar system I’ve earlier worshipped was a piece of shit that merely pretended to be producing a better sound quality. The bass it produced wasn’t really a bass but some nonsense banging that only stayed in the air without any sort of low end gravity. I was lucky not to spend my cash on this soundbar system because it isn’t my taste. .
I’ve now upgraded my traditional system costing me about £2,300.00 which is a trillion miles better than soundbar system.
It is better to know what system you need compare with your space and budget because you might not be able to request a full refund after purchase. Also note that this is an expensive passion if you want to enjoy great sound quality!! I’m now in trouble with neighbours for my subwoofer shaking their flats.
I found a $50 soundbar on Ebay That Was a Vizio, so not every website has the same quality by $50
Thanks for this great summary, Jonah. I’m a lifelong 5.2 receiver user but admit I’m intrigued by soundbars — in particular the JBL 9.1.4. I’ve been debating the pros and cons of upgrading to a 7.2 receiver system or grabbing the JBL. I’ve still got a lot of thinking to do about it but this definitely helped me out a lot.
Biggest regret i have. I had a sony 5.1 receiver, great yamaha speakers, 2 large, 2 md and so much very expensive speaker wire. And i got rid of them ..why why why did i? Cuz my kids convinced me it was archaic and everything is wireless now. But also my receiver wasnt set up for hdmi. It was a bare wire input and what was before hdmi? It was called something else in early 90s. Dont remember if it was the same size ports ss hdmi is now. Im gonna save up and start visiting pawn shops and go back to it.
The thought of dangling wires along my ceilings to connect the rear speakers isn’t appealing, nor is routing them through the attic. I’m one of those who would rather buy a soundbar and call it a day.
Hello, I currently have a 5.1 System with an old AVR. I would like to switch to Dolby Atmos technology and enjoy having overhead sounds.
I do not have the possibility of installing speakers in the ceiling (I know that it is the best option in conjunction with a Dolby Atmos AVR).
Is a Dolby Atmos soundbar with rear speakers (like the Samsung HW-Q990C) worth it? Can this type of soundbar make you feel sounds above your head? Or will this change not be better than my current 5.1 system?
The TV room has a 9-foot (2.8-meter) high flat ceiling.
Thank you so much!
7:20 "thus making them louding and making your system sounds better"… Come on!!
That’s when I quit…
I’m old school. Spend good money on a receiver and separate EQ and it really doesn’t matter about how cheap your speakers are.
Because with the EQ separating the bass to subs and voice speakers.. you can easily turn the volume up as need then adjust else where in the receiver. And never need your tv volume
The sound bars sound great, we have one for our main tv in the living room. But when it comes to SUPERIOR sound we go to the basement where we have a Dolby atmos 7.1 system because the sounds come from everywhere, which make the experience of movies so much more enjoyable, hence sound bars will never take over the separate systems because the quality just isn’t there.
Don’t watch, video never starts for an actual comparison. Have to block this guy to save time in future.
You need a bulky AV receiver taking up a lot of shelf space, 3 dedicated speakers up front for R-C-L channels, and wires running to the subwoofer and rear speakers. Aesthetically if you have a smaller space all of this will visually dominate the setup.
The thing is im an audiophile and can afford a traditional speakers with an amp or receiver BUT i cant afford a big house nor can i afford to rent a big room (don’t want neighbors complaining also). I can only afford to live in small condos, I keep moving places every 3-5 years and moving lots of speaker with the receiver will be a pain, so soundbars are the only way to go as i need to live a minimalistic lifestyle.
at the moment i have a JBL bar 2.1 soundbar its sound quality is very decent for music with a very good low end bass, might upgrade to JBL bar 1000 in the future (easy to carry as its only two things the speaker and the subwoofer.)
I used to have a full wired sound system for few years. Now I have q800 900 and 990c. Wireless is the way to go now a days. I have a small child so I had to go that way.
I use my Bluetooth connection from my TV to my soundbar.. Perfect
So basically, I really like the idea of being able to expand and change things like in the traditional speaker setup. But my problem is, I have no idea where I should put the speakers. For the front speakers, i only have space under the tv and I haven’t really found any speakers that are small enough to fit, without blocking part of the screen. The problem with the side speakers is, that I sit on the end of my Bed, so I don‘t really have anywhere to put the speaker on my right. Does anyone have an Idea for a solution?
Is it one or the other? Whilst shopping on Amazon, I picked a Polk audio signature elite ES35 soundbar, and it recommended a couple of ES10 speakers… I figured they were complementary….
Differences in powerconsumption?!? :_[ hYlkeW
Dont waste money on a fancy soundbar, any decent 5.1 setup will sound much better.
speakers are easily the best choice, but soundbars are more compact and sometimes are significantly better in many situations where speakers would be super inconvenient
Thanks
Many years ago I had 3 Klipsch Fortes with a couple of psb’s.. Pretty amazing…Now not even a sound bar…