Soundbar Recommendations

[owlfan12000]

A couple of years ago I bought a 57" Mitusubishi DLP, Toshiba A35 HD Player and a TIVO HD. All of this sits in the Master Bedroom. Most of the time my wife and I are watching something we recorded on TIVO. The problem is that I find times when I can't understand what is being said on TV so I'm primarily looking for something that will make the TV audio more intelligible. That being said I'd obviously like to improve the audio of the movies we watch as well.

I'd appreciate some discussion on the merits of various soundbars in the sub $700 range. I like some of the bells and whistles on the Yamaha YSP-900 but I'm wondering if some of the soundbars in the $250 range might work just as well.

For what it is worth the Yamaha's integrated subwoofer may be an audio negative but it would be a marital positive since the dresser is already more crowded than my wife likes and I think she might draw the line at the sub in the middle of the floor.

[Sonnie]

You know John... I do not know of the first person who has a soundbar. I have seen a lot of them being advertised, and they look cool, but I have not seen any discussion on them anywhere.

[XxxBERRYxxX]

I know the effects they produce are very cool but the setup of these things can be very complicated. There are way more steps than setting up a regular 5.1 system. The one I heard was in a room made with cubical walls and no ceiling and the sound was all around me.

[tonyvdb]

There is no substitute for the real surround system using 5.1 or 7.1 speakers. Sound bars look cool and do give s feeling of being enveloped with sound but dont work as well as the real thing but it is a good compromise if space and aesthetics is an issue.

[Ledzeppac]

What is recommended for stereo's with limited space to place speakers?

[tonyvdb]

Ledzeppac wrote:

What is recommended for stereo's with limited space to place speakers?

Can you not wall mount some bookshelf speakers?