Home Theater Bar vs 5 speaker system

[jvierra]

Has anyone compared the new Home Theater Bar vs a 5 speaker surround system?  What are your impressions?  Thank you

[dtel]

Welcome

 

I have not, but I would MUCH rather 5 speakers around the room, + a sub.

 

To me no matter how good a soundbar is it is still coming from roughly the center front. The better HT bars have seperate sets of speakers in them, but5 speaker can be spread out to give a much better separation of channels. 

 

I know some sound bars can give the illusion of sound from the sides but can't give you the sound like 5 separate speakers around the room can. 

 

Soundbars a great for giving you much better sound compared to Tv speakers, and convenience but not to replace a normal  ht setup.

 

Others may answer but I don't think I'm that far off saying this.

[carlthess40]

I’ve tried a few very high end sound bars and the sound is so much better then they were just 2 years ago. But as what was stated in the post before me
he is right about not getting the FULL effect from The sound bar as opposed to a 5.1 setup
Your losing so much feeling and sound without the rear speakers
No mater how well a sound bar is , it just can’t bounce all that sound off the walls to give you the full feeling as 5 speakers do
I’ve used a few very high end sound bars and was blown away with how great they sound , but was left feeling that so much was missing from them.

[Emile]

Don't even bother with the "sound bars."  IMHO they are horrible compared to "real" speakers.  

[Loudly Does It]

Sound bars can't replace and aren't meant to replace a 5.1.  With tvs going thinner and thinner, tv speakers are becoming increasingly useless.  The sound bar is becoming the equivalent of the computer speaker when the monitor only displayed video. 

[dtel]

4 hours ago, Loudly Does It said:

Sound bars can't replace and aren't meant to replace a 5.1.  With tvs going thinner and thinner, tv speakers are becoming increasingly useless.  The sound bar is becoming the equivalent of the computer speaker when the monitor only displayed video. 

True, I use the Ht for Tv sound, mostly because our Tv sound sucks, it's the bose idea of speakers, the Tv speakers are on the back and the sound has to bounce off the wall and into the room. Between this and my old ears it sounds terrible. 

 

[alxlwson]

Are you insinuating that one couldn't use the HT bar for up front, and still have your rear channels and sub? It's a passive bar.

I like the idea of it! Not much room for speakers by the TV, so to it would be ideal, and then pull wire to the rear for those channeled.

[YK Thom]

The new ones do sound pretty good all in all. With a sub they can work well as a 3.1 substitute in tight space rooms.

[dtel]

On 6/30/2018 at 2:01 PM, alxlwson said:

Are you insinuating that one couldn't use the HT bar for up front, and still have your rear channels and sub? It's a passive bar.

I like the idea of it! Not much room for speakers by the TV, so to it would be ideal, and then pull wire to the rear for those channeled.

I would say yes, especially if your room is not terribly wide, get 2 speakers for the rear or back sides either way. Also for HT a sub is needed no matter what speakers you have, and you would need a receiver. One thing to look for in a single front sound bar, the connections to hook each of the front 3 sets of drivers up to the receiver separately to get the real effect. The rear and sub can be added later if needed, personally I would add the sub before the rears it's really need especially with a HT bar for lower frequencies.

 

In a skinny room the front speakers are not all that far apart anyway, I have seen pictures where people had the front three only a few feet apart at the most, in this case to me the only difference would be that most stand alone speakers would be bigger and have a better sound, (in general).