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Soundbar recommendation for a large room


joshwulf

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Good morning all,

 

I currently have an older Klipsch soundbar.  (I believe it is the r10b)

This room is fairly large (20x20 w/ 10'6" ceilings) and has large pocket doors on either end that open up to the rest of the main level of the house.  

The current setup sounds fine as long as I am the only one home.  When my wife and son are home there is always background noise that I can't overcome with volume from this sound bar.

My question is, will one of the new higher end soundbars perform much better in this situation? (RSB-11 or RSB-14)

Edited by joshwulf
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Nobody has any experience with this?  

I'm not an audiophile.  I just want to be able to hear it clearly.

I have 2 Klipsch bookshelf speakers in there now and I would leave them if it could be neatly done.

This house is over 100 years old and no way to conceal wires without sheetrock/shiplap work.

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Sure someone here has tried the later soundbars and given time someone will be along. You do good by posting if not answered. If the specs on the new ones you speak of have bigger speakers even the tweeter, they may be even marked with a higher efficiency rating or number. Yes that is a fair sized room. Some here are going with wireless speakers for visual concerns. If you are happy with your setup otherwise, and are not against a center speaker instead of soundbar, I would consider one that has close enough match with your bookshelf speakers, and maybe one abit larger or next size up, if it is setup primarily for the soundbar sound reproduction... @joshwulf

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13 minutes ago, joshwulf said:

Yes it is a home theater.

With the bookshelf speakers I have a slot ported sub with 2 12" drivers and a 70" sharp LED.

I like it bass heavy.  Which is probably why I have trouble hearing the soundbar.

Have you tried to adjust your AVR unit to increase the center channel in your setup?

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=== I have two last gen designs - the R10b and R20b Klipsch soundbars, both are really good. The 20 can easy fill a large full basement area which is where I have mine. The 10 has less drivers in the bar and a 8 vs. 10 inch wireless sub. The 10 is under a smaller flat screen in the upstairs living area.

Do some research on what they offer. Before I posted I nosed around the interweb and cannot find any new 20’s listed but did did a few new 10b’s on Amazon, new for $369. For what they are capable of $369 is a damn good price. Check em out. 

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On ‎2‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 12:04 PM, joshwulf said:

Nobody has any experience with this?  

I'm not an audiophile.  I just want to be able to hear it clearly.

I have 2 Klipsch bookshelf speakers in there now and I would leave them if it could be neatly done.

This house is over 100 years old and no way to conceal wires without sheetrock/shiplap work.

 

I don't even want to think about how much I have sunk into my HT. A fried of mine recently finished his basement and pulled the trigger on a SONOS sound bar, sub and two Play Ones for surrounds. 5.1 set up in less than an hour I'd guess. AC power to the ceiling mounted surrounds was probably his biggest hurdle. They make lots of nice stands if you don't need the surrounds ceiling mounted.

 

All wireless simple to set up for HT or multi channel music. If I had to do it all over again that is exactly what I would do. Killer user interface for playing music. Sounds amazing for the time spent, money, effort, etc. If you have problems hiding wirers and don't want it to look like a frat house this should be on your short list. I'm really impressed with the sub given the size. All the pieces work together nicely.

 

playbar_sub_play1.jpeg

 

 

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On 2/16/2019 at 11:39 AM, billybob said:

Have you tried to adjust your AVR unit to increase the center channel in your setup?

The book shelf speakers are plenty on the full system.  I'm trying to clean up the den and remove the extra wires.

That setup will be moved to a different room.

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30 minutes ago, rplace said:

 

I don't even want to think about how much I have sunk into my HT. A fried of mine recently finished his basement and pulled the trigger on a SONOS sound bar, sub and two Play Ones for surrounds. 5.1 set up in less than an hour I'd guess. AC power to the ceiling mounted surrounds was probably his biggest hurdle. They make lots of nice stands if you don't need the surrounds ceiling mounted.

 

All wireless simple to set up for HT or multi channel music. If I had to do it all over again that is exactly what I would do. Killer user interface for playing music. Sounds amazing for the time spent, money, effort, etc. If you have problems hiding wirers and don't want it to look like a frat house this should be on your short list. I'm really impressed with the sub given the size. All the pieces work together nicely.

 

playbar_sub_play1.jpeg

 

 

Funny you mention this.

I went by Best Buy just to preview a few soundbars that I had been reading about. (Klipsch, Samsung, and Sonos)

The only one that impressed me was the Sonos.  I opted to give it a shot knowing I could return it if needed.

With just the playbar it does pretty much what I want it to.  
I have no doubt that it will be better with a couple Play 1's and the sub.

 

Thank you all for the help.  I think this will resolve my issue!

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4 minutes ago, joshwulf said:

The book shelf speakers are plenty on the full system.  I'm trying to clean up the den and remove the extra wires.

That setup will be moved to a different room.

Sure you will get it right. May as well move and reset up system to demo it and continue to get some continued recommendations from the crowd here. BTW, what AVR are using if may ask and what bookshelves. Is the next room moving to smaller or about the same...That may well help others here to help out...

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7 minutes ago, joshwulf said:

Funny you mention this.

I went by Best Buy just to preview a few soundbars that I had been reading about. (Klipsch, Samsung, and Sonos)

The only one that impressed me was the Sonos.  I opted to give it a shot knowing I could return it if needed.

With just the playbar it does pretty much what I want it to.  
I have no doubt that it will be better with a couple Play 1's and the sub.

 

Thank you all for the help.  I think this will resolve my issue!

 

Nice! I'd really like to know the science behind what they do. I was at a fairly large bar having lunch with my wife. High ceilings very open windows open to outdoor dining and the sound was really good. I looked around and saw two SONOS 5s and two SONOS 3s. I have a 1 in my office and in my kitchen. Very room filling for the size. I've heard a pair of 5s set to stereo at the same guys house with the HT set up. Fantastic when you take into account what they actually are and darn good no matter the size. The bass is what really amazes me. I believe it has to be way over EQed on the bass side. But you know the saying. If it sounds good it is good.

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=== my stepson just went the Sonos route. The larger sound bar and two wireless sats. Amazing sound for what they are, each speak has its own Class D amp and I believe each individual driver in the bar has its own amp? After we went to listen and he purchased I did some research on the company and they are on top of this technology. Light years ahead of anything Klipsch does but that Is their market and they do it right. Been at it since the early 2000’s. I recently joined a “ country club for automobile enthusiasts” that use a Sonos setup in a 30,000 sq ft “clubhouse” and its remarkable what a few strategically placed speakers can accomplish. All controlled by a single iPad in the office where various areas can be on/off depending on what activities are happening. If I didn’t have Klipsch  soundbars or should they fail I will look to a Sonos system. 

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I am more than happy with SONOS in my kitchen, office, upstairs deck off the kitchen and around my pool. The user interface simply cannot be beat. The simplicity of set up and use has allowed my wife to actually play music in the house when I am not around. That was not possible given her willingness to learn when I had AudioTron, WD, Logitech squeezebox and too many others to count. If I did not have Klipsch THX in-walls in my TV area I'd scrap my NAD AVR, DVD player, 5.1 and just about every other piece of AV equipment beyond my dedicated listening room and go all SONOS. They are expensive but like you say @richieb they are at the top of it. There have been good deals on play 1s recently as they try to make everyone go with the ones with spies built into them......Alexa, eff-off please!

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1 hour ago, richieb said:

 

=== I believe the newer Sonos can/is Alexa controlled? And yes, it ain’t cheap -  biggest sound-bar, sub and two sats were $1600– . 

Well they must have come down in price....which is good for all. IIRC, my friend paid just shy of $3K for his set up 1.5 to 2 years ago. I'd easily pay 3K it given what I have heard if I was in the market. These young whipper snappers don't know how good they got it. In my day you had to read Audio Video Interiors just to find a look your wife would agree with then endless audio magazines to find the right combo, next call some crazy phone number in NYC to save a buck or two and spend 3 weekends setting it up....and it was called Dolby AC-3. </shakesFist>

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=== so far as finding the “correct” WAF I found circumventing the issue was the best answer - and took the rig below ground. Don’t matter how big, how “ugly” (as some have described Jubes) or any other factor - out of sight, out of mind. Plus I didn’t buy Jubes for looks, actually for sound. They ain’t ugly, they’re “purposefull” — 

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Looks was in my 20s. I've worn her down. She no longer cares as long as like you say it is below ground. She does appreciate good sound so I got that going for me. More than happy to hole up in the dark room and listen to music for a few hours and a couple of bottles of wine. She is a keeper. Sorry for the hi-jack, but $$$ to convenience SONOS is hard to beat. Cool name BTW. If you mount your speakers upside down like the proper mounts dictate the name not only reads the same forwards and backwards but upside down as well. SONOS is SONOS from all angles. I guess that is why all caps.

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