TV Advice Needed

[Nick]

Do females typically like the speakers over the system?    That would be new to me

If you can't handle relations while doing a handstand then you have a lot to learn.

[Prog Snob]

Do females typically like the speakers over the system?    That would be new to me

It's not the size of the speaker, it's the sound of the wave...

[Chino]

I'm redoing my living room (well the half that the TV is on) and I'm wall mounting my 60" to free up 18" of so of space from the wall. I have no idea what to do about sound. I'm currently using a sound system that used to belong to my dad. It's an RCA receiver from 1990ish with two monster JBL speakers that I've never turned up higher than 50% because they're laughably loud. They sound absolutely amazing, but they're really bulky. They take up a ton of room, as does the receiver.

I'm not looking for the most amazing sounding equipment. I'm happy with decent. I know you guys have spoken out against the soundbar, but for what I'm trying to accomplish, they are really ideal. I have a Bose Mini Soundlink that sounds unbelievable for its size. I imagine a Bose soundbar with a subwoofer would be decent enough.

[Podaar]

You should be able to go test drive a Bose Soundtouch 300 at any BestBuy. I think I remember them sounding terrific and because it's Soundtouch technology, you can expand it with actual rear channel speakers and a sub-woofer, wirelessly, later on.

[cramx3]

You should be able to go test drive a Bose Soundtouch 300 at any BestBuy. I think I remember them sounding terrific and because it's Soundtouch technology, you can expand it with actual rear channel speakers and a sub-woofer, wirelessly, later on.

That sounds pretty cool.

I love Bose products although they are expensive, but it's good quality.

[Podaar]

Yeah, if memory serves, it's in the $600 - $800 range depending on where you get it. I've seen them at Costco before and I think that's where I saw the lower price.

I'll add that I love Bose products too, but I've only ever purchased computer speakers. For the house and entertainment room I've been able to find less expensive ways to get what I need. Are my solution as good as Bose? Absolutely not, but they've worked out for me.

[bosk1]

I'm not looking for the most amazing sounding equipment. I'm happy with decent. I know you guys have spoken out against the soundbar, but for what I'm trying to accomplish, they are really ideal. I have a Bose Mini Soundlink that sounds unbelievable for its size. I imagine a Bose soundbar with a subwoofer would be decent enough.

The big problem I have with soundbars is the video "volume war" issue that I mentioned above.  If you are watching an old movie (mid-'90s or before), it can sound fantastic on a sound bar.  But not long after that, in an effort to make movies sound more dynamic and push the envelope in sound, studios added so many layers and made sound effects and scores more prevalent and just flat-out louder.  In a theater, that's fine.  But your lower-end home systems, including even "high end" sound bars can't handle that.  I mean, they can in terms of giving you a loud, wall of sound experience.  But for a small room experience, they just don't separate all those layers of sound well enough, and, as I've said, what suffers is the center-channel dialog.  So when you just have characters speaking in conversational tone or speaking softly during non-emotional parts of a movie where the score is not loud, you have to crank the volume to hear them, and then you get your eardrums blown out and you have the dialog drowned out when there are loud sound effects or where the score crescendos.  Sound bars just are not equipped to handle that and separate out the center channel.  You have to have a 5.1 system or better to accomplish that.  The fortunate thing is, you can get a theater-in-a-box pretty cheap these days, and they don't take up much space.

[Podaar]

bosk brings up a great point. If you do go test drive one, make sure to sit at a point typical of your watching distance and watch a long section of dialog to be sure you can hear it well. I find the TV shows Flash, Arrow, and Elementary to be the best examples of dialog deficient shows. If you can clearly hear the dialog on these shows (and not get overwhelmed during the action), or at least be able to adjust the center channel independently, then the Bose might work.