Currently I’m just using the built-in speakers in my Sony OLED TV. They’re not horrible (it has the feature where it “vibrates” the screen somehow), but I recently tried a couple of Apple HomePod Minis and the sound was way better.
My player is Apple TV 4K - a mix of 1080p and 4K content. Also music videos/concerts so a decent soundstage is kinda important.
I don’t want to spend a huge amount of money, but was leaning towards 3.1.2 for number of channels. Room isn’t huge or anything. Perfect digital isn’t necessarily as important either (my almost 60 year old ears don’t hear as much as they used to lol).
Looking for suggestions, things to watch out for, etc.
What’s a “huge amount of money”, do you have an actual budget?
I love my Samsung Q990D, it’s an Atmos soundbar, sounds amazing, has rear speakers and outstanding bass - for $2000 I’ll probably never need another soundbar, only thing missing is Dolby Vision passthrough for the HDMI ports, but my TV has Dolby Vision.
I like using the site rtings.com as solid reviews and recommendations. That and consumer reports together is pretty solid mix of good information with analytics information you can look at yourself to help decide. Rtings.com breaks out lots of tech specs and feature details that are hard to pin down from manufacturers sometimes too.
Most soundbars are “fine” really and the differences aren’t things you’d mostly notice unless you heard them in comparison (same with lots of things). Your brain kinda just gets used to it otherwise. Any soundbar will be better than built in speakers.
My feature recommendations to look for would be:
At least 3.1 channel (not 2.1 or 2.0) - that center channel makes a HUGE difference for dialogue. You won’t feel the need to turn on subtitles to hear people talk. Having bass routed to a subwoofer also helps a lot with clarity.
Good audio support for TrueHD\DTS-MA and DD+Atmos. The Atmos support in those audio codecs are really really useful not just for full 7.1\9.1 surround systems but also for downmixing very well.
Passthrough support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+; TVs that don’t support passthrough of audio can be bypassed by connecting streaming boxes to the soundbar but not all soundbars will passthrough video codecs to the TV (my older Samsung soundbar doesn’t support Dolby Vision and my TV doesn’t support TrueHD passthrough so using Shield I’d have to pick if I want TrueHD audio or Dolby Vision video … can’t have both). This will depend a bit on your equipment… Shield didn’t work for me so just sticking with Roku which will always transcode TrueHD and can passthrough DTS and DD+Atmos so no DV passthrough is fine.
Most TVs won’t passthrough those HD audio streams if they aren’t sourced from a connected BluRay player with the certified handshake. No TV or streaming device is expecting TrueHD\DTS-MA from any other source than a physical bluray disc. So apps like Plex or Emby or Infuse won’t be supported to send TrueHD or DTS-MA to connected audio devices via the TV passthrough.
Some TVs will pass the DTS core from a DTS-MA audio track (that’s what my Roku TV does - it supports DTS passthrough natively). That support for DTS via Arc\Optical listed there makes me think your TV will likely do that too (and passthrough standard DTS).
AppleTV doesn’t support DTS or HD audio so TrueHD\DTS-MA\DTS won’t work no matter how you connect it. Infuse converts to LPCM and Plex transcodes to AC3 I think. As far as I know Nvidia Shield is still the only device that will send out TrueHD\DTS-MA audio.
I’m not sure how AppleTV is handling Dolby Digital (DD)+Atmos these days? I don’t have one myself but through there was some hit or miss there? Most TVs will passthrough DD+Atmos which is what you get from streaming services so that will typically passthrough just fine if your local media is encoded with that instead of TrueHD\DTS-MA. My Roku devices send it through just fine.
Functionally not really that much different in sound quality having Atmos data stripped out of HD audio streams. I have 5.1.4 soundbar and satellite setup and the difference between native TrueHD and stripped\transcoded TrueHD isn’t hugely significant. There’s a difference for sure - Saving Private Ryan opening scene in TrueHD is immersive - but often the “regular” surround is pretty solid. I rip to TrueHD\DTS-MA in hopes of future compatibility.
This stuff gets into some really annoying home media issues to manage as streaming devices and AV equipment enforce the “standards” and getting some of the audio\video support is locked behind copyright protection and license fees.
But… SSA subs used to be the niche of anime fansubs and now it’s supported on most devices (not Roku… bastards) so there’s hope.
If you want to make your wallet (and probably your wife) panic a bit check out the Sony Theatre System 6 since you already have a Sony OLED! LOL and also check used prices as well for the higher end soundbars you can usually find really good prices that way if you are in the US.
Thanks for the recs - I’m pretty good at scouting out bargains, either via Facebook Marketplace or Best Buy open box/refurbished. I do use Infuse and the majority of my 4K content is remuxes.
I am trying to avoid having rear speakers - mainly because the furniture in our living room isn’t really setup for them. I know we won’t get a true surround experience but anything will be better than what we currently have.
