I just bought a new Sony 77" A95L TV as my old one is getting a bit long in the tooth and feel it is time for an upgrade in size and technology. I want to add a sound bar, sub and rear speakers to complement the improved picture. Not interested in a whole house system, just want one for the single room where the TV resides. I have an OTA antenna and use TIVO to time shift a few programs and at times watch Prime Video, Netflix, You Tube and sometimes view IMSA endurance races on Peacock (go Corvette Racing!).
Being an official "Old F*rt" I want a pretty much issue free system that has very good surround sound. I was quite interested in SONOS due to their apparent good surround sound effects but it seems they have a major glitch in their operating system app and lots of folks are more than ticked off with them to the point of ditching SONOS equipment. I have been researching other sound systems but most seem to be somewhat poorer quality regarding the surround effects than SONOS can provide when it works properly. I prefer to spend a bit more in the initial outlay to get a somewhat future proof system.
I have looked at many brands and each one seems to have some drawbacks. The Samsung Q990D is highly thought of but the HDMI 2.1 on the extra ports does not pass signals properly even though it is supposed to. The Sony system Bar 8 and 9 seem to have lesser sound qualities but better connectivity with the TV. This may be an acceptable alternative. The Sony Theater flat speakers will not work well in my room. Klipsch seem to be another possibility. Please provide some guidance to get me out of this Analysis Paralysis that I am stuck in.

I have an occastional issue with my Sonos (beam/sub/ and 2 "one" speakers) which is usually fixed by updating the app. When I say occasional, maybe twice a year.

I'm very happy with that system.

I'm an old enough f@rt to realize my ears won't be able to discern a difference in quality, but they do need volume. I recently bought a new big TV for our new house. I matched soundbar brand with the TV for interoperability, that was my biggest concern. Both are Samsung, and work really well. Truly plug and play.

Funny story about it though - we were waiting on furniture to put it in the living room, so had it set up in the family room. I was wondering why the sound quality was so crappy. Well, I decided to leave the protective film on the front of the soundbar until it got moved. Makes a difference, and I feel a little stupid....

I have a bunch of Sonos gear in the house and indeed the app can be flakey since they brought in a new version.
I often have to reboot the router to bring the system back.
However it has never affected the TV setup which is an Arc, a Sub and two Play Ones. Just turn on the TV and it all works..

In our prior house, we had a home theater surround system that was pretty good, all hard wired, but it became logistically impossible to have it properly set up in our current house. We have high ceilings and hardwood oak floors so the acoustics coupled with the shitty speakers in our Samsung flatscreen made it necessary to get a soundbar and wireless subwoofer, and we're very pleased with our JBL system. We actually do not miss the higher end system we used to have; at my age, content and being able to clearly listen to dialog are far more important than sound effects and explosions.

I have a Samsung Q990C soundbar system and absolutely love it. It pairs perfectly to by S95B tv and provides outstanding sound when watching the right movie, show or program. I almost went with Sonos but based on a lot of research I decided on the 990C instead of the 990D or Sonos. Hope this helps.

We have both a home theater room with full atmosphere surround sound and a Sonos sound bar in our great room. The home theater clearly has superior sound. However the soundbar, fake Atmos, sounds pretty darn good for a soundbar compared to an 8 speaker setup. We also use it to play music. Very happy with the price/performance! You just don’t get the full 3d effect of sounds moving like in a full surround.

I have a Sonos, but just the soundboard.
The only issue we have with it is trying to play Spotify through the TV. Everything else has been flawless & a huge improvement over the TV speakers.

I have an LG S90TR 7.1 soundbar system paired to an LG 65" OLED. Subwoofer and rear speakers connect wirelessly. All have to be plugged into a wall outlet for power. Sounds pretty good but not as good as my hardwired full blown main system. Paid $700 on cyber Monday but had to kick in another $50 for rear speaker stands.
https://www.lg.com/us/soundbar...ome-theater-soundbar

We moved a year ago, and started from scratch with our tv room here. I had built the system in the previous house just a couple of years prior. I am an old fart who prefers simple reliability without constant fiddling.

Denon receivers have been excellent for us. If you can run speaker wires to all of your speaker locations, I am a big fan of the receiver system. If you cannot run speaker wires to every location, you can use wireless systems but you will need 120v wall power at each location. I would stick with one brand if you do the sound bar to wireless surround speakers solution.

Denon also has a wireless option in the receiver where you can have speakers elsewhere in the house. e.g. the living room. In this house we have wired speakers in the tv room, and wireless in the living room.

The Denon offer a 2 zone option in some of the receivers. A quick overview is your basic surround system is 5.1 which is 5 speakers (center, front left, front right, rear left, rear right), and 1 subwoofer. If you buy a 7.1 or greater capability, with Denon you can reconfigure the extra 2 as a second zone which can be a stereo pair. It can be the same or a different source as your main room surround. Thus you can watch tv in one room and someone else can listen to music in another room. These are all wired speakers.

I don't claim we have the most incredible system, but it sounds really great and was reasonably priced. Very easy to set up. Our Sony tvs have played perfectly with the Denon in both homes. We stream through an AppleTV unit seamlessly, or you can originate from the tv (antenna, cable, internet). Either way the Denon receiver just works without complication.

Speaker choice is a deep rabbit hole! I am very pleased with Elac Debut 2.0 speakers. The sub is an SVS SB-1000 Pro. (Subs need 120v and a speaker cable from the receiver.)

For us the Sony TV, Denon receivers, Elac speakers, and the SVS sub meet a very high standard at a good price point.

The Samsung Q soundbars are hard to beat, and near as I can tell, they all come with a wireless woofer that you could use or not.

No matter what, you'll want to use the port labeled "eARC" on your TV to get everything to work properly and turn on/turn off with your TV.

I don't have any experience with this product, but the maker comes with very good reviews.

If you have (or want to buy) blue tooth speakers, this will send a high fidelity signal to them.

https://theauris.com/products/..._sid=a8bb22fa4&_ss=r

A traditional surround sound system will always outperform a soundbar, even if it has satellite speakers.

I too have a Denon receiver and it’s paired with a simple 5.1 speaker layout. The best part of my system is the subwoofer. I added a Hsu Research sub 10 years ago and my God, I had no idea what I was missing!

JP

quote:

Sony 77" A95L

According to the specs it has a Digital audio out (Optical) format, so get a soundbar with sub that you can connect the optical cable to directly from the TV.

You should be able to default the soundbar to optical input, and tell the TV in setup to play out the optical output.

That way its always going through the soundbar and will be easier to control.

Costco has SONO's and other soundbars, I've run several Vizios without issue other than they don't play well with DTV controllers.

Shouldn't be an issue with your TV remote.

If you run the soundbar through the Optical port instead of the HDMI eArc port, you'll limit the functionality of the modern soundbar.

Here's a good article to read on that:

https://www.rtings.com/soundba...arn/opitical-vs-hdmi

Bose. Purchzse from Bose refurbished direct.

We have sonos in the ceiling, but our installer put in a center channel speaker also.
It matches the dimensions of this one (link)
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-...15c1cb5a8d206bbadc9f

I believe its the Martin Logan motion 8i, sounds great imo. Been running it 3yrs now.

When I went to a wall mount 80” TV I decided to get a sound system. Ended up with Yamaha AV receiver/amp, Klipcsh Tower speakers with rear surround and center channel. DTS/Dolby Atmos compatible, etc.

Sounds great, so great my wife thinks it’s too loud and I only get to enjoy it when she isn’t around

My hifi buddy says the side and rear satellite speakers of a surround system cause him unwanted distractions. I can see people being that way, and for them, a soundbar and a sub would be perfect.

I’m still an AVR 5.1, which includes a Denon AVR, 2 Sony SS-Cs5’s front, Sony SS-Cs8 center, 2 Sony satellites from an older surround system side/rear, and a 10” Klipsch sub.

I’m a hifi guy and like good sound, but I lost interest in having a really good home theater system years ago. Even though my current isn’t top tier, it does the job.

Also, I use my phone or pad to remotely control my AVR’s HEOS app to stream music while not using my hifi system. The AVR system can actually hold its own and would be good for most music listeners.