5.1 vs 3.1 vs soundbar

[ALAYTON81]

Due to the size and layout of my lounge, I have the TV (Pioneer Kuro 42") on a stand in the corner of the room, facing a corner sofa in the opposite corner.

Using my current stand, the only options for home cinema would be (1) a soundbar, ie one of the expensive versions from Yamaha such as the YSP-2200; or (2) the Cambridge Audio Minx speakers or similar, and if I went for this option I might just be able to persuade my wife to stretch to a 5.1 set-up (these types of speakers are the only ones she would possibly agree to place around the room!). The siting of the rear speakers would not be ideal, though.

Due to space constraints, I cannot put larger speakers next to the TV or on the stand itself, because they would obstruct the screen. The third option therefore would be to change the stand, get a cantilever stand to raise the TV a bit, and then go for larger speakers sitting on the stand itself in a 3.1 set-up (front left and right and centre channel). Budget is not a particular issue, so if I went for this latter option I could go for something the like the B&W MT-1s in 3.1 format.

Does anyone have a view on which of these three set-ups they would go for?

 

[keyphie]

Hi

I had similar problems, i.e. small rooms and two TV's (in different rooms) to beef up and provide a reasonable music system. I’d also been spending on an extension to the house, bathrooms furniture etc so the budget was pressed to the more modest side.

Solution one, with a Sony 32 inch on a rather neat John Lewis cantilever stand was to press into service my original B&W Zeppelin as a sound bar, looks great, sounds good

Solution two was to wall mount the 40 inch (now Samsung, the Sony broke and JL couldn’t get a replacement) with a Q Acoustics Q TV behind it. Very neat, sounds good enough for the use.

The additional of Apple TV and small hard drives, velco’ed behind each, expands possibilities nicely with Airplay from or IPhones or ITunes. All in all very space efficient and in small (12 foot rooms) a big enough sound ;-)

Hope this helps

Keith