>zoomers unironically just buy a soundbar instead of a real stereo system

I never owned a sound bar in my life. I get logitech speakers because it reminds me of my grandfathers pc.

>>105577071 (OP)
actually zoomers to worse than that. These things aren't even stereo.

>>105577071 (OP)
>zoomers
OP are you 50? We were doing this in 2010

A soundbar is just different looking "active speakers".
It's easier to consoom small and cute products: dragging a sound bar home from the supermarkets VS dragging home multiple boxes of amp + speakers.
Same reason why laptops are so common.

>>105577559
are you 10? it's basically still 2010

>>105577071 (OP)
People unironically buy speakers instead of just using headphones.

>>105577071 (OP)
I see way more people in their late 20s or early 30s buying these.
Zoomers don't care about audio quality, they listen to all their music or tiktoks on smartphone speakers or chepa bluetooth speakers.

>>105577071 (OP)
They aren't as bad as they used to be and they are nice to upgrade the sound of a 12 year old TV

>>105577071 (OP)
zoomers dont buy speakers
my actual baby boomer grandparents bought a soundbar to replace their old sound system

also what is this 2010 ass thread

Zoomers are chronically online phone zombies. Why would they buy a soundbar? The sound from their phone speaker is adequate enough.

>>105577071 (OP)
Soundbar+sub is all you need for 99% of average listening experience

I really like having a surround sound system with a center channel? Why? Because most sports commentary comes through that channel and I can turn it off. It's nice to watch a game with all the playfield and crowd noise but none of the inane babbling of the talking heads. It also eliminates voices from a large percentage of advertisements.

Soundbar is a normie / woman thing. Don't try to make it a generational thing.

>>105577071 (OP)
What seems to be the problem? Why do (You) care so much about what others buy?

>>105577071 (OP)
I have one, sounds good, great stereo separation, cheap, has separate subwoofer.

Improves TV set audio 1000 times, has Bluetooth, I use it plugged to pc too when I'm not using headphones.

Clueless about what you are implying. It's good tech if you get a decent one.

A good soundbar is $2000 cheaper than a good 5.1

>>105579301
Cheap 5.1 will get you 90% of the way there and only cost a few hundred bucks.

>>105578800
3.1 is the way to go. Surround is for capeshit lovers only.

If I just want to watch tv at low volume in the bedroom with my kid sleeping in the next room should I get one of these?
I currently have a pair of iloud micro monitors connected but want to free those up for my computer.

>>105579301
A $500 used 5.1 beats a $2000 soundbar

>>105577071 (OP)
Apartments

>>105579600
A 200$ soundbar with sub demolishes a 200$ 5.1.....

All depends on money, setup, use cases

>>105577071 (OP)
I don't need 7.1 surround in my 20 sq ft bedroom

>>105577071 (OP)
>soundbar
disgusting

>>105578800
> he doesn't realize that audio gear built for straight white men does the same thing as his cancerous "sound bar"
/g/, everyone.

>>105579874
it's all garbage. yet to hear any of these systems sound good. all low end, very little high end and fuck all mid range.

>>105577922
bad news grandpa, zoomers are in their late 20s

>>105577922
>I see way more people in their late 20s or early 30s buying these.
Those people are actually zoomers
>Zoomers don't care about audio quality, they listen to all their music or tiktoks on smartphone speakers or chepa bluetooth speakers.
You are confusing zoomers and alphoomers

>>105579874
Maybe at $200, but soundbars contain tiny drivers in an essentially mono arrangement. The soundstage is nonexistent and the only reason the sub makes it sound okay is because you have zero channel separation in the first place. 80Hz crossover is not happening on bluetooth speaker tier drivers in a tiny box.
It's a matter of physics. You need separate speakers for channel separation.
I have a $150 five-speaker set from 2000, a $150 sub and a $150 AVR and when calibrated with a $30 mic they are on a completely different level from any $1000+ soundbar setup I've come across.

Audiophile products are dead. They fell out of fashion after snake cables become such a meme.

What's wrong with the speakers on the TV? I hate people who get picky with sound quality. As long as you can understand what is being said the sound is fine.

>>105580186
If you have to ask, then you probably don't need anything more.
You can always use headphones if you never have guests, but it gets uncomfortable if you wear them for more than a couple of hours at a time regularly.

>>105580181
There are still people who enjoy good sound
And spending hundreds on good speakers is not the same as spending hundreds on cables

>>105577071 (OP)
>millennials really spend $5k on a stereo setup that sounds worse than a $299 soundbar

>>105580186
There's no physical depth to TV speakers since the TVs themselves are thin.

>>105580674
TV speakers have used vertical depth and downfiring speakers to compensate for some time now.

>>105580703
Still sound too tinny for my tastes.

>>105579522
>3.1 is the way to go. Surround is for capeshit lovers only.

Listen to any of the Kraftwerk or Pink Floyd quad mixes (preferably Autobahn or Dark Side of the Moon), and you'll change your mind very fast.

>>105577071 (OP)

I hate my soundbar so much. It has HDMI passthrough but the TV tells it to do E-ARC instead. I change it back to HDMI and then it goes to a different HDMI port on the TV itself. Nobody tests this shit.

>>105580181
>They fell out of fashion after snake cables become such a meme.

I don't get this stupid fucking phobia of cables. Just get one of these.

>look up reviews for a 1000€ 5.1 set
>"Ugh I hate these lower end surround sets they are so—"
>alright how about this 2400€ set
>"Ugh these lower end surround sets are so—"

>>105577071 (OP)
i got a nice soundbar for cheap and it sounds great, i just zip-tied it to the underside of my wall-mounted livingroom TV

but i only use my livingroom TV like, 3-4 times a year so i dont see the point in investing in a "real stereo system"

>>105581187
audipophile faggotry is to be ignored if you're buying any audio gear. Seriously. Set your budget and go, speakers are speakers. Just make sure the cabinet/enclosure is the right size and they're not tiny inneffective crappy drivers and you'll probably be ok. The rest is money laundering.

>>105577818
headphones suck dick and are for autistics

>>105577559
>2010
This was a thing in the 60s to 80s too. Mono audio.

It just means that no one can afford stereo anymore. Only the privileged elite can afford stereo systems now.
That's why it dramatically declined after the GFC.

Soon having audio at all will be a privilege.
Love capitalist systems.
State enforced masochism at this stage.
Nobody gets to enjoy anything.

The good shit gets niched to smaller, shrinking elite demand pools until the costs of producing these things cannot tailor to ANY demand pool. Then the product just ... disappears forever and the capital cost for reproducing it becomes more and more out of reach until it becomes merely "antiquated".

AI doesn't care if you cannot see or hear things btw. Goodbye to your screen as well.

>>105577071 (OP)
zoomer are on par with the worst of tech-illiterate boomers
absolutely hopeless

>>105577071 (OP)
> just wire up a 5.1 surround sound for your 400 sq ft studio apartment

>>105577559
The sound bars in 2010 came in 5.1 audio sets, poor people thought the sound bar was some luxury item and those started only buying the sound bar.

>>105578800
>designated whatever niggerball sport speaker

>>105581998
What kind of lame excuse is this? Are you a manchild or a useless woman?
I've wire my entire house with cat6 cable and my master bedroom has a 5.1 sound system installed perfectly.

>>105579911
>> he doesn't realize that audio gear built for straight white men does the same thing as his cancerous "sound bar"
How can I mute the center channel on stereo speakers connected to a PC?

>>105580186
They've been universally dogshit since the form factor changed from crt to flat panel. That is the ONE thing I will give the spamming crtroons: The larger box and larger speakers sizes, in addition to the speakers actually being directed at (You) instead of the table/floor or wall, gave TVs much better audio quality in the CRT era than their native speakers have today.

Modern TV speakers are so shit that even if you tear them out, put them in a proper speaker box, and run them on a high end audio out system, they'll still sound tinny and shitty.

>>105582017
That's not a soundbar, you illiterate fuck. That is literally a full 5.1 surround system. A soundbar is 2-3 speakers in a bar.

>>105581998
My apartment is 320 sqft with a 200 sqft living room and there's plenty of room for a home theater
Skill issue

>>105582040
The point is that it's fucking useless you retard. Why would you need 5.1 surround if your entire living space is a broom closet?

People unironically buy speakers

the tv comes with them! you don't need to buy them separately

whats wrong with soundbars? it give me a place for my anime figures.

>>105582917
It makes a difference even in a 200 sqft living room like mine
Skill issue

>>105577559
Zoomer confirmed lol.

>>105577818
Why would you want headphones? Speakers sound better.

>>105578800
>? Because most sports commentary comes through that channel and I can turn it off.
that's so simple, yet genius. why haven't i heard anyone talk about this before. is there any other media where this would be beneficial?

>>105583217
I have a Monty Python and the Holy Grail Laserdisc with the normal audio on the digital stereo soundtrack, on mono L it's got the Japanese dub, and on mono R it has the director's commentary. Tons of Laserdiscs are like this with three distinct audio tracks.

>>105580833
>I don't get this stupid fucking phobia of cables.
normalfags find them unsightly bc "muh aesthetic" ive never understood it either ive got a rats nest of wires under and around my desk but i know whats plugged into what so i dont really give a shit

>>105583596
Women hate wires. They would rather have a shitty speaker with Bluetooth and an internal battery than something which has to be plugged in at all times.

>>105577071 (OP)
They buy soundbars instead of a real surround system and surround is just as cancerous. Thank God the whole movie ecosystem is dying. Stereo is its own thing. Nobody buys soundbars for music.

>>105583069
> a small living room is the same as a small entire living space.
Thanks for the commentary retard.

>>105585082
??
My apartment is not much bigger than that
I don't see the problem

>>105585511
How would you feel if you didn't have breakfast this morning?

>>105577071 (OP)
nah i use desktop booksheft speakwrs, dont need no memebar

>>105582706
It's called a Home Theater in a Box (HTiB) and it's just as anemic as any soundbar

>>105577071 (OP)
Don't talk to me or my son if your subwoofer isn't at least 15 inches

>>105583236
Laserdiscs are fucking awesome, I just wish they used a better system for subtitles, and that AC3/DTS was easier to get. For AC3 I need to mod my player and get a $300 RF decoder (or a god tier 1990s AVR), for DTS it's like 1-300$ per disc...

>>105586982
I don't care for surround sound so for me it's not a problem.

>>105587001
It's just the idea of not being able to get the most out the tech I have, it irritates me. I already have a dozen or two AC3 discs.

>>105581382
>Only the privileged elite can afford stereo systems now.
i looked at buying a standard reciever recently and the prices are ridiculous. it's so bad it'd almost be worth my time to order the basic components online and solder it myself.

>>105577071 (OP)
imagine using speakers. i just wear headphones
t. zoomer

>>105582987
this seems like one of those things a youtube 'audiophile' made an essay about and zoomers go around repeating it as tryhard gospel

guess what i dont give a fuck if a soundbar is efficient audio or not

i would love to conduct a study with audiophiles and trial running 5 headphones in the 20 dollar range and then 5 headphones in the 1000 dollar range. i bet most couldnt tell the difference reliably. its just snobby consumerism by dumbasses that dont actually know anything

>>105581382
Are you fat?

>>105587048
It depends what you want from a receiver. You can easily get high end stuff used for $200 or so plus shipping as long as you don't mind not getting the latest model. Just last week I've seen a 2016 Atmos enabled onkyo for $150, one of the RZ models too so not the low end garbage.

They only cost a ridiculous amount if you want the whole enchilada (8k/hdr+/vrr/wifi+bluetooth/atmos/dts:x/dirac), or if you are buying the retard tier ones where the brand costs more than the components (from Marantz and above they all get stupid overpriced).

>>105587075
I think they've done blind tests and typically most people cant tell if all the test equipment is in good enough territory. So yeah most people really dont need anything beyond the 150-200 dollar range.

>>105577071 (OP)
people didn't notice we all got crammed into smaller and smaller places until we were not able to use big speakers for fear of pissing off our neighbors. then soundbars became a thing because if you whisper you might not upset all 5 of your neighbors.

>>105587075
You also gotta consider perception too
https://youtu.be/V3HF8KlkbPA

>>105577071 (OP)
who?

Hate speakers, I got hearing lost.

>>105587158
Hope you find your way back anon

>>105577071 (OP)
soundbars are cheap bro
doing speakers correctly is not worth the effort

>>105586982
>>105587029
is lossless ripping not an option for laserdisc?

>>105587461
Not yet. Maybe when 24-bit ADCs with an appropriately wide bandwidth are more widely available. You need about what, 12 MHz of bandwidth, 16?

>>105577071 (OP)
They probably can't afford a real stereo system and also have neither the knowledge to shop 2nd hand nor the attention span to learn about it.

>>105587151
>we all got crammed into smaller and smaller places
What's this "we" bullshit? Not of us aren't retarded enough to live on the coast. 1600 sq ft on a 1.2 acre property lets me watch whatever I want, whenever I want, at whatever volume I want. I can't however walk to a barcade down the street from a soi hive condo that morons think is desirable. Go ahead and make a joke about us "flyover" folks. No doubt your neighbors will all laugh since they can hear everything through your paper thin walls. Well, that is if they speak English, which there's a good chance they don't.

>>105587461
>>105587791
There is a way. However, It is neither easy nor cheap as you need to store a 40Mhz signal at 10bit resolution minimum for lossless captures. Looks like it's around 170 GB/hour.
https://techdocs.exodusemulator.com/Console/PioneerLaserActive/Laserdisc.html
https://github.com/simoninns/DomesdayDuplicator/wiki/Overview

>>105587853
If you build a apartment with good walls you'll never hear your neighbor retard.

I have some random old 5.1 sound system chilling in a box (I got it for free when my workplace closed down). Would it be bad if I used only use 3 speakers since it would be really unsightly to set it up properly

I can spend $400 on a good sound bar, it plugs in with 1 cable and its fills my living room with good sound.

Or I can spend months reviewing numbers, researching which hand-wound spider magnets produce the best sound, getting solid silver cables and power isolators for the best sine wave to interfere with the vacuum tube amplifier and spend $9000 on speakers then spend another month tuning for each kHz range and my wife divorces me because I'm an audiophile now.

Gee OP, why do people just buy soundbars?

>>105577071 (OP)
Let me guess, you need more?

>>105577071 (OP)
i just use headphones

>>105587461
It's an analog video signal, so no, not really. You can capture the RF stream which is as close as possible to full quality ripping, but it's not "lossless" on account of there being no data error correction.

>>105581187
Audiophiles are legitimately some of the most deranged people on the planet who consider anything under $10k entry level, don't even bother with these people, their insanity is on a whole different level.

>there are people who think everybody who owns something better than a sound bar has fallen for a meme and is a sucker
Sounds like apartment / dorm dweller cope to me. Admit it, kids - you live in tenaments and you're not ALLOWED to have speakers lol.

>>105591510
a decent audio setup costs a little over 1k total and most of the money goes to the subwoofer and receiver; good speakers cost about 200. a setup like this destroys any soundbar in whatever price range, and pretty much all decent receivers nowdays come with auto calibration with software like audyssey or dirac, etc. the only thing you really have to do manually aside from the installation is to set the subwoofer phase to the correct position.
there is no fucking reason to waste money on a soundbar

>>105596635
Poorfags and wagies live in cagies where they are not allowed speakers.

They cope by claiming anybody who owns a real sound system is an 'audiophool' and must therefore be retarded.

>>105577071 (OP)
A good sounbar system such as a Bose is perfectly adequate. I have two 5.1 systems and a Bose 2.1 soundbar with a wireless subwoofer and it is fantastic because frankly it sounds fantastic and there is no mess of wires to deal with.

>>105597602
>A good sounbar system such as a Bose
I mean which one? Any one? Sounds pretty cool eh?

>>105596635
If you get them used, you can manage with $500-700. You don't necessarily need eARC or a THX certified sub for a setup that beats soundbars.

>>105577818
People unironicaly use headphones instead of just using their brain and imagining sounds

>>105598548
Nah there is no way to peg it and you can start with anything. Most shitty '60s-80s speakers blow away all sound bars. Bigger = better, the WATTS of the amp is not critical because you don't listen at painful levels anyhow.

>>105577071 (OP)
I use earbuds and then put my gun earmuffs ontop of them, I value not hearing what the fuck is going on around me.
I've thought about putting headphones ontop of my earbuds though but i'm not sure what i'd be doing with two separate sound outputs.

>>105580809
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekEu13d-bMY

>>105598548
used receivers are kinda sketchy since you cant know how much they've been in use and how much its been abused, its dac, etc. and new speakers can be just as good or better than old ones.
also having a sub is basically mandatory. it elevates sound quality way too much to pass on it. even an 8inch woofer is fine, especially if the room its in is small. my canton power sub 8 is running at like -20db and i can still hear it in every room in my flat, but at least i havent gotten any noise complaints yet.

>>105599010
I didn't mean leaving the sub out, I meant that just an 8" sub with like 27Hz tuning is enough. You don't really need 20Hz in a small apartment, but below 30Hz is good to have.
And yeah finding a working AVR is tough.

During Covid I made my first 5.1 surround setup using a 5.1 soundcard , 3 separate thrift store 2.0 stereos and a bunch of thrift / junk speakers.
It worked decently. I'm pretty sure I spent more money on speaker wire than on the rest of the hardware

>>105577071 (OP)
you sure I dont even use my tv I watch everything on my phone and tablet now, why would i need a soundbar when i have headphones which give arguably the best sound quality up close and personal

sound systems and bars are obsolete now, it was for people trying to recreate a cinema

Thats why i laugh at people like nerdrotic, and his gang they are all old people hanging on to some stupid form of watching stories no one cares anymore

I just need a setup for crisp clear movie audio. If I was audiophile, I'd have a separate music room with big bowers and wilkins. I don't enjoy anything in between about anything

>>105577071 (OP)
>old 90s 5.0 speaker set from my uncle for free
>$40 hdmi receiver off of craigslist
>$20 sub from a thrift store
>borrowed speaker wire from a tech friend
Just go used, my setup sounds better than any soundbars I've had the displeasure of listening to

For me I completely understand people spending a ton on a surround-sound system for the immersive experience it brings, but when it's just front-facing speakers? I don't really see enough added benefit over just using the TV's own speakers, at least for my TV.

I can fit a 5.1 into my 85 ft^2 living room. Talk me out of it.

>>105603052
no, fuck you. you should be smart enough to make your own decesions

>>105581382
You're retarded. You can buy a stereo setup or an entire fucking surround system for significantly LESS than most of these dumb soundbars cost. Nobody's forcing you to buy overpriced top of the line components. People are practically giving stuff away on the used market, because nobody wants it. It takes up too much space, is too much of a hassle and they don't really care. Your average normalfaggot isn't interested in having a "hi-fi" experience. They just bring up Netflix, watch their slop on a low bitrate stream and the only sound-related issue that crosses their mind is whether it's loud enough. Flat screen TV speakers are weak as piss, so they buy a soundbar that just sits in front of the TV, takes up no space and sounds "good enough" for their needs.

>>105603157
yeah, I have like 4 AVRs, two I got for free, one I bought used for almost nothing because it sold for almost nothing due to being pre-4k, and finally bought a 8k one for half price because a good deal came up (that last one cost more than my entire speaker/avr setup to that point).

>>105577071 (OP)
Let me guess...

>>105582039
you're ESL. that anon says he likes having it set up so that their niggerballsports speaker can be muted. when you dont have the speakers set up for surround it wont let you as easily mute certain channels. Though in an ideal world all software would let you edit surround channels as if in an emulator which is then divided among the speakers you actually have.

>>105603157
An entire surround sound setup is pretty anti-minimalist.
People don't want speakers if it means they take up space and get put in awkward positions because the signals demand it
If it doesn't go in the wall, chances are people don't want it these days.

>>105603888
>People don't want speakers if it means they take up space and get put in awkward positions because the signals demand it

iirc Atmos setup specifically allows you to put all speakers whereever, and then you use the setup with the microphone for the AVR to measure where they are and mix all sounds accordingly (Atmos is object based, not channel based). obviously that will only help with the most modern movies that have their sound specifically mixed in Atmos...

>cheap soundbar just works with ARC
>cheap 5.1 system doesn't fucking work because it's old and came outwhen ARC was fresh on the market
Only thing normies care about is plug and play

>>105604517
Doesn't that imply that a channel-based mix, being assumed "perfect" should be able to be re-mixed into Atmos in real time by a filter?

>>105604558
>knowing or caring what ARC is

>>105604558
>just works with ARC
Until it doesn't 20% of time for no fucking reason

>>105604900
>for no fucking reason
Probably Dolby licensing issue.
Manufacturers have to pay to read the audio from HDMI.

>>105604517
I think you're still supposed to put them in roughly standard positions though?
If you don't have any speakers behind you for example there's no way of making sound come from the rear.
And a center speaker under the screen is also pretty essential to make dialogue come from the screen (but then that's what a simple sound bar is perfect for).

>>105604979
>I think you're still supposed to put them in roughly standard positions though?

Obviously, yeah. And it only helps for object based audio, and everything predating Atmos will not have that.

Any of you use Fmod for ambience?

>>105604558
One of my friends has a $700 soundbar that loses ARC connection when one of the devices plugged into it is shut down before the tv, only fixable by unplugging the tv for a 60 seconds.
Also his earlier Samsung tv transcoded the audio stream before handing it off, causing extreme audio latency in games unless he used plain stereo PCM. This was probably caused by the soundbar not being from Samsung.
It doesn't "just work".

i use soundbars for my tvs. works great. i have traditional speakers for my pcs though.

>>105603783
the "speaker" he meant was the device, you monolingual mutt

>>105607690
>It doesn't "just work".
"just werk" does not mean it's reliable. it means it requires no effort or thought to use, even if it sucks.
normgroids will put up with the most asinine and embarrassing product failures as long as they get to be lazy

>>105607722
Care to write short review? I kinda want to use it for my telly as well because it looks cleaner

>>105607690
>>105604558
ARC never fucking works properly. Neither does HDMI-CEC (which is just the last of the loooooooong line of attempted automations in the AV industry).

>>105577071 (OP)
I'm a millenial and my good friend whose stereo fuse likely blew in his car (and he won't pay to get it fixed) literally bought an Onn sound bar from Wal-Mart and has it sitting across his dashboard and uses Bluetooth to play music on his commutes/drives.

I'm waiting for the day he stops short or gets in an accident and that thing flies into his face sigh

I sadly have a crappy Onkyo HTiaB still because I didn't know better a decade ago. I'll upgrade the receiver and speakers eventually.

>>105609311
arc has always worked fine for me. maybe you should stop buying cheap chinese crap or dogshit connectors.

>>105577071 (OP)
>be boomer dad
>buy soundbar
>put it in front of TV
>which already had speakers built into it

>>105577071 (OP)
Bro we are getting old fr. Focus your hate on gen alpha or something, you really sound obsessed at this point