Life's Trade Off in our equipment setup.

[Sdk]

for much better and simplest connection : AVB (Audio_Video_Bridging) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Bridging

 

[Todd Anderson]

There's also the WISA standard for wireless. 16bit/48kHz... I'm surprised it hasn't taken off. Although, Unless you have battery powered speakers, you still have to account for a power cord.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

there are some wireless speaker product out there that perform well (Wifi/BT AptX), and should be enough for Surround Channel

I have not seen an acceptable solution for multichannel yet.

 

[3dbinCanada]

I think using ceilings as surrounds is perfectly do-able. In fact, I've heard a complete home theater systems made only using inceiling channels and it was incredibly convincing - it was a GoldenEar demo at CEDIA circa 2017 (maybe?).

As long as a system with inceilings for surrounds is properly calibrated, I think you're fine!

It works for me but its still not as good as having them at ear level.

 

[3dbinCanada]

My theater room is also dedcated and even when it wasn't dedicated, it was a place in the home where tradeoffs between aestetics and equipment didn't need to happen.

That said, we do have a TV in our living that, until recently, did have any external sound help. It's always been a space where minimal room impact (equipment-wise) was valued. Due to some renovations, we gained just enough extra space to discretely add a soundbar and I'm thrilled with the addition.

Sound bars have their place and I'm not against them. Both spare bedrooms have a soundbar based system.

The bigger bed room is equipped with a JBL system featuring a 10" bottom firing sub. It packs a punch and over all, the system sounds really good. Stereo imaging isn't a thing when listening to two channel music.

The smaller bedroom is powered by a Monoprice surround bar system. This system gets moved to the trailer/cottage during the camping months.

 

[JStewart]

The bigger bed room is equipped with a JBL system featuring a 10" bottom firing sub.

 

[Sdk]

That reminds me, was it Meyer Sound that has some kind of setup that has in ceiling LCR speakers aimed at the screen so the sound seems like it's coming directly from the screen? I wonder if that really works at all.

height channel speaker works very well, some sounds direction are in front of us and at the height level