Can a Good Soundbar Rival a True Surround-Sound System in a Blind Listening Test?
The debut of the audio/video receiver in the 1980s spawned the home theater industry and inspired millions of people to pack their dens with speakers. But these days, it seems the popularity of AV receivers has fallen somewhere below that of bedbugs and above that of Justin Bieber’s mustache. This is due in part to the rise of the soundbar, which promises better performance than you can get from your TV’s built-in speakers in an easier-to-handle, less room-encompassing package than a full-fledged home theater system.
For a long time, pretty much every soundbar sacrificed sonic performance for a smaller, plug-and-play setup, but the category has come a long way. Many of today’s high-performance soundbars support the more-immersive Dolby Atmos and DTS:X surround-sound formats, which add overhead and height effects and allow them to approach the enveloping, dynamic sound of an AV-receiver-based surround-sound system.
The impressive performance we’ve heard from the best new soundbars has left Wirecutter’s audio/video team wondering: Is there any reason left for a typical movie fan to bother with an AV receiver, as well as the required five (or seven or nine or 11) speakers plus subwoofer? We decided to try to answer this question in the most scientific way possible—through a head-to-head showdown.
