Fell For a Gimmick

[Rickr]

OK, I'll be honest and admit I was duped royally by the soundbar Dolby Atmos hype. I will even admit I fell for it so hard, it took me coming upon this forum by accident to realize I am not happy with my system. I mean, I knew it wasn't delivering the quality I wanted but I kept telling myself "it's good enough" while endlessly fumbling with settings and constantly trying different things to "make it sound better." I can no longer make excuses for a bad purchase so let me say out loud...My VIZIO Dolby Atmos 5.1 Soundbar system SUCKS and was a really poor purchase on my part. Whew! That feels better. =)

Having said that, I am interested in getting a better system. The following is a list of needs and points of consideration. I've been doing my own research but if anyone has any recommendations based on this information, I'd greatly appreciate it.

1. I definitely want a surround sound system.
2. I use my system primarily for music.
3. I hardly ever use the Atmos component of my soundbar because hardly anything uses it and music sounds muddy with it.
4. I always sense a hollowness right in the center every time I listen to music. Nothing seems to fix this.
5. Occasionally the vocals will be loud and sound raw (as in no EQ applied and flat-sounding) while the music sounds distant, even dreamlike at times. This drives me up the wall!!
6. Most of my music is played directly from YouTube. I know that's not the best source for quality but I do ensure the highest quality is selected. I'm aware quality selection is for resolution but I assume the audio is also improved or am I mistaken?
7. No matter the audio quality or source, I can ALWAYS hear a bubbly or crackling noise no matter what. Is this normal? Maybe it's a defect in my brain? lol.
8. My audio systems have always been connected to my computers and I prefer it that way since I don't watch too many movies or play CDs too often so a new system would ideally be compatible with a desktop computer.

I'm not what you'd consider an audiophile although I do tend to be much pickier than your average consumer who is happy literally with anything they can hear. At the same time, I also don't have quite as sophisticated an ear like you lot and have a very limited budget.

I just want a system where I don't feel compelled to endlessly mess with settings every time I play music. I end up staring at the settings menus and remote controls instead of actually listening to music!

Nice to meet you lot by the way. =)

 

[lovinthehd]

Welcome aboard.

1. I'd recommend an avr and appropriate number of speakers and sub(s). What's your budget?
2. Okay....do you have a source for multich music or are you just upmixing 2ch music?
3. I wouldn't expect much from soundbar audio to begin with.
4. Not sure what you're describing, could be many things.
5. Audio quality of your source could be part, as well as what the soundbar can/cannot do.
6. Definitely not the best source at any time. Why the attraction to youtube? One of the last things that comes to mind as a music source myself.
7. What sources particularly? How connected? Shouldn't be normal but I can imagine with some youtube stuff its just the quality of the upload and their streaming quality
8. I don't physically connect my computer to my audio system, I stream it over wifi. I have the option of an hdmi connection if I do want to physically connect it for some reason but I have other gear streaming audio/video as well as optical disc players.

Look up the dictionary definition of audiophile, generally how I view it personally....but realize many have their own interpretation of what it means and it is often marketed strangely. I wouldn't worry about it, it's just generally an interest in high quality (fidelity) audio reproduction.

I rarely change settings for music, generally just the volume level, but my avrs have a way to keep my preferences automatically in any case rather than fiddling about....

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

youtube music could be a decent source of music, I wouldn't expect it to be high-end quality nor to be consistent in quality either.
Soundbars suck. nuff said.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Welcome. Yes, at times lessons learned is expensive.

Hopefully you will get great help from the members.

 

[slipperybidness]

OK, I'll be honest and admit I was duped royally by the soundbar Dolby Atmos hype. I will even admit I fell for it so hard, it took me coming upon this forum by accident to realize I am not happy with my system. I mean, I knew it wasn't delivering the quality I wanted but I kept telling myself "it's good enough" while endlessly fumbling with settings and constantly trying different things to "make it sound better." I can no longer make excuses for a bad purchase so let me say out loud...My VIZIO Dolby Atmos 5.1 Soundbar system SUCKS and was a really poor purchase on my part. Whew! That feels better. =)

Having said that, I am interested in getting a better system. The following is a list of needs and points of consideration. I've been doing my own research but if anyone has any recommendations based on this information, I'd greatly appreciate it.

1. I definitely want a surround sound system.
2. I use my system primarily for music.
3. I hardly ever use the Atmos component of my soundbar because hardly anything uses it and music sounds muddy with it.
4. I always sense a hollowness right in the center every time I listen to music. Nothing seems to fix this.
5. Occasionally the vocals will be loud and sound raw (as in no EQ applied and flat-sounding) while the music sounds distant, even dreamlike at times. This drives me up the wall!!
6. Most of my music is played directly from YouTube. I know that's not the best source for quality but I do ensure the highest quality is selected. I'm aware quality selection is for resolution but I assume the audio is also improved or am I mistaken?
7. No matter the audio quality or source, I can ALWAYS hear a bubbly or crackling noise no matter what. Is this normal? Maybe it's a defect in my brain? lol.
8. My audio systems have always been connected to my computers and I prefer it that way since I don't watch too many movies or play CDs too often so a new system would ideally be compatible with a desktop computer.

I'm not what you'd consider an audiophile although I do tend to be much pickier than your average consumer who is happy literally with anything they can hear. At the same time, I also don't have quite as sophisticated an ear like you lot and have a very limited budget.

I just want a system where I don't feel compelled to endlessly mess with settings every time I play music. I end up staring at the settings menus and remote controls instead of actually listening to music!

Nice to meet you lot by the way. =)

Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery

 

[highfigh]

Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery

No, it's not.

 

[Pogre]

Need a budget to even get started, and possibly an adjustment of expectations. Most music isn't mixed for multichannel playback and upmixing from stereo isn't generally recommended, but doesn't necessarily mean "you're doing it wrong!". It does mean you're artificially altering the way the artists originally meant it to be played back tho.