While I appreciate all the suggestions for an entirely different system, that isn’t going to happen. I bought each component (soundbar/sub/rears) at different outlets (due to availability), and I suspect that the only part that I would be permitted to return would be these RS5 speakers due to the short passage of time since purchase (Amazon). But I wouldn’t feel right about it, as I still feel that there is a good possibility that there is some setting/setup issue that might be at the root of it all. I also am not able to run wires to any rear speakers in our new place, so they do need to be wireless. If it turns out that their present performance is all they will do, then I will just live with it, having them do “just ok” with the latest content and the latest audio tech.
This also reminds me of a related thing which dovetails into all of this, and that is my experience with the purchase about two months ago of the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones. I have never even tried or used any of the recent headphone offerings, but decided on getting a pair for those action/shoot-‘em-up movies that I like, which my wife doesn’t. Again, we just moved into a condo/townhouse development a few months ago, and now have neighbors who we need to be considerate of for noise, so the headphones would obviously allow me to enjoy those movies at a higher volume.
Well, I was absolutely gob-smacked by the quality of the audio with the headphones. Not only was the bass surprisingly good, but the utter clarity and separation of the audio was astounding, especially with what had become one of my pet peeves over the years with most all modern films – the speech/vocal component! It seems that we were often rewinding certain clips of a movie because we couldn’t hear what the hell they were saying. They are often either whispering or mumbling, or the background music is far far too loud and dominating. The headphones somehow provide a level of audio clarity that I find mind-blowing, and if I am going to be watching a movie by myself, then the headphones are always used now. The difference is simply night & day.
It’s still a requirement to have a good “non-headphone” sound system though, for all those times when there are two or more viewers.