Sound bar with atmos under 500$ usd

[bronsonj]

Hey guys! I’m looking for a sound bar under 500$ usd and am looking for some help.

I found a few that I am interested in but do not have a mic for auto eq. 
im not a home theater audio expert and am hoping someone has a suggested sound bar that has auto eq with microphone. 

ps sorry if this should go to audio and not home theater. 
 

I am also not opposed to traditional surround sound but am limited in budget and don’t think I could swing a receiver and speakers under my budget. Thanks!

[Motifator]

I'm mostly a fan of stereo myself, as some of the best of the best sound setups on earth even tend to be that way. I can understand wanting surround though.

You might be able to grab a decent receiver plus two speakers, then more as time progresses.

[bronsonj]

6 minutes ago, Motifator said:

I'm mostly a fan of stereo myself, as some of the best of the best sound setups on earth even tend to be that way. I can understand wanting surround though.

You might be able to grab a decent receiver plus two speakers, then more as time progresses.

I didn’t even think of that as an option! 
I will look into that. Really I just want clear audio and good bass. 
my main concern is setting up the eq so it doesn’t sound funky in my weird shaped room. 
also main reason I am looking more towards a sound bar is fitment. 
it will live in my living room but will need to pull double duty on movie night.

[king_thenorth]

2 hours ago, bronsonj said:

I didn’t even think of that as an option! 
I will look into that. Really I just want clear audio and good bass. 
my main concern is setting up the eq so it doesn’t sound funky in my weird shaped room. 
also main reason I am looking more towards a sound bar is fitment. 
it will live in my living room but will need to pull double duty on movie night.

I got a referbished LG SN11RG on ebay for about $500. So if you don't mind factory referbished or open boxed, I would check those out.

[sm1th5]

Second hand av receiver and bookshelves is your only option at your tiny budget. An av receiver alone is 500 dollars easy.

 

You can always add more speakers later when budget allows you to. And it's alot better than a terrible soundbar 

[IPD]

I really don't know of any quality setups with ATMOS for <$500.  That's usually the floor price and it goes up from there.  Probably best to piecemeal it a bit at a time--as suggested above.

[cmndr]

On 7/20/2022 at 3:26 PM, bronsonj said:

I will look into that. Really I just want clear audio and good bass.

In that instance you'll probably want two decent bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer. MAYBE two side speakers if you can get them into the budget.

For L+R you'd probably want something like an Emotiva B1+, ELAC Debut 2.0 5.25" or Polk ES15.

For the Amp/Receiver: Aiyima A07 (only for 2.1) or something for around $100, used off craigslist (you might be able to find something with EQ features).

For a subwoofer - If you're able to basically ANYTHING from SVS, Rel, Hsu, Monolith. You can find stuff as low as $250 off of craigslist and FB Marketplace.

If you're fine with less bass - Dayton Audio SUB-1000 and Dayton Audio SUB-1200 are reasonable buys

 

Be aware, I haven't touched on speaker wire. It's cheap. Oxygen Free copper and don't worry a ton about spending $$$$ on it. If you need additional connectors it's usually RCA cables (also cheap) from the TV to the amp (or an HDMI cable) and a coaxial RCA cable to the subwoofer.

 

 

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As touched on, $500ish is a pretty minimal budget. A referbished LG SN11RG or similar isn't too bad at that level. It won't have the best bass. It won't image sound as well as it could. But it should pretty much just work.