Solfaur:

I've been extremely out of the loop in regards to speakers as I've relied on my good old Z5500s for ~12+ years. In the eventuality that it will finally die some day (or that I'll upgrade), how do these soundbar setups compare to a good old 5.1? Alone from a convenience POV, I like the idea of not having to drill holes in the wall for the rear speakers and deal with all those cables etc. But what about sound quality and that "spatial" sound?

I use the little brother with Asus Xonar D2X pcie and i won't change it.

tiny drives, woofer on bottom pane, rgb on speaker, no analogue, no optical or hdmi but a damn usb.. I bet even the software needs a internet connection to work...rejected.

Solfaur:

I've been extremely out of the loop in regards to speakers as I've relied on my good old Z5500s for ~12+ years. In the eventuality that it will finally die some day (or that I'll upgrade), how do these soundbar setups compare to a good old 5.1? Alone from a convenience POV, I like the idea of not having to drill holes in the wall for the rear speakers and deal with all those cables etc. But what about sound quality and that "spatial" sound?

first time I changed my z5500 pod since it was basically no more working properly. second time I simply changed the 1F main capactiator with few cents after the original started producing a high tone whistle on analogue mode.... Also added some pi4b heatsinks to better spread the heat.. still working like a charm after 15 yeras and a proper APO EQ to adjust a little the frequency response. Biggest issue with the z5500 is people dunno that the speaker set passive crossover works best if.. you simply don't interfere with it.

Dolby makes Atmos accessible for both lossless and compressed (streaming) playback. there can be a big difference but as an audiophile i've found the difference akin to buying a remastered classic recording vs. original digital release. something like what Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac et al... have been doing. where Dolby (streaming) compresses is primarily the four Atmos channels for height (front & rear) and the rear channels they use a lossless codec for the front three and side channel). this requires a far lower bit rate than either the Master or the Blu-Ray. indeed for the Blu-Ray it is a lossless codec for every channel so that is far lower than anything close to 3+Gb/s i've worked very closely with Dolby engineers over the years and have had a S.O.T.A. surround system since 1984 (mainly from working for their largest licensee). for certain films i've bought several versions (of the same film) in several formats over the years - LaserDisc, Beta, VHS, DVD, (& 3D dvds), and Blu-Ray. i built a media server in 1995 (and had to directly rip LaserDiscs and later DVD) so if i talk about a film like "Blade Runner", "Star Wars" (1st trilogy), etc... you can rest assured i'm talking about the Dolby Atmos version. so when i say something like "Blade Runner" sounds better in Dolby Atmos it's not because extra data popped out of nowhere (it didn't), it's just the main 5.1 has more detail, clarity (sound&vision), and dynamic pacing than the older codecs could achieve. on a newer film recorded in Atmos is where the rubber meets the road a really good film with a great soundtrack is "Gravity" where the sound effects are necessary to maintain the illusion. i own the Blu-Ray, and i've streamed it too. yes you can hear the difference, but each person has to decide on their willingness to store data vs streaming. and Blu-Rays take up a lot of room both physical and data-wise. what the actual usage is has really been changed by the streaming services. for the cost of an equivalent single blu-ray a month i have every streaming service i'm interested in. so it's also a cash savings. after Disney+ came out (with 4K, HDR, Atmos and IMAX enhanced) i was able to clear out an entire SSD of Marvel movies. for specialist blu-rays (music, concerts, some nature) i keep them on hand in the cabinet so i can get my audiophile jollies, but for the most case i stream nowadays like most people.

tunejunky:

Dolby makes Atmos accessible for both lossless and compressed (streaming) playback. there can be a big difference but as an audiophile i've found the difference akin to buying a remastered classic recording vs. original digital release. something like what Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac et al... have been doing.

I agree, even newer releases like the last one from GVF are a completely different experience once heard in DA which also works with a 5.0 setup, I got some bass heavy front and back speakers so no need for the additional sub. Funny fact, GVF even modified their live equipment to get close to that sound. On top of lossless and compression there is also lossless compression I believe? Which exact format the different companies use I can't say, since they just label it as lossless and Dolby Atmos, but makes sense to have the difference between channels like you're describing.

Who is crazy enough to buy an overpriced, cheaply made, Razer product? If this is anything like their mice, expect the speaker to blow the week the warranty runs out. They suck and you are suckers if you even consider this. Yes, I was stung by Razer several times. They can go expletive.

tunejunky:

Dolby makes Atmos accessible for both lossless and compressed (streaming) playback.

Streamed Atmos it sounds exactly the same as PL2z with DD5.1. I would switch between the two on Netflix and am convinced that they are just encoding what their PL algorithms would come up with in real time.

Mineria:

I agree, even newer releases like the last one from GVF are a completely different experience once heard in DA which also works with a 5.0 setup, I got some bass heavy front and back speakers so no need for the additional sub. Funny fact, GVF even modified their live equipment to get close to that sound. On top of lossless and compression there is also lossless compression I believe? Which exact format the different companies use I can't say, since they just label it as lossless and Dolby Atmos, but makes sense to have the difference between channels like you're describing.

it's the custom lossless (multi-channel) & semi-lossless (streaming) codec designed in house. there is a very high quality (440+ kbps) lossy streaming codec for the four height channels and the rear channels but the front, center, and sides are lossless. so when you cue up a dvd (of the last ten years) the streaming services sound better if your equipment is Atmos enabled but if you don't have an Atmos receiver/pre-amp/soundbar it will sound pretty much the same.

Meh, I'll keep my vastly superior Presonus Eris studio monitors for ~half the price. I will never buy anything made/rebranded by Razer again anyway since they did the $120 Boomslang mouse thing back in the early 2000's, where they sold defective junk for absurd prices, then "went out of business" to avoid honoring the warranty, only to re-emerge with new over-priced Chinese junk later. Razer and Creative labs are both on my "boycott forever" list. Dirty, low down companies, both of them.

Personally I have nothing hooked up at the moment, except my old Sennheiser HD570 from like 20 years ago. They work fine still, through a Soundblaster X AE or whatever it is ... I had to move away from my Asus D2X because it was doing weird things with the additional power, making the onboard amp drop out randomly. Normally I'd have a pair of old Bang & Olufsen S45 speakers that I inhereted from my granddad hooked up to a small ~10ish years old NAD amp.

What's the opinion on the Panasonic SC-HTB01PP (Soundslayer)? Thinking of buying that one. 99% of the time I use headphones which I recently replaced with Hifiman Edition XS because the older ones failed after 5 years and a week later the Logitech Z313 PSU also gave up....I don't need anything out of this world since maybe I only use speakers once a week. Will the Cummins engine turbo whistle and jake break in ATS sound great? 😛 Having just a soundbar is nice since it doesn't take space.

For the same money you can get a pair of JBL-LSR305's that will blow this out of the water.

I had a Logitech Z5500 + Creative Surround Station (I think it was called this, or something similar), it allowed me to suspend the rear speakers behind me. Let me tell you when I played a racing game and drove into a tunnel, the echo and enclosed area sounded so real. When I played Dead Space for the first time, those metallic clanging coming from my rear speakers actually startled me. Nothing beats a good 5.1 setup, for sure! I now have an LG DTS:X and ATMOS capable soundbar for my main rig. As for my HTPC, I have a Philips Fidelio DTS:X, ATMOS and IMAX Enhanced soundbar, the thing I like about it is that the side speakers can be detached to act as rear speaker for that true 5.1 Surround experience. My 2nd rig has a simple yet great sounding Philips Fidelio, I use it for music mostly, and some movies.