You would probably like the Klipsch. Very balanced with great dialogue. Music is very good. You can use any subwoofer since it has a sub out along with wireless connection to their Flexus Subs. I'm currently using it with a Speedwoofer 10E sub.
I’ve been happy with my Klipsch Flexus Core 300 as a standalone bar. It’s one of the few that lets you use your own wired sub, so I was able to reuse my 10” sub I already had. The built in Dirac makes a small but noticeable difference in my asymmetrical room. My one complaint is only one HDMI in port, but I already had an HDMI switch that supports HDMI 2.1 so everything passes through correctly from my 4K player
Can’t speak on the Klipsch surrounds though, as I don’t have room to use the rears that they sell
Only reason I switched to a soundbar from my bookshelf speakers was because I never really listen to music in the living room anymore without it just being background noise while I clean or something.
The Klipsch Flexus Core 300 was definitely an upgrade for dialogue clarity and let me continue to use my own wifed sub. Music sounds good enough and definitely better than any Bluetooth speaker I’ve owned. Front soundstage with the side and height effects from Atmos is solid as well. Definitely an improvement for movie and show watching assuming it’s more than a PCM 2 channel track.
And my bookshelf speakers now sound great with my gaming PC 🙂
Sony is not good now, there are a lot of good options besides it.
Go for Loewe Home Cinema 553 (if you can spend \~ 3k on it), or another option would be Klipsch Flexus Core 300, with surr's and either original subwoofer or get SVS. These options would would be better than Sonos and sound way more.
P.S Do not forget Sonos does not support DTS:X and DTS-HD MA.
Sonos sounds flat, yeah immersive sounds with the backs (Eras 300) will be quite good, but the soundbar itslef is not that good. If you're fine with that and you do not need DTS:X and DTS-HD MA you can go with Sonos, but for example Klipsch will be better in terms of quality. Music (your usecase) and movies sounds flawless. Do not forget, music is also in a movies, so it's important to everyone.
Anyway, soundbars (as you know) are mostly designed to listen to music in the background, nor directly.
Full Klipsch set would cost you around 2300 EUR.
Please not JBL. While it's having punchy bass it's faking everything. If you're not into sound it will be fine to you, however if you do know how things should sound, then it's definitely not the right option. Wish some quality, Klipsch Flexus Core 300 is a good option, however it costs as full system of samsung or jbl :). Dirac makes difference.
The Core 300, in my opinion, is the best stand-alone soundbar you can get in a reasonable price range.
Thing is a beast and even has Dirac Live room correction.
People need to take measurements, though. It's long AF.
Does he care about actual physical surround speakers?
If not, the Klipsch Core 300 is a monster. It's side-firing and up-firing drivers are legit, Doesn't need a subwoofer and has Dirac Live room calibration.
But its wireless connectivity is total garbage so you wouldn't want the surround speakers added on.
Polk Magnifi MAX AX SR.
Comes with everything; 10" subwoofer and surrounds (don't believe for a minute the bouncy room angled speakers in soundbars even come close to proper surround)
When I get speakers I get them from companies that only make speakers.
I did have Klipsch for a bit but their connectivity was horrendous (using a USB dongle in 2025 and pressing and holding buttons, then dropping out once an hour and requiring it to be done over again).
Polk literally connects on its own once plugged in and stays that way.
That being said, if you ONLY want a soundbar, the Klipsch Core 300 is insane. The built in subwoofers are no joke.
Klipsch told me to return mine.
If you plan on getting the surrounds, you may have issues. They use a USB dongle to connect wirelessly and it's terrible. The USB dongle would also get incredibly hot, like to the point I can't imagine the electronics lasting long.
It would randomly drop out (longest it lasted was an hour or so) and then require an entire rebinding process.
To me, a premium soundbar that relies on such crappy old technology to connect peripherals is a bad sign. What other things did they cheap out on?
Even budget soundbars have integrated connectivity. Makes me question Klipsch moving forward.
Ended up getting the Polk Magnifi Max. Plugged it in and everything was automatically binded and has never lost signal once.
Not recommending you do the same, but I am recommending hunt around a bit. This "flagship" model of theirs has some issues, and their tech support literally said "yeah it may have some bugs to workout since its new, just return it".
Avoid the Core 300. Had it, would not stay connected to any of the surrounds and required constant rebinding.
Check around, others have the same issue.
For an expensive premium soundbar, it uses the cheapest, USB dongle technology to connect.
I do have a soundbar (Polk Magnifi Max AX), but moved that to the bedroom.
Nothing can come close to an actual AVR setup, so that's in the living room.
If you aren't concerned about the look or setup, go with an actual home theater.
I recently upgraded to this from a Bose and it's really nice. My only comment is that it's huge, but the sound is the best I've heard from a soundbar, even against my dads sonos ultra.
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Value for movies and easy setup, but music falls flat.
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