I can easily recommend the Sennheiser Ambeo Mini. It's on sale brand new for only $500 at Best buy, and with an open box you could get a lower price. It has all the features you want, and beats most soundbars out of the water.
You’re in for a treat for the lg c5. If you can spend money on anything I would say get the google streamer or onn 4k.
This is just me saying this as someone who has a really nice sound bar: if you went from a shitty tv to the lg the amount you jump up in your tv watching experience will be huge. I do not think you will have as noticeable jump to a 3.1 system. Listen to the tv I don’t think it is too bad. And if will cost a lot more to get into a system that actually make more of a difference. But for less than 100 bucks you can go from the lg os system to a dedicated android system which will be much faster and smoother. You will notice the change in ui more than a sound bar
Yea I just don’t know if your parents are going to notice either directional or bass. My wife couldn’t tell the bass on the tv.
I picked up the Sennheiser ambeo and would recommend the mini. However, I am going to be honest there has not been a lot of content where I am noticing the directional sound. Bass yes for sure and it is sweet, but I only notice it when I adjust and listen to the difference. But what I do notice is my lg is so laggy (I am using stremio) but when I switched to a Google one it was so clean and beautiful. Now I have a like picture of snow falling and it is the coolest thing ha. Ambeo mini I think goes on sale well at Best Buy and it has base. But you probably want something with satellites because it is so hard to notice the surround sound without it
Thanks for the reply. Yep I’ve heard about the Sonos issues and basically it saved me from immediately buying it when I started the search a month ago. Sadly I need an under 30 inch bar due to the tv size and space where I’m gonna put it. Which has made this way harder because all the “best compact soundbar” reviews are 95% focused on only reviewing the beam. It’s been alarming to the say the least. Even sites I trust like rtings are so high on it but they don’t seem to even talk about the app issues. I’m likely gonna go with the ambeo mini for $450
While the ambeo mini might seem like a premium standalone device, it’s not going to immerse you in what it sounds like you want. I bought this for my mother since she’s in her late 70s and while the audio is crisp, it doesn’t provide much overhead effects due to a lack of upfiring drivers. Ambeo uses their own proprietary tech, can’t remember what it’s called, to give an illusion of overhead effects plus without rear speakers and a sub, I don’t think you’ll get a big upgrade over your current Samsung.
It goes on sale quite often and isn’t ambeos big seller. I would recommend increasing your budget if possible and getting the ambeo plus, or the klipsch core300 or 200 and adding surround speakers as a standalone can only do so much.
Agreeable_Piece_7245
