My misteak! (1 Viewer)

Ive never been into an entire home theater system, but mounting my tv above my fireplace gave me the itch to get something. Did the research and decided on an Energy Bar Elite Soundbar. Yikes! Audio us muffled, movies sound ok, but bass is just loud and boomy. Music is horrible. My $150 Logitech PC speakers sound better and im not lying. Maybe its the fact that I can use the equalizer to make the sound better & the fact it has a wired sub. This soundbar is going back ASAP.
That said....
I just so happen to stop into best buy today. Explained my situation. Long story short, Im NOT looking for floor-standing speakers. They Played some smaller Bowers & Wilkins 686B with a few different subs. (energy,B&W and Definative) all subs I couldn't tell the different. And all were at different price points.($349-$649) They than played some entry level Energy book self speakers and some Definitive bookshelf speakers. There was a huge difference for me anyway, that the B&W 686's sound amazing! I than went to a local shop who sells Polk and Klipsch. He mixed and matched some bookshelf speakers with some Polk and Klipsch subs, but the sound was definitely not the same.
I was quoted around $1300 for:
Pair-B&W 686b
Pioneer VSX 40
Energy sub: ESW-C8 or C10 not sure or BIC-PL-200-Acoustech-Platinum-Series sub
Im not an audiophile, so this setup compared with the Polk and Klipsch sounded amazing. And much much better than this P.O.S soundbar. Perhaps me not knowing very much about home audio, I had my expectations to high.

Proof positive that you actually have to listen to different speakers to find out what you like, even if the average retail store is a pretty poor place to audition them. Still, better than nothing. B&W's are very, very good speakers.
Sound bars, especially at the consumer price level, are a compromise at best. Better than most speakers installed in the display but not nearly as good as actual speakers.
If the subs seem to sound the same to you then maybe consider this one as well http://www.amazon.com/BIC-America-F12-475-Watt-Subwoofer/dp/B0015A8Y5M/ref=pd_cp_e_0
Also, there's not a lot of difference between the Pioneer Elite VSX series and the regular Pioneer line. Look into the new 1022 ($449 msrp) or last years 1021 which had a $599 msrp (buy it at a discount of course). VSX Elites are over-priced IMO, but Magnolia can give great discounts sometimes.