Soundbar with bass management

[PortalKeeper]

Hello, I have a pretty restricted setup in my living room and want to keep things as simple as possible. From my reading, it seems two subs minimum are necessary for correcting for room modes and proper bass management. I was thinking of buying the mini dsp flex but still want a minimum 5.2 (5.2.4 with Dolby Atmos would be awesome) setup using a soundbar (even though this is not true 5.2). Is this possible? I also want to be able to control everything with my TV remote like I can right now. Here is the current and very basic setup:

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HDMI (ARC) connected to:

https://www.jbl.com/soundbars/BAR51SURROUND.html

No AVR involved here.

There is no treatment in the living room and it is connected to my kitchen without any walls or door ways. If I can use one larger sub and one smaller sub for this, let me know because that would be optimal for my space constraints. If not, then maybe two smaller ones will have to do? Not sure but the JBL sub is 12” and is causing really uneven boominess near it (it’s in a corner and don’t really have other options for placement) which I hope could be solved with the minidsp and smaller subs to fit in tighter spaces. Here is a picture of the room from the corner of where that JBL sub currently is:

Thanks for any information about this.

 

[ban25]

So despite all the marketing from consumer electronics companies that says otherwise, soundbars do not in fact deliver a 5.x/7.x/9.x surround sound experience. At your listening distance, with the soundbar placed on the media console below the TV, it will sound like a single/mono center channel. I would recommend getting a pair of bookshelf speakers, driven by an inexpensive AVR capable of Dirac (Denon X3800H, Onkyo NR-7100, etc.) and use that to drive a 2.1-channel system that will give you real stereo imaging and can be easily extended to 3.1/5.1.x/7.x.x as you build out your system. I'd stick with a single sub to start because they take up floor space and it appears you only have one listening position anyway. Definitely do not mess with a minidsp, that is way overkill and fast becoming obsolete outside of highly specialized use-cases.

 

[Spkrdctr]

I would recommend if your sub is boomy to turn it down until it just stops being too boomy. That is the free easy fix that gets you in the ballpark. Try not to overthink it if possible. But YMMV. Good Luck in your endeavor.