Getting ready to close on the new house and I'm putting together the list of A/V crap I need for the living room.

Looking at the current layout of the house, I'm thinking a soundbar might be the way to go, along with my sub.

But I run a receiver and I'm wondering how the soundbar works with a receiver.  Most of the ones I am seeing have and HDMI port (in & out) as well as a Toslink port for optical sound.  I run all my other stuff (PS4, etc) through the receiver then one HDMI cord to the TV.

I'm trying to think of how the soundbar works; from what I can gather, they are built to run from the TV and not a receiver.

Anyone have any feedback for me?

Thanks!

No clue if you can run a soundbar off of a receiver. I run a 5.1 off of my Yamaha receiver that I have had about 10 years now. Shit still works so haven't thought about replacing it. I have Polk Audio speakers and the satellite speaks are small so are easy to hide. Yet that 12" sub will put out the bass.

Almost all of them with have a fiber optic input, at least one set of RCA stereo input.

Mine (VIZIO 3.0 bar) has blue tooth, 3.5 plug, rca, fiber optic, digital RCA, and of course a sub output.

Very impressed with my bar, but it is coupled with a Polk PSW12.  I think the Vizio 3.0 bar coupled with the Polk PSW12 (now the PSW125) is about the best sound for the money you can get. You'd have to spend SUBSTANTIALLY more money to best this combo.

Ever consider just running a 3 channel setup instead of a sound bar?

Not necessarily. For something like the DefTech XTR-SSA3, the L/C/R channels are connected from the receiver to the speaker (soundbar).



The owner's manual for each of theirs are available here.  You should be able to find the same for any particular brand you're interested in as well, to see exactly how it would be connected, before purchasing.





 

I think this is something I need, however, the price has me , does anyone know of something similar from another brand?

That's my recommendation too. A sound bar is going to be a lot better than the built in speakers and I'd be ok with using one in a bedroom, but if it's your primary HT area you'll definitely be better served by properly placed speakers. Even if a 5.1 setup isn't in the budget right now, since you already have the receiver you can start out with a cheap 2.1 setup and then expand as you have cash for it.