Soundbars offer convenience and are a fairly simple way to significantly upgrade the sound quality of your TV. If you’re looking for the best sound for your dollar, however, then an old surround sound system might be a better choice.

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Virtual Surround Isn’t a Real Thing

Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike surround sound.

The second-hand market is full of capable gear

You can find older surround systems for a great price

In the old days, surround sound systems were all the rage. It was the only way to get immersive sound that could come close to matching the directional audio you get in the movie theater. With a surround sound system, you could hear things approaching from behind or zooming from one side of the room to the other.

Soundbars have become increasingly popular, as they can offer far better sound than your TV can and are quick and easy to set up. You don’t need to worry about placing multiple speakers around your room; you just place a single speaker in front of your TV.

Before getting a soundbar, it’s worth taking a look at second-hand surround sound systems on sites such as Facebook Marketplace or eBay. You can often find surround sound systems that people are selling for a fraction of their original cost.

If you’re not looking to spend too much, you can find Home Theater in a Box (HTIB) bundles for well under $100. These are bundled surround sound systems, usually with five speakers and a subwoofer, and an audio/video receiver (AVR), often combined with a DVD player or Blu-ray player.

If you’re looking for something more high-end, you can find some real bargains. I found a bundle with a Denon AVR-1610 5.1 amp, two Wharfedale Diamond 10.3 floor speakers, two Wharfedale Diamond 9.0 bookshelf speakers, a Mordaunt-Short center speaker, and a Yamaha YST-FSW100 subwoofer for $400. The whole set would have cost more than $1,500 when new.

An old surround sound system can outperform a soundbar

Discrete surround beats virtual processing

Credit: Kris Wouk / How-To Geek

Why buy a second-hand surround sound system when you can get a brand-new soundbar instead? There are two main reasons.

The first is that you can find some real bargains. As mentioned above, with just a quick look, I found a high-quality surround sound system for $400 that could have cost nearly four times the price when new. $400 would just about buy a compact soundbar such as a Sonos Beam.

The second is that an old surround sound system can offer better sound quality than a soundbar. True surround systems use multiple speakers, which you place around the room. The sound is played through the appropriate speakers so that when you hear an airplane approaching from the left, the audio comes through the left speakers.

With a soundbar, it isn’t possible, as there’s only a single speaker location. Instead, the sound is played from the soundbar and reflected off the walls in your room to try to make it seem as if it’s coming from the left. Clever digital tricks are also used to fool your brain into thinking the sound is coming from a specific location.

This virtual surround sound is more immersive than your TV’s stereo speakers. However, a single soundbar usually can’t match the scale and positional accuracy of a true surround sound system.

There are some trade-offs

You lose out on some features

Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek | lidiasilva/Lazy_Bear/Shutterstock

That’s not to say that an old surround sound system is better in every aspect. There are some features that an older system can’t give you that a soundbar can.

Modern soundbars that support Dolby Atmos can offer vertical as well as horizontal sound. They can make it seem like sound is coming from above you or below you. A traditional 5.1 surround sound system can only place sound in a horizontal plane. For most home setups, however, you’re not really missing much; you get a much more immersive experience from true surround sound than virtual vertical effects.

Another feature that’s missing is HDMI eARC. You can connect a soundbar to your TV’s eARC port, and when you turn on the TV, the soundbar wakes up, and you can control the soundbar volume directly from your TV remote. Many older receivers don’t support eARC, although HDMI-CEC and ARC can still provide some TV remote control on compatible systems.

4K/HDR passthrough is the other big omission. For example, you can plug your PS5 directly into your soundbar, and it will play the audio and pass through the 4K video to your TV. Older surround sound systems may not offer passthrough at all or may downgrade the video to 1080p.

There’s a simple fix, however; you can connect your PS5 directly to your TV and connect your TV to your surround sound system using the optical audio port. You’ll get a 4K picture and 5.1 surround sound through the speakers.

Get better sound for less

A good second-hand surround sound system can deliver more convincing surround sound than a similarly priced soundbar. You may be surprised at what you can get for your money.