I also went with a Sony Bravia and one of their “better” sound bars. I am by no means an expert, but the sound bar and sub ran about $600 on sale at Best Buy. It’s more than I was thinking of spending, BUT I would spend it again. What I like is, great sound for what I want, which is nothing special, just football and regular tv, and it integrates perfectly with the tv. My old Samsung set up pissed me off 7/10 times, the sound bar would turn on, the tv wouldn’t or vice versa, not really that big of a thing but so annoying when I wanted to just sit down and have it work. The Sony has been literally flawless. I played with it for 10 minutes when I set it up and got it to a really good baseline sound, I can tweak it to be great for movies, but I never do.
Aside from doing a surround system, which I could see doing if I was watching more movies, I think this is great. I used a sound bar mount to hook it right off the bottom of the TV, looks clean, keeps everything tidy. The sub is tucked behind a chair in the corner, not ideal, but again, not designed for max sound, just good.
(Pict from when I was finishing the fireplace surround, all trimmed out now 😂)
