So after the TV is sorted, I was thinking of adding some surround sound but as I am just a average joe with a 3 bed detached AV setup was not even thought about in the 1950s when the house was built. Currently I have Sony NT-7 Soundbar (which sounds great) but time has moved on.
Is it even worth bothering with 5.1 or should I get just get a new and improved sound bar (music is still important) Not floor standers either, any ideas ?
Room as below, so not ideal.
If you're happy with the NT-7* then, other than for Atmos if you want it, is there a compelling reason to change?
Technology certainly moves on, but not always at the pace you might expect. If anything, the past 5 or 6 years have shown that the bulk of the consumer market isn't that bothered about sound quality per se, they just want the bells and whistles. The advances made with HD audio from Blu-ray and UHD disc have been largely discarded in favour of compressed audio via DD 5.1 and DD+ 5.1 with Atmos. If you're watching Sky or Virgin or streaming Netflix, Prime, Disney+ etc then DD5.1 or DD+ is the best you're going to get.
Stereo audio performance from sound bars / sound bases has improved with the advent of products such as the Naim Mu-So, but then again the Mu-So isn't a traditional sound bar. It's more of a smart speaker. But it does show that Hi-Fi performance isn't constrained to a traditional
amp + two speaker layout.
Sonos is fine if you want all the streaming bells-and-whistles and the multiroom music stuff. Their control interface ap running on your smart phone or tablet still remains one of the best thought-out and easiest to use. Sound quality for movies if decent if a little bass heavy if you opt for the very pricey (IMO) sub. The surrounds (Ones or One SLs usually) do their job just fine. The Ones carry a reasonable amount of bass weight for a speaker not much larger than a tin of baked beans.
Music quality is acceptable by sound bar standards. Not the best, but not the worst by far.
With the room layout you have - i.e. firing across the short axis and with the gear parked up at one end - I think I'd be tempted to avoid any sound bar that relies solely on bounced audio to create pseudo/virtual surrounds for the sides/rear. Physical speakers are going to work much better, whether wireless or wired. Atmos by using bounced audio reflected of the ceiling shouldn't be a problem though.
( * ? - I can't find that with Google, so wonder if the model is correct?)