> A soundbar doesn't have any of those problems, is usually the cheaper option, and still sounds much better than built-in speakers. The specific problem here

> A soundbar doesn't have any of those problems, is usually the cheaper option, and still sounds much better than built-in speakers. The specific problem here seems to be that soundbars have gone actively backward over time. I had an old JBL soundbar whose only issue was that it had no Bluetooth security. This meant that someone in the apartment complex would randomly connect to it and blast us with 900 decibels of whatever they were watching--generally at 7:30AM. So, we went searching for a replacement. We must have listened to every soundbar available at retail. They were all expensive and all sucked--none of them were better than that 10 year old JBL. Eventually we opted for a sound system that was not particularly cheap. And my wife still complains that it doesn't sound any better than the old soundbar we replaced. And she is correct.