Reply by DS

The audiophile in me, (what little there is), says that a soundbar (FL, C and FR channels), works okay for small to medium rooms.
For a larger room, the full 5.1 or 7.1 channel treatment is way better.

Sure, it is typically a lot more money, but I managed to buy decent raw speakers (surplus) and built my own surround speakers for about the cost of a speaker bar.

My rear channels are exposed, hanging from the pre-wired ceiling mounts but all the front channels are behind speaker fabric in my wall unit.

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251