What would you buy?

Look at a used B&W Panorama. Sleek, stylish, and over best sounding sound bar on the market. Used ones pop up one ebay every so often in the $1k range

Welcome to the forum.

If your looking at the SB16 and the SB30 go for the SB30,, while I have not demoed the SB30 yet it looks like its a much better bar then the SB16.

As far as Sony, not sure what bad reviews your reading,, most of the reviews I see are always positive, although the newer 550 Sony does get some negitive feedback,,,,, my favorite Sony bar is the CT-350 and I think most would agree that is the best Sony bar,,,, refurbs of the CT-350 can be found on SonyStyle.com, I would be leary of buying one off eBay though.

As far as the suggestion on the Panorama,, yes, they are great sounding soundbars but it might be overkill for the room size your in, plus they are kinda big and bulky looking (thats always been a turn off for me as I wall mount all my panels, I like the sleak stealth look) and a used Panorama on eBay,, I would be leary of that as well, just as I would be leary of buying a used Sony off eBay.

I currently own the Bose soundbar (my new favorite) but well over your 1K budget so I wont suggest that one.

The Sony CT-350, the HK SB30 and the YSP2200 are all very good bars and I think you would be very happy with any of them,,, let the connections and price's help your choice.

The Sharp panels do not pass 5.1 via the optical, only 2.1,, even my new 80" Sharp ONLY pass's 2.1 via the optical out,,,, damm you Sharp.
Depending on how you plan to do your hook-up the SB30 (and the Panorama) might not be good picks unless you plan on running an optical directly from the source to the soundbar.

The Sony's and the YSP's both have HDMI so that can be a plus if that fits better with your install plans.

Hope that helped a bit.

Cheers
Davyo

I will chime in for the Panorama. If you can get one used or like new for a reasonable amount, I wouldn't look at anything else (unless you need hdmi switching built in). I have a complete 3.1 setup in my main room and had pretty much sworn off sound bars because most of them sounded horrible with music and only adequate with movies. The Panorama changed that though.

I have tried a ton of sound bars over the years and the Panorama is the best by a large margin. If you could find a good deal on ebay for one, I wouldn't look at anything else. It would probably cost you about the same as the bose new (or less) and in my opinion is quite a bit better. It all depends on how much you want to spend. You don't even need a sub unless you are a serious bass head. It's incredible honestly and this is coming from someone that was actually pushed towards building a setup again (what I have in my living room right now) because I was tired of how poorly most sound bars where. Movies sound great and music is really impressive on it. It's nice having a simple all in one sound bar. It also comes with a wall mount that is super easy to install and setup.

I picked mine up on ebay and got a good deal. I payed about what the bose sound bar costs new and honestly I could have probably got it for a little cheaper had I waited for other auctions. Mine came pretty much like new. The person purchased it just a few months earlier from an authorized dealer. It had some swirl marks on the remote and a nick or two that I found after being super OCD looking over it when it arrived (super small and something no one else would notice except me).

My friend has the Bose sound bar which I auditioned at his house quite a few times over the past month or so. It wasn't bad at all but honestly once I heard the Panorama, there was no going back, lol. For me, there was no comparison. The sound quality especially with music was way better. It's expensive but the Panorama is very well made and designed and it's easy to see once you give it a listen.

Good luck in your search. Just my two cents.

The panorama goes for $2199 MSRP. You can rarely get Bowers products for less than retail. Sometimes you can get a store to take a $100-$200 off if you are lucky but then you still have to deal with tax. Even if they came off by that much, you are still looking at close to MSRP with tax. That's why I went the used market. I basically saved about $700 off msrp and I know you could probably get one for $800-$1000 off if you watch ebay/audiogon enough. I just wanted to hold out for one that was close to new that had been purchased from an authorized dealer.

Bowers and Wilkins Panorama is pretty good. You can also consider some Bose soundbars

I'm very impressed with the Sony CT-150, which I've had just a couple weeks now. Still meaning to write a first impressions review.