We are indeed looking at that exact HT-XT1 model as a potential possibility too. It's good to know I'm talking to someone with hands-on experience. Can you give me a better impression of its bottom range? My expectation is that it would sound pretty much the same as the model I mentioned above with the separate subwoofer. i.e., it has decent bass for watching TV and movies, and normal-volume music listening. Most of the inexpensive separate subwoofer units have very small drivers anyway, not any bigger than what's included in the HT-XT1.

For reference, what's she's using right now is a set of Logitech computer speakers with a very small wired subwoofer. Basically this kind of thing, but an older model in that class. It sounds fantastically good, much better than the speakers built into the TV. And that is plenty for what we need. If the HT-XT1 sounds pretty much like that kind of thing, then we're golden and I'll probably pick up an HT-XT1 at Best Buy today.

One of the big advantages of the HT-XT1 is that it reduces the clutter associated with having a separate sound system for your TV set. In her case, she's setting the TV on a small coffee table in the middle of the living room, and the coffee table is on slidey feet so she can reposition it when she rearranges her living room to have guests over for Game Night. The simpler the setup, the easier that is to do. With the HT-XT1, then the only thing connecting that table to anything will be a single power cord. So that's making the HT-XT1 look very attractive at this point.

It's interesting to note that the HT-XT1 manual does *not* contain the little note in the manual about silencing the subwoofer on HDCP content. The manual is very similar, it just doesn't say that the subwoofer will have that particular problem. So I'm wondering if the theory about a separate connection to the subwoofer is somehow part of the explanation.





The whole point of getting one of those soundbars is to *avoid* a separate home theater receiver. And specifically to take advantage of the CEC/ARC thing so there does not have to be a separate volume control for the audio device.

Right now she's using the computer speakers that are plugged into the TV's headphone jack, and they have a wired volume knob puck. The problem is that the TV's volume control does not affect its headphone jack, so changing the volume on the TV means getting up and walking to the wired volume puck. We're looking to replace those computer speakers with something that is equivalent in sound but is controlled by the CEC/ARC volume control thing.