You mean Mad Men wasn ' t accurate ? <| sep |> As a Mexican this makes me happy . <| sep |> Soundbars are essentially a glorified center channel . Now granted the center channel is arguably the most important speaker when it comes to a 5 . 1 setup however just having a single speaker means there isn ' t a enough seperation between the left and right which is the most basic way to create soundstage . Many products are also advertised being placed just below the screen when really you want your speakers at a similar height to the screen since that is where things like voices of characters will appear to be . When you add on top of this the cheap platsic used to manufacture them and that some are even meant to be connected via bluetooth , you really sacrifice a lot in the way of sound quality that you would normally get from just hardwired bookshelf or floorstanding speakers .