What is inside a sound bar?

There are a couple different threads here in the responses, and I think they sort of intertwine two different lines of thought, with two very different conclusions.

First, a well-designed soundbar (and there are a number -- the responses mention Polk, Definitive Technology and Yamaha) will offer stereo sound that is far superior to the sound provided by most internal speakers in flat screen TVs. In particular, they will often offer far superior reproduction of dialog. Generally they use pretty decent, but not outstanding, "cone and dome" speakers, and often have an associated subwoofer you stick in a corner. So if your TV speakers leave something to be desired, a good sound bar can be a very worthwhile investment.

Second, a number of them also claim to offer a simple alternative to producing surround sound -- and for someone with different priorities, as Snofun3 suggests, they probably offer a decent experience at a reasonable price --I have one in my family room, and it provides some "surround" ambience. But for someone seriously into Home Theater (I'm not) -- a sound bar is not going to fill the bill.

Snofun3, so we agree.

Do try before you buy. I bought a used Yamaha 1000 soundbar and can't get a realistic sound in our room. Maybe the Audioengine A5 powered speakers might be worth a try.

a pal of mine has a jvc soundbar + wireless sub + wireless rear setup and it sounds very decent for tv and movies--genuinely immersive surround. i think he paid around $450 online. obviously, a quality conventional wired ht system is gonna sound alot better, but if i was budget constrained, or didn't want to hassle with a seperate avr, cables, etc., i could live with something like this.