Building a home listening setup on a budget
This piece for Crazish collects the advice that holds up in practice.
Good sound at home depends more on where things sit than on what they cost. A pair of second-hand bookshelf speakers on stands, away from the wall and pointed slightly towards the listening seat, will embarrass an expensive soundbar. Add a small amplifier with a built-in streamer or a used receiver and you have a system that lasts decades.
Spend the saved money on the room: a rug on a hard floor, curtains and a bookshelf tame the echoes that muddle detail. Sit so that the speakers and your head form a triangle. Then put on a familiar album at a moderate volume and simply listen for an hour; the point of the setup is to make that hour something you want to repeat.