Sound bars. Thoughts? Recommendations?

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

My Bose Solo 5 is a nice one but it's big; not something you can really mount on a wall or something. As a single unit you can put underneath a TV on a console or something, I don't see getting much better than it. The only annoyance is that my DirecTV remote won't power it up so I have to keep the soundbar remote around to turn it on (though the remote will control the volume).

Does it make a huge difference in the sound quality? I don't want to go spend the money if it's just going to make it louder but not a better quality.