Alright, thank you very much for the help! The only reason I was looking to use the soundbar in my set up was because I got on super sale for only $100 instead of the $300 originally charged. I started looking into just buying a center channel speaker as well so that's probably just what I'll end up doing.
 
I only have one more question.
 
I throw a lot of parties and that's why I'm building this setup here. I don't necessarily want surround sound for these parties, I just want to make the audio stereo even though I'll be having 7 total speakers. How would I change the settings from dolby surround to either mono or stereo? Would I do it through my computer which would be my source of music or some other way that I'm not aware of? 

blance44 said:

  Alright, thank you very much for the help! The only reason I was looking to use the soundbar in my set up was because I got on super sale for only $100 instead of the $300 originally charged. I started looking into just buying a center channel speaker as well so that's probably just what I'll end up doing.
 
I only have one more question.
 
I throw a lot of parties and that's why I'm building this setup here. I don't necessarily want surround sound for these parties, I just want to make the audio stereo even though I'll be having 7 total speakers. How would I change the settings from dolby surround to either mono or stereo? Would I do it through my computer which would be my source of music or some other way that I'm not aware of? 

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Yes, just do it right and get a proper center. Use the soundbar with the HDTV for when you're just watching a broadcast - as loud as the Class D amps and micro speakers can get on these newer TVs, the sound is still far from natural in terms of tonality. You might get significantly louder with less distortion too.
 
As for your parties...why the need to convert it to mono? Leave it on enhanced stereo (or whatever it's called) and it will output sound through everything but the center (left is still left, including rears and surrounds). If you get one of the newer 7.2 receivers, chances are there's a setting in there so you can instead use the extra 2-channels to power, say, two speakers in the patio. Most 7.2 receivers have this, and some 5.1 receivers have an analog line out also for active speakers or a 2ch integrated amp. Just check which sources are enabled for this though - from a closer  read of some specs, there were some that don't output sound from its multi-channel DAC/processor through there, making it basically a pass-through for a separata 2ch audio system instead of allowing the sound off a concert BluRay to be decoed by the HT receiver then fed to another amplifier.

Why wouldn't it play through the center channel though?

blance44 said:

  Why wouldn't it play through the center channel though?

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2.0 = Left Front, Right Front
 
2.1 = Left Front, Right Front, Subwoofer (no actual recording is natively 2.1)
 
5.0 = Left surround, Left Front, Phantom Center, Right Front, Right Surround
 
5.0 = Left surround, Left Front, Center, Right Front, Right Surround
 
5.1 = Left surround, Left Front, Center, Right Front, Right Surround, Subwoofer
 
7.1 = Left Rear, Left surround, Left Front, Center, Right Front, Right Surround, Right Rear, Subwoofer
 
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In the systems I encountered, if you play a 2.0 recording as it is, will play as 2.0. In some newer receivers, it can apply a crossover to send low frequencies to the subwoofer. If you have it on enhanced stereo or whatever it's called, it will play Left channel on all Left speakers, same thing with the Right channel. Unless some receivers do it differently, but AFAIK that's how the systems I got to play with did it.

Alright, thank you so much for all the help! As you can tell, I really needed it!