A little more information would help. Do you live a condo/apartment, house… how far away are your neighbors? Do you run subwoofers, what type?

The biggest complaint you will get is from subs. Please give more details so that we can help

Throw the TV in a dumpster, rotate the couch 90° and get a pair of full range towers… Focal Aria 948 with a quality sub, but a pair of Paradigm Founder 120H with a decent sub and class A integrated would be amazeballs!

If you don’t have RCA pre outs, headphone to stereo RCA’s would work but still not be ideal depending on which active speakers you have.

25% off RevelPerforma BE

I personally recommend EQ it flat and listening for about a week or two with maybe a 3DB gain in the bass. Then go back to no EQ and see what you like better. Give your ears a little time to adjust rather than simply A/B comparisons

Those too

Monoprice, Bluejeane or Mogami for cables… should be able to connect an entire system for about $100

Blink is always great at Vans Warped Tour when there’s another band playing on a stage 100 yards away

Bourbon will fix the issue

Paradigm Founder 120H are supposedly amazing. I haven’t personally listened but I’ve heard much of the Founder series, excellent speakers. These also have Anthem Room Correct built into the powered subs. If you have a Paradigm dealer nearby I suggest you give them a listen

Interesting that they’re still make bipolar surrounds

People with that kind of money do it because they can, they know it doesn’t make sense. We all have plenty of stuff in our lives that are poor purchases, but we do it because we can. Rich people just do it on a different scale.