Al Griffin

Q I own Paradigm Monitor 11 speakers and an 80-watt powered subwoofer. The speakers are set up in my living room 6 feet out from a sliding glass door. What type of acoustic treatment product should I put up behind the speakers to improve their sound? Should it be foam or something more solid? —Jon Cotton / via e-mail

Say what you want about soundbars, but the category counts as one of the more active areas of speaker design. Sure, many products pumped out over the last few years are low-end ones designed to be sold as accessories for flat-panel TVs. But plenty of serious speaker companies have also gotten into the game, and the performance of the resulting products, while not yet at a level to make audiophiles toss out their tower speakers en masse, has proven more than sufficient for casual home theater use, as well as for background music listening.