Soundbars?

Hey guys, are soundbars worth it? My bedroom is 13x16 and I am looking for something to compliment my new TV. I am looking to spend about $300-500. I have read over at AVS that Yamaha makes great soundbars and the Sony CT-500 is a great one as well. Any other suggestions? Maybe just put one speaker on top of my TV and one below? Can't have tower speakers as there is a desk below it. Here's my wall for reference (the black paper is just the width of the unmounted TV). Just want something that sounds great or fairly great :)

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/1289/img0404d.th.jpg (http://img87.imageshack.us/i/img0404d.jpg/)

yeah I hear that soundbars are great for people with no space for floor front speakers or wall mounted speakers. They have great spacial effects...I think I read somewhere on Crutchfield.com that has a soundbar coupled with a sub and it sounds like a 3.1 system.

i bought a sony ht ct500 on ebay for about $360 using bing.com and mrrebates.com and im very satisfied. the bass is deep and clean, and sound is crisp and sharp. i wanted a clean, uncluttered, minimal look, in conjunction with my tv, without having speakers and wires all over the place. the subwoofer and sound bar looks really clean.


my setup:

panansonic tc-p50v10 (bought it from east coast tvs - highly recommended), panasonic 60k blu ray