tested both the magnifi mini and magnifi max at moa. (thank you to j for accommodating me). shop has good movie files to illustrate the surround capability of the max sr. there are bullets that you really hear whizzing through from front to back, you would want to get away of the crossfire. but i thought the the mini has more clarity (probably because of better circular drivers), better suited for music.
in any case, i bought the max without the two rear speakers, primarily because its price at local is not too far from amazon (compared to the great disparity with mini) and the sub truly has more thump.
why didnt i get the rear speakers? well, one would still need to run wires to power them, and i really dont want to meddle with wires on my small condo at this time (after going through them setting up with an avr+5.1, and separate ampli+platinum videoke+dai-ichi, at home).
the magnifi's cannot beat the avr setup of course, especially if you're playing music. but it's perfect for my weekday abode, i would recommend it over the the expensive B systems. i just make sure to press the "music" option when playing spotify, and then go back to the movie option when playing netflix. ive heard ambient sounds that i havent heard before in saving private ryan. i also like the option where you can make the dialogue come out more, when you want to.
there's going to be a polk soundbar that would have alexa built-in later this year. i would also want to audition that.