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Reviewed / Sony
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The Sonos Arc is among the best-sounding one-piece soundbars you can buy, offering thrilling Dolby Atmos audio in a singular system that's also upgradeable. Read More
Samsung’s HW-Q990C is an 11.1.4-channel Atmos soundbar whose channel count actually seems legit. Read More
It's easy to recommend this midrange soundbar at its price point. It comes with a subwoofer and surround speakers for a full 7.1.3 setup, and has Dolby Atmos support. Read More
The Bose Smart Soundbar outperforms its rivals, delivering a larger and more immersive Atmos soundfield, enhanced sound quality, and an intuitive app. Read More
If ever there was a budget buy, this is it. No frills, but Sony HT-S100F will deliver better audio than your TV's built-in speakers. Read More
Nothing pairs with a great TV like an equally awesome sound system, but not everyone has time to set up a full home theater. If you’re looking for an improvement over your TV’s speaker and don’t want to deal with the hassle of wires and components, a soundbar may be your savior. Not only are they great for dialogue clarity, they can also vastly improve cinematic sound, bringing everything you watch (or play) to life. The best of them offer powerful punch, dazzling features like Dolby Atmos, and wireless music streaming in a simplified package.
We’ve spent hundreds of hours over the years evaluating soundbars, and right now the Sonos Arc (available at Walmart for $599.00) is our favorite thanks to stellar performance, versatile features (including Dolby Atmos), simple operation, and slick design. If the Arc doesn't strike your fancy, though, we’ve corralled the very best options we've tested in one place to match any listening space and budget.
The Sonos Arc is a pricy but peerless home audio package.
The Samsung HW-Q990C delivers a truly impressive Dolby Atmos experience.
The Bose Smart Soundbar 600 delivers the best single bar Atmos performance you can get under $500.
Refined sound signature
Impressive bass response
Stylish design
No Wi-Fi
Short on features
Solid bass presence
Classic design
Good connectivity options
Not very future proof
The ideal soundbar blends right in with your TV; it's the unsung hero of movie night.
Reviewed staff have spent years evaluating soundbars—ranging from simple 2.1-channel value models to the huskiest Dolby Atmos bars—to narrow down the picks and find the best soundbars for every buyer. Our soundbar testing is spearheaded by Reviewed's experienced team of home theater and tech experts, and backed up by a rigorous rubric of testing data to ensure accuracy.
For years now, Reviewed has listened to, loved, and argued over standalone soundbars, soundbar/sub combos, and a few home-theater-in-a-box products to find the best soundbars you can buy.
Testing involves using them as any consumer would, using each bar as an audio substitute for a TV (via either HDMI ARC or optical connection), testing its streaming and Bluetooth functions, and analyzing its sound modes, voice-boosting modes, and individual proprietary features. We also conduct back-to-back analyses of sources like Netflix/Blu-ray movies and streaming services, surround sound and Dolby Atmos demo discs, Spotify over Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi, and occasionally, 3.5mm aux sources and USB audio. And since many of us have professional audio setups, we compare the bars to top-notch audio systems as well.
While the best soundbars have different combinations of drivers, tweeters, woofers, and external subwoofers, audio quality isgenerally paramount to our top choices across genres and sources, apart from performance features like surround sound and Dolby Atmos/DTS:X speakers, what often sets soundbars from major brands apart at similar price ranges are usability pain points, design aesthetics, and overall responsiveness—where the day-to-day rubber meets the road, so to speak. We test all of that too, over several days, to make sure the bars we pick will function properly.
In short, the point of a soundbar is to either replace a home theater speaker system with a less obtrusive device or, more often, to replace your TV's terrible built-in speakers with something that actually sounds good. Because speaker (or driver) clarity depends so much on the vibration of moving parts within a confined space, modern super-thin LED and OLED TVs generally don't have very good sound. You might think your TV sounds fine, but when you hear your favorite movies, TV shows, or music through a good soundbar, your opinion will change.
Soundbars aren't your only option for improving your living room/home theater audio, but they're by far the most affordable and convenient. If you live in an apartment or smaller space, or if you don't want to spend the considerable funds required to install a surround system or mounted speakers in your home, consider other options. In that case, a soundbar is a great way to improve your TV audio experience.
HDMI ARC or HDMI eARC are the preferred soundbar connection options, not only because these connections allow for newer TVs (around 2017 and later) to pass advanced audio formats like Dolby Atmos, but also because they usually allow you to control the soundbar's power and volume with your TV remote—without the need to program said remote. (To do this, you may need to turn on HDMI CEC in your TV's settings.)
The optical audio connection that also comes standard on virtually all soundbars can carry 2.1-and 5.1-channel surround sound, but that's where it tops out. If you have a more advanced soundbar with Dolby Atmos (which usually includes upfiring speakers), you'll have to use HDMI ARC or eARC to pass Dolby Atmos content from your TV.
Most modern soundbars now offer HDMI eARC (enhanced Audio Return Channel) connection rather than the more common HDMI ARC port. It is designed to provide high-quality, uncompressed audio from your TV (including top-quality Dolby Atmos) as well as address any sync issues between on-screen video and the soundbar's audio.
The major things to look for when shopping for a soundbar are price, audio output, and connectivity, the latter two usually being directly related to the first. If you're on a tight budget, you likely won't get extras like Dolby Atmos, satellite surround speakers, or a wide range of decoding/pass-thru options for advanced or lossless audio modes. However, you can expect to get multiple speaker drivers comprising at least a stereo (left/right) setup, and usually an external subwoofer.
Tweeters refer to smaller speakers (drivers) assigned to the high-mid and high (treble) frequencies of the audio spectrum. Woofers and subwoofers refer to speakers (drivers) assigned to the midrange and bass/sub-bass frequencies of the audio spectrum, respectively.
More often, when you spend a few hundred dollars or more, you'll also find options like the ability to connect with other speakers in your home for a multi-room audio setup. Sonos, Bose, and other brands offer such features, but they're almost always proprietary, meaning you'll need to stick with the brand of your bar to connect to different speakers. Also more common in recent years are standalone bars, which don't come with wireless surround speakers or a subwoofer, but offer the ability to add those components later for a fee—again, almost always confined to like-branded models.
Soundbars that offer what is known as a 2.1-channel configuration or higher usually include a separate subwoofer to handle lower frequencies (which makes up the ".1" of the equation). Others may have a dedicated subwoofer “channel” with larger speakers built into the bar itself to handle low frequencies. The latter is, in almost all cases, not as effective as a separate subwoofer. But a soundbar without a subwoofer or one that has built-in woofers, rather than a separate cabinet, may even be preferred in smaller spaces and apartments.
That said, if you're looking for powerful cinematic rumble—whether for movies, TV, or video games—you'll seriously want to consider a soundbar that includes a separate subwoofer. This will greatly enhance action scenes and other dramatic moments, while also helping thinner bars fill in some of the gaps in the frequency spectrum created by their smaller drivers. There are a few cases where low-frequency sound is well-handled without a subwoofer, such as in Sonos' Arc soundbar or Sony’s HT-A7000, but for the most part, a subwoofer is preferred for cinematic punch down low.
Some soundbars also offer separate surround sound speakers that can be set behind you in a multi-channel configuration. When fed content mixed in surround sound, these soundbars better immerse you in your favorite format-supported shows and movies, especially when the different channels are balanced properly. In some cases, satellite surround speakers can be added on later.
Soundbars with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support take things even further, usually adding upfiring speakers (either 2 or 4), which can bounce sound off the ceiling so that it appears to be coming from above, immersing you in a hemispheric globe of sound. While only effective with Dolby Atmos and/or DTS: X-supported content, these soundbars offer the most immersive experience available, bringing you closer to what you'll experience in a high-quality theater. Some soundbars are only Dolby Atmos or DTS:X compatible, with the sound being virtualized with digital signal processing or even wave-guide technology to varying degrees of efficacy.
Either way, you will pay a premium for this technology, and you may also need more speakers to spread around your TV room. These concessions must be considered before making your choice.
John is Reviewed's Managing Editor of Tech. He is an ISF Level III-certified calibrator with bylines at ProjectorCentral, Wirecutter, IGN, Home Theater Review, T3, Sound & Vision, and Home Theater Magazine. When away from the Reviewed office, he is a sound editor for film, a musician, and loves to play games with his son.
Hailing originally from Montana, Ryan parlayed his time working as a musician and audio engineer into a career in digital media in 2012. Since then he's had extensive experience as a writer and editor, including everything from op-eds and features to reviews on TVs, audio gear, smart home devices, and more.
Christian de Looper is a consumer tech journalist with over a decade of experience. De Looper has covered all areas of the consumer tech industry, from smartphones to smart homes — and has attended all of the major trade shows, including CES.
De Looper has always been interested in consumer technology, but his love for gadgets and electronics blossomed into a full-blown passion when he started writing about it while completing his degree in audio production.
Since then, he has written for many of the top tech publications, including Digital Trends, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, and many more. He loves getting his hands on all of the latest gadgets, but when he’s not reviewing tech, he can be found hanging out with his family or producing music.
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