In other words, you get better sound without sacrificing a lot of space. Dialog enhancement: If you find yourself turning on closed captions because you can’t make out what people on your TV are saying, you might want to invest in a soundbar that offers dialog enhancement. These will change over time as new models come in for evaluation. The Yamaha YAS-106 can be wall-mounted with a thin profile to match modern TVs. Everything else being equal, the smaller the sound soundbar or soundbase, the less room it has for larger speakers and features (codec support, wireless connectivity, multiple inputs and outputs, and so on). As the first soundbar in its class to offer DTS Virtual:X, Yamaha's YAS-207 rises above the competition.
It’s a long, 46-inch bar with full, punchy sound, a large wireless subwoofer, and two surround speakers — plus up-firing speakers to both the bar and the satellites for an enveloping Dolby Atmos experience in a relatively compact package. Vizio is one of the top dogs in the lower price brackets, and their 29-inch 2.0 sound bar is a bestselling choice for under $100. Pair it with our best soundbars for an immersive experience. If your TV is on a piece of furniture, and you’re buying a soundbar that will sit in front of it, you need to take the speaker’s height into consideration, so that it doesn’t encroach on the screen or block the TV’s infrared receiver. Some soundbars go even further than 5.1, including support for Dolby Atmos, a new surround sound technology that adds sounds from above, as well as from the front and back. These soundbars have multiple speakers in the soundbar, some dedicated to left, center, and right channel duty while others handle the surround and height cues. Some soundbars eschew this artificial processing and offer you the option of adding surround speakers, often wireless ones, to deliver a true 5.1-surround sound. Samsung’s SWA-8500S wireless speaker kit to its HW-M450 soundbar adds left and right surround speakers without the need to run cables to the back of your room. Speaking of streaming audio: if you have a lot of Sonos devices in your house, you may want a soundbar that works with your existing setup, like the Sonos Beam. It’s pricier than comparable soundbars but if you can afford it, you can pair it with your other Sonos speakers and a subwoofer for a full 5.1 surround system — that is, 5 speakers and one subwoofer — allowing you to hear gunshots, explosions, and other effects behind you in certain movie scenes. Filling a room with sound requires substantial speakers that can move a lot of air, and those types of speakers just won’t fit inside a thin TV chassis. It won’t blow your mind but it’s almost certainly a step up from the speakers built into your TV. Sony’s HT-Z9F doesn’t have up-firing speaker drivers, but it’s still able to add overhead Dolby Atmos effects through its virtual 3D surround engine. The LG SN8YG excels where it counts, delivering full, rich audio with a robust mid-range—a characteristic that’s too-frequently lacking in competing soundbars. Consequently, your mileage may vary. Yes, the lack of a night mode or room correction is a bummer given the eye-popping price tag. In addition, the larger the speaker drivers — and thus, the thicker the soundbar — the better it’s going to reproduce the full spectrum of sound.