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If you're looking to ditch your TV speaker, this is where I suggest you start. The subwoofer may be smaller than usual for the brand, but this audio bar still sounds great with two full-range speakers, as well as offering HDMI connectivity with ARC and a much easier-to-understand input display. The Vizio V-Series 2.1 is the best soundbar value I have tested in the last few years.
For less than a C-note, the Creative Stage soundbar offers a bunch of previously unheard-of features, including HDMI connectivity with an HDMI ARC port and a subwoofer. What's even more remarkable is that this affordable PC soundbar sounds better than most of its ultra-budget competition; its wired subwoofer fills the room with great bass. The soundbar includes a variety of audio modes, making it quite versatile, and the speaker delivers excellent sound quality for gamers and movie fans alike.
Sonos' new entry-level soundbar offers a lot for the money, including the company's excellent multiroom music system onboard. A two-channel soundbar with Dolby Digital decoding, the Ray is roughly two-thirds the size of the Sonos Beam, yet it delivers a surprisingly wide soundstage.
While it doesn't support Dolby Atmos surround sound or have an HDMI port to connect to your TV (you use the included optical cable instead), I was impressed with the sound quality for music and movies. You can pair it with a couple of other Sonos speakers like the Ikea Symfonisk, or even the new Sonos Sub Mini, to create a surround sound system.
A true step up from the preceding soundbars, the Vizio M512a-H6 is the most cost-effective way to get true Dolby Atmos playback. This surround system includes the main soundbar with up-firing height speakers built in, a 6-inch subwoofer and two wired rear speakers. That's a lot of parts, but it was easy to set up, and I was impressed with the overall build quality. Most importantly, it offers excellent performance with movies, including real Atmos effects I could hear, as well as music. The M512a-H6s lacks Chromecast and AirPlay streaming but still earns my hearty recommendation both for home cinema fans and for people looking to listen to their favorite album (whether in Atmos or not).
If you simply must have the least number of boxes and remotes in your living space and yet demand the best Atmos quality sound performance you can get, this Sennheiser speaker is your baby. It's a single unit without a subwoofer, but it's able to conjure up the most realistic overhead and true surround-sound effects I've ever heard. It's also controlled entirely via remote control. It's not a cheap piece of sound equipment, but it's comparable in price to a full set of surround speakers without the bulk and with 85% of the great sound and performance. It's now been joined by the cheaper Ambeo Soundbar Plus.
If you're interested in setting up a multiroom sound system, a Sonos soundbar system is still the best option. The Sonos Arc is the company's best soundbar and includes Dolby Atmos playback, a class-leading music ecosystem, and Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built into the bar itself. The soundbar system sounds good with music and movies, and adding a pair of Ikea Symphonisk bookshelves should really boost your home theater sound experience. The Arc sounds a lot bigger than the cheaper Beam, and the smaller speaker needs the $700 subwoofer to make it comparable in terms of sound.
The Yamaha YAS-209 offers excellent sound quality in a compact soundbar. Built-in Amazon Alexa voice control is useful, allowing this smart soundbar to stream music, and the mics work well in loud environments. The soundbar's implementation of DTS Virtual:X virtual surround sound offers a rich effect reminiscent of surround speaker sound. Two HDMI connections are included, one with HDMI ARC. This smart soundbar's wireless subwoofer is more articulate and offers more headroom than the competing, and also excellent, Polk Command Bar. The Yamaha soundbar YAS-209 doesn't use the company's MusicCast system, so it won't sync up with other Yamaha speakers.
The Vizio Elevate's main draw may be its motorized-height speakers, but once you get over their novelty, you'll find that the speaker system also sounds great. The separate sub and height-enabled rear speakers really help pull this Vizio soundbar ahead of the Sonos Arc sonically. With Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Chromecast built-in, multiple HDMI inputs and Bluetooth, the only thing the Vizio doesn't provide is Apple AirPlay support.
Easily supplanting my previous favorite, the JBL Bar 2.1 Deep Bass, the Klipsch Cinema 400 adds great design and an even bigger wireless subwoofer. Sound quality is still king, with a real sense of dynamics and excellent music replay. If you want to make your TV the next best thing to a movie theater, this is one of the most affordable ways to do it.
When choosing which soundbar to buy, CNET also uses the following criteria as part of its selection process:
Read more in the soundbar buying guide.
CNET follows a rigorous, unbiased evaluation process for all of its soundbar testing, from simple stereo speakers to Dolby Atmos systems. In the CNET AV Lab, I do comparative testing, pitting similar soundbars against each other side by side.
I evaluate the performance of each soundbar with several different types of content, including movies, music, TV shows and games. I use several test scenes -- including the opening of Mad Max:Fury Road for playback of the spatial audio standard Dolby Atmos for soundbars that support it. I also use the Thanator Attack scene of Avatar (26.53) to test a system's dynamics and detail retrieval.
When it comes to music, I use several CNET test tracks which you can find here in a Tidal or Spotify playlist. Tracks such as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Red Right Hand, with its deep bass and tenor vocals, help determine a system's ability to track male voices in particular, without sounding congested. The song also helps with uncovering hidden details and the relative dynamics a speaker is capable of. Using both types of content -- movies and music -- I then grade the sound quality of each soundbar. I evaluate characteristics such as speech clarity, dynamics/volume, bass response and musical playback.
CNET's dedicated audio lab in downtown New York includes a selection of recent televisions (with HDMI eARC), plus Apple TV 4K streamer and Roku Ultra streamer, a Microsoft Xbox Series X and an Oppo UDP-205 4K Blu-ray player. I also use Roon music software to stream to individual devices or the Oppo player as needed.
Soundbars are the most economical way to improve the sound that comes out of your TV. TV speakers face downward so a lot of detail is lost, and a dedicated soundbar can make speech more understandable. Spending as little as $100 on a soundbar can improve your TV-watching experience tenfold.
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Depending on the age of your TV, there are three main ways to output to a soundbar: analog (3.5mm headphone or RCA), digital optical and HDMI. Before you buy a soundbar, make sure it accepts the same connections that exist on your TV. The most common input on soundbars is now HDMI-ARC, and if your TV is less than five years old it should be compatible, but it's worth double-checking.
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Soundbars are designed to be placed in front of the TV on a TV stand or other furniture. Most are less than 2 inches tall so that they won't block either your television's infrared remote port or the screen itself. Some soundbars can also be wall-mounted and come with brackets in the box. Third-party kits for wall-mounting soundbars are also available.
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With only a handful of exceptions, you can use any soundbar with any TV, although it does sometimes help to match TV and soundbar brands. Many new soundbars use HDMI ARC to channel the audio from your TV through the soundbar, so if both devices have one of these ports that's all you need. Some older soundbars use an optical connection and most TVs offer these as well.
The exceptions? Roku TV Wireless Speakers and Samsung SoundConnect. The former uses a proprietary wireless connection, and lacks an HDMI port, so you need a Roku TV (and not a Roku streamer) to use it. The second is also proprietary between Samsung soundbars and TVs, although the soundbar usually offers HDMI for connection to other brands.
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Music played through your TV almost always sounds better when you have a soundbar connected. Many soundbars have Bluetooth, meaning you don't need the TV on to listen to your tunes. In general, a soundbar with a wireless subwoofer is best for music as it will help reproduce dynamics as well as deep bass.
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Source: cnet.com