How to Choose the Right Soundbar

If you’re considering true surround speakers, you’ll want to look into using stands to place them behind your sitting area. We us this adjustable/affordable set for testing. You’ll also want to determine whether your soundbar supports wireless speakers (which still require a power outlet in nearly all cases) or wired speakers that need to connect to the subwoofer or a dedicated amplifier that connects back to the main bar wirelessly.

Advanced Features

Many Wi-Fi-ready soundbars feature smart assistants, multiroom audio connectivity, and other bells and whistles. If you’ve already got a smart assistant you love like Alexa or Google Assistant, keep this in mind when shopping. You might not need a smart speaker in your living room if you end up with a smart soundbar with built-in microphones. Conversely, if you don’t want those features, you can save some money by avoiding soundbars with all the fancy stuff. Klipsch soundbars tend to skip Wi-Fi and smart features to focus on sound quality, build quality, and extra components instead.

How Much Should You Pay?

Samsung HW-Q990B

Photograph: Samsung

$100 or Less

You can find small, budget soundbars in this price range, and they’re still better than the speakers in your TV. They can be a good option if your budget is tight, but in general, they’re most useful for TVs in smaller spaces like bedrooms or kitchens. Some soundbars, like Vizio’s latest AIO (All-in-One), can drop down to this price tier on sale, so those working with this budget may want to keep an eye out at slightly pricier models and pounce when the time is right.

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

$100 to $500

This is a good price range for most non-surround soundbars. Look for recognizable brands like Samsung, Vizio, Sony, Polk, LG, Bose, Klipsch, and Sonos. You can usually get a wireless subwoofer included at the middle or top of this price band, though Sonos and Bose have models in this range that sound pretty good without them and include advanced networking features instead. You can also find soundbars with surround sound speakers below $500, especially from value brands like Vizio, though you may have to sacrifice some sound performance and features. Similarly, many bars will offer Dolby Atmos and/or DTS:X “support,” but the effect will always be limited unless they offer dedicated up-firing drivers.

$500 to $1,000

This is the price category where you’ll start to see high-quality surround soundbars with subwoofers, real satellite speakers, spare HDMI inputs, and Dolby Atmos support. At this range, you’ll also start to see advanced features like Wi-Fi streaming, multiroom audio, and the ability to add wireless surround sound speakers and subwoofers later, with Bose’s Smart Ultra and Sonos’ Arc Ultra, which provided knockout performance in our review. Depending on your use case, anything at this level should offer lots of extras, multiple audio components, or both.

For serious music fans, this is also where you can get into quality powered bookshelf speakers. These all-in-one stereo systems offer much higher fidelity and musicality than most soundbars, and often come with versatile connectivity like HDMI ARC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and subwoofer connection. Brands like KEF, SVS, and Klipsch are among our favorites.