I’m a senior staff writer at Wirecutter, currently handling 12 guides on audio products and providing technical measurements for our headphone guides. I’ve worked as an editor or writer in audio publishing for more than 30 years, and I previously served as a consultant on soundbar tuning and measurement for several audio companies.

For this guide:

• I have been testing soundbars since they debuted about 20 years ago and have evaluated about 150 of them.
• For our most recent round of testing, I brought in another listener—drummer and audio production student Kage Shissler—to provide a second opinion. I have consulted with many other listeners for previous tests.
• For listeners other than myself, I concealed the identities of the products to avoid bias.
• I ran technical tests on the products to find flaws that our listening sessions might have missed.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.

If you want better sound than you’re getting from your TV’s built-in speakers but don’t want to piece together separate components (such as an AV or stereo receiver and a speaker package), a soundbar is the way to go.

Separate components usually provide better performance, but they also take up more space and require additional cables, and their operation is more complicated. A good soundbar strikes a balance between performance and convenience, delivering improved sound quality in a package that’s easier to set up and use.

If your top priority is getting the absolute best surround-sound experience, or if you have a lot of source devices (like a cable box, gaming console, streaming media player, and music player) to connect to your TV, you’re better off with an AV receiver and a multi-channel speaker system.

If your primary concern is hearing the dialogue in movies and TV shows, almost any soundbar is better than the speakers built into your TV, and some soundbars have effective voice enhancement modes. We brought in some hard-of-hearing listeners to test the voice enhancement on a few soundbars; you can read the results in this blog.

To decide which soundbars to call in for testing, we considered the following criteria:

• Number of channels: Soundbars can have anywhere from two to 16 channels of sound. They’re designated as something like “5.1.2,” which means five main speakers, one subwoofer, and two upward-firing immersive speakers for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio formats. Generally, the more channels, the more immersive the surround effect.

• Wireless audio support: We considered only those soundbars that had the ability to stream music from a phone or tablet, via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi (or both). Wi-Fi systems such as AirPlay, Chromecast, and Sonos are more complicated to set up, but they offer potentially better sound quality than Bluetooth, and they can work in conjunction with other compatible speakers in a multiroom audio system.

• HDMI ARC connection: Almost all of the soundbars we tested have an HDMI ARC or eARC (Audio Return Channel) jack, which lets you transmit audio via a single HDMI cable between the TV and soundbar. A basic ARC connection can pass compressed audio formats, while the newer eARC connection (enhanced Audio Return Channel) can pass a higher-quality, uncompressed Atmos signal, if both the TV and soundbar support eARC. The inclusion of an HDMI ARC port is important because when you power up the TV, the soundbar should automatically power up as well, and the remote for the TV or media player can control the soundbar’s volume.

• HDMI inputs: This feature may be essential if you have a 5.1-channel or Atmos-capable soundbar and want to get the highest-quality sound from streaming media players, Blu-ray players, and video game consoles. TVs without eARC can’t pass a full-quality surround-sound signal to a soundbar. If your soundbar has HDMI inputs, you don’t have to worry which version of ARC your gear supports because you can connect your sources directly to the soundbar instead of to the TV.

• Voice command: Some higher-priced soundbars feature compatibility with Amazon Alexa or Google Home voice-command systems, both of which also allow multiroom audio capability. Some Vizio models include a signal-sensing input, which lets them function like smart speakers when they’re connected to an Amazon Echo Dot.

Before doing tests with outside listeners, I tried out each soundbar’s various sound modes, tested the different connection options, and got a general feel for how they performed and operated.

For our official listening tests, I concealed the identities of the soundbars behind thin, black fabric. I told the panelists nothing about the soundbars. I set the volume of each soundbar to the same playback level, using a sound pressure level meter and a shaped noise tone taken from a Dolby Digital receiver. I then played various movie and music selections, plus one music track of the listener’s choice.

During these tests, I asked the panelists to pay particular attention to:

• how clear voices sounded in music and movies
• the balance of bass to midrange to treble
• how clean the bars sounded when cranked up
• the volume, depth, and clarity of the bass response
• how enveloping the sound was with movies and music

With soundbars that offered special sound modes, I generally employed the mode intended for the type of content I was listening to—movies or music, for instance—but I also experimented with all of the other modes available. If the soundbars had an “auto” or “AI” mode, I relied mostly on that one but tried the others as well. For soundbars with HDMI inputs that support 4K HDR video pass-through, I tested whether this function worked properly with an HDR-capable TV.

To specifically test every soundbar system’s bass capabilities beyond the listening tests, I measured each system using the same process we use for our guide to the best subwoofer. These measurements provide a precise assessment of a speaker’s or subwoofer’s bass capabilities. Below is a chart that shows the results for our recommended soundbars:

Top pick

Polk MagniFi Mini AX

The best all-around soundbar

Despite being simple, small, and affordable, this soundbar outperforms many larger, more complicated competitors. But the package doesn’t include surround speakers.

Buying Options

$440$300 from Amazon

You save $140 (32%)

$299 from Walmart

May be out of stock

$500 from Best Buy

For most people, the ideal soundbar is one that delivers a huge upgrade from the sound of their TV’s built-in speakers, with a reasonable cost, a small footprint, and no setup hassles. That perfectly describes the Polk MagniFi Mini AX.

This small package delivers big sound for movies. The two-piece system consists of a soundbar and small subwoofer. The bar measures just 14.5 inches across, but in our brand-concealed listening tests, it beat out larger and more expensive models. I found its big, spacious, and detailed sound to be competitive with everything else I heard in the mid-three-figures range. Our listeners agreed: “With this one, I can perceive more layers of sound and more of the sound effects, like the whistling sound that happens when the depth charges explode in U-571,” one said.

In some ways, the simulated surround sound that the MagniFi Mini AX produces seems more natural than the “real” surround sound of the more expensive 5.1-and-up models we tested because there are no rear speakers blaring into your ears and distracting you from the dialogue. Even without surround speakers, we heard what seemed like sounds coming from all around us and even above us at times.

Polk offers the SR2 wireless surround speakers as an optional add-on. We tried them and found that, while they don’t really make the sound of the MagniFi Mini AX more enveloping, they do let you hear specific sound effects from the rear channels more clearly.

The 7-inch-wide subwoofer can’t really shake the couch, but it does reproduce the lowest bass notes in music and the low-frequency sound effects in action movies without distorting. Our CTA-2010 measurements showed that its output averaged 106.8 decibels in the mid-bass and 93.6 dB in the low bass—excellent results for a soundbar in this price range.

It’s great for music, and it can boost voices, too. Bigger soundbars can produce a more spacious stereo sound, but the Mini AX’s natural-sounding balance of bass to midrange to treble in its Music mode still won over our panelists.

The Voice Assist mode is intended to make dialogue sound clearer, which can be activated and adjusted from the remote. It doesn’t produce the kind of voice boost that hard-of-hearing people will probably find helpful, but it does make dialogue easier to understand for people without hearing loss.

It’s simple to set up and operate. In most cases, setup will involve placing the soundbar below your TV and running one HDMI cable between the two. The subwoofer connects wirelessly to the soundbar, so you can put it anywhere in the room.

The top-mounted controls and the remote have raised white labels against a black background, so they’re easy to see in the dark.

You can stream audio wirelessly from a phone, tablet, or computer using Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay 2 (which requires an iOS device for setup), or Google Chromecast (which can be set up using iOS or Android devices).

Flaws but not dealbreakers

There are no dedicated HDMI inputs for connecting source devices. If you have multiple sources (such as a Blu-ray player and a gaming system) that you want to connect directly to the soundbar, you should look for a soundbar with more inputs.

It can’t play as loud as larger models. But most people don’t need any more volume than the MagniFi Mini AX can muster.

It doesn’t have holes for wall-mounting. However, it can be positioned on the wall using soundbar wall-mount brackets.

Runner-up

Vizio Elevate SE

For more enveloping surround sound

This system produces more immersive sound than our top pick, but it has fewer features and is more complicated to set up and use.

Buying Options

$450$400 from Amazon

You save $50 (11%)

$450$400 from Walmart

You save $50 (11%)

$450$400 from Best Buy

You save $50 (11%)

If you’re willing to give up features such as Wi-Fi streaming and a remote control to get a more immersive surround-sound experience for about the same price as you’d pay for our top pick, we recommend the Vizio Elevate SE. You have to set up the included surround speakers and wire them to the subwoofer, but the result is a more seamless, wraparound sound than our top pick produces.

This system adds up-firing drivers and dedicated surround speakers for more immersive sound. The soundbar itself has left, center, and right speakers plus an additional motorized speaker at each end. Normally the two end speakers fire forward—but when Dolby Atmos or DTS:X content is detected, they rotate upward to create a sense that sound effects are happening above you. The vents for these speakers also rotate and light up when they’re playing immersive content. Not only does this serve as a signal that the soundbar is receiving the desired audio format, but it also looks cool.

The package also includes two surround speakers (which must be hard-wired to the subwoofer) for placement at the sides or back of the room. Each speaker has just one driver, but it points up at an angle to create a more immersive effect.

Tonally, the Elevate SE sounds similar to our top pick, just more enveloping and slightly more trebly. We thought our previous runner-up, the similar and now-discontinued Vizio M-Series Elevate, didn’t sound great with music, but the Elevate SE does. It has the clear voices and detailed treble you might expect from a decent, inexpensive bookshelf speaker, but with a more spacious sound.

Bass fanatics (probably) won’t be disappointed. Some of the subwoofers included with recent Vizio soundbars left us wanting more oomph, but the Elevate SE’s subwoofer offers a good amount of excitement for its size. In our CTA-2010 measurements, the 6.5-inch woofer’s output averaged 107.2 dB in the mid-bass and 91.6 dB in the low bass. That’s not as much as what you can get from the Samsung HW-Q990D or a good dedicated subwoofer, but it’s more than enough to keep up with the soundbar; we often found ourselves turning it down a few notches.

The mobile app gives you lots of control. Vizio’s WatchFree+ app (iOS and Android) lets you switch sources and control the volume, as well as fine-tune the balance of the different speakers to get your desired amount of bass and treble, subwoofer level, surround effect, and height effect.

It also gives you access to the ClearDialog feature, which boosts upper-midrange frequencies to make voices sound clearer; you can further improve dialogue clarity by raising the center-channel volume.

All of these operations are intuitive and easy to use. You can also access other features, such as keeping the motorized height speakers on all the time and changing the color of their internal lights (or turning the lights off, which would be a shame).

Flaws but not dealbreakers

There’s really just one input—and no Wi-Fi streaming. The Elevate SE includes a single HDMI eARC port. To get immersive sound, you need a TV with HDMI eARC capability. It has no dedicated HDMI inputs, nor does it offer digital or analog audio inputs.

It does have a USB-A jack, and the manual says this is an input that accepts WAV and MP3 files—but we couldn’t get either file type to play from a PC laptop or a Samsung Galaxy S10 phone. We tried switching to the USB input in the app, but it just kept switching back to the HDMI input.

The only way we were able to transmit audio from a phone, tablet, or computer was via Bluetooth, since this system also lacks support for Wi-Fi streaming protocols such as AirPlay and Chromecast.

You have to deal with extra wires. The subwoofer itself is wireless, but you must wire the surround speakers to it. The included speaker cables are long and tipped with RCA plugs, so they’re easy to connect. Even so, you have to run cables across the room (and presumably hide them under rugs or furniture), and you pretty much have to place the subwoofer in the back of the room.

The system doesn’t come with a remote. To control the soundbar, you must use either the four buttons on the left side of the bar (for volume, Bluetooth, and power) or the mobile app. Or, more likely, you can just program volume control into your TV or source device’s remote (or a universal remote). We rarely use soundbar remotes except to select the sound mode, such as Movies or Music, and the Vizio app lets you do that.

If you want a similarly designed soundbar with some of the features missing from this model, we still recommend our former runner-up pick, the Vizio M-Series Elevate, which has a remote, an HDMI input, a 3.5 mm audio input, and another 3.5 mm audio input with signal-sensing so you can connect an Amazon Echo Dot and effectively turn the soundbar into a smart speaker. But that older model doesn’t perform as well with music, and it has slightly less bass output. Plus, technically it has been discontinued, so its availability is limited.

Budget pick

TCL S55H

Strong, clear sound at a friendly price

This soundbar produces a room-filling sound for movies and music, but it can’t match the volume and envelopment of more expensive models.

Buying Options

$145$120 from Best Buy

You save $25 (17%)

$145$120 from Amazon

You save $25 (17%)

The TCL S55H is the least expensive way we’ve found to get high-quality cinematic sound from your TV. It has a sparse set of features, but if you just want better TV sound plus Bluetooth for music playback, this is a simple, great-sounding solution.

It offers amazing sound quality for the price. The 2.1-channel S55H sounds similar to the Yamaha SR-C30A, our previous budget pick, but it offers a bit more sonic envelopment. We got a strong sense that we were hearing rear surround speakers, even though there were none. It includes Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X sound processing and has an HDMI eARC port.

Deep bass was impressive for a sub measuring just 7.7 inches square. Our CTA-2010 measurements showed 85.7 dB in the low bass, whereas the Yamaha system provided no measurable average output in this range. However, the TCL sub’s average mid-bass output was 101.9 dB, which is 5.9 dB less than the Yamaha’s. So the TCL S55H won’t have as much chest-thumping punch as the Yamaha, but it’ll shake your couch more.

The S55H sounds great with music, too. Even delicate acoustic music sounded clear and natural, something we rarely hear from any soundbar, much less one priced well below $200. An Ai Sonic mode in TCL’s app works with your smartphone to tune the S55H’s response to your room’s acoustics, but we couldn’t hear much difference in any of its three settings.

For the most part, it’s simple to use. You can control all functions via dedicated buttons on the remote or through TCL’s app. Voice announcements from the soundbar confirm your control choices, which we liked better than trying to read the short, cryptic alphanumeric displays found on many soundbars. Generally, the controls were intuitive and easy to figure out—with the exception of the tone controls, which we discuss below.

We particularly liked the remote’s Voice button, which provides immediate access to the Voice Enhance mode. Voice Enhance is available in three levels (plus off). We found the maximum setting useful with movies and TV shows in which the dialogue is difficult to understand.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Inputs and streaming options are limited. There are no dedicated HDMI inputs to directly connect your sources, and there’s no Wi-Fi compatibility, but we haven’t seen any other soundbars in this price range that offer such features.

The tone controls are confusing. To adjust these, you hit the remote’s Bass or Treble button and use the forward/reverse skip buttons to adjust the boost or cut. However, to gauge the setting, we had to stand up to see the indicator on top of the soundbar. Fortunately, we didn’t feel the need to adjust these settings.

Upgrade pick

Samsung HW-Q990D

For the most theaterlike audio experience

This system offers a powerful subwoofer, separate rear speakers, four upward-firing Atmos speakers, and lots of inputs and audio streaming options. But it’s pricey.

Buying Options

$1,498 from Amazon

$1,698 from Walmart

$1,700 from Best Buy

The Samsung HW-Q990D delivers much of the sonic excitement of a full surround-sound speaker system, but is much simpler to set up. The package, billed as an 11.1.4-channel system, includes the soundbar, a subwoofer, and two wireless surround speakers.

Multiple upward-firing speakers create a better sense of immersion. There are two up-firing speakers in the soundbar itself, plus one in each of the surround speakers. There are also side-firing drivers mounted in the surround speakers and in the soundbar, so the sound has a strong feeling of wrapping around you. This setup allows the soundbar to produce exciting, enveloping sound with any good surround-sound movie, but especially with movies encoded in Dolby Atmos or DTS:X.

We chose the HW-Q990D over a similar contender, the LG S95TR, because we strongly preferred the Samsung’s voice reproduction. Through the S95TR, voices sounded comparatively thin and raspy to us. The HW-Q990D’s AI sound mode seemed to work well for anything we played, and it also sounded better than the S95TR with music because of its smoother sound with vocals.

Samsung’s Q-Symphony feature allows the soundbar and the speakers in select Samsung TVs to work together to create a more immersive sound. We tried it, and it sounded a little more immersive, but because the sound of the TV speakers doesn’t match the soundbar’s tone, the effect seemed unnatural.

The powerful subwoofer is downright thrilling. The HW-Q990D’s subwoofer is competitive with many small standalone subwoofers, producing powerful, floor-shaking bass whether we played action movies or bass-intensive hip-hop tunes like Audrey Nuna’s “damn Right” (video). The bass is well-defined, with no trace of boominess or distortion.

Our CTA-2010 measurements showed that the sub’s output averaged 114.7 dB in the mid-bass and 97.2 dB in the low bass. This is the best we can remember measuring from a subwoofer packaged with a soundbar—7.9 dB and 3.6 dB higher, respectively, than we measured from the Polk MagniFi Mini AX.

It provides plenty of inputs and streaming options. The HW-Q990D has an HDMI eARC port plus two HDMI 2.1 inputs that will pass 4K 120 Hz HDR video, so you can connect a Blu-ray player and a gaming system directly to it and get the maximum fidelity of Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. It also has an optical digital input.

Wireless streaming options include Bluetooth, Google Chromecast, Apple AirPlay 2, and Spotify Connect. It can also function as a Google Home and Amazon Alexa smart speaker, so it can stream music through Alexa, too.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The soundbar and subwoofer are big. The 48.5-inch-long soundbar might not be a good fit for smaller TVs. The subwoofer measures 8.5 inches wide, 16.2 inches high, and 16.1 inches deep, so it also may be too large to tuck behind a TV stand or end table.

This system can be annoying to use. The front panel has a scrolling alphanumeric display that shows only four characters at a time and takes some attention to read.

Fortunately, you can control everything from Samsung’s SmartThings app, but that takes more time and attention than simply grabbing a remote.

If you don’t want a subwoofer: The Bose Smart Soundbar 900 is a one-piece Atmos soundbar with optional subwoofer and surround speakers. It produces exceptionally enveloping and spacious sound, and it incorporates Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, and Bluetooth. It also has a slim, beautiful design, but it lacks HDMI inputs, DTS:X support, and an analog input.

If you want a super-affordable, super-compact soundbar with streaming built in: Consider the Roku Streambar, a 14-inch-long, 2.0-channel, HDMI-equipped bar with the equivalent of a Roku Streaming Stick 4K streamer (a current pick in our best media streaming devices guide) built in. The Streambar sounds much clearer, louder, and fuller than almost any TV speakers, and it’s better than most inexpensive 2.0 soundbars. It includes Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay 2 support. It’s also available packaged with the Wireless Bass subwoofer, but the Wireless Bass falls well short of the power of the subwoofers included with good budget 2.1 soundbars.

If you want a powerful soundbar system but don’t want to spend a fortune: The Klipsch Flexus system—with the Core 200 soundbar, Sub 100 subwoofer, and Surr 100 surround speakers—has the clear, powerful sound of a decent, small 5.1 surround-sound speaker system, at a combined price much less than that of the Samsung HW-Q990D. We liked the Flexus system’s clarity and natural tonal balance, although because its surround speakers don’t have upward-firing drivers, the surround effects aren’t as immersive, and the Sub 100 produces 5.2 dB less mid-bass punch than the HW-Q990D’s subwoofer. It also has just one HDMI-eARC input and no additional HDMI inputs, and it doesn’t support DTS audio—so it’s less flexible than most soundbars in its price range.

We’ve tested numerous soundbars over the years, so we can’t cover them all here. Below are write-ups on some of the more recent and noteworthy models we’ve evaluated. If you don’t see a certain model you’re interested in, check out our running list of the soundbars we’ve tested.

The Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar can use the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds as quasi-surround speakers; that arrangement works, but it seemed a little gimmicky to us and never gave us the enveloping effect of real surround speakers. Otherwise, the soundbar is similar to the company’s Smart Soundbar 900 in features and sound, but it’s smaller and less costly, and it needs a subwoofer more than the Smart Soundbar 900 does.

Our listeners liked the immersive surround effects and powerful subwoofer of the JBL Bar 1300X, but they didn’t consider it significantly better than comparable Samsung and LG models, and they found the concept of its detachable, rechargeable surround speakers confusing.

With its dual 8-inch subwoofers, Nakamichi’s Shockwafe Elite 7.2 eARC produced much stronger bass than any other soundbar we tested for our latest update, but its Dolby Atmos immersive sound effects are unimpressive, and with music, vocals often sounded buried in the mix.

The Samsung HW-S800D is a super-slim soundbar that’s only 1.5 inches high but is sonically competitive with larger models. It includes an amazingly powerful and punchy mini subwoofer, but it sounds somewhat weak on dialogue and Dolby Atmos effects.

The Sonos Arc Ultra is a reengineered update of the original Sonos Arc, a former pick. It sounded good, but we experienced connection issues; we could get it to work with an iPad but not a Samsung Galaxy S10 Android phone, and we never were able to get the new Sonos Sub 4 subwoofer to connect. The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is similar and about half the price, but its smaller size means it doesn’t play as loud or offer as much bass.

The Sony Theater Bar 8, paired with Sony’s SA-SW5 subwoofer and SA-RS5 wireless surround speakers, produces a powerful, enveloping sound—but it’s only slightly more powerful and enveloping than our upgrade pick, and it’s much more expensive.

The TCL Q85H is a good-sounding soundbar that comes with wireless surround speakers and is compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, but it’s more expensive than the Vizio Elevate SE and doesn’t sound as enveloping.

Our former runner-up, the Vizio M-Series Elevate, has more features than the newer Vizio Elevate SE, including a remote, an HDMI input, a 3.5 mm audio input, and another 3.5 mm audio input with signal-sensing so you can connect an Amazon Echo Dot and effectively turn the soundbar into a smart speaker. But the newer model performs better with music and has slightly better bass response. Plus, technically this soundbar has been discontinued, so its availability is limited.

We liked the affordable Vizio SV510X 5.1-channel soundbar, except that its tiny subwoofer distorted often when we watched action movies. Same goes for the SV210M, which uses a similar subwoofer.

The Yamaha SR-C30A is a former budget pick. It’s a great-sounding, affordable 2.1 soundbar, but the TCL S55H sounds at least as good and costs considerably less.

If you’re just looking for a simple option to deal with dialogue clarity and don’t need all the bells and whistles of a full-fledged soundbar, Zvox’s AccuVoice TV speakers are a good choice, as they use hearing-aid technology to improve dialogue clarity. Read more about Zvox devices here.

This article was edited by Adrienne Maxwell and Grant Clauser.