The best soundbars 2023: which should you buy?

While the audio quality from the newest and best TVs is getting better, it's still a foregone conclusion that any TV you buy is going to need a better sound setup. This can come in many forms, such as complex Dolby Atmos surround sound systems complete with an AV receiver, many speakers, a subwoofer and more. But for most people, that just isn't doable, either for budgetary reasons, space limitations, or just for the pain frustration factor — and that's where the best soundbars come in.

Luckily, there's a wide variety of soundbars. Some can deliver room-filling immersive sound with Dolby Atmos support while others come with subwoofers and additional surround speakers you can mount on a wall or on stands; some are even wireless. Some have big booming volume while others are more suited to smaller rooms like apartments, and some are just designed to blow you away completely. There's something for every situation and budget.

But when it comes to sheer versatility and performance, the Sonos Arc is the whole package. The Arc is compatible with Dolby Atmos, it has room-filling sound, it's expandable, it doubles as a smart speaker, and there's nothing like it on this list when it comes to multiroom audio. It's certainly not the cheapest soundbar you'll find, but once you consider its many strengths, it's hard to deny the value Sonos provides with the Arc.

That's not to say it's the only soundbar out there worth your hard-earned cash, though. Far from it, in fact. We've stocked this list with multiple other recommendations for you to check out, separated into the areas in which they excel, so you’ll have plenty of options to find the right soundbar for your setup and preferred media.

Sonos Arc

The best overall

At the risk of sounding too sensational, the Sonos Arc embodies everything Sonos is about. It's incredibly easy to set up and use, it provides great sound, and it seamlessly incorporates itself into your larger network of whole-home Sonos sound. With all of that packed in, it would have been easy for Dolby Atmos to be an afterthought.

Quite the contrary, as it turns out. The Arc uses up-firing drivers to re-create Dolby Atmos sound, and while it doesn't completely blow you away, the execution is incredibly effective. The Arc adds a solid sense of 3D space to action-oriented films like Avengers: Endgame and Ford v Ferrari, bringing the sounds of roaring cars and interplanetary battles to life in stunning form.

Like the Sonos Playbar before it, you can easily expand the Arc's home theater capabilities by adding other Sonos speakers as surround satellites, plus you now have two choices for low-frequency effects: the magnificent — if very expensive — Sonos Sub and the new, smaller Sub Mini.

It's also a smart speaker, with three choices of voice assistant: the bare-bones but super useful Sonos Voice Control for Sonos-only functions, plus Alexa and Google Assistant, which can control Sonos products and much more, too.

But what really pushes the Arc to the top of our list is how versatile it is for non-TV listening. The Sonos app gives you an incredible amount of control over the Arc (and any other Sonos speakers in your home), as well as streaming music sources. Whether it's a playlist from Spotify or a track buried deep in your personal music collection, the universal search feature makes it a snap to find.

For all its strengths, the Arc does not have any HDMI inputs. If this matters, we highly recommend spending an extra $100 on the Sony HT-A5000. It might not have the Arc's multiroom and music streaming chops, but it has superb sound quality, with even better bass than the Arc, thanks to its built-in subwoofer.

Right now, the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 is probably the closest competitor to the Sonos Arc. With an almost identical feature set and price, it's an excellent alternative.

Vizio M-Series AiO (M213ad-K8)

The best soundbar for $200 or less

When you get right down to it, people buy soundbars because they want better sound from their TV, but they're not interested in all of the convoluted wiring, settings, or the expense involved in going with a full home theater system. And when it comes to delivering on that goal for the least amount of money, Vizio's 2023 M-Series AiO is a slam-dunk.

It starts with a single speaker, which is compact and understated — no flashy metal finishes or exposed drivers — just an elegant trapezoid wrapped in dark gray fabric. Getting it connected is a cinch — just plug it into your TV using the included HDMI cable, or you can use your own optical cable. That's it.

The included remote makes it easy to control (or thanks to HDMI eARC, you can control it with your TV remote), and if you own a Vizio TV, all of the key settings will be merged into your TV's on-screen menus, which is a great addition, and something you rarely see on any soundbar regardless of price.

Dialog — the key to being able to enjoy any movie or show to its fullest — is crisp and clear, so you won't be leaning across to your friends and family to whisper, "What did she just say?" And the rest of the M-Series' audio chops are just as impressive, especially the bass response, which surprised our reviewer with its power. In his estimation, it's better than what many cheaply-built wireless subwoofers offer, so you won't miss that extra black box at all.

You get an HDMI input, which is always a nice thing to have on a soundbar, and the M-Series has a special trick up its sleeve for folks who want to wall-mount it. Sensors inside automatically reconfigure the tuning of the drivers to ensure you get the best sound, even when the speaker is oriented with its top facing you.

There's only one real caveat with the M-Series AiO: Despite being labeled as Dolby Atmos-capable, our reviewer wasn't able to discern much in the way of a 3D sound experience when listening to Atmos content. Is it a deal-breaker? No — at this price, we don't expect any Dolby Atmos soundbar will perform significantly better. If Dolby Atmos on a budget is your goal, check out the Vizio M-Series 5.1 soundbar (M51a-H6/M51ax-J6) farther down on this list.

Bose Smart Soundbar 600

The best small soundbar

We're big Sonos fans, and until recently, the company's Beam Gen 2 defined what we thought of as a great soundbar for small- to medium-sized rooms. But that changed once we got a chance to audition the Bose Smart Soundbar 600. When compared to Sonos, Bose still has a ways to go when it comes to multiroom sound and streaming music service integration, but thanks to the 600's built-in up-firing height drivers, it's the best small speaker for movies and TV — especially if Dolby Atmos is involved.

Bass and dialog clarity are two especially bright spots for the Smart Soundbar 600, but it's the sheer size of the speaker's soundstage that you notice the most. It projects sound upward, outward, and to the sides so effectively, you'll swear there are additional speakers in your room. If the effect isn't powerful enough, you can add the real deal — the 600 is compatible with two models of wireless Bose subwoofers and two models of wireless Bose surround speakers.

Like its predecessor, the Smart Soundbar 300, and the Sonos Beam Gen 2, the 600 can act as a smart speaker, but only using Amazon's Alexa AI. Google Assistant is still compatible, but it's no longer built-in. However, you do get Chromecast in addition to AirPlay and Bluetooth, making the Smart Soundbar 600 a better streaming choice for Android users than Sonos (AirPlay only).

The Smart Soundbar 600 also has a feature that's custom-tailored to bedrooms: You can connect any compatible Bose headphones over Bluetooth for private listening. We still love the Beam Gen 2 — and strongly recommend it if you're looking to build or expand a multiroom wireless audio system — but for immersive sound, the leader right now is Bose.

Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus

The best Dolby Atmos sound from a single speaker

If you want to get the most immersive and powerful sound possible from a soundbar — with no subwoofers or extra surround speakers — the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus is without equal. Its secret sauce is the Ambeo digital signal processing that Sennheiser pioneered with its first soundbar, the recently renamed Ambeo Soundbar Max.

You can think of Ambeo as a turbo-charger for immersive, 3D audio. Using the Soundbar Plus' nine drivers and amps, it projects sound around even large rooms in such a way that you become convinced there must be speakers hiding behind your furniture or in your ceiling. It truly brings Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and even two-channel stereo to life in a way that is nothing short of mesmerizing. To get even close to this effect, most soundbars need to add additional surround speakers, and even then, they don't always succeed.

With two HDMI 2.0a inputs (plus optical and analog ports) and an HDMI ARC/eARC input/output, there's no need to give up ports on your TV. And with the option to use Sennheiser's wireless Ambeo subs (up to four) or your own wired subwoofer, you're not locked in to a specific accessory for low-end power. Its support for AirPlay, Chromecast, and Bluetooth means you're free to stream music to the bar from any device you own. And if you want to use it as a smart speaker, Amazon Alexa is built-in and can be turned on at any time.

At $1,500, it's one of the more expensive soundbars. And despite being able to add it to Google Home or Amazon Alexa, it's not a great choice for multiroom sound. But when you take into account its remarkable performance as an Atmos speaker, it's worth every penny. For a more powerful (but considerably larger) option, see the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max.

Vizio Elevate 5.1.4 Home Theater Soundbar

The best Dolby Atmos for under $1,000

Vizio appears several times on this list, and for good reason. The company has a huge (though sometimes confusing) array of soundbars at a variety of prices for every budget and room size. The Elevate is the company's flagship and it deserves serious consideration by anyone who wants an elegantly designed and powerful sound system for their TV.

The Elevate's signature feature is its rotating speaker modules. They sit at the ends of the soundbar and rotate from front-firing to up-firing whenever Dolby Atmos or DTS:X content is being played. When combined with the up-firing drivers embedded in the surround speakers, you get four height channels, for overhead sound effects that get surprisingly close to the more expensive Samsung HW-Q990B. Better yet, all of those 5.1.4 channels are individually controllable, so you can easily tune the speakers to your space.

The included wireless subwoofer has a generous eight-inch driver and can reach as low as 30Hz, and has enough power to rattle your windows, even if it can't quite compare to the dedicated powered subs you'll find on more expensive component systems.

With two HDMI inputs and an HDMI ARC/eARC output, there's no problem with being able to attach external media sources, and Bluetooth is on tap for streaming music from your phone. The only thing missing is Wi-Fi, so there's no support for high-quality audio streaming from music services, no compatibility with AirPlay, Chromecast, or Amazon Alexa, and no multi-room audio.

Still, for the price, it's very hard to beat the Elevate for pure TV and movie immersion. The only thing that comes close is Vizio's own M-Series Elevate, which is $200 cheaper and lacks the flagship Elevate's rear up-firing drivers.

Sony HT-A5000

The best for music and gaming

When it comes to music management and multispeaker playback, you really can't beat Sonos. The company's software is without equal. But, there's more to listening to music than managing playlists and searching for songs. So if you're looking for a soundbar that can do a terrific job with advanced music playback (in addition to movie and TV audio), we think the Sony HT-A5000 is the speaker to beat.

It starts with a very well-appointed (if somewhat plainly styled) soundbar, that packs its own built-in subwoofer. That driver is powerful enough that unless you're looking to shake your fillings loose, you probably don't need a dedicated sub. Sony's virtual surround technology does a very good job creating an immersive sound field when listening to Dolby Atmos or DTS:X content, but it does a surprisingly good job upscaling regular two-channel content too. But the A5000's secret sauce lies in its connections and audio compatibility.

With Wi-Fi, AirPlay 2, Chromecast built-in, and Bluetooth (send and receive), it doesn't matter what kind of device you're holding in your hand — you'll be able to stream its audio content in the highest possible quality to the A5000. Better yet, Sony has included support for a huge variety of audio formats and qualities, from the lowliest MP3 files all the way up to hi-res 24-bit/96kHz FLAC and DSD tracks. You can play these files from a USB storage device, your home network, or virtually any streaming service that supports HD audio like Tidal, Amazon Music, or Apple Music. Want to explore the worlds of Dolby Atmos Music and Sony 360 Reality Audio (360RA)? The A5000 has you covered there too.

Even Bluetooth — normally the lowest-quality wireless audio link — has received an upgrade in the form of LDAC codec support. When connected to an LDAC-capable phone (mostly Android handsets), you'll get audio fidelity that almost rivals Wi-Fi.

That support for high-quality audio extends to the A5000's HDMI input. It can passthrough 8K and Dolby Vision, which is awesome for future-proofing, and with 4K @120Hz it's a good choice for gaming too. But it's even better news for those whose TVs don't support HDMI eARC: You'll still be able to get the very best, lossless version of Dolby Atmos by plugging your Blu-ray player or Nvidia Shield TV into the soundbar directly, thereby avoiding the down-conversion that some older TVs will do to Dolby Atmos content.

Add to this Sony's excellent on-screen menus and setup process, auto-room calibration, and tight integration with Sony Bravia TVs and you've got a soundbar that easily justifies its admittedly high $1,000 price. The only thing we wish Sony had included is the ability to adjust the HT-A5000's sound EQ parameters.

Samsung HW-Q990B Dolby Atmos Soundbar

The best home theater replacement

While soundbars can be very attractive because of their simplicity, more and more folks want them to be genuine home-theater-in-a-box, complete sound systems, and the Samsung HW-Q990B goes further than any other system toward meeting that goal.

With its included wireless subwoofer and surround speakers, the Q990B pumps out an astonishing 656 watts of power via 22 discrete drivers in an 11.1.4 configuration. It's a system that is capable of amazing Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound. We had originally selected LG's excellent S95QR for this category, but once we heard the Q990B, it was no contest. To quote our reviewer, "Once I dialed this system in for my setup and this room? It was nothing short of outstanding." He also noted that the soundbar's center channel clarity — key for dialog reproduction — was the best he'd ever heard on a soundbar.

You get two HDMI 2.1 inputs with 4K/HDR10+ passthrough (though notably, not Dolby Vision), so even if your TV's HDMI ports are full or it doesn't support Dolby Atmos, you're covered — just plug a streaming device or game console into the soundbar and you've got the best sound and video on tap. If your TV is also a recent Samsung model, you get the benefit of wireless Dolby Atmos (no need to run an HDMI cable to the TV) and Q-Symphony, which lets the TV's speakers augment the soundbar instead of sitting there unused.

With Wi-Fi connectivity, Apple AirPlay 2, and Alexa built-in (plus Bluetooth, naturally), there are plenty of ways to stream music to this system.

It can be a bit daunting to work your way through all of the menus and options, but Samsung's Smart Things app for iOS/Android makes the task a bit easier. When it's all dialed in, you'll be thrilled with the sound. This is as close as a single product in a box can get to a fully installed component system.

If it's a home theater replacement you're after, we also strongly recommend you check out the Klipsch Cinema 1200 , an absolute beast of a system that packs enough power to give many AV receiver-based setups a run for their money.

Vizio M-Series 5.1 soundbar (M51a-H6/M51ax-J6)

The best budget soundbar

The Vizio M-Series looks like a typical soundbar at 36 inches in length, and its 6-inch wireless subwoofer looks like many others. But what helps this model stand apart is its versatility.

If you have a medium-to-large room, you can place the subwoofer toward the rear of the space which lets you position the wired surround modules behind the viewing area. But if you've got a smaller space, you can put the sub near the front, and the surround speakers can be used from the front too — the M-Series will automatically calibrate the system to give you the best sound possible.

Our reviewer noted that one of the M-Series' strengths is its ability to process lower-frequency sounds, like a deep, gravelly-voiced announcer, without having it sound like they're being generated by the subwoofer — something that cheaper systems typically do.

With support for both virtualized Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X, you may not get quite the jaw-dropping overhead sounds that you'll find with up-firing soundbars like the Arc or the Ambeo, but it's a much more immersive experience than a traditional 5.1 setup.

Because of its HDMI eARC port, the M-Series can support much higher bandwidth, lossless hi-res audio when connected to a compatible TV. An extra HDMI input means that you're not forced to give up an input on your TV.

Its auxiliary port is ideal for plugging in an Alexa or Google smart speaker. When you do, they can play any requested content through the soundbar and reduce the volume of your TV sound when they answer your question, bringing it back up when they're done.

There's also the usual complement of connections, including Bluetooth, optical in, and a USB port for removable drive-based audio files.

All of the M-Series' settings — of which there are many — can be controlled from the included remote, which has an embedded LCD screen to help you navigate the myriad options.

The only real caveat with the M-Series is the lack of Wi-Fi. This means you can't stream music to it via AirPlay or Chromecast, and it can't be controlled via voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant. But that one aspect notwithstanding, the Vizio M-Series is an outstanding choice for anyone who wants fun, room-filling surround sound without breaking the bank.

Zvox AV157 TV Speaker

The best for dialog enhancement

The AV157 packs six levels of Zvox's AccuVoice technology for speech enhancement and an additional six levels of its SuperVoice tech for a huge range of assistance for those who are hearing-impaired or who just struggle to separate speech from other sounds.

For a deep dive into how the AV157 does its speech enhancement magic, check out this full explainer, but here's what you need to know: The Zvox AV157 doesn't just make things louder, it selectively increases the dynamic range of vocal sounds, while simultaneously decreasing all other types of soundtrack audio.

The 12 levels of AccuVoice and SuperVoice determine how pronounced this effect is. At its most powerful, the AV157 can deliver speech so clear and precise, it's almost painful. But for those who suffer from hearing loss, it will be a pleasure.

But better dialog is only the beginning. The AV157 is also a surprisingly capable movie and music speaker too. Turn on the surround sound mode and it does a decent job with all kinds of immersive soundtracks.

Bass performance doesn't quite measure up to full-size soundbars, but it's solid and well-balanced. Should you want to get a bit more rumble, you can add an external wired subwoofer using the analog sub-woofer output.

Connections are modest: You can use an optical cable or an analog cable to connect the AV157 to your TV, and there's no Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. But this keeps things simple and you won't have to give up an HDMI port just to get better sound from your TV.

The included remote is also a simple but effective device, with large, easy-to-press, and clearly labeled buttons.

If you're tired of relying on subtitles to understand what your favorite actors are saying, the Zvox AV157 is a perfect TV companion.

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