A soundbar can be a great addition to even the best TVs.
As box sets have become thinner, the quality of the built-in speakers supplied with a new TV has diminished, simply because there’s less space to house them. Small speakers lack power and bass, and they also tend to face downward rather than out into the room, further compromising their sound.
You could get a room-filling sound by setting up an amplifier with speakers dotted around the sofas and bookcases, trailing wires all over the place, or you could go for the sensible option and pick one of the best budget soundbars.
Soundbars can be wireless, but generally hook up to your TV via an optical cable, or a HDMI cable attached to an ARC- or eARC-enabled HDMI port on the TV. Some come with subwoofers for additional bass, which may need their own power supply, and can connect to the main bar wirelessly or with a wire, or even satellite speakers. Many now come with Bluetooth, and can be used as wireless speakers to play music through your phone or tablet, and often have their own controls. You don’t have to stick to the same brand as your TV either, though doing so may enable you to control the bar with your TV remote.
Why budget? Because as with TVs, electronics companies are very happy to sell you something with an eye-watering price tag and promises that it will change your life in myriad unexpected ways. However, if your goal is simply to get better sound when you watch Netflix, so you don’t need to put the subtitles on to catch what characters are saying, then there are some excellent systems out there that will do exactly what you want for less than £500.
Here are some of them.
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Sonos Beam 2
Best for: Sonos fans
Just brushing the top edge of our £500 budget, the second-generation Sonos Beam sound bar gets you a lot of sound in a small space. The big news is that it has Dolby Atmos compatibility via an eARC connection with your TV, though it doesn’t have true upfiring speakers to take full advantage of the surround sound tech.
The Beam 2 can be used on its own or in conjunction with other Sonos products, such as a subwoofer or extra speakers, and using the Sonos phone app you can connect it to music streaming services and voice assistants, as well as setting the device up to suit your room. To achieve this, there are both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections, but no Bluetooth.
As a small sound bar, you might expect the sound from the Beam 2 to be weedy, but it manages to make a room-filling noise while being able to squeeze into small spaces.
Buy now £499.00, Amazon
Yamaha C20A
Best for: compact conditions
A good cheap option from Yamaha, a company with a long history making soundbars. The C20A comes with plenty of inputs - ARC, optical, 3.5mm and Bluetooth - and sound quality good enough to really extend the reach of a smaller TV, perhaps a 32-inch or 43-inch model.
The bar itself is remarkably small, just 60cm across, and comes with a useful phone app to control it as well as a standard remote. Nicely balanced audio sees an emphasis on the mid-range, so hopefully you’ll be able to hear the voices over the soundtrack, but a 75mm bass driver means it got the thickness to do most movies and games justice.
It’s also rather nicely built, with a cloth-covered exterior, touch-sensitive controls on top where you can actually get to them, and some LEDs on the front so you know which input it’s on.
Buy now £267.00, Amazon
Sony HT-G700
Best for: bringing the bass
An Atmos-compatible bar with a separate wireless subwoofer, this model from Sony is less well-connected than the Sonos Beam, offering Bluetooth and an optical port alongside HDMI in and out for an eARC connection that passes the video signal back to your TV.
There’s a dedicated voice mode to boost dialogue, and a music mode if you want to hook your phone up over Bluetooth and blast Spotify. Having the subwoofer increases the presence of the sound immensely, and its level can be adjusted independently of the main bar - there’s also a night mode to tone it all down so as not to wake the neighbours.
Buy now £249.00, John Lewis
JBL Bar 5.0 Multibeam
Best for: virtual Atmos
A compact bar only 72cm wide, and without a separate subwoofer, the JBL Bar 5.0 Multibeam puts out audio that sounds like it came from something much bigger.
Unlike some bars, which pad out their width with areas of empty space, the JBL is stuffed full of speakers, with seven drivers, including two for height effects, and four passive radiators to thicken the sound out.
Round the back you’ll find optical, Ethernet, a USB port, and HDMI in and out for eARC, plus a decent list of wireless connectivity too, with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AIrPlay, Chromecast, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa all supported.
Buy now £299.55, Amazon
Yamaha YAS-209
Best for: 43in TVs
Another bar and sub combination, the YAS-209 is broader than many at 93cm, meaning it’s a better companion to larger TVs - it’s almost exactly the same width as a 43-inch set.
You get HDMI in and out ports for an ARC connection to your TV, which rules out lossless Dolby Atmos but does allow the DTS:virtualX sound format to be supported alongside Dolby Digital, DTS, and PCM stereo. There’s an optical connection too, and Ethernet, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. Amazon Alexa gives you voice control.
As you’d expect, there’s plenty of bass, but the rest of the sound is clear and nicely formed, with a Clear Voice mode if you’re struggling with muddy dialogue.
Buy now £479.00, Amazon
Sonos Ray
Best for: smaller TVs
A tiny Sonos soundbar that’s excellent for vocals, the Ray manages some good clear sound from a bar just 56cm across. It’s marketed as an ‘HD gaming’ soundbar, but it’s far more than that, even if it does look a little lost under a huge TV.
As it’s half the price of the Beam 2 you might expect half the performance, and while it’s true that with fewer speakers and no Atmos support or HDMI ARC, it’s lacking in a few features, but its sound quality more than holds its own when compared with the TV speakers it’s designed to replace. You get an optical connection for your TV, Wi-Fi and Ethernet, Apple Airplay, plus compatibility with Sonos subwoofers and surround speakers, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant. There’s no Bluetooth, but you can use the Sonos app to pipe music to it over Wi-Fi.
Buy now £249.00, John Lewis
Majority Sierra Plus
Best for: multiple inputs
With upfiring speakers and a separate subwoofer, this is a lot of soundbar for the money. While it can claim Dolby Atmos compatibility, the fact it has ARC ports instead of eARC means you’re not getting the full lossless experience, but there are three HDMI inputs, meaning you can connect a Blu-ray player and game console as well as your TV at the same time. You also get a 3.5mm jack, optical, digital coaxial, a USB port and Bluetooth.
It’s a nice looking bar too, 96cm wide and with a wireless sub that can be placed anywhere within 10 metres. Sound is generally good, though you’ll find more refinement elsewhere, but dialogue is left clear without being processed into mush.
Buy now £295.95, Amazon
Roku Streambar
Best for: older TVs
An unusual entry in a list of soundbars because, although it is definitely a soundbar, that’s not all it is. The Streambar is also a streaming box, the sort of thing that can turn an old TV or even a computer monitor into something that can display streaming video.
There’s no attempt to shoehorn virtual surround sound or extra bass drivers in to the package, this is a pure stereo soundbar that connects to your TV via a HDMI cable - there’s also an optical input if you’re not using the video features. There’s also Bluetooth, so you can play music from your phone, and Wi-Fi so you can hook it up to the internet. The bar runs Roku OS, with lots of apps you can use to access streaming platforms such as Netflix, YouTube or the BBC iPlayer. There’s a useful remote too.
It handles itself well for a stereo speaker, though it’s designed as an improvement over the capabilities of an older, non-smart TV so it’s not going to wow in the way something that costs ten times as much will, especially in the bass frequencies. If it suits your needs, however, this is an excellent bar which can rejuvenate an old screen.
Buy now £129.99, Amazon
Verdict
You don’t have to spend the Earth to get better sound out of your TV, as these budget soundbars show. Hooking them up with a single cable, be it HDMI or optical, means a soundbar can be quickly attached to your TV. They don’t even take up much space.
Bars like the Sonos Beam 2 and Yamaha C20A allow you to noticeably improve the sound from your TV without too much outlay. It’s quite possible to spend three or four times as much money on a sound system for your living room, one that uses satellite speakers to give a true home cinema experience. Many of the cheaper versions featured here, however, use virtual surround techniques to give the impression of surround sound, and also take up less space. A good soundbar acts as a music player too, so they have the extra benefit of reducing the clutter in your living room.
