Soundbars
TV soundbars compared on what actually changes the sound: the channel layout the maker claims, whether Dolby Atmos height comes from real up-firing drivers or processing, whether a subwoofer and rear speakers come in the box, the HDMI audio port you get, and how wide the bar is.
 Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus 3.1-Channel with Built-in Subwoofer | 2.8What Hi-Fi gave it two stars and said it sounds worse than many televisions, calling the dialogue robotic, which leaves nothing here worth the asking price. | 3.1 | Atmos (virtual height) | HDMI eARC | 37 in | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar | 6.6Immaculate build and the easiest setup here, but What Hi-Fi scored the sound only three out of five and cheaper rivals beat it on every measure that matters. | 5.1.2 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 41.1 in | ||
 Denon DHT-S517 Dolby Atmos Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer | 6.4Reviewers love what it does with voices, then all report the same fault: the subwoofer runs its own race and the handover is audible. | 3.1.2 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 41.3 in | ||
 Hisense AX5140Q 5.1.4-Channel Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer and Rear Speakers | 7.9Nothing else gives you real satellites for this little, but Trusted Reviews found a wireless delay on the sub and rears they could not eliminate. | 5.1.4 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 40.2 in | ||
 JBL Bar 1300XMK2 11.1.4-Channel Soundbar System | 8.9RTINGS' highest-scoring system in this field, and Harman confirmed every claimed channel has its own driver, so the detachable rears are not a gimmick. | 11.1.4 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 39.3 in | ||
 JBL Bar 300 5.0-Channel Compact All-in-One Soundbar | 6.9Two separate outlets gave it four stars or better as a one-box bar, and the JBL One app is better than anything else near its price. | 5.0 | Atmos (virtual height) | HDMI eARC | 32.3 in | ||
 JBL Bar 500MK2 5.1-Channel Soundbar with 10-inch Wireless Subwoofer | 7.2RTINGS rates it great for dialogue and very good for movies, which is more than the height-free design suggests, and the sub does most of the heavy lifting. | 5.1 | Atmos (virtual height) | HDMI eARC | 37 in | ||
 Klipsch Flexus Core 200 3.1.2 Dolby Atmos Soundbar | 6.3What Hi-Fi found the bass swamps everything else and voices sit too far back, which no amount of EQ fixed, and the app needed restarting during testing. | 3.1.2 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 44 in | ||
 LG S90TR 7.1.3-Channel Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer and Rear Speakers | 8.2Nearly all of the flagship's dialogue and bass performance for around half the outlay, though RTINGS is the only lab that has ever tested it. | 7.1.3 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 49.2 in | ||
 LG S95AR 9.1.5-Channel Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer and Rear Speakers | 8.6WIRED and TechRadar both single out the overhead effects as the best they have heard from a bar, but two HDMI ports is stingy at this money. | 9.1.5 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 49.2 in | ||
 Nakamichi Shockwafe Pro 7.1.4 SSE Max Soundbar System | 3.2No publication has reviewed this exact configuration, which is a lot of money to spend on a system nobody independent has ever measured. | 7.1.4 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 45.5 in | ||
 Polk Audio Signa S4 3.1.2 Dolby Atmos Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer | 6.7Tom's Guide calls it the best bang for buck in the class while RTINGS finds the low bass missing, so it flatters TV more than film. | 3.1.2 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 41.2 in | ||
 Roku Streambar SE 2-in-1 TV Soundbar with Built-in 4K Streaming | 4.6Unbeatable as a cheap streamer with speakers attached, but RTINGS rates it sub-par overall and it cannot decode Dolby Digital or DTS at all. | 2.0 | No Dolby Atmos | HDMI ARC | 9.6 in | ||
 Samsung HW-Q600F 3.1.2ch Q-Series Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer | 7.1Tom's Guide found floor-shaking bass and crisp speech at a mid-range price, spoiled by Samsung locking room calibration to a narrow list of its own TVs. | 3.1.2 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 40.6 in | ||
 Samsung HW-Q800F 5.1.2ch Q-Series Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer | 8.1TechRadar rates it the best-balanced bar of its year and it is routinely discounted, which is where its case becomes hard to argue with. | 5.1.2 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 43.7 in | ||
 Samsung HW-Q990F 11.1.4ch Q-Series Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer and Rear Speakers | 9.3What Hi-Fi's 2025 award winner and the only bar here with two full HDMI 2.1 inputs, so nothing else covers this much ground at once. | 11.1.4 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 48.5 in | ||
 Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Mini | 6.0Reviewers split violently on this one, with What Hi-Fi calling the soundstage centimetres wide, and it still costs more than bars that include a subwoofer. | 7.1.4 | Atmos (virtual height) | HDMI eARC | 27.6 in | ||
 Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus | 7.4Still a five-star soundfield at its discounted price, though it is a 2022 design whose vocals smear in AMBEO mode and whose HDMI latency is the worst here. | 7.1.4 | Atmos (virtual height) | HDMI eARC | 41.3 in | ||
 Sonos Arc Ultra | 8.4Beautifully detailed and easily the most musical bar here, though RTINGS measured far fewer real channels than Sonos claims and the app still misbehaves. | 9.1.4 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 46.4 in | ||
 Sonos Beam (Gen 2) | 7.3The most convincing bar of its size, and the one everyone keeps recommending over pricier rivals, provided the 2024 app collapse has not put you off Sonos. | 5.0 | Atmos (virtual height) | HDMI eARC | 25.6 in | ||
 Sonos Ray | 5.6Fine for dialogue and the cheapest door into Sonos, but RTINGS rates it disappointing for movies and the optical-only socket is indefensible now. | 2.0 | No Dolby Atmos | None (optical only) | 22 in | ||
 Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 6 (HT-B600) 3.1.2ch Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer | 7.0Bass well beyond its price, but Engadget had to sideload firmware from a USB stick and there is no Wi-Fi and no way to add rears later. | 3.1.2 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 37.4 in | ||
 Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 9 (HT-A9000) Dolby Atmos Soundbar | 7.6What Hi-Fi calls its Atmos the most convincing any solo bar manages, but you are buying a bar alone and Sony charges heavily for the matching sub and rears. | 7.0.2 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 51.2 in | ||
 TCL S45H S Class 2.0-Channel Sound Bar with Dolby Atmos | 4.0One lab has tested it, and rates it the weakest here: it folds every surround format down to stereo with no bass to fall back on. | 2.0 | Atmos (virtual height) | HDMI eARC | 31.9 in | ||
 VIZIO Elevate SE 5.1.2 Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer and Surround Speakers | 5.0RTINGS is effectively the only lab that has touched it, and even they found the rotating drivers add almost no sense of height. | 5.1.2 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 36 in | ||
 Yamaha SR-B40A Dolby Atmos Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer | 5.4Tom's Guide liked the rumble but described voices as flat and tinny even with Yamaha's clarity mode on, which is the wrong flaw for a TV speaker. | 2.1 | Atmos (virtual height) | HDMI eARC | 35.9 in | ||
 Yamaha True X Bar 50A Dolby Atmos Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer | 6.5TechHive calls it outstanding value at street prices, though reviewers agree the height effects never climb above the top of the television. | 2.1.2 | Atmos (up-firing drivers) | HDMI eARC | 40 in |
How the AI score works, and who wrote it
A language model rated these, not a test lab. Every score from1 to 10 is an AI assessment of how good the product is against the other 27 in this comparison, formed from the specifications we verified plus the published lab reviews and owner reception found while researching each one. Nobody at Slopsheets listened to, wore or plugged in any of it.
It weighs the things a spec table cannot show: how a product is actually reviewed, how well the software works, build quality, and what you get for the money. That is deliberate. An earlier version of this column was pure arithmetic on the table and it ranked a bundle of cheap boxes above a class-leading single unit, because counting hardware is not the same as judging it.
Treat it as an informed starting point and read the sourced comparison, not as a verdict. The score is relative to this comparison only, so it means nothing across categories, and it carries no price, star rating or review count. Every specification behind it is sourced and checked; the score on top of them is opinion.