Bowers And Wilkins Sound Bar Best Buy

For those who want convincing 3D sound without the speakers, this is the best soundbar with a premium price tag that we've ever tested, which is why it retained its title once again at the 2022 What Hi-Fi? Awards.

bowers and wilkins sound bar best buy

Have a think about the content you'll be viewing and the sources you'll be plugging in. If you are just watching Freeview, many of these technologies will be redundant. But if you're streaming the likes of Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video in 4K HDR, you'll want to squeeze out the best possible audio quality to make sure your content sounds as good as it looks. For a complete overview, check out our in-depth guide on how to choose and set up a soundbar.

Below, we've rounded up the best soundbars for various budgets (if you're specifically looking for a very affordable model, check out our best budget soundbars page), or if a Dolby Atmos soundbar is more your thing, we have a page dedicated to that too. Whether you spend a little or a lot, we think that all the models recommended will up your audio game with a fuss-free setup.

We always try to be impartial and do our best to make sure we're hearing every product at its very best, so we'll try plenty of different styles of films, and TV shows that show what each soundbar is capable of with both advanced and standard audio formats. For example, if it's a Dolby Atmos soundbar, we'll use Blu-ray discs to hear its Dolby True HD performance, but we'll also check its performance with streaming services that use Dolby Digital Plus too.

Picking the best soundbar can solve many of your TV sound issues. Can't hear what's being said on your TV? A soundbar's dialog settings can help. Do big-budget blockbusters lack the explosive sound to match the on-screen images? A good soundbar will bring movie soundtracks to life.

Best soundbar overall: Devialet Dione A full-on Dolby Atmos soundbar that's dynamic, expansive and nuanced. It achieves a big immersive soundstage with plenty of bass punch to satisfy. The Devialet is a must-hear soundbar if you have deep pockets and are looking for the best-sounding and most elegant soundbar solution right now.

Best smart soundbar: Sonos ArcThe Sonos Arc optimizes its sound to your room like few others, thanks to its Trueplay auto-tuning capabilities and means you're always sat in the best seat in the house for movie sound. It also has voice control support via Alexa and Google Assistant. The price may be high but this is one of the smartest soundbars you can buy right now.

An upgrade to one of the best soundbars available, the second-gen Sonos Beam brings a new CPU, tweaked profiles, more audio formats, and HDMI eArc support into the mix. The drivers have been re-tuned, resulting in a crisper central channel that emphasizes vocal clarity and dialog. Dolby Atmos and other home-theater sound formats grant you numerous ways to experience wide 3D sound in your living room. Other unique features like NFC for seamless setup, as well as TruePlay to curate sound to your space and optimal couch position, bring more value to this small speaker system. It also pairs perfectly with 55-inch (or smaller) HDTVs.

The MagniFi Mini gets loud enough to fill most bedrooms and small apartments, and we found it reliable for getting immersed in movies and TV shows. Factor in a handy remote and an easy setup process, and you've got the best soundbar out there for folks short on space. And at $300, it won't set you back much, either.

Although we'd have liked a few more ways to manually adjust the sound output, the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam also features a handy auto calibration feature that tunes Atmos playback for the dimensions of your living room specifically. This helps contribute to a strong sense of audio positioning, again something you can't always be sure about with single soundbars. Still, it works, and is just another reason the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam is one of the best soundbars.

Dolby Atmos: More and more of the best soundbars are embracing Dolby Atmos, which is a surround sound technology designed to simulate the immersive 3D audio you'd get from a movie theater. The big difference between Atmos and traditional surround sound is that you'll hear sound move up and down and not just side-to-side, allowing you to get extra immersed when, say, a car flies overhead in an action movie. For more a in-depth explanation and to find out how to get it, see Dolby Atmos explained.

Pricing considerations: Obviously, price is a big consideration when looking for the best soundbars. Although there are always exceptions, big-name brands will typically command a bit extra, but generally speaking, the less you spend on a soundbar the greater the chance that sound and features will be compromised. Going for a budget option isn't always the best choice, as any money you save on your purchase won't do you much good if the sound quality is poor.

As a former editor of the U.K.'s Hi-Fi Choice magazine, Lee is passionate about all kinds of audio tech and has been providing sound advice to enable consumers to make informed buying decisions since he joined Which? magazine as a product tester in the 1990s. Lee covers all things audio for Tom's Guide, including headphones, wireless speakers and soundbars and loves to connect and share the mindfulness benefits that listening to music in the very best quality can bring."}; var triggerHydrate = function() window.sliceComponents.authorBio.hydrate(data, componentContainer); var triggerScriptLoadThenHydrate = function() if (window.sliceComponents.authorBio === undefined) var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = ' -9-5/authorBio.js'; script.async = true; script.id = 'vanilla-slice-authorBio-component-script'; script.onload = () => window.sliceComponents.authorBio = authorBio; triggerHydrate(); ; document.head.append(script); else triggerHydrate(); if (window.lazyObserveElement) window.lazyObserveElement(componentContainer, triggerScriptLoadThenHydrate, 1500); else console.log('Could not lazy load slice JS for authorBio') } }).catch(err => console.log('Hydration Script has failed for authorBio Slice', err)); }).catch(err => console.log('Externals script failed to load', err));Lee DunkleySocial Links NavigationAudio EditorAs a former editor of the U.K.'s Hi-Fi Choice magazine, Lee is passionate about all kinds of audio tech and has been providing sound advice to enable consumers to make informed buying decisions since he joined Which? magazine as a product tester in the 1990s. Lee covers all things audio for Tom's Guide, including headphones, wireless speakers and soundbars and loves to connect and share the mindfulness benefits that listening to music in the very best quality can bring.

During our testing, we were thoroughly impressed by the HDMI passthrough with support for both of the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ HDR formats, and playback of both of the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound formats that currently represent the best the film and music worlds have to offer.

This is without a doubt LG's best-sounding soundbar to date, with phenomenal power, huge dynamic range and an impressively realistic soundstage. It's up there with the very best Dolby Atmos soundbars available today, and it's as good with music as it is with movies.

The only real negative here is the price, which is considerably more than the similar Samsung HW-Q930B. But it's a powerful, compelling and convincing soundbar that's a particularly good match for one of the best LG TVs.

If you're tight on space, the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is the best compact Dolby Atmos soundbar you can buy. Its small size means it will easily slot beneath your TV, whether you pop it on a TV stand or mount it to your wall, and a sleek design means it won't look out of place with your decor. It's compact enough to work with 32-inch TVs (just about), but it's a perfect fit with 40-inch TVs up to 50-inch TVs.

The Philips is best suited to TVs of 55 inches and up, and it delivers up to 600W across its 3.1.2 speaker channels. It's up there with much more expensive soundbars when it comes to Dolby Atmos audio: it's the strongest implementation of this we've heard from a mid-priced soundbar. Speech clarity is excellent too, which is always vital for a TV speaker. Two HDMI passthrough ports, Wi-Fi streaming and Bluetooth too add to the considerable appeal.

If you have an iPhone or an iPad, you should also take a look at our guide to the best AirPlay speakers. These allow you to stream music directly from your devices to your speaker. That means room-filling sound from your phone without the need for a more complex entertainment set-up. Some are small and portable, but plenty of soundbars come with AirPlay integration baked in too.

We've reviewed hundreds of audio devices over the years and plenty of the best soundbars and best Dolby Atmos soundbars. This means we know what to look for in a soundbar, the level of audio performance to expect and how specs stack up.

We also consider any smart or additional features that could be a nice-to-have and make you choose one device over another. Ultimately, we picked the soundbars above because we wanted to showcase the best Dolby Atmos tech has to offer, as well as the best value soundbars for your home.

The B&W 606 S2 anniversary range of speakers represents the celebration of 25 years of the series (released in 2020), with these stand-mount bookshelf speakers topping many best-of lists for their big, punchy sound in such a modestly-sized package.

That's hard to say, as sound can be highly subjective. That being said, brands like Bose, Klipsch, JBL, Bowers and Wilkins, and KEF tend to be recognized as some of the best speaker names in audio. It also depends on what you'll be using your speakers for. The best home theater speakers may not show off a fine collection of jazz vinyl. On the other side of the token, you wouldn't blast superhero films through a record connoisseur's bookshelf set. For a more thorough look, check out our roundup of the best speaker brands of 2022. 041b061a72