Your guide to a better future

Sure, you can pay a lot less for a TV speaker, but if you want great sound and the right features, between $200 and $300 is the sweet spot.

Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.

If you watch a fair amount of TV shows and movies at home, it's worth investing in a proper soundbar. It's one of the easiest ways to give your home entertainment system a serious upgrade. Soundbars are compact enough to easily accommodate, can help you feel more immersed in what you're watching and they don't have to break the bank. So read on if you're looking for the best soundbar under $300 available right now. 

While it's possible to spend as little as $80 on a soundbar for your TV, the sweet spot for this kind of speaker is between $200 and $300. For this price, you can expect features such as Bluetooth connectivity, HDMI and a wireless subwoofer. Most bars include a voice-boosting mode, so TV dialogue can sound so much clearer than you've ever heard before. Also, if you're a music fan you can extract more from your favorite tunes than with any Bluetooth speaker you could name. You could likewise pick a model with Amazon Alexa onboard .

As I write this, the Klipsch Cinema 400 is more than $100 off, making it currently the best soundbar for under $300, but if you want to see what else is available check out our list of best soundbars overall .

It may not have the whizz-bang features of some of its competition, but if you're looking for superlative performance this is where you should start. As the best soundbar under $300, it offers head-turning looks with those exposed tweeters and a big subwoofer. And the included remote control offers independent control of the sub. Get quality sound with both music and an episode or two of Andor. The built-in Bluetooth, wireless connectivity allows for music streaming from compatible devices. Virtual surround sound mode provides a more immersive listening experience along with Dolby Digital decoding.

Read our Klipsch Cinema 400 review.

The Sonos Ray is an entry-level soundbar featuring the company's excellent multiroom music system and a surprisingly wide soundstage through the use of proprietary waveguides.

While it doesn't support Dolby Atmos surround sound or have an HDMI port to connect to your TV (you connect it to your TV with an included optical cable), we were impressed with the sound quality for music and movies. You can pair it with a couple of other Sonos speakers like Sonos Ones to create a surround sound system.

The Polk React is pulling multiple duties: it's affordable and it's a smart speaker with Amazon Alexa -- and it offers an excellent dialogue enhancement mode. It offers more than that, including crystal clear sound quality and HDMI for easy connection to your TV.

The Zvox AV357 is a great way to upgrade a terrible-sounding TV. It's stylish too, with a wood-grain veneer, and the remote control is user-friendly. If you want to connect more than just a TV -- like, say, a phone for music via Bluetooth -- try one of the other options here, but this is nonetheless a fantastic TV speaker.

Read our Zvox AV357 review.

The problem with most soundbars is that they're ginormous -- if you have a small TV or accompanying stand they may dangle off of it. The MagniFi Mini's main speaker is barely a foot across and yet it's able to offer an ultra-wide sound with clever use of technology. Sounds good, and you'll barely know it's there. The only potential downside is that you will have to hide the subwoofer, but as it's wireless you can stash it behind the couch

Read our Polk MagniFi Mini review.

While the V21 with Wireless Subwoofer is outclassed by the others on this list and may not be the best soundbar under $300, it is one of the best under $200. If you only have a limited budget it offers excellent value. It has the all-important HDMI connection, Bluetooth and a separate sub. The Vizio delivers great sound and costs around half the price of these competitors.

Read our Vizio V21 review.