Your guide to a better future

A soundbar is affordable way to upgrade your TV watching, whether it's by making dialogue easier to understand, or adding the oomph that music and action movies demand. These are our favorites.

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're looking to improve your TV's sound quality, a soundbar is a great option. The best TVs  may have large screens, but they generally sound bad, and this is why it's worth upgrading to a separate TV speaker. Soundbars offer an affordable alternative to home theater  speakers and AV receivers , and can also take up a lot less room in your living space.

If you're looking to spend the least amount of money to get good sound, then both the Creative Stage and the Roku Streambar offer excellent values. If you're a movie lover, then a soundbar with a wireless subwoofer, such as the Vizio V21, will help you get the most out of action films. Taking this one step further, the Dolby Atmos -capable Vizio M512a-H6 is an excellent buy and the best option for spatial audio on a budget. But if, on the other hand, you want the best that money can buy, then the Sennheiser Ambeo will give you the best sound we've ever heard in a soundbar.

If you're on the hunt for the best soundbar 2022 has to offer, we've rounded up some excellent speakers starting from $100. This list is updated periodically as we test new models.

For less than a C-note, the Creative Stage soundbar offers a bunch of previously unheard-of features, including HDMI connectivity with an HDMI ARC port and a subwoofer. But what's even more remarkable is that this affordable soundbar sounds better than most of its ultrabudget competition; its wired subwoofer fills the room with great bass. It has a variety of audio modes, making this soundbar speaker especially suited to music, concerts and gaming. Excellent sound quality for gamers and movie fans alike. Key features

Read our Creative Stage review.

While we really like the Roku Streambar Pro, the Roku Streambar does essentially the same job for $50 less. With a full-fledged 4K HDR Roku streamer built in and a single voice remote controlling everything, this bar gives you audio and video in one simple bar. The Roku soundbar setup is a breeze; just add to a TV with a simple HDMI port connection. This affordable soundbar has sound quality that's acceptable for the size and price, and you can add a $129 wireless subwoofer for more punch. Key features

Read our Roku Streambar review.

If you're looking to ditch your TV speaker, this is where we suggest you start. The subwoofer may be smaller than usual for the brand, but this audio bar still sounds great, as well as offering HDMI connectivity with ARC and a much easier-to-understand input display. The Vizio V-Series 2.1 is the best soundbar value we have tested in the last few years.

Read our Vizio V21 review.

Sonos' new entry-level soundbar offers a lot for the money including the company's excellent multiroom music system onboard. A two-channel soundbar with Dolby Digital decoding, the Ray is roughly two-thirds the size of the Sonos Beam, yet it delivers a surprisingly wide soundstage.

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 the Ikea Symfonisk, or even the new Sonos Sub Mini, to create a surround sound system.

Easily supplanting our previous favorite, the JBL Bar 2.1 Deep Bass, the Klipsch Cinema 400 adds great design and an even bigger wireless subwoofer. Sound quality is still king, though, with a real sense of dynamics and excellent music replay. If you want to make your TV the next best thing to a movie theater, this is one of the most affordable ways to do it.

Read our Klipsch Cinema 400 review.

The Yamaha YAS-209 offers excellent sound quality in a compact soundbar. Built-in Amazon Alexa voice control is useful, allowing this smart soundbar to stream music, and the mics work well in loud environments. The soundbar's implementation of DTS Virtual:X virtual surround sound offers a rich effect reminiscent of surround speaker sound. Two HDMI connections are included, one with HDMI ARC. This smart soundbar's wireless subwoofer is more articulate and offers more headroom than the competing, and also excellent, Polk Command Bar. However, the Yamaha soundbar YAS-209 doesn't use the company's MusicCast system, so it won't sync up with other Yamaha speakers.

Read our Yamaha YAS-209 review.

A true step-up from the preceding soundbars, the Vizio M512a-H6 is the most cost-effective way to get true Dolby Atmos playback. This surround system includes the main soundbar with up-firing height speakers built in, a 6-inch subwoofer and two wired rear speakers. That's a lot of parts, but they were easy to set up and we were impressed with the overall build quality. Most importantly, it offers excellent performance with movies, including real Atmos effects we could hear, as well as music. The M512a-H6s lacks Chromecast and AirPlay streaming, but still earns our hearty recommendation both for home cinema fans and for people looking to listen to their favorite album (whether in Atmos or not).

The Vizio Elevate's main draw may be its motorized-height speakers, but once you get over their novelty you'll find that the speaker system also sounds great. The separate sub and height-enabled rear speakers really help pull this Vizio soundbar ahead of the Sonos Arc sonically. With Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Chromecast built in, multiple HDMI inputs and Bluetooth, the only thing the Vizio doesn't provide is Apple AirPlay support.

Read our Vizio Elevate P514A-H6 review.

If you're interested in setting up a multiroom sound system, a Sonos soundbar system is still the best option. The Sonos Arc is the company's best soundbar and includes Dolby Atmos playback, a class-leading music ecosystem and Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built into the bar itself. The soundbar system sounds good with music and movies, and adding a pair of Ikea Symphonisk bookshelves should really boost your home theater sound experience. The Arc sounds a lot bigger than the cheaper Beam TV sound, which needs the $700 subwoofer on top to make it comparable in terms of sound.

Read our Sonos Arc review.

If you simply must have the least number of boxes and remotes in your living space and yet demand the best Atmos quality sound performance you can get, this Sennheiser speaker is your baby. It's a single unit, without a subwoofer, but it's able to conjure up the most realistic overhead and true surround-sound effects we've ever heard. It's also controlled entirely via remote control. It's not a cheap piece of sound equipment but it's comparable in price to a full set of surround speakers without the bulk and with 85% of the great sound and performance. It's now been joined by the cheaper Ambeo Soundbar Plus.

Read our Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar review.

Polk Signa S3 ($299): If you're looking for a speaker that can do music as well as play the latest episode of Ted Lasso, then the Polk Audio Signa S3 has a lot to offer. It's great for streaming, as it has Chromecast built in in addition to Bluetooth and an HDMI input. Read CNET's review of the Polk Signa S3.

Zvox SB500 ($450): If you're looking for a single audio bar that's even cheaper than the Sonos Arc, the Zvox SB500 is a great option for people who still prize sound quality. This speaker offers multiple sound mode options, tighter bass and better sound than most other single-speaker options. While it may lack the Sonos' Wi-Fi streaming, the Zvox still includes Bluetooth connectivity for streaming audio from your phone or tablet.  Read CNET's review of the Zvox SB500. 

CNET follows a rigorous, unbiased evaluation process for all of our soundbar testing. We test soundbars ranging from simple stereo speakers all the way through to Dolby Atmos systems. Our audio lab includes a Samsung QLED television (with HDMI eARC ), an Apple TV 4K streamer,  a Microsoft Xbox Series X  and an Oppo UDP-205 4K Blu-ray player. Similar soundbars are compared side by side with different content, including movies, music, TV shows and games. We grade the sound quality of each by evaluating speech clarity, dynamics, bass response and musical playback.

Compared with the sound that comes out of your TV, soundbars are the most economical way to improve sound quality. TV speakers face downward so a lot of detail is lost, and a dedicated soundbar can make speech more understandable. Spending as little as $100 on a soundbar can improve your TV-watching experience tenfold. 

The most important consideration when choosing a soundbar is how much you want to spend. There are great soundbars at every price level, from $100 and up, though if you're paying over $500 it may be more worthwhile to save for an AV receiver and speakers. Single-bar systems are great for smaller TVs while a soundbar-and-subwoofer combo is great for a living room. Read more in our soundbar buying guide.

Depending on the age of your TV, there are three main ways to output to a soundbar: analog (3.5mm headphone or RCA), digital optical and HDMI. Before you buy a soundbar make sure it accepts the same connections present on your TV. The most common input on soundbars is now HDMI, and if your TV is less than 5 years old it should be compatible, but it's worth double-checking.

Soundbars are designed to be placed in front of the TV on a TV stand or other furniture. Most are less than 2 inches tall so that they won't block either your television's infrared remote port or the screen itself. Some soundbars can also be wall-mounted and come with brackets in the box. Third-party kits for wall-mounting soundbars are also available.

With only a handful of exceptions you can use any soundbar with any TV, though it does sometimes help to match TV and soundbar brands. Many new soundbars use HDMI ARC to channel the audio from your TV through the soundbar, so if both devices have one of these ports that's all you need. Some older soundbars use an optical connection and most TVs offer these as well. The exception? Roku TV Wireless Speakers and Samsung SoundConnect. The former uses a proprietary wireless connection, and lacks an HDMI port, so you need a Roku TV (and not a Roku streamer) to use it. The second is also proprietary between Samsung soundbars and TVs, though the soundbar usually offers HDMI for connection to other brands.

Music played through your TV almost always sounds better when you have a soundbar connected. Many soundbars have Bluetooth, meaning you don't need the TV on to listen to your tunes. In general a soundbar with a wireless subwoofer is best for music as it will help reproduce dynamics as well as deep bass.