Best Soundbar 2026: 10 TV Soundbars Ranked and Compared

Two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine ratings makes this the most-reviewed soundbar in the comparison, and its appeal is simple: it is cheap, it is small, and the subwoofer is built into the bar itself. That last point matters more than the spec sheet suggests, because a separate sub needs floor space, a mains socket and a bit of cable management, and plenty of people simply do not have room for one under a wall-mounted TV.

Setup is one HDMI ARC cable to the TV, so the TV remote controls the volume, with optical, aux, USB and Bluetooth for everything else. It is Roku TV Ready if you have a Roku set, and the compact body fits on almost any stand.

At 4.2 stars it is rated slightly below the pricier bars here, and a built-in sub cannot move air like a separate one, so bass is present rather than powerful. But as a straight upgrade over thin TV speakers for under eighty pounds, nothing here beats it on value or evidence.

For sixteen pounds more than the all-in-one above, this adds the two things that most improve TV sound: a separate 6.5-inch wireless subwoofer for bass you can feel, and a dedicated centre channel, which is the speaker that handles dialogue. Six speakers across 3.1 channels with Dolby Digital Plus and DTS Virtual:X give it a genuinely wider soundstage than a single bar. It has 917 ratings at 4.6 stars, the joint highest rating on this page.

The subwoofer is wireless, so it needs a mains socket but no cable to the bar, and can go beside a sofa or behind a chair. There is a TV mode that pairs it more tightly with a Hisense television.

The only real cost is space: you now have a second box on the floor. If you can accommodate that, this is the best-sounding soundbar here for under a hundred pounds, and the step up from the HS214 is obvious the first time something explodes on screen.

Most people who buy a soundbar are not chasing cinema bass — they simply cannot make out what characters are saying. This Bose is designed for exactly that. Two angled full-range drivers widen the sound, and a dedicated dialogue mode lifts and clarifies speech rather than just raising the volume, which is the difference between hearing words and hearing noise. It has 1,549 ratings at 4.6 stars.

It is deliberately small, connects with a single optical cable, and streams over Bluetooth. There is no separate subwoofer to place, though Bose sells one if you later want more bass.

The catch is price: GBP 199 for a compact bar with no subwoofer, when the Hisense HS3100 gives you 3.1 channels and a sub for less than half that. You are paying for Bose's tuning and its dialogue processing. If speech clarity is the actual problem you are solving, that is money well spent; if you want explosions, it is not.

With 2,925 ratings at 4.3 stars, this is the second most-reviewed soundbar here and the pick if you want a familiar brand in a slim, simple package. Sony's S-Force front surround processing widens the stereo image to imitate surround sound from a single bar, and a built-in bass reflex unit gives it more low end than its slim body suggests.

Connection is one HDMI ARC cable, with Bluetooth for music from a phone. The soft-edged, low-profile design sits neatly in front of a TV without blocking the screen or the remote sensor.

Two things to weigh. It is a two-channel bar with no separate subwoofer, so at GBP 98.99 the Hisense HS3100 gives you a sub and a centre channel for less. And the catalogue entry lists an implausible 25 watts and a nonsense frequency figure, so judge it on the brand, the review count and the design rather than the numbers in the specification box.

This is the most system for the money on the page: a full 5.1 setup with a soundbar, a wired wooden subwoofer and rear satellite speakers, supporting Dolby Atmos over HDMI eARC. That eARC connection matters, because it is the one that carries full-quality Atmos rather than the compressed version older ARC ports allow, and most bars at this price do not have it. Six drivers, a VoiceMX dialogue mode and BassMX bass processing round it out.

Rear speakers genuinely change how a film sounds — effects come from behind you rather than being simulated — and no other product here under GBP 200 includes them.

Its weakness is evidence and cabling. One hundred and seventy-two ratings is a small sample against the thousands behind the Hisense and Sony bars, ULTIMEA is a marketplace brand rather than an established name, and rear speakers mean running wires to the back of the room. If you want a true surround system cheaply and can live with those, it is excellent value.

The Solo Series 2 is Bose's most compact bar, standing under seven centimetres tall so it slips in front of a television without covering the bottom of the screen. Like the TV Speaker it is built around clarity: an improved dialogue mode sharpens speech, and built-in Dolby decoding handles the soundtrack. It has 2,091 ratings at 4.4 stars, more feedback than the TV Speaker above.

It connects over optical and streams music over Bluetooth, and the updated grille and logo suit a modern living room.

Where it loses to its stablemate is sound staging: the TV Speaker's angled drivers spread the sound wider and it scores 4.6 to this 4.4. And at GBP 179 you are again paying Bose money for a bar with no subwoofer. Choose the Solo if space is very tight and you want Bose clarity; choose the TV Speaker if you want the better-sounding of the two.

At just over 60 centimetres wide, this is one of the smallest bars here, designed to fit the entertainment units and smaller televisions where a full-width soundbar looks silly. Dual speakers with DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Audio processing widen the sound beyond the box, and it plugs in with the included HDMI cable to an eARC or ARC port. It has 1,161 ratings at 4.2 stars.

If your television is a Fire TV, it fits that ecosystem naturally, and Bluetooth streaming from a phone works for music.

It is mid-table because it is a 2.0 bar with no subwoofer at GBP 119.99, which is more than the Hisense HS3100 that includes one. Buy it for the compact size and the Fire TV tidiness rather than for outright sound, and if bass matters more than footprint, look at the Hisense instead.

The .2 in 3.1.2 is what sets this apart: two drivers that fire upwards, bouncing sound off the ceiling so Dolby Atmos height effects come from above you rather than being simulated. Add a separate subwoofer and a dedicated centre channel and it is the most complete single-box-plus-sub system here. SpaceFit Sound Pro measures your room and adapts the output, and Q-Symphony makes a Samsung TV's own speakers play along with the bar rather than switching off.

Its 4.7-star average is the highest on this page.

Two caveats. That average rests on only 146 ratings, so it is an early signal rather than a settled verdict, and at GBP 219.99 it is among the dearest here. But if you want genuine Atmos height from a tidy two-box system, and especially if you own a Samsung TV, nothing else in this comparison offers it.

The Ray is Sonos's smallest, cheapest soundbar, and the reason to choose it is not the bar alone but what it connects to. It joins the Sonos system over WiFi, so you can add speakers in other rooms, group them, and control everything from one app — and later add a Sonos sub or rear speakers to turn it into a surround system. If you want an audio setup that grows, this is the entry ticket.

All the acoustics face forward, so it works pushed into a TV cabinet where a bar with side or upward drivers would be muffled, and the anti-distortion tuning keeps dialogue clear at volume. It has 507 ratings at 4.4 stars.

Two things to know. The Ray connects by optical only, with no HDMI, so it will not do the ARC volume-sync tricks the other bars manage, and it has no subwoofer at GBP 179. Buy it as the first piece of a Sonos system, not as the best-value bar on the page.