Top 7 Best Soundbars of 2021 – Review and Comparison

Thankfully, we have shortlisted the five ultimate soundbars to suit your individual needs. So whether you need a budget version to give you the best bang for your buck or a fine-tuned audiophile-grade sound experience – we have a pick for you.

Best Soundbars – Top 10 Quick Comparison

1. Best Dolby Atmos Soundbar – Samsung HW-Q90R

The wireless subwoofer supports the QR90R’s immersive soundstage and delivers a true 7.1.4-channel home theater setup enhanced by Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and other similar object-based audio formats.

You can also tailor the audio setup with four preset sound modes at your disposal. For example, the Game Pro mode creates more explosive and dynamic sounds that bring you into the game you are playing. Adaptive sound, on the other hand, is an interesting mode that analyzes the sound signal and delivers optimized voices.

QR90R comes with two HDMI inputs and one output. The HDMI connections support 4K, HDR, ARC, and more. It also offers WiFi, Bluetooth, and Amazon Alexa support for a more hands-free experience.

Although it doesn’t offer support for Google Comcast or Apple Airplay, it works seamlessly with Samsung Oled TVs and Amazon Alexa.

2. Best Budget Soundbar – Vizio SB362AN-F6

Normally, some of which are offered by models twice its price, like Dolby and DTS Virtual:X. Because of this, it is able to create a virtual surround experience without the hardware normally required for it.

In addition to that, this Vizio soundbar has 8 speakers: four main drivers, two 2.6-inch full-range speakers, and two 3-inch subwoofers. It also packs two passive radiators to add more depth to the bass.

It could use a few improvements though. Its only input options are optical audio, an analog 3.5mm jack, and a USB port – not a great selection if you like to play your music from all kinds of devices. This Vizio soundbar also lacks an LCD display, so it could be quite confusing deciphering the blinking light in place of it.

3. Best Compact Soundbar With Subwoofer – Polk MagniFi Mini

The limited size, however, also comes with a drawback as the unit can only sit upright and unlike other soundbars, cannot be mounted on the wall.

The remote has a premium feel and aesthetics that you usually get with more expensive sound bars. It is also straightforward and intuitive to use allowing you to control the source, volume, and switch between various sound modes such as the ‘Night mode’.

The setting reduces the master and subwoofer volume as well as emphasizes the vocals. As a result, voices are more prominent at a lower volume.

The soundbar manages to pack 2 tweeter and 4 mid-range drivers into an incredibly small chassis. This is more than some of the full-size soundbars have.

Although the soundbar is made completely out of plastic, it looks and feels very solid.

It has a thick rubber plate at the bottom, which makes the soundbar sit tight and not rattle.

Polk MagniFi Mini comes with a wireless subwoofer, which is also made of plastic, yet looks and feels just fine. It complements the soundbar quite well, not only visually but also by expanding the width of the soundstage.

In fact, we think it is actually the subwoofer that gives the MagniFi Mini the edge. The tandem works so well together to produce an amazing width of the stereo image.

The sound experience delivered is punchy, rich, and quite detailed. Although the MagniFi Mini does an amazing job reproducing the vocal, the rest of the mids feel light, thin, and sometimes even missing.

When pushing the soundbar to the limit, the mids are the first ones to give in as signs of sound distortion start to appear.

4. Best Soundbar For Dialogue Clarity – Sonos Playbar

Sonos were amongst the first ones to package a true soundbar experience. Since then many other brands have hit the market, yet Sonos Playbar is still a very worthy contender.

Sonos Playbar is positioned as a music-focused soundbar, yet in reality, it is much more capable and much more versatile than that.

It was great to see aluminum being used excessively in the chassis construction giving the soundbar a premium look and feel. The contoured edges, side mesh, and wrap-around cloth still feel sleek and modern even by today’s standards. This design allows the soundbar to be placed upright, flat or on the wall.

Sonos Playbar comes with three high-range and six mid-range drivers. This proves to be a great speaker setup as the soundstage produced is detailed, wide and full-bodied.

The aluminum soundbar chassis plays its part in making the sound crisp, detailed with great levels of finesse.

The sound quality is genuinely more vibrant than the soundbar’s size, yet to achieve the best results we found that the soundbar needs to sit upright, which is also the recommendation from Sonos.

Sonos Playbar produces very respectable levels mid-bass, which will be sufficient for most of us allowing the soundbar to be used on its own. For the ones wanting to take the audio experience a couple of notches up, we suggest adding a subwoofer into the mix, if you can afford it. With the Sonos Sub, the soundstage becomes a lot more complete as it complements the soundbar just perfectly.

Although Sonos Playbar has been designed for music more than anything else, it performs equally well when watching movies. Playing back The Expendables gets you instantly impressed with a remarkably expanded soundstage.

The audio quality produced is smooth, bright and very realistic. We did, however, run into some little issues when the movie scenes got busy with explosion-packed action scenes. It felt a bit too much for Sonos Playbar to handle and we had to tone it down a notch.

You also get a to experience a fantastic app for PC, Mac, iPhone or Android users. It can be used to configure the audio output across all interconnected Sonos speakers in your house. It allows you to group the speakers into zones and send the different audio signals to different zones at the same time.

The Sonos app features full sound controls and configuration. It includes active DSP and EQ circuitry, bass, treble, and loudness level controls, lip-sync delay, a nighttime mode, and voice enhancement mode.

5. Best Value Soundbar – Yamaha YAS-207

The design has never been the strongest side of Yamaha and this time around it is pretty dull too. It does not have a wow factor as it features a simple black cloth grill giving the soundbar a fairly generic feel. Where the design lacks, Yamaha YAS-207 makes up in engineering quality and build.

The soundbar looks and feels very solid, and the subwoofer feels stout as it is made from MDF. Other manufacturers in this price range mostly default to plastic. The front of the soundbar has a set of touch controls in typical Yamaha-style LEDs, which look somewhat dated in 2020.

The labels on the LEDs are pretty small, and the unit does not have an on-screen menu, so the only way out is to memorize the LED lights and their positions.

Regarding port connections, YAS-207 features HDMI (with ARC support), optical and AUX-in connections.

The audio experience is exceptional for the price. The highs are clear and crisp whereas the lows have a deep and punchy feel. Voice is clear when watching a movie, especially when the ‘Clear Voice’ mode is enabled.

Yamaha YAS-207 is the first soundbar on the market to support DTS Virtual:X and DTS Virtual Surround, which is designed to add depth, scope and volume to the soundstage.

The experience that DTS Virtual:X produces felt a little inconsistent. It does a good job of creating a larger and immersive sound field, yet the tone seems to vary between the movies.

Our entry-level pick Vizio SB362AN-F6 is an amazing soundbar, yet if you have some extra cash to spare, then Yamaha YAS-207 will reward you with a better level of sound immersion and audio quality overall.

6. Best For Multi-Room Setup – Sonos Beam

The Beam takes it a step further and provides voice assistance with the HDMI CEC system. With 5 microphones arranged in the box, it can pick up your voice even in a noisy home theater environment. If you like a more hands-on approach, you can use the TV remote or the Sonos app.

Despite a reasonably modest price for a premium soundbar, Sonos Beam was specifically calibrated Oscar-winning sound engineers to emphasize human voice for a clear movie-watching experience. It offers a pretty expansive sound and is able to handle most things you throw at it. But since it doesn’t come with subwoofers, you might find little, nuanced details in the film lost when fed through this affordable soundbar.

Besides that, we also find that the Sonos Beam lacks input and output ports. Although you can use your TV as an HDMI switch and feed your soundbar Dolby Digital 5.1 sounds from any device, you are out of luck if your TV is not ARC-capable. There is only one audio port on the Beam for the HDMI cable and nothing else.

Lastly, you can pair it with other Sonos speakers in your home for the ultimate multi-room audio experience.

7. Best Soundbar Under $100 – Sony HT-S100F

The S-Force Pro Front Surround is designed to imitate a surround audio experience despite only using a 2.0 channel system. It attempts to deliver a clear, punchy bass performance with the new bass-reflex system but falls short as the sound becomes muddy and flat instead. That being said, this budget Sony soundbar does a decent job given its price point.

Sony HT-S100F has one optical audio input, an ARC-compatible HDMI port, USB port and Bluetooth 4.2 connection, which allows wireless streaming from any device.

8. Best Standalone Soundbar – Sennheiser Ambeo 3D

The Ambeo 3D is truly a one-box sound solution – it can handle any range of frequency you throw at it without relying on external woofers.

To create an effortless 3D listening experience, the Sennheiser debut soundbar is packed with the latest audio technologies like Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, and Sennheiser’s very own Virtual 3D sound system. The surprisingly easy setup process for advanced room calibration, all the features you can think of and simply stunning sound immerses you in a studio-grade experience that is adapted to your living room dimension.

There are three HDMI inputs, one HDMI eARC output, one optical output, a pair of RCA connectors for analog output as well as an additional RCA output for extra subwoofers. In addition, you also get connection over WiFi, Bluetooth and HDMI output.

That being said, the Ambeo 3D relies on Google Chromecast for WiFi streaming, which can make it a bit awkward to use with an Apple device. Besides that, it can also be difficult to figure out where to put it because of its sheer size and lack of subwoofers.

Best Rated Soundbars of 2020 – Feature Comparison

How do we test?

Since soundbars are usually a mix-use device, we test them with a wide range of media. This mainly involves playing video games, watching a movie, listening to music or any other audio content.

If the soundbar supports wireless music streaming, we test the wireless connection for stability and audio quality. Additionally, to objectively assess the actual audio performance, we allow the soundbars we test to break-in thoroughly.

If the soundbar comes with some sort of a mobile application or other software, it is also being tested as the additional configuration settings can alter the sound experience quite dramatically.

Like always – we consider both the initial impressions of the product as well as real use customer feedback.

This allows us to provide you an honest, practical and complete review to help choose the best soundbars of 2020. The main aspects we consider when reviewing soundbars are:

1. Design and Build Quality
2. Feature Set
3. Sound
4. Value

With countless options available on the market, reviewing soundbars is not a very straightforward exercise. Since we want to keep our product reviews concise and down to the point, we have only shortlisted the most standout soundbars on the market.

What Do You Need To Know Before Buying A Soundbar?

Before you go out shopping and try to get the best soundbar you can find, it is important to understand a couple of important principles. Getting your head around the concept and the purpose of a soundbar will help you make a better and more educated decision.

Why Soundbar?

Soundbars are hot at the moment and their popularity is attributed to their convenience and not the sound quality as many may think. It is important to understand that soundbars were not designed to compete with 5.1 or 7.1 sound systems and the might of the full size AV receiver. They physically do not have the ingredients to offer the best sound or comparable audio experience, so it would be unreasonable to expect the same level of sound quality, although some soundbars get pretty darn close.

The gap soundbars were designed to bridge is the gap between decent sound quality and convenience, which they have successfully managed to do.

On the flip side, you may not need a soundbar either. If you are spending most of your time outside and prefer having your music travel with you, perhaps checking out some of the best sounding Bluetooth speakers is more relevant?

Placement

Knowing where and how are you planning to place your soundbar is important. Some soundbars can be mounted on the wall, some can lay flat in front of the TVs and others can stand. Knowing the ideal placement will help you choose the soundbar right for you as they come in different sizes.

If you are planning to place your soundbar under your TVs stand, then you need to make sure there is enough space available. You perhaps also want to keep the length of the soundbar consistent with the length of the TV where possible.

Using the wall mount, you may want to consider Bluetooth as the primary audio streaming source as alternatively, you will have the wire connecting the soundbar and the TV visible on the wall.

Connection Type

This may sound like something minor, but we see too many customers buying a soundbar only to realize that they need an HDMI connection and the soundbar only has an optical one.

When streaming music via Bluetooth, just like with Bluetooth shower speakers you need to check that both – soundbar and the TV support Bluetooth connectivity.

As always, do your homework, read best soundbar reviews, check the manufacturer’s specs to make sure you are getting the top soundbar for your needs!

Frequently Asked Questions