Best Soundbars of 2026

Where the TCL stops, the M60 keeps going. Five drivers, two of them firing sideways, a 5.1 layout and 300W behind it: effects travel along the wall instead of sitting in the middle of the bar, and that width is the closest this group gets to surround without Sonos money.

The subwoofer is the part that impressed us most for the outlay. It's a 5.25-inch driver in a tuned wooden cabinet, and it does the low, physical work that small bars only imitate. Bass, mid, treble and surround level are all adjustable in the app, so late-night viewing doesn't have to mean waking the house, and VoiceMX pulls dialogue forward when a mix buries it.

One thing to plan around: the failure that turns up in some units is a dead subwoofer. Buy somewhere with an easy return window and run a loud film through it in the first week. Past that, what you're left with is a lot of hardware for the outlay and an app that's genuinely useful rather than an afterthought.

The Arc Ultra is comfortably the most expensive thing here, and what that money buys is the widest, most separated soundstage of the group: sound arriving from the corners of the room rather than from a strip under the TV. It's the only bar in this set that makes a living room feel like it has speakers in it.

Speech is where it won us over. Sound Motion and Sonos's speech enhancement keep dialogue locked to the screen while effects travel around it, which is the upgrade anyone who has been leaving subtitles on out of habit is actually looking for. Music is the other surprise; it holds its own as a streaming speaker, not just a TV accessory.

Setup is two cables and the Sonos app, and the app isn't optional: Wi-Fi, tuning, inputs and updates all live there. Connection dropouts affect some units, and the fix usually starts with checking the TV's eARC handshake rather than the bar. Give it a TV that behaves and a wide console, and there's nothing else here that sounds like it.

The Beam exists for the room where the Arc won't fit. At 25.6 inches wide and 2.7 tall it sits under a TV on a normal stand and takes up about as much shelf as a router, and it still throws a wide, Atmos-processed soundstage from its five drivers. For a bedroom, a den or a small apartment living room, it's the pick we keep coming back to.

Trueplay tuning runs from the app and adapts the output to the room's surfaces, which is how a bar this size ends up sounding bigger than its footprint. AirPlay 2 and the rest of the Sonos system are here, and it takes the Sub Mini and Era 300 rears later if you decide you want them. It costs more than every pick here except the Arc Ultra, and that's before any of those additions.

The app is also the weak spot. Setup, tuning and input switching all run through it, and in some setups it's the least reliable part of the experience. What you get in return is a bar that fits where the Arc can't and produces a soundstage well beyond what 25.6 inches suggests.

The number that makes the M30 interesting isn't the power rating, it's the width: 23.62 inches. That's small enough for a bedroom dresser, and it still arrives as a 2.1 system with a wireless 5.25-inch subwoofer, which none of the other budget-level bars here offer.

Placement is the point. The sub goes anywhere with a socket, the bar takes HDMI ARC or optical, and once it's connected the TV remote handles volume. The app adds bass, mid and treble control plus presets, and we were surprised how much the bass slider changes the character of a bar this size.

For a bedroom, den or small living room this is the value pick of the group: real bass, a small footprint, and the least expensive route here to a system with a separate subwoofer. It's a 2.1 layout rather than surround, so effects stay in front of you, and that's the right trade in a room this size.

The party trick is real. The bar splits into two halves, each with its own drivers, so you can flank a monitor or put one at each corner of a desk. Nothing else here does it, and for a PC setup or a small room where one long bar would sit off-centre, it solves a problem the rest of the group ignores.

Assembled, it's a straightforward 80W 2.0 bar with ARC, optical, AUX and Bluetooth 5.0, three EQ modes for film, music and news, and an automatic boost that lifts quiet dialogue. Four drivers in a bar this small give it more presence than the money suggests, and setup is about as close to plug-and-play as this group gets.

One thing to weigh. When it's split, the halves link wirelessly and the pair can fall out of sync, so keep it assembled for anything where lip-sync matters. Where it earns its keep is the setup nothing else here fits: two small speakers flanking a monitor, with the TV running through the same bar.

One cable, and it's in the box. The Fire TV Soundbar takes audio over HDMI eARC, so there's no optical lead to buy and nothing extra in the order beyond the bar itself.

DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Audio processing stretch two speakers into a wider effect, and at 24 inches wide and 2.5 tall it's one of the easier bars here to place: under a TV, on a shelf, or in front of a monitor without covering the screen.

Bluetooth streaming from a phone is here too, so it keeps working as a music speaker with the TV off, and the low profile means it disappears under the picture rather than competing with it.

For a small TV and a simple setup, the lack of fuss is the recommendation: one input, one cable, a footprint that fits where bigger bars won't. If bass matters more than tidiness, the S55H is a step up in money and brings a wireless subwoofer with it.

Q-Symphony is the reason to look at this bar, and the reason to skip it. Paired with a compatible Samsung TV, the bar and the TV's own speakers play together, filling the middle of the sound in a way a bar on its own struggles to. With any other brand, that feature sits unused and you're paying for a logo you can't switch on.

The rest is conventional and solid: 5.1 channels, a wireless subwoofer, 400W, and built-in side speakers for width. Voice Enhance lifts dialogue, Adaptive Sound adjusts per scene, and the sub pairs itself once it has power.

Setup is one HDMI cable plus mains for the sub. It's the kind of system you install once and then forget about, which is the highest compliment a soundbar can earn.

For a Samsung TV in a mid-size room, this is the best-matched system in the group and the one that turns two sets of speakers into more than either manages alone. Outside that pairing, the M60 gives you 5.1 for a lot less money and doesn't care what brand your TV is.