In this soundbar gift guide for 2024, we’ve curated a selection of the best soundbars on the market, designed to enhance your home entertainment experience. Whether you’re looking for a budget-friendly option or a high-end system with cutting-edge features, we’ve got you covered. With clear and immersive audio, these soundbars will transform your movie nights, gaming sessions, and music listening into extraordinary experiences. So, sit back, relax, and get ready to discover the perfect soundbar to complete your home theater setup.
Best Soundbars
These are the absolute best soundbars on the market. So, if money is no object, then these are the soundbars you should buy this holiday season.
Sony Bravia Theater Bar 9
Perhaps the very best soundbar you can buy in 2024, is the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 9, which is their newest soundbar. This is an incredible sounding soundbar that does have 13 speaker units inside. That’s 585 watts of sound, in a somewhat small soundbar. Of course, if that’s not enough for you, Sony also has wireless subs and rears that you can add to this setup. And let me tell you, it’ll blow you away.
Continuing with Sony’s theme this year of bringing the cinema home, this is a cinema quality soundbar, with Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and IMAX Enhanced included. That’s a lot of brand names and abbreviations, basically what this means is the Bravia Theater Bar 9 is going to produce some incredible sound, giving you a whole new experience to watching movies at home
If you want the absolute best sound you can possibly get from a single soundbar, then look no further than the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 9. It really doesn’t get any better than this. Now this is a fairly expensive soundbar – the most expensive on this list actually. It’s priced at $1,399 normally, however it is normally about $200 cheaper.
Sonos Arc
The Sonos Arc is a pretty good soundbar to pick up too, which is priced at $899. Though with Sonos you don’t often see discounts, so you might end up paying that much. But that’s okay because the sound coming out of the Sonos Arc is incredible.
Sonos introduced the Arc a few years ago, as its first Dolby Atmos soundbar. Now, most of its products include Dolby Atmos, but the Arc is still its flagship soundbar. It’s larger, and can produce more sound than the Sonos Beam Gen 2. Not to mention this does work really nicely with the rest of the Sonos ecosystem. That includes using the Sonos Sub or Sub Mini, or the One SL as additional speakers in a surround sound setup in your living room. Since Sonos does sync over WiFi versus Bluetooth, there’s no real lag between the speakers, which is actually really incredible.
Sonos does sell the Arc in both black and white, just like the rest of its products. This way you can get an ecosystem that matches your style.
Best Soundbars under $600
You don’t need to spend a ton of money for a good soundbar with Dolby Atmos, and other surround sound capabilities. These are the best soundbars you can buy under $600.
Samsung HW-Q600C
The Samsung HW-Q600C is what we call a mid-range soundbar, and it’s priced just under $600, at $597. Now at this price, you are getting a wireless sub included, as well as Dolby Atmos. Samsung is also including Q-Symphony, Adaptive-Sound and Game Mode Pro. Which still makes this a really great-sounding soundbar.
This is a 3.1.2-channel soundbar, thanks to the included sub. Samsung is also including Adaptive Sound, which allows you to hear voices better, even at low volume levels. This is thanks to intelligently optimized audio, so you can turn off those captions.
Like most other soundbars on the market, the HW-Q600C does include HDMI eARC. This means that, as long as your TV supports it, you can plug this into an HDMI eARC port on your TV and control your soundbar with your TV. But even if your TV doesn’t support it, the HW-Q600C does have a remote that comes with it.
On top of working with your TV, the Samsung HW-Q600C does also work with Bluetooth, so you can stream music or podcasts from your smartphone to your soundbar too.
Klipsch Flexus CORE 200
Klipsch is a pretty popular name in the world of audiophiles, and they do make a pretty incredible soundbar. The Flexus CORE 200 is priced at $499, making it pretty cheap compared to what Samsung has here.
For the Flexus CORE 200, Klipsch has partnered up with ONKYO to provide an incredibly soundbar system here. Making the sound as epic as the movies you’re watching. This includes 3.1.2-channel support, which is the first step to building the home entertainment system of your dreams.
Klipsch has included four 2.25-inch ceramic drivers, that are finely tuned by Klipsch acousticians and dual 4-inch built-in subwoofers, providing the best-in-class bass without the need for a separate subwoofer.
Finally, Klipsch is also supporting Dolby Atmos on the Flexus CORE 200. This is going to provide immersive and multidirectional sound on your soundbar. And this is thanks to the two built-in elevation speakers in the soundbar. This is what makes the Klipsch Flexus CORE 200 able to be certified for Dolby Atmos in the first place.
Best Soundbars under $150
These days, it’s pretty impressive what kind of soundbars you can get for under $200. But what about for under $150? It’s even more impressive, including an option from Sony that won’t break the bank.
Sony S100F
Did you ever think you could get a good sounding soundbar for under $150? Well, you can actually get it for under $100. While the Sony S100F is retailing for $129, it does typically sell for $99. Making this an incredible deal. Now this soundbar won’t blow your pants off like some of the others listed above, but it is still a great listening experience for the price. Keep in mind that a lot of TVs don’t offer great speakers, mainly because it’s an after-thought, and they’re all about keeping them thin. So any soundbar will provide better sound.
This is a 2.0-channel soundbar, with Bass Reflex speaker, integrated Tweeted and Bluetooth. Unsurprisingly at this price, you’re not getting Dolby Atmos, or DTS:X support. You also aren’t getting HDMI HDCP2.2 for 4K HDR pass-through, but you do still get HDMI eARC, which is more important at this price range. There’s also Bluetooth available for playing music or podcasts from your smartphone or other devices as well.
At $129, this is a great soundbar, and if you can find it for under $100, it’s a no-brainer purchase, especially if you’re just looking for better sound and not the best sound.
TCL Alto R1
The TCL Alto R1 soundbar, priced under $90, boasts an affordable price point. Primarily intended for TCL’s 3 and 4 series TVs, this 2.0-channel soundbar complements smaller screen sizes but can also be paired with larger TVs, albeit with a slight aesthetic disparity.
Designed exclusively for Roku TVs, the TCL Alto R1 requires a Roku TV for optimal compatibility. It offers seamless integration with the Roku wireless subwoofer and speakers, enabling an affordable surround sound setup. HDMI eARC support allows for centralized control using a single remote for both your TV and the soundbar. Additionally, Bluetooth connectivity enables music and podcast streaming from external devices.
While the TCL Alto R1 lacks Dolby Atmos support, which is expected at this price range, it outperforms the built-in speakers of televisions, albeit without delivering the pinnacle of audio quality achievable with high-end soundbars.
