As modern TVs get thinner with every release, there is less and less space for speakers in these TVs, resulting in a poor listening experience. A soundbar gives you better bass, clearer dialogues, and an overall better listening experience. 2024 was a great year for audiophiles, we got so many new speakers and soundbars, with new technology and features to elevate the listening experience. As the year ends, I have compiled a list of the best soundbars. This list has some of my favorite soundbars, and you won’t regret buying a single one of these.
Sony HT-A9000: Best Soundbar Overall
| Dimensions(mm) | 1300 x 64 x 113 |
| Weight(kg) | 5.5 |
| Bluetooth Version | 5.2 |
| Color | Black |
| Passive Radiator | 2 radiators |
| Number of Channels | 13 |
| WiFi | Yes |
| Power Requirement | 120V |
The Sony BRAVIA Bar 9 (HT-A9000) impresses in every field. It uses your phone’s microphone and conducts a series of tests to measure your room, it then calibrates your system to make it sound perfect for your room’s acoustic characteristics. With the BRAVIA Connect app, you can enable more features such as night mode, voice enhancement, and sound field calibration.
The BRAVIA Bar 9 has 360 Spacial Sound Mapping Technology. The Bar 9 uses this technology to create five different phantom speakers before you. These speakers reflect the sound off the ceiling and walls, enabling cinema-style sound and creating a wider soundstage. Two phantom speakers are created right above you, and one is created right at the top of your TV, making it sound like that cinema-style sound is coming right from your TV.
The Bar 9 supports Dolby Atmos and DTS: X. Also, if you add a rear subwoofer, the soundbar becomes compatible with IMAX-enhanced. Sony’s new upmixer can extract and distribute audio objects around you, and produce 3D sound.
If you have a Sony TV, you can use the Acoustic Centre Sync feature. This will produce the sound from your TV and soundbar in unison from a center channel, and make it sound much better.
Read our full review of the Sony HT-A9000.
Samsung Q990C: Best Dolby Atmos Soundbar
| Color | Titan Black |
| Total Power | 656W |
| Number Of Channels | 11.1.4 |
| Number Of Speakers | 22 |
| Dimensions(inches) | 51.5 x 23.4 x 10.9 |
| Set Weight(lbs) | 50.3 |
| Wireless Frequency Band | 2.4/5 GHz |
The Q990C is Samsung’s latest 11.1.4 Dolby Atmos flagship soundbar. It features a large main soundbar, two small Dolby Atmos wireless surround speakers, and a wireless subwoofer. The Samsung Q990C features Q-Symphony, which allows it to pair with your Samsung TV’s speakers for a more immersive experience. It can playback Dolby Atmos encoded content wirelessly with compatible Samsung TVs or through its HDMI ARC or eARC connection.
SpaceFit Sound Pro calibrates the soundbar according to the space it’s in and optimizes the sound for a better, clearer experience. The Active Voice Amplifier breaks down room noise so that onscreen dialogue is always amplified. The Samsung Q990C has WiFi, Bluetooth, Apple Airplay, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect. It can also be used with your smart home with compatibility with Amazon’s Alexa.
The adaptive sound profile and surround sound are just perfect. Out of the box, the Q990C has the best frequency response out of all the soundbars we have reviewed. The transition from the surround speakers to the subwoofer and the main soundbar has almost no audible gap, which feel like they are just one speaker. The bar has a center driver so the sound is clear and present without being too loud.
Read our full review of the Samsung Q990C.
JBL Bar 1300X: Best Soundbar Package
| Soundbar Dimensions (inches) | 39.4 x 2.4 x 5.5 |
| Detachable Speaker Dimensions (inches) | 8 x 2.4 x 5.5 |
| Subwoofer Dimensions (inches) | 14.4 x 18.9 x 14.4 |
| Soundbar Weight (kg) | 4.3 |
| Subwoofer Weight (kg) | 15.65 |
| Detachable Speaker Weight (kg) | 1.25 |
| Bluetooth transmitter frequency range | 2400MHz – 2483.5MHz |
| Bluetooth transmitter power | <15dBm (EIRP) |
| Frequency response | 33Hz – 20kHz (-6dB) |
| Total speaker power output | 1170W |
The JBL Bar 1300X is an 11.1.4 channel soundbar that comes with an external 12-inch subwoofer and two detachable surround speakers. It has upwards firing speakers that reflect sound from your ceiling and bounce it towards the listeners, this is the best way to enjoy Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, which the JBL Bar 1300X has support for. It also has Multibeam, which is JBL’s surround sound technology that widens the soundstage and creates a more immersive listening experience.
The JBL One app has Room EQ, which measures your room and calibrates the soundbar and speakers to give you the best sound. The JBL Bar 1300X also supports Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri. The included 12-inch subwoofer gives you a much more dynamic and balanced sound. It is wirelessly connected to the main soundbar, and you just need a power outlet for the subwoofer.
The surround speakers are wireless and rechargeable, with a battery life of 10 hours. They can charge via USB-C or when they connect to the soundbar. They have separate power buttons and can even be used separately via Bluetooth. While the soundbar itself has Bluetooth 5.0, these surround speakers have Bluetooth 5.2, and they can be used separately from the soundbar as wireless speakers.
Read our full review of the JBL Bar 1300X.
Bose Smart Soundbar 600: Best Budget Soundbar
| Channels | 5.0 |
| Physical Connections | HDMI, Optical |
| Dimensions | 2.21in x 27.34in x 4.09in |
| Bluetooth Version | 5.0 |
| Soundbar Material | Metal, Plastic |
The Bose Smart Soundbar 600 has a sleek design, weighing in at only 6.9 pounds. It has Alexa built-in, a designated HDMI port, an optical port, and a port from which you can connect an external subwoofer. The soundbar has decent build quality and is very sturdy.
With the Bose app, you can add Chromecast, Apple Airplay, and Spotify Connect. You can use Bose voice control on this speaker to control your TV or your cable box. The soundbar includes Bose SimpleSync that you can toggle from the app, this pairs it with compatible Bose headphones and speakers.
The Surround Sound configuration offers a multi-dimensional audio experience that fills the room with clear and detailed sound, the Dolby Atmos performance was excellent. In our testing, we found that the sound was full and present without any high-pitched overtones. The Bose Soundbar has two side-firing and two up-firing speakers that easily fill a room without going over 50 percent of its volume. If you’re having trouble hearing the dialogue in movies, there is a dialogue mode that you can turn on in the app that improves the clarity of vocals. Coming at $500, The Bose Smart Soundbar is easily the best budget soundbar in 2024.
Read our full review of the Bose Smart Soundbar 600.
Honorable Mention: Sonos Arc
| Dimensions(mm) | 87 x 1142 x 116 |
| Weight | 6.25 kg |
| Colors | Black, White |
| Mounting | 12.7 mm threaded mount |
| Voltage | 100-240V power supply |
| CPU | Quad Core 1.4 GHz A-53 |
| Ethernet | 10/100 port |
This is Sonos’s flagship Dolby Atmos soundbar, the Arc. Although it was released in 2020, it is still better than most of its competitors in 2024. It has a single HDMI input that supports both HDMI ARC and eARC, it also has an ethernet port, and if your TV doesn’t have HDMI then the Arc does come with an Optical Audio Adapter which will allow you to connect the soundbar to your TV using an optical cable.
The Arc has WiFi, Spotify Connect, and Apple Airplay 2. It can use Spatial Audio which uses the microphone of your iOS device and Trueplay to analyse the unique acoustics of your space and optimize the equalizer settings of your soundbar to deliver better sound. There is also voice support for Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.
The Sonos Arc is an impressive soundbar for both music and movies, it has eleven Class-D digital amplifiers, three silk-dome tweeters, and eight elliptical woofers. The sound is rich and full, and some songs sound very different on this soundbar. It has plenty of bass, and when watching movies dialogues are clear. To change from Atmos to other formats, you will need to change the setting on your TV, Sonos does not have the option for that.
The Sonos Arc is the best sub-less soundbar I have seen. If you don’t want to buy an extra surround speaker and a subwoofer you should consider this soundbar, it sounds perfectly fine out of the box on its own.
Read our full review of the Sonos Arc.