BEST SOUNDBAR DRIVERS
BEST SOUNDBAR DRIVER
BEST SOUNDBAR BLUETOOTH
BEST SOUNDBAR TV

Admittedly the ‘overhead’ element of the performance is subtle at best, but as far as width and, yes, true surround-sound go the B97 is a chunky, detailed and thoroughly enveloping listen.

BEST SOUNDBAR DRIVER

The detachable speakers each have a racetrack driver plus a tweeter - and when they’re detached they reveal yet another tweeter behind them at either end of the main soundbar.Īnd it all works beautifully - and powerfully, thanks to an all-in total of 450 watts. That’s centre/left/right and two overhead channels taken care of.

BEST SOUNDBAR DRIVERS

It works like this: there are three biggish ‘racetrack’ drivers firing forwards from the main body of the soundbar, while on top there are a couple of smaller full-range drivers angled to reflect from the ceiling. Put them in their little cradles, position them where most appropriate, and suddenly your soundbar (plus subwoofer) is a 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos-enabled surround-sound system.

Unless, that is, you detach the modules at either end of the soundbar so they become wireless, independent surround-sound speakers.

BEST SOUNDBAR TV

The Fidelio B97 (£999) is a handsome looker, all shiny chrome accents and smoothly fitted perforated metal - though at 131cm it needs a big TV to sit beneath. Well, a soundbar with a fairly hefty wireless subwoofer accompanying it, anyhow. What we have here is a surround-sound audio system disguised as a soundbar.

BEST SOUNDBAR BLUETOOTH

Size: 5.6 x 131 x 12cm (HxWxD, complete soundbar) 40 x 23 x 401m (HxWxD, subwoofer) | Weight: 6kg (complete soundbar) 9kg (subwoofer) | Finishes: 1 | Voice: Alexa, Google Assistant | Surround: Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, IMAX Enhanced | Connections: Bluetooth 4.2/HDMI eARC/wifi/digital optical/Apple AirPlay ⅔.5mm analogue/Chromecast If you want a flavour of what Dolby Atmos is all about but don’t want to a) put speakers in your ceiling or b) spend an arm and a leg, Sonos has exactly what you need. Only a tiny tendency for the highest frequencies to get a little strident in extremis prevents the Arc from being pretty much perfect. The way it places sound effects is convincing, the amount of detail it’s able to retrieve (no matter if it’s describing whispered dialogue or full-on action-movie overload) is impressive. Thanks to the careful deployment of a total of 11 drivers inside the bar (including a couple facing upwards and one at each ‘cap’ end of the ‘bar), the Sonos is capable of frankly unlikely audio width and height. Given the right tools – which means a Dolby Atmos soundtrack – it’s a punchy, detailed and, above all, sizable listen. The eARC-enabled HDMI input on the Sonos Arc (£799) means you’ll have to make sure your TV’s compatible, but get over that particular hump and there’s not much by way of downside to Arc ownership.

Size: 9 x 114 x 12cm | Weight: 6kg | Finishes: 2īy replacing its superannuated Playbar soundbar with the all-singing, all-dancing, all-Dolby Atmos Arc, Sonos has simultaneously refreshed the part of its model range most in need and delivered the best sub-£1,000 Dolby Atmos soundbar currently available. It lacks advanced features, such as Dolby Atmos or DTS:X support, found in more expensive home-cinema soundbars, but – unless you want a hardcore home-cinema experience – the Sonos Beam is everything you need from a multi-room soundbar.

Where needed, a speech-enhancement mode makes dialogue easier to hear, and there’s a night mode for when you don’t want to upset the neighbours. It can handle films and music with equal poise, balancing detail with dynamism splendidly. Flawlessly made and smoothly finished, it looks the part – and it sounds bigger and more detailed than its size suggests. You can combine it with two Sonos One wireless speakers to create a surround system and, while a subwoofer isn’t standard, you can add a Sonos Sub to give movies an extra bass kick.Īll this, combined with Sonos’s proprietary multi-room speaker smarts, makes the Beam a brilliant all-in-one. Pitched as a compact alternative to the Sonos Playbar, the Sonos Beam (£379) measures just 65cm wide – barely half as much as some in our list – and throws Amazon Alexa (and soon Google Assistant) support into the bargain. This might just be our favourite-ever Sonos speaker.

Best soundbar