If you're looking for one of the best soundbars to upgrade your TV's audio, then it's no secret that you're not short on choice – which can make choosing one all the more complex.

Bose's 2026 flagship, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar, leans firmly into sophisticated design – as its very name suggests – so if you're looking for a style option, then its combination of glass top, material cladding, and physical controls makes for a strong pick.

But this soundbar is just as qualified in the audio department, delivering Dolby Atmos decoding straight out of the box – with two upfiring speakers in its 5.0.2 channel arrangement to treat such audio properly – for a sensationally wide-and-tall soundstage.

With competition from Sonos to Samsung and beyond, however, this Bose soundbar has its work cut out in the price wars. I've been living with one at home – paired with Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer and Lifestyle Ultra Speaker pair for full 7.1.4 surround – and here's why I can thoroughly recommend it.

Price & Availability

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar is on sale right now, priced at £999 / $1099 / AU$1799. It's the upgrade to 2023's Smart Ultra Soundbar, which has since decreased in price.

Around this price point there's a lot else to consider, of course, as even the Sonos Arc Ultra is £/$999 – but has seen recent price drops make it even lower, per the shopping widget embedded below.

To really flesh out the Bose pick, however, you can add the Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer (£899 / $999 / AU$1299) with a Lifestyle Ultra Speaker pair used as rears (£299 / $299 / AU$549 each). Discount bundles also exist, again per the shopping widget below.

Features & What's New?

The move from Smart Ultra Soundbar to Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar wasn't just a nip-and-tuck process. The new flagship represents the "biggest acoustic overhaul in a decade," Bose spokespeople told me at the product's reveal back in April.

The new soundbar features a nine-element array, two of which are Bose's PhaseGuide technology – utilised to control sound directionality, essentially allowing output anywhere within a room without the need for speakers to distinctly point there. This is very good news for immersive audio and Dolby Atmos, of course.

Bass is handled using Bose's QuietPort system, which funnels sound through elongated tubes to magnify the low-end output without a distinct woofer being present. You can add a separate wireless subwoofer, of course, to up the low-end output even further.

Straight out of the box the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar is a 5.0.2 system, the '2' representing the two upfiring speakers at the ends of the soundbar. These aren't visually highlighted as open ports, per the previous product release, instead are 'invisible' beneath the fabric finish that covers the majority of the 'bar – save for the stylised glass top-plate.

Within this glass plate there's a distinctive new sunken control 'wheel' – which I mused was reminiscent of a classic iPod control – while touch-sensitive Bluetooth, mic mute and 'action' buttons sit to the side. Volume up/down and play/pause buttons are within that wheel, but you can use Bose's updated app to handle everything (as there's no physical remote included – and you can't buy an official one).

Design & Setup

As said up top: the Bose is really pushing the style factor with great success, delivering one of the nicest-looking soundbars I've had in front of my TV for some time. And I test a lot of soundbars in tandem with the best TVs.

The soundbar is 110cm long, so in excess of a metre, meaning it's best matched with larger TVs – nothing under 55-inches, I'd suggest, as those will measure approximately the same length. This 'bar the same length as the Sonos Arc Ultra, therefore, meaning it's in direct competition with that product.

It's also head-on equipped with similar specification, as around the back you'll find an HDMI eARC socket, but no further HDMI passthrough. Much as I will criticise that, it's not uncommon – and you'd need to spend more on, say, a Samsung HW-Q990F to gain such an extra (plus a sub and extra surround speakers in the box).

Not that once you're plugged in – with the included HDMI cable ported to your TV to automatically take over sound controls – you'll be paying attention to what's around the back. As the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar is all about how it looks.

I like how Bose has managed to balance elegance and functionality in a discreet way – there's nothing riotous about the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar's design, per se, but little touches such as that top-plate really elevate it above and beyond much of what else is out there.

There's a slight blip in this design, however, as the glass is of course reflective – so you'll see what's on screen mirrored in the surface below, without being able to do much about it. Bose ought to figure out a way to adjust refraction within the material to minimise this; especially as many of the best OLED TVs are now baking in anti-reflective panels.

Aside from the super-simple physical setup process, the Bose is best handled from the Bose app (iOS/Android free download), which has been updated and simplified to make for a really easy end-to-end process. It's within these screens where you can make adjustments and personalisations, too, which only further this soundbar's delivery.

Sound Quality

But it's not all just about looks. Bose has done a brilliant job is getting this metre-or-so-long system to output well beyond its proportions. Its sound width is room-filling – to the point that TVs of 75- or 85-inches or more would be capably catered for by it.

And that's just the soundbar alone. As I noted on my very first listen, any additional products excluded, there's a decent amount of bass drive here from the 'bar alone. That'll be great for those wanting to enhance low-end without paying for a subwoofer – or irking their neighbours, perhaps.

I don't feel like the bass is quite as major as you'll get from Sonos' Arc Ultra, mind, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you want to go full system, then the Bose's Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer does a grand job in delivering bold, shaped bass – but it does cost a packet more to buy, unavoidably (much like Sonos' equivalent, in that regard).

Width isn't the only benefit of this Bose's design, though, as the upfiring speakers do a very good job of projecting sound upwards. At its most basic this generates height, which is totally essential in matching believable sound in relation to what's going on on the screen – which Bose totally nails.

No, you're never going to get an 'umbrella' of hemispherical sound from a standalone soundbar like you will with a full surround system. But even when handling object-based audio decoding from a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar brings great exaggeration to sound motion – with sounds seemingly flying to the edge of a room and right up to the ceiling.

The clarity of that sound is wonderful, too, with great balance that a number of other soundbars can't present in quite such a cohesive way. This feels like the full, considered package – from highs to mid to low – with carefully judged separation and ample channels to define the best movie soundtracks' multi-positional output.

Expandability

As I've already alluded to, you can take the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar from a 5.0.2 system to a 5.1.2 system with the addition of a Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer. From there it can be a 7.1.4 setup when adding a pair of Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker units – adding rear channels, with built-in upward-firing height output.

I've tested this full package and, while it can't go all-out with four speaker separates like the LG Sound Suite, for example, most people aren't going to need that. As a full package, the Bose is a dream for movies and even music – and that you can step by step upgrade, just as you can with Sonos' equivalent, adds accessibility.

Unlike Sonos' recent app debacle, however, Bose's app update is a gem. It brings so much control to the base soundbar alone, but with everything added there's a full suite of tools added to adjust equalisation (EQ) with simple treble/mid/bass +/- sliders. The subwoofer level can be adjusted individually, or switched off. You can also turn off the rear speakers when not desired.

But the biggest point of interest in the app is the 'Adjustments' section, where you can increase of decrease output from centre, adjust the height mix, and the surround level – enhancing its separation. So many companies – such as Sony in its 360 Audio options for The Collexion headphones, for example – get this so very wrong. But Bose has it spot on.

Indeed, I can't name a company that delivers better spatial upmixes than Bose. It does so in its headphones – such as the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) – and while it's not porting exactly the same movement-based delivery here, the subtlety in adding rear speakers when listening to music is a wonder for percussion, as one example. It never sounds fake or metallic or off-kilter. That's a rare yet wonderful thing.

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar review: Verdict

With the very same recommended price as the Sonos Arc Ultra, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar might seem easy to dismiss – but as a stylish alternative with arguably better app integration, Bose's soundbar is a 5-star slammer.

As a standalone soundbar, the sheer sonic width and height impresses, as does the degree of bass – without the need to add any extras. It's great for movies, just as it's great for music – with ample yet simple adjustability options present within the app.

If you chose to upgrade later, however, then the Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer and a pair of Lifestyle Ultra Speaker units totally transforms this 'bar into a successful surround option – albeit at quite the cost – for an impressive cinematic experience.

Bose has really gone nose-to-nose with Sonos in its flagship soundbar fight this year. And while the Arc Ultra might give more bass oomph as a standalone solution, not everyone's going to want that – marking the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar out as a sound and stylish alternative.

Also Consider

Time is as much a benefit as it is curse, however, as the Arc Ultra is currently so well discounted that it's a more obvious purchase – for the cost-savings alone. It also sounds brilliant, is ideal for anyone in the Sonos ecosystem already, and doesn't have a reflective top-plate design.

If surround sound is your ultimate goal, then it's also worth considering Samsung's previous-gen flagship, the HW-Q990F (as the newer 'H' version is negligibly different – and much pricier right now). This includes a sub and rear speakers in the box, plus the 'bar has an HDMI passthrough port (4K/120Hz) too.

All of this too pricey for your needs, or your TV too small for it to be necessary? Then Sonos' Beam 2 is always a sensible suggestion – especially when it's on offer. It's got much more sonic bite than the company's Ray product, too.

Sometimes in this job things come out of the blue that I simply don't expect. Case in point: after setting a 4am alarm to catch a flight to Sony HQ for a TV line-up preview, I never expected the brand's new and unexpected TV surround sound system to wake me up quite as spritely as it did. Forget the coffee, for this audio injection is one home cinema delight.

It's called the Sony Bravia Theatre Trio in its most 'basic' form which, as the name suggests, is a trio of speakers – a small soundbar and front left/right speaker duo in concert. It expands beyond this, though, with up to two subwoofers and a pair of rear speakers (also with upfiring channels) for a 7.2.4 channel system total.

However, by using Sony's 360 Spatial Sound Mapping (SSM), the product can add 24 'phantom' speakers into this mix too, for a Dolby Atmos mix that's unlike anything I've ever heard from such a surround setup – and I suspect it'll be enough to make LG and Samsung weep.

Not short of competition

Not that the competition are in any way short on quality: Samsung's HW-Q990H, for example, is a great all-in-one-box solution that's easily the best soundbar for Samsung TVs; LG, meanwhile, has a very persuasive (albeit mightily expensive) option in its Sound Suite – which also includes discrete front left/right speaker separates much like the Sony.

But while LG has gone down the route of being among the first to adopt Dolby Atmos FlexConnect – an explainer about that positional technology is here – the Sony instead uses the brand's Bravia Connect phone app (for iOS or Android) with a USB-C microphone to calibrate for your room's specific setup.

You needn't have a Sony TV to run the Theatre Trio, but a bit like LG's modular system, you will need a brand tie-in if you elect to skip the soundbar option and only want, say, a subwoofer and/or rear speakers to function in concert with the TV's speakers – this will be possible for Sony's latest Bravia 9 II and Bravia 7 II models.

Note, however, that the Theatre Trio via eARC bypasses the TV's speakers (and there's no workaround to that; Sony doesn't offer a Q-Symphony or Wow Orchestra equivalent). There's a second HDMI for passthrough, seeing Sony also qualify beyond what you'll find from Sonos soundbars, such as the Arc Ultra.

But the competition don't have this

But back to the Theatre Trio in its full surround sound setup for a moment – which, in my test experience included a pair of also-new Theatre Sub 9 subwoofers and two Theatre Rear 9 speakers (smaller Sub 8 and Rear 8 options also exist for lower-wattage output, to your needs or preference).

It's quite difficult to describe in words what a stellar job Sony's engineers have achieved with this system. Think of it as a true surround system – 7.2.4 channels, as described above – but with psychoacoustic intelligence thanks to those additional 24 phantom outputs that genuinely give this setup pro-grade-cinema-like Dolby Atmos accuracy.

With a scene from Sinners on 4K Blu-ray shown on Sony's new 98-inch Bravia 7 II True RGB TV, the way in which Atmos sound objects swirled effortlessly around, including overhead, was quite remarkable. And while I was in a fairly ideal cinema-like room (no surprise, given I was at the company's UK headquarters), the calibration means offsetting for your own personal setup will also be possible.

Having just shifted out of LG's Sound Suite for review, which certainly impressed, the sheer cohesiveness of Sony's new surround system – and, note, achieved with fewer speakers overall (subwoofer pair excluded, but of course) – is mind-bogglingly qualified.

Boss of bass

Granted, the subwoofer pair of my demo almost certainly won't be required for pretty much anyone, especially as the Sub 9 outputs 600W apiece, but a single unit will give you all the bass you need – and then some. A smaller Sub 8 will suffice for most, I'm sure (not that I got a demo to hear this model).

But who doesn't love a big dollop of bass? That's exactly what a scene from Ready Player One was cued up to demonstrate – and it didn't disappoint. That's not to the detriment of the rest of the frequency range or sound mix, though, with a classic scene from No Time To Die showing off the delicate sharpness of the high-end this system can generate, revealed as Mr Bond's Aston Martin scraped across concrete walls.

I'm also not suggesting those with a small TV contemplate a Theatre Trio, as this setup is squarely aimed at large sets where conventional soundbars may otherwise struggle to deliver a soundstage with ample width. This one also shows off with a confident dome of surround sound, to sweeten the deal.

And while I may shout this Sony setup above and beyond its LG and Samusng rivals, in addition to the scale point above, it's not going to be perfect for everyone for other reasons. Sony doesn't use a paired TV's speakers, for example, whereas Samsung's Q-Symphony does, which with a big panel can add better dialogue pinpointing in relation to the screen – which would be one of my criticisms against the Sony setup.

There's also the small (or big) point on pricing. The Theatre Trio will set you back £2000 (wider regional pricing I don't have yet), with the Sub 9 priced at £900 and the Rear 9 speakers also at £900 – making for a £3800 total!

Indeed, this Sony setup might therefore make Samsung's Q990H seem like a relative bargain by comparison. But the extra cash could be worth it for true cinema heads, as this latest Bravia surround system is a true Dolby Atmos revelation.

Bose is going all-in on "lifestyle', with its all-new Lifestyle range – which not only includes this, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar, but also the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, which I've written about previously.

I got to test out the latest products ahead of their official reveal when visiting Bose in Manhattan, to get a real-world perspective on the new soundbar, which the audio brand describes as its "biggest acoustic overhaul in over a decade".

That means it's out with the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar and in with the Lifestlye Ultra Soundbar, which also amps up the design language, control interface – akin to an iPod-like circular volume adjustment, sat atop the 'bar itself – and material choices.

I've tested out many of the best soundbars over the years and what Bose has come up with here is a clear Sonos competitor, able to go toe-to-toe against one of the most successful brands. It'll pair nicely, whether you've got a 55-inch or 65-inch TV that needs audio enhancing.

Bring the bass

In my first test of the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar, I was shown a snippet of 6 Underground – the chaotic Ryan Reynolds action-comedy – which, with no subwoofer connected for that test, showed off just how capably the 'bar alone handles bass. Indeed, I could feel the floor vibrating beneath my feet.

While Bose will also sell you the Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer (priced £/$899), I suspect that many homes simply won't need one – not only on account of cost and space, but because the soundbar's ports allow low-end to flow so amply from the single unit. That'll make it a key Sonos Arc competitor.

Not that the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar is solely about low-end output. The 5.0.2 arrangement uses nine elements, arranged over five channels to output the front soundstage, with two upfiring speakers to ensure greater height. It's a great addition for decoding Dolby Atmos mixes.

A lot of Bose's proprietary technologies help elevate the soundbar's abilities, too. The brand's PhaseGuide pair is able to adjust sound direction to give a focused output wherever you're sitting in relation to it. With that, 6 Underground's audio sounded true to the on-screen characters.

Dolby Atmos and surround options

The soundbar positions a tweeter right in its centre, with a pair of transducers to its side, providing a core frontal output. But two other transducers to either side ensure a wide stereo field straight out of the box, while the up-firing drivers near those finish the fuller picture.

I've looked back over my notes from the listening session and have keenly written down "insanely wide", so Bose has clearly done a grand job in delivering that room-filling output for great immersion. And with added TrueSpatial processing, it's able to upmix even basic mixes into virtual surround sound experiences.

The Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar will handle your Dolby Atmos mixes no problems, therefore, but you can jazz things up yet further by pairing with the Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer and go even further by including two Lifestyle Ultra Speakers as a rear pair.

That complete system is a 7.1.4 system instead, utilising the addition of the Speakers' upfiring drivers for emphasised side-position output in the mix, plus rear overhead channels. I like that this could be added later, rather than spending a small fortune up front.

Speaking of pricing, the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar will cost £999 / $1099 when it goes on sale from 15 May. It's available in Black or Smoke White options.

Top tier controls

There's more to this soundbar than sound quality alone, though. I think it justifies its asking price with some of the design flourishes – that glass topping looking sophisticated (and not too reflective, fortunately), and material choices being suitably high-end.

But it's the integrated controls that set the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar apart from its nearest competition. The sunken control wheel atop the 'bar is unlike anything I've seen on competitor systems and feels truly natural to use – which is a good job, as there's no separate remote control included (only app-based controls).

It's small touches like this that set the new Lifestyle option apart from its Smart predecessor. It's a design language that runs through the range, too, as the Ultra Speaker has a smaller equivalent of that control on top.

For those in the USA, this is the first Amazon Alexa+ enabled product to hit the market, so conversational voice interaction is a reality. That'll be coming to wider markets over time, though no date is yet set.

In terms of connectivity, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar goes down a familiar Sonos-like path, as there's an HDMI eARC port and no additional HDMI 2.1 passthrough for this product. The latter would be a nice-to-have, though it's not an essential for many people.

With so much choice in this space, Bose's all-new soundbar both looks and sounds the part. I like how bold and bassy it sounds as a standalone product, but it's the appeal of future upgrades – with subwoofer and rear speaker additions – that could transform your living room into a spectacular home-cinema space.

That said, Samsung's all-in-one-box Q990 is sometimes a steal for what it offers – so Bose is up against some stiff competition too. Or, for a single 'bar with standout design (and passthrough options), Marshall's Heston 120 is a distinct alternative.

If you’ve got a big TV that needs a helping hand with its sound (and don’t they all?), you have a lot of big soundbars to choose from – the best of which can be large and imposing.

But what about if you have a smaller TV – like the best 42-inchers – but want a similarly big increase in sound quality? In the shape of the Pulse Cinema Mini, Bluesound thinks it has the answer.

Price & Availability

The Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it’s priced at £799. In the United States the going rate is currently $999. While in Australia you’re looking at AU$1599.

The world is not short of similarly priced soundbars that aspire to deliver a sensation of Dolby Atmos spatial audio, of course – so the Bluesound will have to see off some very capable and credible opposition if it’s going to succeed.

Features & What's New?

Although it deploys digital sound processing to deliver virtualised height channels in order to credibly process Dolby Atmos spatial audio soundtracks, the Pulse Cinema Mini is arranged as a 2.1-channel speaker.

It achieves this by using six drivers – two 21mm tweeters, a couple of 45mm midrange drivers and a pair of 102mm bass drivers – supported by two 102mm passive radiators and driven by a total of 282 watts of Class D power. Each tweeter and each midrange driver gets 38 of these watts, while each bass driver receives 65 watts.

There’s a tweeter and a midrange driver at each curved edge of the front of the soundbar, angled out to create some audible width, while the two bass drivers and the two passive radiators are on the ‘bar’s top surface.

Getting audio information on board in order for it to be decoded and amplified can be done in a few different ways. There’s an HDMI eARC connection in a recess at the rear of the soundbar, and here you’ll also find a USB-A slot, an Ethernet socket, a Toslink input and a pair of stereo RCA analogue inputs – there’s a pre-out for use with a subwoofer in this recess, too.

In addition, the Pulse Cinema Mini features dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2 with aptX Adaptive codec compatibility – it’s a Bluetooth transmitter as well as a receiver, and it can wirelessly connect to the company’s Pulse Sub+ subwoofer.

No matter how you get your audio content on board, though, it’s pored over by a DAC chipset (that's a digital-to-analogue converter) operating at a native 24bit/192kHz / DSD256 – which is very high-end indeed.

It’s capable of coping with all worthwhile file formats – from AAC and MP3 to FLAC and MQA, as well as most points in between – and can deal with Dolby Digital/Plus, Dolby True HD, Dolby Atmos and LPCM multichannel formats too. As is becoming increasingly common in products of this type, though, there’s no DTS compatibility.

The Pulse Cinema Mini is also Roon Ready, and its third-party integrations extend to AirPlay 2, the ‘Connect’ versions of Qobuz, Tidal and Spotify – and there’s support for Spotify Lossless too.

Performance

In the sonic face-off between the Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini’s big price-tag and small dimensions, it’s the dimension that win. But only just. It’s almost a split decision – because though this soundbar doesn’t sound quite as expansive or immersive as you might be hoping, it’s got a whole lot going for it in every other respect.

For starters, when playing a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, its presentation is brilliantly unified and quite tightly knit. The soundstage it creates has width and height, certainly, but what’s more apparent is how together, how of a singular occurrence, the sound is.

Sound effects move with positivity around the stage, and there’s plenty of dynamic headroom available for when an action-movie set-piece kicks off – but everything on the stage relates to everything else and nothing sounds remote or distant. You may not ever quite feel inside the sound of the Pulse Cinema Mini, but you’ll never doubt its composure or fidelity.

At the top of the frequency range the Bluesound summons a carefully considered amount of bite and shine, but balances it nicely against plenty of substance for treble sounds.

At the bottom end, it digs respectably deep and hits reasonably hard – but just as significant is the amount of detail and variation it manages to load into bass sounds.

Some soundbars think their job is done if they can create sufficient punch, but the Pulse Cinema Mini is more judicious than – it controls its low-end activity to the point that bass doesn’t hang around or drag at the rest of the frequency range. Instead, it snaps.

And when you consider the Bluesound has no dedicated centre channel to deal with voices in the midrange, it’s remarkably forward and eloquent where voices are concerned.

At every stage of the frequency range, response is even-handed and tonality is quite carefully neutral. Both of these characteristics further enhance the impression of singularity and togetherness that the Bluesound creates.

Switch to music and the story is, broadly speaking, very similar. Content mixed in Dolby Atmos can escape the physical confines of the soundbar in every direction – but not, perhaps, by as much as you might be expecting.

There’s a definite sense of spaciousness to the sound, though, and more than enough space on the nicely organised and controlled soundstage for each aspect of a recording to do its thing – and, again, real clarity and conviction through the midrange.

Even when you switch to plain-vanilla two-channel stuff, the control and organisation the Bluesound exhibits makes for a confident and quite positive rendition of your music.

Design & Usability

The Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini is one of those increasingly rare soundbars: one that doesn’t look oversized beneath a modestly sized TV.

Bluesound, of course, will sell you the (longer) Pulse Cinema that’s more than 1.2m long – but this Pulse Cinema Mini is a much more manageable 85cm long, which means it doesn’t look daft sitting in front of my 48-inch Philips OLED TV.

And even though my TV sits quite low on its stand, the Bluesound is just 7.4cm high and 14cm deep – so it doesn’t foul the bottom of the screen and it can be positioned nice and close.

By prevailing soundbar standards, it looks quite decorative while it’s there (or, at least, it does in the black-on-black finish of my review sample – the pinky/brown ‘tan’ alternative with white plastic bits is a bit weird).

It’s a fairly pronounced ‘lozenge’ shape, with very nicely achieved curves at either end and beautifully applied acoustic cloth covering the area where the powered drivers are positioned.

The lack of a remote control is a slightly strange omission, but the Bluesound scores strongly when it comes to the BluOS control app.

This interface is about as stable, as logical and as comprehensive as these things ever get – and it means using the Pulse Cinema Mini as a music speaker, as part of a multi-room system or as an element in a true surround-sound system, is just as easy as it is to use it as a speaker to deal with your TV’s sound.

There are also a few touch controls on the top surface of the soundbar – here’s where you can deal with ‘play/pause’, ‘volume up/down’ and access a couple of presets you’ve defined in the app. A proximity sensor wakes these controls as you approach the soundbar.

You may prefer to use your voice to control things – and it’s possible, if you integrate the soundbar into Amazon Alexa Skills. It’s a bit of a roundabout way of getting some voice control, mind you.

Verdict

Those who have a smaller TV that needs a big audio upgrade will find the Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini a compelling option.

That's especially true if you have plans for a multi-channel or multi-room sound system, and even more especially true if you admire a well-sorted user interface.

The rest of us, however, will have to factor in the relatively high price and the relatively compact – though admittedly very accomplished – sound before committing, though.

Also Consider

You can go one of two ways when you’re considering alternatives to the Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini: either compare it to similarly priced rivals or compare it to rivals of similar size.

Where similarly priced rivals are concerned, you could do a lot worse than consider the Marshall Heston 120 – a bit more on the price of the Bluesound buys a far more expansive, far more immersive, far more downright bassy presentation as well as some very assertive looks. It's a big lad, though.

As far as similarly sized rivals go, you should investigate the Bose Smart Soundbar – it’s even more compact than the Bluesound, but does a manful job of sounding as large as it possibly can.

As someone who loves movies, I really do enjoy going to the cinema too. Since moving out of London, however, that's harder to achieve – which has seen me leaning more towards home-cinema reliance.

It's part of my job to test the best TVs and the best soundbars, fortunately, so I see the comings and goings of audio-visual trends and advances – often benefitting from them at home during T3's real-life testing process.

Now, having just tested Samsung's latest flagship soundbar, I have to say that I'm completely blown away by the transformative surround sound experience the HW-Q990H offers. And I might never need to go to the cinema again.

What is the Samsung HW-Q990H?

Now the HW-Q990H isn't just the best soundbar for your Samsung TV. It's really more a surround sound system, with all the parts included in the one box – no receiver, amplifier, wiring or extras to worry about.

The system is an 11.1.4 channel arrangement, meaning you get 11 covering the front, side and rear; one central subwoofer; and four overhead channels handled by the soundbar at the front and the rear speakers.

This does mean you'll need to accommodate the soundbar itself, a separate sub, and two separate speakers – all of which require their own power, so you'll need four spare plugs in the relevant locations. Everything else is handled wirelessly though.

It can cater for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X mixes (or lower-grade surround mixes from either) for true immersive surround sound from those object-based solutions. That means true surround all around you, not just a virtual upmix.

Is the Q990H better than Sonos?

Now, I've also tested the Sonos Arc Ultra, which might be the best standalone soundbar solution on the market – one you don't need with a separate subwoofer.

But the Samsung HW-Q990H is just better than the Sonos in many conceivable ways. Firstly, it offers not one but two HDMI passthrough ports – so you can link up two 4K/120Hz systems without using up slots on the rear of your TV. The Sonos? It doesn't offer one at all.

The Sonos certainly delivers monster bass, too, but the Q990H's diminutive in appearance subwoofer is anything but in reality – cranking out big, clear and warm bass in swathes. It can hit those real lows with ease, too.

Furthermore, in addition to those rear speakers delivering true rear surround – like you'd hear in a proper cinema setup – the Samsung has a further trick up its sleeve that Sonos can't match. It's called Q-Symphony – that being the ability to also use a Samsung TV's speakers in tandem with a Samsung soundbar for further immersion and a better integration of on-screen action relative to the audio output.

Is the Q990H worth the money?

Going to the cinema these days costs a fortune. It's no longer 'two for Tuesdays' and a fiver to get in. My local Everyman would be £24.15 (circa $32.50) for one adult with the booking fee included – and I'd have to physically get there. That's before adding anything else.

I'm not saying it isn't worth it, because it is. But I've also started a 4K Blu-ray club as part of my 2026's resolutions, trying to get the utmost from top movies that the best streaming services just can't match. I've even bought Anaconda on disc and I have no shame.

The latest 4K Blu-ray discs cost £24.99/$44.99, which is like half price or better than the cinema when two or more people are watching. And, honestly, the sometimes small screening room at my cinema dooesn't have the biggest projection – so my 77-inch Samsung S99H setup with this HW-Q990H soundbar is, honestly, even better.

The soundbar is a fair wedge of cash, though, it can't be understated. At launch its £1599 / $1999 asking price is no small fry. And not to undermine its position, but the previous Q990F – note 'F', not 'H' – is, physically speaking, an identical product. It's just half the asking price. A no-brainer to buy, I can assure you.

So there we have it: I might never need to go to the cinema again, such is the quality of Samsung's latest flagship soundbar and surround solution. The at-home experience when paired with the best OLED TV and top-tier 4K Blu-ray player and discs delivers out-of-this-world quality.

If you're looking for the best at-home surround sound for a home cinema setup, but have 'the best soundbar' in mind – i.e. you want to buy a single product, rather than faffing with any amplifiers, wires or extras – then Samsung has long been top of the game.

Case in point: the brand's previous flagship, the HW-Q990F, was a 5-star mega-hit, which brought with it a trimmed-down subwoofer to make for an even more accommodating package. The updated Q990H, on review here, continues with that legacy for 2026.

The HW-Q990H is especially great if you're seeking the best soundbar for Samsung TVs, because it can integrate with a panel's speakers for even greater immersion, using what's called Q-Symphony. Non-Samsung users won't get that feature, but will still get a brilliantly immersive experience – whether using the best TV from LG, Sony, TCL, or elsewhere.

Now, let's not pretend that the Samsung HW-Q990H rewrites the rulebook. It's very similar to its Q990F predecessor, y'see, bar a few new modes. Which is fine, as I've confirmed with it wired up to my Samsung S99H QD-OLED TV for testing, during which time it's totally blown my socks off.

Price & Availability

The Samsung HW-Q990H is available now (the UK is running a little behind the rest of the world, mind), priced at £1,599 / $1,999 / AU$1,999. Check the widget above for any low-price promotions in your region.

Year-on-year, that bucks the typical trend of products' asking prices increasing, believe it or not. It's £100 (and AU$100) less than the previous model was at launch, although priced the same in the USA.

Point of note: Samsung's soundbar prices dwindle pretty quickly, so you'll normally find decent deals on the previous flagship as stock is cleared. That's the case again here: the Q990F is around half the price of the Q990H, which makes the older model far more recommendable on that basis alone.

Features & What's New?

The Samsung HW-Q990F comes in one large cardboard box, within which you'll find the main soundbar, separate subwoofer, and a pair of rear speakers. You'll need plugs for each, so four spare wall sockets in total.

So far, so familiar. Which, frankly, is how it continues. Because the HW-Q990H doesn't differ at all in terms of size, build or audio composition compared to its Q990F predecessor.

But that's not a criticism, per se, as this sound package is very complete indeed. The whole setup delivers an 11.1.4 channel delivery – meaning 16 channels of sound – from a total of 23 speakers across all units.

Of that, 11 channels deliver sound from front, sides (from the soundbar), and rear; a central subwoofer handles bass; while four upfiring channels deliver further immersion – again, from both front and rear.

There's an included remote in the box, though using Samsung's SmartThings app on your phone or tablet is more visual and easier – as the soundbar's built-in scrolling LED display is archaic and frustrating to view (but better than nothing at all).

Flip the soundbar over and, in addition to the recessed power cable, a separate space has three HDMI ports. There's the HDMI eARC to handshake with your TV, with the relevant cable also included in the box.

But it's those two additional HDMI 2.1 ports, used for passthrough – at the full 4K/120Hz rate – that mean there's no scrimping here. That's great for expanding a TV's top-end HDMI ports – and it's something that, say, Sonos (and others) doesn't offer at all.

So what is actually new? It seems the additions of Sound Elevation and Auto Volume modes are the full extent of it. Modes that, I can only assume, could feature on the previous model via a software update anyway...

Setup & Controls

Setup is nice and simple, with Samsung intending a plug-and-play system that, via the SmartThings and Samsung Sound apps, will show you what's what.

It's not 100% robust in my experience, though, with occasional subwoofer and/or rear speaker disconnects – and it's a bit of a faff to get the ID Reset re-pairing to work every time.

Note, however, that once the system is connected I've had zero issues with everything communicating perfectly. No drop-outs, no latency, no drama. Rear LEDs have clear colour signals to identify any would-be issues.

You can also set up voice control using Amazon's Alexa or Samsung's Bixby, adding yet another mechanic to controls – which is a good job, given the soundbar's LED display limitations – and there's a mic mute button on the soundbar itself.

I do think a soundbar of this pedigree should have a proper OLED display on its front, one that can be dimmed to completely black, but which can provide more tangible at-a-glance information. Still, the app delivers this without the additional cost to the soundbar production, I suppose.

Sound Modes range from Standard to Surround to Game Pro and AI Adaptive Sound. There's a basic Equaliser control (a multi-band one in Standard mode), separate Woofer level adjustment, and the ability to volume/balance adjust per channel, too.

Voice Enhancement, Bass Enhancement, Night Mode and Virtual Surround do as they say on the tin – upping the mid-range for voice; bolstering bass; keeping things quieter; or upmixing any audio source to be surround-a-like.

Sound Quality

But now we come to the meat of the HW-Q990H and why you'll want to buy it: glorious, truly immersive surround sound.

The system is compatible with Dolby Atmos (including wirelessly, if you're not using an HDMI source) and DTS:X. It'll cater for 'lower' Dolby and DTS mixes, too, as required.

I sat down with my newly acquired Anaconda disc on 4K Blu-ray and the whole system blew my socks off. Even with volume set to 25/100, in a moderate sized living room, its 750W+ of audio is a wall of sound – in the best way possible.

This is the kind of Dolby Atmos system that makes true use of the format, too, with those rear speakers – which include integrated upfiring channels – really adding to the true hemisphere of immersion.

But even the sides of a space don't feel absent, with the main soundbar's speaker positions able to reflect and bounce audio into positions with surprising precision.

It's the subwoofer that's the stealth surprise of the show, though, delivering taut bass that's far grander than its diminutive size might otherwise suggest.

All mixed together and this four-component package sounds truly magical, and paired with the best OLED TV in this instance, made me wonder if I'd ever need to set foot in a cinema again.

What I also like about the Q990H is how it doesn't overstretch its upmixes of more basic sound sources. Some systems will go to town with virtual mixes that sound echoey or false, whereas, in the correct mode, you can ask the Samsung to utilise all the speakers – which it does with consideration.

A bunch of the modes are certainly clever, too, with Q-Symphony being a must for Samsung TV owners. It really helps the sound to 'rise', giving better positional relevance to speech from characters on-screen and suchlike. The Sound Elevation also helps with this – quite essential if, like in my test, you're running a 77-inch TV that's already positioned on an AV unit.

Also always working in the background is Samsung's SpaceFit Sound Pro, designed to auto-analyse your space for clearer sound. It'll take into consideration proximity to walls, adsorption of certain frequencies (like you'll find with curtains, etc), and avoid the sound getting muddied.

Because this Samsung soundbar is anything but muddy. Its audio is crisp, clear, hits in all the right places across the frequency range – and the surround effect is truly on point. I've had worse cinema experiences, quite frankly.

Samsung Q990H review: Verdict

Yes, the Samsung HW-Q990H is a carbon copy of its predecessor with a 2026 stamp added (and, fair enough, a couple of sound modes).

But you can also stamp the Q990H as the best-sounding surround sound single purchase solution on the market right now. Its immersion, effects placement, and big bass from that diminutive subwoofer are just all-round exceptional.

Indeed, nothing has come along to better Samsung's solution – even with the advent of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect (presumably a feature for the 2027 Samsung model and something to consider before a hasty purchase).

Sure, the Q990H's scrolling LED display is now looking dated, but the app integration goes some way to compensate for this. And the occasional need to re-pair sub/rears can be a minor irk.

Overall, in particular if you're looking for the best sound for a big Samsung TV, then the HW-Q990H is an unrivalled option. If you're a movie lover, have got the space to accommodate it all, and no neighbours to upset, this Samsung will negate your need to ever visit a cinema again.

Also Consider

As mentioned, a very obvious alternative is last year's 'F' version of the Q990. It's no different, bar a couple of modes. And it'll save you a packet. So, unless Samsung is offering the Q990H as a bundled package with discount, the last-gen model is the obvious choice.

If the full-on multi-speaker setup is too much for you, however, and you just want a single bar solution then there's nothing better than Sonos' Arc Ultra. No, there's no HDMI passthrough, which is a pain, but you could opt for the stylish Marshall Heston 120 as a (very different-looking) alternative instead.

In the battle of the best soundbars, there are lots of options out there. While Sonos is among the market leaders with its Beam 2 mid-size bar, now Sony has a new strongly-specified rival.

The Japanese brand's replacement for its HT-3000 model, the new Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 goes big on modern features – including a doubling-down for Dolby Atmos surround sound.

This isn't even a virtualised flavour of the audio tech, either, with the Bar 7's nine total speakers being arranged in three to the front (centre, left and right), with central bass (two woofers and four bass radiators), plus two upfiring channels for overhead output.

The high degree of specification doesn't end there either, with the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 also offering two HDMI 2.1 ports. There's an eARC one for syncing to the TV, but a passthrough slot – capable of 4K/120Hz – adding a feature that no Sonos soundbar can muster.

That's a big deal for this Sony. While there's no pricing yet announced, the HT-3000 retailed for £/$599 when it went on sale four years ago. While the higher-specced Bar 7 might cost a little more, you're talking between Sonos' Beam 2 and Arc Ultra in terms of positioning.

That'll make it an interesting prospect not only for Sony Bravia TV owners – although those do get the addition of matched design, plus Voice Zoom 3 AI-enhanced dialogue adjustment – but any TV owner.

In addition, the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 can be further expanded into a broader true surround sound system. There's the potential to add a further five speakers (11 with the addition of accessories to make it plausible) for full-on sound immersion.

In terms of design, the Bravia model – which measures 950 x 125 x 64mm – savvily includes feet, so you can raise it over a TV's stand if required. If not, no need to add them on for a flush finish. A wall-mount also comes in the box, so all angles are covered.

Despite Sony moving its Bravia TV brand to TCL for production, the brand is clearly still deeply involved in the creative process – from screen to soundbar. And with the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 going big on Atmos, it looks like a strong new addition to the line-up.

There's also a Bravia Theatre Bar 5 coming to the range – a 3.1 channel system that's a little smaller than the Bar 7 and has virtualised Atmos (minus the upfiring speakers) and has a separate subwoofer included in the package.

2026 has already been strong for Majority Audio. The brand – founded in Cambridge here in the UK – unveiled a bevy of Bluetooth speakers just a few weeks ago, including the dinky Majority Move M1 which costs less than £30!

That theme of quality audio on a budget is continuing with the brand's latest release. This time, attentions have been turned to the world of soundbars and home cinema, with a range of surround sound systems at prices which defy belief.

There are four models in the range, though it's effectively two models offered in both wired Dolby and wireless Dolby Atmos versions. Let's kick off with the priciest of the group – the Bowfell Halo Atmos.

This model offers a 5.1 channel configuration, complete with an external wireless subwoofer and a pair of rear satellite speakers. A total output of 300W is on offer here, while you'll find I/O options like HDMI ARC and optical inputs, USB and Aux and Bluetooth 5.3.

The Bowfell Halo Dolby is much the same, with an identical speaker configuration and options for I/O. However, they're wired units on this option, and the total power output is reduced to just 180W.

For those seeking something a little less involved, the Bowfell Axis range might be just the ticket. That's a 2.1 channel system, which simply includes the soundbar and a subwoofer – no rear satellite speakers – which should be much easier for most people.

Beyond the simpler setup, though, you'll find the same I/O options as the larger models, ensuring you'll be able to hook up all of the same gear. The wireless Atmos power features a 200W output, while the wired Dolby version is slightly reduced at 120W.

Full pricing for the range can be found in the table below:

That's an exceptionally affordable price point. The prospect of getting a full 5.1 surround sound system for less than £170 is really enticing – I can't wait to hear one!

I've made the argument for years now that a soundbar is often the biggest single upgrade that people can make to change the quality of their home cinema experience. Loads of us now have great 4K TVs, even if they're not necessarily ranked in our list of the best TVs on the market, but very few of those affordable or midrange displays have remotely solid sound.

If you're looking to get a soundbar to transform how movies and streaming shows sound at home, there are few better choices than the Sonos Beam (2nd Gen), which is compact but extremely impressive – which is why it's a best-seller. Despite being a bit of a stunner, though, that doesn't mean its performance is always perfect without any tweaks from you, the user.

So, as the proud owner of a second-generation Beam myself, I've come up with this short list of settings that you should pay attention to if you have one – with only a few minutes of tinkering in the Sonos app, you could get a welcome boost to your sound.

Tune your soundbar immediately

One of the longstanding features that has made Sonos so beloved of audio reviewers is its Trueplay system, which lets you tune your speakers to the room they're in, based on reverb and spatial detection. The only asterisk is that you need an iOS device for it to work fully (on Android, you get a less detailed QuickTune option for some speakers).

If you have access to one, do this immediately by finding the option in the Sonos app, as it'll help you Beam (2nd Gen) tune its sound more specifically to your setup, and can really help the tone and accuracy of its audio both for music and even more so for movies and TV.

It can be easy to forget this step, or to assume that it's a very optional extra, so don't forget it. It's also worth remembering that you should do the process again if you rearrange your room!

Experiment with speech and night modes

When your Beam (2nd Gen) is connected to your TV and playing audio from it, you'll have live access to two audio mode toggles that are well worth exploring – night mode and dialogue enhancer.

These two toggles can be life-savers in certain scenarios. Night mode curtails the soundbar's dynamic range to massively reign in the bass, making it ideal for late-night movies where you're worried about disturbing neighbours or anyone in adjoining rooms.

That dialogue booster, meanwhile, uses some very clever systems to detect spoken dialogue in your audio, and boosts it a little to make it easier to hear and make out from background noise. It's great for those who sometimes have a little difficulty making out lines, and it is a real help for older movies and content that might not have quite the clean audio of modern productions.

Banish that LED

I love the design of the second-generation Beam, which ditched the dust-magnet that was the previous version's fabric grille cover, but there's one detail that persists from the first-generation Beam – a little status light. Some people will find this helpful, since it lets you know the connection status of the soundbar, but I have beef with it.

Primarily, if you're watching a movie in a dark room (as you should be), even that tiny soft-glowing LED can be a slight, minute distraction, and it's better off deactivated. Luckily, Sonos has thought of this – you can easily turn it off in the Sonos app, and I'd recommend you do so and never look back.

Choose your microphone settings carefully

The Beam can be a pretty smart speaker if you want it to be, but it's fair to say that plenty of us haven't embraced smart assistants such as Siri or Alexa nearly as tightly as their creators might have hoped.

If you're in the camp that doesn't really use voice controls in your home, then it's a good idea to head into that familiar Sonos app before too long to simply deactivate the Beam's microphone entirely. It's unlikely to wake accidentally, to be fair, but it's a little bit of peace of mind to know that it's just off and not a problem at all.

This time last week, I was surfing along the plush carpet in Amazon's giant booth at The Venetian in Las Vegas – as part of the world's largest consumer technology show, CES 2026 – and finally encountered a demo I'd been waiting for months to hear.

Each September, Amazon delivers its annual tech product reveal – the Amazon Fall Hardware event, as it's widely known – which last time around included the introduction of Alexa Home Theatre (or Alexa Home Cinema as it's called in the UK).

Now, this isn't some fancy new hardware from Amazon, per se, it's an intelligent way to utilise multiple Echo Dot Max and/or Echo Studio products to upgrade your TV's audio. Think of it as a potential way to bypass needing to buy one of the best soundbars for your compatible Amazon Fire TV product.

What's compatible?

The demonstration at CES 2026 showed Alexa Home Cinema to its full potential, too, with not just a couple of Echo Studio connected, but a full five of them – three to the front, plus two as the rears – and an Echo Sub to amp up the bass, too.

There are a few things to note at this stage: it's not possible to add more than five Echo products (plus the Sub) into this system, so it can't challenge the most complete surround systems around, and you'll only be able to enable this system using one of three Fire TV devices (at the time of writing).

Per Amazon's compatibility pagethat's the Fire TV Cube (3rd Generation), Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation), and Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd Generation). Direct multi-audio connection with other Fire TV products is either unavailable or maxes out at a pair of additions (plus Sub) only.

Serious sound

I'm not saying everyone is going to have multiple Echo Dot Max or Echo Studio products lying around the house, but I know people who possess multiples already – and if you gathered them up for a special at-home screening, you'd gain a much grander audio experience with them paired to a compatible Fire TV device.

It's making me look at the Echo Studio even more admirably as, for example, you might consider buying an extra one to grow a system such as this. The Echo Dot Max as a rear pair would be ideal, too. Sure, it's extra cost, but not nearly as much as many big-name brands charge for such a modular setup.

Above all else, however, I was markedly impressed with just how great Amazon's demonstration sounded. This wasn't even in an isolated private room – it was just in the corner of the giant CES 2026 booth, yet still sounded huge among the bustle. I can only imagine how good it'd sound at home.

While Amazon Home Theatre/Cinema is arguably a niche proposition to use – as you're not going to go out and buy everything in one go – as an access point to a modular system that's more versatile than just a soundbar, I think it's a really great bit of thinking outside of the box.

Here's hoping it expands to include far more products and options, for even greater versatility and attraction.

I've spent the last working week at the world's largest technology show, CES 2026, which the T3 team has been live-blogging throughout – picking out 21 Awards winners from this year's exhibits.

CES is historically regarded as a TV and home audio show, with 2026 also making waves in these departments. LG's off-site showcase was a great representation of what's to come, with its Wallpaper TV (OLED W6) being one impressive new entry.

But that TV paired with LG's new Dolby Atmos FlexConnect system was a real ear-opener for me. It shows off how Dolby's new tech is more adaptive – read my 'what is FlexConnect' piece here – but also opens the door for a more modular approach to purchase.

In this demonstration, LG has its full Sound Suite setup: an H7 soundbar, a W7 subwoofer, plus several M7 speakers to act as sides and rears. Through its app, however, I was able to experience soundbar and TV alone, then with the sub, then everything altogether in concert.

And what a concert this system can deliver. Dolby Atmos is an object-based sound mix system, meaning sound can travel through space in a three-dimensional form – using relevant percentages of the speakers to best deliver that believable immersive output.

Atmos systems with separate speakers typically come all in the same box – and you have to rigidly set them up in a fixed way. What FlexConnect brings to the party, however, is two-fold: one, you can place the speakers anywhere you wish (within reason, of course); two, you can add extras as you go along to a higher degree than most boxed-together solutions can offer.

During the demonstration we moved an M7 speaker's position, for example, with the system then performing a calibration (audible signals) to determine its new position. If it's further away then the volume will be offset as needed; just as it would be if placed nearer. This creates a much more natural soundstaging.

But I think a major part of LG's Sound Suite's success – aside from its superb sound quality – is the modular prospect. You might start with an H7 soundbar alone, then buy another component or two later – perhaps just a pair of rear speakers, foregoing a subwoofer if that's too much for your living situation.

I'm yet to see any other system that demonstrates FlexConnect so well – or that's so complete. Others do exist, such as kit from TCL, and I'm certain that ranges will expand. But with Samsung continuing to output its tried-and-tested kit, I think LG is ahead of the curve here. That's why the LG Sound Suite is a CES 2026 T3 Awards winner.

There's no way I'm the only person in the world to have audio-visual problems whenever I go home for Christmas. I think it's almost a rite of passage for anyone who starts to get into their home cinema setup to have to go to their parents' or relatives' house for the holidays and accept a huge downgrade while they're there.

I'm not going to argue it's that massive a sacrifice – the free food, hospitality and festive cheer more than make up for it, but every year I do the same calculus in my head. I need to come up with a watchlist of movies that I'd happily watch, but which I don't mind watching on a smaller screen with subpar sound.

In my parents' case, that's always been a pretty decent Sony 4K set they got a good long while ago, but without any form of external soundbar – the TV was always too snug on its old stand to allow for one, despite the very muddy built-in audio that resulted.

They recently moved, though, and that opened up more space, making for the perfect slot for a hand-me-down first-generation Sonos Beam, and the difference it made was actually almost impossible to overplay.

I had a first-gen Beam of my own for around half a decade, and recently upgraded to the Beam Gen 2, so I'm a certified fan of the hardware in question, but what the change confirmed for me was more fundamental: every single person needs a soundbar under their TV.

Finally, I was able to watch recent movie releases without feeling like I was compromising hugely on the experience. That manifested in the form of Jay Kelly and Train Dreams on Netflix, both of which I found really interesting, and each of which has plenty of muddled vocal audio, a real challenge for even a good soundbar and doubtless annoying without one.

Don't get me wrong, though – I'd still have quite liked to hear the immersive soundscapes of Train Dreams on my own system, with a subwoofer rounding out the bass to really make its fire sequence land more deeply, for example. That's the curse of the expert, though: I'll always be aware if there's a flaw in the presentation.

Still, the good news is that the best soundbars on the market are often less prohibitively expensive than people might assume. If you're still watching TV and movies without one in your home, take this as your prompt: go look at what's out there and what could fit in your setup affordably. I promise you that it'll be an upgrade you won't regret, as my Christmas holiday just reiterated for me.

As I've written about a few times in the last couple of months, I recently managed to upgrade my home surround sound system with a far superior Sonos setup to what I enjoyed before. Even more latterly, though, Sonos lent me a pair of the Sonos Ace headphones to see how they integrate with things, and I have to say I've been impressed.

I'd tried on the Ace a couple of times before, so I knew how outstandingly comfortable they can be to wear, but without a pair at home, I'd never been able to test their biggest USP – sound swapping.

This feature lets you swap the audio from your Sonos soundbar to the headphones and back, really quickly, meaning you can enjoy personal audio rather than forcing bystanders to listen to whatever you're doing on your TV. I wasn't sure if this was a good enough differentiator compared to other top headphones I've got access to (like the Sony WH-1000XM6), but I've been very impressed in the last couple of weeks.

The headphones can be set up like any other Bluetooth pair, simply by pairing them to your phone and getting on with things. In the Sonos app, though, you'll see the option to set up TV Audio Swap if you have the Ace connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your TV audio system.

It took me about a minute to complete the setup, and I can now swap audio to my headphones anytime I like by powering them up and holding down the rocker button that controls volume on the headphones. It's a simple and handy system, and the same long-press of the button can swap the audio back to the soundbar and surrounds when I need to.

Obviously, nothing here is new, but I'd never used the feature until recently, and it has indeed come in handy. I often game with friends in the evenings, and my long-suffering girlfriend hasn't had much of a buffer against my side of in-game conversations until now. She's been using the Ace to watch movies and TV in a much more cocooned sound environment, and she's also been gaming with it in the same way.

From my own use, it's handiest when I want to watch football, which I often do. Again, this can be a bit of a bore sound-wise for other people, so the Ace lets me watch matches I really care about without having to worry about the crowd noise or commentary being obnoxious.

It's basically exactly as slick as Sonos indicated it would be – albeit after a series of updates to widen how many soundbars the feature works with. It basically now stands as the cherry on top of my living room system, which I can't see myself upgrading any time soon (even if a Beam Gen 3 is surely around the corner at some point).

Whether audio swapping is a good enough reason to buy the Ace over another set of headphones is down to individual taste, but I can certainly say it's a nice feature to have if you also have a Sonos soundbar.

Not content with extending its dominance of the full surround sound soundbar world with its flagship HW-Q990F, Samsung has also turned its expertise to something different: the QS700F; a soundbar designed with a reconfigurable driver array so that it can sit flat on a tabletop or hang flat on a wall while still delivering the same potent and immersive sound quality.

The HW-QS700F isn’t the first soundbar to offer genuine wall/desktop positioning flexibility, but it joins a pretty small and exclusive club. A club whose members typically cost way more than its asking price.

So is this exactly the affordable jack of all trades solution the soundbar world is crying out for right now – and one of the best soundbar for Samsung TVs specifically? Or has Samsung’s quest for flexibility and convenience caused it to lose its usually firm grip on the soundbar sound quality ball?

Price & Availability

The QS700F’s £749 UK price ($649, AU$999) feels about right for a powerful soundbar-plus-subwoofer two-hander, boasting lots of power and a 3.1.2 channel count.

Except that this isn’t where the QS700F’s story ends, of course. Those six channels it boasts can also be set by Samsung’s clever soundbar to be delivered from different speakers depending on whether you’ve mounted the soundbar vertically flat on the wall or horizontally flat on a desktop.

Such true placement flexibility typically only comes with a much higher price attached. Devialet’s Dione, for instance, with its rotating centre channel ‘ball’, will set you back almost three times as much by comparison.

Design & Features

The Samsung HW-QS700F ships as a two-piece package, comprising the main soundbar and an external wireless subwoofer. The bar measures in at 1160(W) x 51(H) x 120(D)mm if set on a desktop, or swap height and depth accordingly if hung on a wall. The subwoofer, meanwhile, is an impressively compact (by Samsung subwoofer standards) 249 x 252 x 249mm.

The main bar is slender enough in its two ‘convertible fit’ configurations to: a) not protrude into your TV’s pictures if sat on a desktop, or; b) stick out too much from the wall if hung up. A built-in gyroscope can feed back to the soundbar which orientation it's being used in, too, and adjust the sound output accordingly.

The subwoofer’s cubic shape, rounded edges, sleek finish and compact size make it arguably Samsung’s most attractive soundbar subwoofer yet – but it also looks promisingly potent with its 6.5-inch active driver and 8-inch passive radiator.

The 3.1.2 channel count delivered by the QS700F’s two components comprises front centre, left and right channels; two up-firing channels; and the central sub bass.

The great thing about this, though, is that different speakers deliver the channels depending on the soundbar’s orientation. So the large circular drivers that sit on the soundbar’s top edge deliver up-firing effects when the bar is desk-mounted then become front left and right drivers when it’s wall-mounted.

Unlike Samsung’s Q990F flagship soundbar, the QS700F doesn’t ship as standard with any rear speakers. It does allow you to add optional ones, though, in the shape of either a pair of Samsung’s Music Frame speakers or a pair of SWA-9500S speakers that add two more up-firing channels as well as the regular stereo rear ones. So it's future-upgradeable, which may suit you best.

The QS700F’s connections are a bit of a downgrade on those of the Q990F. The HDMI passthrough drops to just one input and one output, versus two inputs and one output on the Q990F, and it loses the flagship model’s support for 4K/120Hz gaming signals.

Therefore gamers with such high-speed gaming devices will have to attach them directly to a TV equipped with HDMI’s eARC system if they want to enjoy Dolby Atmos or DTS:X sound without sacrificing frame rates.

As with Samsung’s top-end soundbars, the HW-QS700F can receive Dolby Atmos wirelessly from Samsung TVs that support the feature – though it’s important to note that this isn’t a lossless transmission system, and so won’t deliver quite the same sound quality that a physical eARC HDMI connection can.

The HDMI passthrough is pleasingly completist with its high dynamic range (HDR) video formats, though, supporting the premium Dolby Vision and HDR10+, as well as the more basic HDR10 and HLG systems.

The QS700F has already done more than enough on the featurew front to justify its price, but it still has a few other tricks up its sleeve. Adaptive Sound, for instance, is an AI-driven feature that seeks to constantly optimise how the soundbar responds to whatever sound it’s receiving, while a Game Mode Pro works to enhance the sense of directionality in a game soundtrack to help game worlds feel more immersive and immediate, as well as making it easier to pinpoint sound origins in a virtual world.

Samsung’s Q-Symphony feature is on hand to enable the QS700F’s speakers to join forces with those in compatible Samsung TVs to create a bigger-sounding front sound stage, rather than the soundbar just taking over all the sound duties and silencing the speakers in the TV.

Finally, Samsung’s Space Fit Pro system provides essentially a constantly working auto calibration system – though you can manually calibrate the balance of all the speakers too, if you prefer.

Sound & Performance

Trying the QS700F first in its most ‘standard’ horizontal setup, it instantly appears to be a chip off the old Samsung block when it comes to feeding an abundance of power and dynamic range into creating an exceptionally large and detailed soundstage.

This soundstage really does spread forth in all directions, including upwards, to deliver Dolby Atmos height/overhead effects – yet it does so without sounding fragile at the edges, or revealing gaps anywhere in the three-dimensional space it so powerfully but carefully crafts.

Not even the shrillest treble sounds appear thin or trapped, while at the other end of the spectrum the low frequencies never start to sound thumpy or distorted – always exhibiting an uncanny knack for kicking in with and maintaining exactly the appropriate bass weight. Even when a movie’s dynamics push things seriously hard.

There’s no gap between the lowest mid-range sounds of the main 'bar and the surprisingly dynamic range of bass frequencies the subwoofer can deliver. The dynamic reach of the soundbar's mid-range and the face-slapping amount of impact it can imbue in movie staples – like punches and explosions – is outstanding. As is the sheer amount of volume the QS700F can achieve without losing grip on the amount and placement of subtle details in a mix.

The bass from the newly designed subwoofer emanates exceptionally smoothly, filling the room with completely directionless low-frequency sound exactly as it should.

Inevitably, the QS700F sub’s smaller size and less potent driver setup does mean it can’t shift quite as much air or respond quite as dynamically to sudden changes in bass as the dual active driver subwoofer provided with Samsung’s flagship Q990F soundbar. It’s seriously potent, though, and crucially always takes care to stick within its limitations, never succumbing to nasty phuts, buzzes, crackles or dropouts.

Switching to the QS700F’s vertical, wall-hanging setup: it’s immediately obvious that the built-in gyroscope has done its job and rearranged which channels are coming out of which driver. Those big, round speakers that delivered the up-firing sounds before now produce the main left and right channel information fantastically well, delivering a much more effective wall of sound than you get when you wall-mount most soundbars.

The vertical orientation still delivers a potent sense of height and width effects, and the combination of the soundbar’s expansive mid-range and ability to create a full ceiling-to-floor sound means its output still harmonises superbly with that of the subwoofer.

Samsung’s engineers haven’t quite managed to pull off the (possibly impossible) feat of making the QS700F sound exactly the same in both its horizontal and vertical orientations though.

Height effects aren’t delivered across quite as wide a splay or with quite as much authority in vertical mode as in horizontal mode. The centre channel speaker, which is tucked at the apex of the slim front edge in horizontal mode and the apex of the deeper front edge in wall-hanging mode, can lose a little clarity under extreme pressure in horizontal stance, yet while it sounds clearer in vertical mode it can sometimes leave dialogue sounding a little detached from the onscreen action in a way that doesn’t happen in the horizontal setup.

The way the large, round speakers face forward in the vertical configuration helps stereo music sound a little more rounded, natural, open and detailed than it does in horizontal mode too – though if you prefer to listen to music with Samsung’s Surround Sound Mode active (which upmixes stereo music in real time into a surround sound mix), then the horizontal configuration sounds a little more coherent and consistently effective.

For all its cleverness, the QS700F’s charm is that it caters for a wider market – one that incorporates wall-hangers as well as desktop users – than most soundbars, rather than that it can be used in rooms in the same house that happen to have different TV setups.

Looking for other chinks in the QS700F’s armour beyond the vertical and horizontal configurations favouring slightly different music portrayals, while the new subwoofer sounds punchy and smooth, it doesn’t always sound quite as immaculately timed as Samsung’s soundbar subwoofers usually do.

Having only touched on the QS700F’s music playback so far, it’s important to stress that as with Samsung’s flagship soundbars these days, this mid-range model is definitely not just a movie machine.

Straight stereo is portrayed with good but not excessive left and right separation, and vocals hang very effectively just above the main central heart of the mix, without being either dragged down into it, nor left sounding too distinct from it.

Unlike Samsung soundbars in years gone by, the QS700F’s tone for music is less muscular than it is with movies, delivering a more balanced, nuanced and, for want of a better word, 'musical' feel that holds up with really all sorts of musical genres.

Samsung QS700F review: Verdict

Far from leading to the mess of compromise it might have been expected to cause, the genuine placement flexibility opened up by the QS700F’s clever design and re-assignable drivers is for the most part a thumping success by soundbar standards at this price point.

It sounds strong in both desktop and wall-mounted configurations in a way no ‘normal’ soundbar can; it handles music almost as well as it handles movies; and while there are a few moderate differences between how it sounds in its two separate stances, it really delivers quality no matter where you’ve put it.

When the worst that can be said about the QS700F is that a soundbar this good deserves to have its optional rear speakers added as a matter of course, it’s pretty clear that Samsung is onto yet another soundbar winner.

Also consider

While Samsung’s HW-Q990F flagship soundbar warrants a fleeting mention here for delivering the most powerful and fully formed Dolby Atmos sound stage in the soundbar world, its asking price makes it just too expensive to put it in the same category as the QS700F.

A much more useful comparison would be the Sonos Arc Ultra. This is arguably the soundbar world’s ultimate clutter-buster, delivering an outstanding combination of movie and music sound quality, plus Sonos multi-room connectivity from just a single attractive and compact bar.

Also worth considering if you’re quick about it (given it’s a 2024 model and stocks are dwindling) would be yet another Samsung model: the HW-Q800D. This is a more straightforward soundbar-plus-subwoofer combination, which ought to save you some cash.

The moment Marshall first announced it was making soundbars, I started to assume that it would be after Sonos' lunch sooner rather than later. Sure enough, although the top-of-the-line Heston 120 was the first launch, it didn't take long for Marshall to release the Heston 60, which seems directly aimed at competing with the Beam.

I'm lucky enough to have used both the Heston 60 and the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) in recent weeks, swapping back and forth to compare them both. Which is best, though? Well, keep reading to find out my detailed thoughts.

Sonos Beam (Gen 2) vs Marshall Heston 60: Design and features

These two soundbars come from very different directions in terms of aesthetics. Sonos iterated on its first-gen Beam, removing the cloth mesh and going for a very modern look, especially in the white version I have.

The Beam (Gen 2) is basically plastic all over, albeit sturdy, heavy-duty stuff, and has touch controls on its top face in case you need them. Its inputs are round at the back, and the soundbar is impressively compact, making it easy to fit on even smaller stands.

Marshall's is a little bigger, but also very different to look at. It summons the ghosts of bygone Marshall amps, with a lovely fabric finish and brassy control buttons. You can also arrange it in two different ways, depending on whether you're wall-mounting it or leaving it on a surface, which is cool.

In terms of features, both soundbars have multiple sound modes to choose from, including bass-dampening night modes and dialogue-boosting voice ones. Marshall adds a welcome feature by letting you tune how intense the effects of each mode feel, but Sonos punches back by letting you turn them both on at once, making for just about a draw.

Where Sonos pulls away, though, is in how modular the Beam (Gen 2) can be. You can add a variety of wireless Sonos speakers to it as surrounds, something the Heston 60 doesn't allow at all right now. You also have more multi-room flexibility with the Beam, in case you have other Sonos speakers in other rooms.

Sonos Beam (Gen 2) vs Marshall Heston 60: Sound and ease of use

If you leave the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and the Marshall Heston 60 on their own to handle TV audio without any additional hardware, there really isn't much to pick between them in sound terms.

Both are excellent, with Dolby Atmos compatibility to ensure that they can handle the full range of surround sound (in theory). Because of its design, though, the Heston 60 definitely has an advantage when it comes to the verticality of its soundstage, since it has upfiring drivers that the Beam (Gen 2) can't quite match.

That's nitpicking, though, and you have to listen quite hard to discern the difference. For most people, the main contrast will come in the form of a slightly more precise sound from Sonos, compared with some added warmth from Marshall. That means taste plays a big role here.

For one thing, both soundbars let you tune and edit their EQ settings, meaning you can change things to your tastes anyways. For me, though, this means that a lot of my judgment between the two is about ease of use.

Here, I think Sonos scores a clear win, with an app that I found more responsive and slick (as it continues its rebirth following a shambolic launch). I'm more reliably able to find the settings I want quickly, and the fact that I can control a bunch of other speakers easily, too, makes it more powerful.

It's also freer of hitches. In Sonos' app, I never suffer drop-outs in audio while swapping between settings, while Marshall's routinely made me miss a second or two of audio, which is rewinding territory when you're watching something as dialogue-dense as The Wire.

Marshall's app is no problem, to be clear, but it's just not as responsive as the best in the business. Another more significant gripe is that the Heston 60 doesn't auto-switch between inputs (or at least it didn't for me). That's a huge quality of life feature that Sonos' soundbar nails, ensuring you actually don't need to reach for the app or its buttons nearly as often.

Sonos Beam (Gen 2) vs Marshall Heston 60: Verdict

I'm hoping it's clear from everything I've written so far that there's no wrong choice between the Heston 60 and the Beam (Gen 2). Both sound terrific and will provide massive upgrades over the sound that your TV might otherwise be outputting.

That said, I can't pretend I don't have a favourite, and therefore a winner: the Sonos Beam (Gen 2). I think it shows the polish that more experience in the market brings, and the fact that you can far more easily expand on it down the line seals the deal. It's slicker to use, with basically the same compatibility, and I think it can more easily fit into most aesthetics, too.

Price is a question, too, since the Beam (Gen 2) is older – it gets more frequent discounts and sales, although those will doubtless start to appear for the Heston 60 in 2026, too. Right now, you can get the Beam for 24% off in the UK, for instance, which opens up a big value gap that even further underlines my choice.

I've written a few times in the last couple of weeks about the new Sonos setup I've been using, which represents an upgrade on what I had before in basically every single area. I've swapped a Beam Gen 1 for a Gen 2, upgraded my Ikea Symfonisk surrounds with Era 100 replacements, and added a Sub Mini to top it all off.

While that last part left me impressed with the huge bass on offer, I have to admit I wasn't entirely sold on whether it was really adding enough to make me notice the change on a daily basis. That was my impression after some gaming and some streaming – but I just experienced something that changed my outlook.

A couple of nights ago, I hooked my PS5 Pro up to the living room TV and stuck in a Blu-ray copy of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I'd never seen the film in full, and we fancied some Spielberg magic, but there wasn't much more of a rationale behind the choice than that.

As the movie unfolded, it looked and sounded great, with the 5.1 surround sound coming across really well, even without the presumably newer mix of an UltraHD version. Then, though, the first spaceship scene arrived, with the cherubic little Barry running around his house as a ship implicitly hovers overhead.

Team, I simply wasn't prepared for the bass response I got from my sound system, largely driven by the Sub Mini. This wasn't just a subtle bit of low-end rumble at the bottom of my consciousness; it was a full-on earthquake of sound, with the ship's futuristic technology coming across on a totally new level thanks to the bass responsiveness of the subwoofer.

This isn't the first time I've had a sub connected to my system (I used Marshall's new Heston Sub 200 recently, too), but it's probably the first time I've had everything come together at once to demonstrate just what the point of one can be. It's not cinema-level sound, but it feels like an addition that gets you closer than you might expect in your own living room.

That said, I still find the pricing of the Sonos Sub Mini off-putting, as I'm sure many others do too. Plus, there's no getting around the fact that about 30 minutes further through the movie, I had to activate Night Mode on my system, because the bass was getting so obnoxious that I felt too awkward about my downstairs neighbours hearing.

There's no wiggling out of my living situation, and I'll be in this flat for years to come, so the simple fact is that my Sub Mini might have to be deployed pretty carefully and judiciously, rather than being let off the leash all the time.

Still, it was a revelatory bit of movie-watching, and really did sell me on keeping the Sub Mini in my setup for good. Now I'm building a bit of a watchlist to see what else I can use to test it to its limits.

Every year for what feels like forever, Samsung has released a new, only marginally altered iteration of its top-of-the-line, four-component, channel-rich flagship soundbar package. And always to universal acclaim and brisk sales – especially for those seeking the best soundbar for Samsung TVs.

For 2025, though, it seems as if Samsung’s soundbar engineers decided they needed to set themselves a challenge by quite radically redesigning a key part of this latest HW-Q990F model – the included subwoofer.

So it's out with the older, tall-yet-slim subwoofer – which comes complete with a side-firing driver – that’s been part of Samsung’s recent flagship soundbars for so long. And in its place comes a more compact and much 'cuter' new cubic bass speaker design – with separate drivers fitting into two of the cube’s opposing sides.

While this new subwoofer undoubtedly addresses complaints that the previous subwoofer design wasn’t as aesthetically appealing as the rest of Samsung’s flagship soundbar components, though, it’s undoubtedly risky to change such a key part of a winning sound quality formula so drastically. Has Samsung shot itself in the foot? Or has the best actually just got even better?

Price & Availability

By the standards of the soundbar world at large, the £1,699 / $1,999 / AU$2,099 price tag attached to the Samsung HW-Q990F looks pretty steep. Fortunately, as you can see from the shopping widget embedded above, it's fallen sharply since its January revea;.

This is much more than just a typical soundbar, though, as the hefty main bar component is joined in the box by both that swanky-looking new subwoofer, and a pair of heavy-duty rear speakers.

These speakers are able, too, to deliver a remarkably high real (rather than virtual) 16 channels of sound. With all this in mind, I’d say the Q990F’s price actually looks like potentially great value for everything that’s on offer – it's really one of the best surround sound systems, more than just 'soundbar'.

Design & Features

Samsung’s flagship soundbar packages have always benefited from seriously premium build quality and attractively industrial designs – at least for the main 'bar and surround sound speakers. The subwoofers, though, while not flat-out ugly, have tended to be the weakest design link – a situation the Q990F is out to turn on its head.

The Q990F sub’s startlingly compact new cubic shape is something you might actually choose to leave on show rather than try to hide down the side of a sofa or under a sideboard. Its edges are nicely rounded off rather than jagged and harsh, and its smooth finish looks elegant.

The shift to two 8-inch drivers on opposing sides of the cube looks surprisingly attractive too, and not just in a nerdy sort of way. The new design also raises hopes of a new level of bass performance, provided Samsung has been able to get those twin drivers working in perfect harmony.

The main bar element is a typically large affair, measuring in at 1232 x 70.8 x 138mm. This makes it better suited to the best 55-inch TVs or even 65-inch TVs and larger – which is likely the sort of screen size range someone spending close to four-figures on a soundbar will want to own anyway.

The Q990F wears its size well, with its double-angled left and right edges and hard, grilled plastic finish. Samsung has emphasised the horizontal axis of the top-edge grille this year to quite stylish effect, as well as going for a slightly lighter grey finish than the near-black of the soundbar's Q990D predecessor.

The top edge has a grille, just like the front and side edges, because the Q990F features up-firing speakers to deliver Dolby Atmos soundtrack height channel effects.

The rear speakers wear the same hard grey finish as the main bar, and sport a similarly angular look – including having a peaked top edge to help the integrated up-firing speaker angle its sound forward so that it can join up with the sound from the angled up-firing drivers found in the main soundbar.

All this talk of speakers and ‘joined up’ sound brings us to the Q990F’s single biggest feature appeal: Its 11.1.4 audio channel count.

This comprises front centre, left, and right, side left and right, front side left and right, and two up-firing drivers in the main bar; forward, side and up-firing drivers in the rears; and the chunky old ‘.1’ bass channel for the subwoofer.

As well as being able to provide dedicated real (rather than virtual) speakers for every channel in pretty much any Dolby Atmos or DTS:X sound mix, the side-front channels on the main bar, side firing speakers on the rears and angled design of the front and back up-firing channels all point you towards Samsung’s ultimate intention with the Q990F: to create as detailed, full and immersive a hemisphere of sound around the viewer as possible.

This is something, of course, that no soundbar without included rear speakers can truly achieve – even though there are one or two models, especially from Sony, that at least have a stab at it by using clever processing to create lots of extra ‘virtual’ speakers.

If you’re not playing a Dolby Atmos or DTS:X source, the Q990F carries an ‘upmixing’ mode that can expand anything, even plain stereo music, into a multi-channel experience that takes advantage of the package’s full channel array. Other available themed sound mode options include Game Pro, which emphasises the directionality of a game soundtrack to help you better detect where enemies may be lurking.

If the Q990F’s 16 channels of integrated sound are somehow not enough for you, it’s also equipped with Samsung’s Q-Symphony technology, enabling its speakers to join forces with those in a Samsung TV to create a larger centre channel effect.

The Q990F’s flexibility also extends to allowing you to hive the rear speakers off from the rest of the system so that they can become a standalone stereo streaming system.

Samsung has included a number of helpful tools for optimising the Q990F’s sound to different content and room conditions. The soundbar's Space Fit Pro system essentially runs an auto calibration routine to get the best volume balance between all the system’s channels, while an AI-driven Adaptive Bass Control system continually monitors the subwoofer’s output to try and minimise distortions and keep the bass in balance.

An AI-backed Active Voice Amplifier, meanwhile, can monitor ambient noise and boost dialogue playback when necessary, and an Adaptive Sound system uses AI again to assess the specific qualities of an incoming sound and optimise playback accordingly.

The Q990F is well-connected for a soundbar. In particular it carries a two-in, one out HDMI loop-through system that's capable of passing through 4K/120Hz HDR signals, meaning that gamers with flagship consoles or suitably capable PCs can attach their consoles directly to the soundbar rather than having to connect their consoles directly to their TVs and run the gauntlet of HDMI’s audio return channel (ARC) functionality’s potential lip sync issues.

The HDMI loop-through is also capable of passing both the HDR10+ and Dolby Vision premium high dynamic range picture formats, while other connection options include an optical digital audio input as well as the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless options we now expect with any premium soundbar.

Via these wireless options, finally, in conjunction with Samsung’s increasingly helpful and well-featured Smart Things control app, it’s possible to stream audio into the soundbar using GoogleCast, Apple AirPlay, Tidal Connect and Spotify, as well as play files in any of the MP3, AAC, OGG, FLAC, WAV, ALAC and AIFF formats.

Sound Performance

So to the moment of truth: has the new subwoofer messed up the all-important balance and legendary potency of Samsung’s flagship soundbars? Actually, no it hasn’t. In fact, in most ways it’s actually improved things.

For starters, the bass it produces plumbs depths that feel at least as profound as those of Samsung’s previous (uniformly excellent) flagship subwoofer package soundbars.

Just as importantly, despite the complexities of using a dual driver system, the Q990F’s new sub shows just as much intelligence and consistency when it comes to judging how hard or soft/loud or subtle its moment-to-moment input to a sound mix should be.

There’s a clear improvement over previous Samsung soundbar subwoofers, too, when it comes to the non-directionality of its low-frequency sounds, meaning that the bass just seems to exist throughout your room, as it should, rather than it seeming to be emanating explicitly from wherever you’ve placed the subwoofer.

The dual-driver configuration creates a smoother feel to the bass too, while following on from previous Samsung soundbars in being able to hit even the most extreme depths and volumes of bass without succumbing to crackling, buzzing, dropouts or other types of common distortion.

I’ve focused on the subwoofer so far just because its redesign is the biggest part of the Q990F’s story, not because it in anyway draws too much attention to itself. On the contrary, it still attaches incredibly seamlessly to the lower frequencies achieved by the main soundbar component, leaving no sense of a mid-low frequency gap, and still adapts its presence fantastically well to the constant changes in a film or TV show mix.

The new sub’s sensitivity to the rest of the speakers makes it easy to appreciate just how good the main 'bar and rears are, too. Particularly when it comes to creating that all-important hemisphere of sound around a viewer – which is such a key component of a truly effective Dolby Atmos or DTS:X experience.

There’s no sense of any gaps in the Q990F’s sound hemisphere, even when a particular sound effect transitions down the side of the room or over your head. You’re truly immersed in a seamless three-dimensional audio world, massively enhancing your involvement with whatever you’re watching.

The main soundbar and rears all continue the theme set by the new subwoofer of never succumbing to distortions or speaker breakdowns – even at wall-wobbling volume levels – and they never sound muddy, contained or overloaded, no matter how hard an action movie's sound mix might push them.

This is particularly impressive from the rear speakers, given that they have to fit three separate drivers into their compact frames. Their compactness doesn’t cause them to feel even slightly out of tonal kilter with the other two bigger components, either. Especially now that the subwoofer’s bass carries around the room so effectively.

I should probably make it clear at this point that the Q990F can go loud. Really loud. The sort of loud that shouts ‘cinema!’ rather than just telly.

There’s nothing forced about the epic volumes it can reach, though; nothing ever sounds on the edge of breaking down, compressed, brittle or harsh. Nor are any details lost or drowned out – even when you’ve pushed the soundbar to volume levels way past comfortable.

On the contrary, at all times and all volumes, the Q990F delivers every detail, even the most subtle ones, with gorgeous clarity and precision, but also balanced, thus affording each effect in a mix the right amount of weight.

Effects, including dialogue, are also placed immaculately within the hemisphere of sound the soundbar creates, adding up to the most precise, detailed and complete sound stage I’ve heard from any soundbar package. Or any soundbar selling for this sort of money, anyway.

The Q990F’s irresistible combination of brutal power and subtle detail is particularly apparent in the wince-inducing (in a good way) potency it brings to those classic hard and fast impact sounds – punches, gunshots, the initial burst of an explosion, car crashes, and so on – that A/V fans love to hear.

Really, the only small issue with the Q990F’s movie performance is that the new subwoofer doesn’t seem quite as responsive to changes in frequency as its predecessor, dragging its feet ever so slightly when a mix calls for a sudden slight lift or drop in bass weight. This minor timing issue is only rarely noticeable, though, and is comfortably compensated for by the improvements the new subwoofer brings.

Samsung flagship soundbars used to struggle with music, seemingly finding it difficult to rein in or repurpose all the aggression that served them so well with film soundtracks for music. This musical blind spot was happily dealt with a couple of generations ago, though, and happily it hasn’t returned with the introduction of the new subwoofer design.

The Q990F can still use all of the power at its disposal to deliver music really loudly, but it doesn’t sound abrasive or caustic. In fact, its consistent blend of clarity, warmth and musicality never makes listening to music tiring or jarring.

While I think most people will prefer to stick with basic stereo playback from the Q990F when playing stereo music sources, Samsung’s Adaptive Sound feature does a much better job than most similar ‘upmix’ systems of converting two-channel music into multi-channel sound that takes advantage of all the Q990F’s speakers. The upmixes can sound a little muddled from time to time, though, but it's worth trying to see if it's to your taste.

Samsung Q990F review: Verdict

Samsung has been able to ring in the changes for the Q990F without damaging the deliriously good combination of power and precision that have made the brand’s flagship soundbars so popular with home cinema fans for so long.

In fact, in most ways, the bold new subwoofer design introduced for the Q990F brings palpable benefits, including a less directional and smoother sound, without sacrificing a hint of depth or power. Its timing isn't as on-point as that of old, though.

There’s also no other soundbar out there for the same money that can both craft a powerful and seamless dome of sound for movie nights and switch over to a truly enjoyable music performance. Pair that with a Samsung TV capable of Q-Symphony and you'll have a true cinematic 'wall of sound' experience.

Add in a strong roster of features, format support and connections, and the Samsung HQ-Q990F becomes nigh-on irresistible for anyone who values a full surround experience over the convenience of a simple single bar solution.

Also consider

The LG S95TR trades blows with the HW-Q990F in terms of core specification and features. It, too, is a four-piece system, complete with external subwoofer and rears, and it too offers oodles of power across a high (9.1.5) channel count. The ‘.5’ bit of the channel count refers to an extra up-firing speaker that repeats the centre channel information, in a bid to make voices sound like they’re coming from your screen rather than the soundbar underneath. While the power and aggression of LG’s soundbar is undeniable, though, for me it doesn’t deliver as much cohesion and immersive immediacy as the Q990F does.

JBL’s Bar 1300 delivers the same 11.1.4 channel count as the Q990F, as well as extreme amounts of power and an ability to switch well between movie and musical uses. Its wireless and rechargeable rear speakers are cool, too, in the way they let you move them easily around the house when you want to use them as separate music streaming speakers. Unless you really intend to use this feature of the Bar 1300 a lot, though, the faff involved with recharging them and a slight lightness to the rear speakers’ sound versus the monster soundbar and subwoofer give the Samsung Q990F the performance edge.

The perils of owning a Sonos system are few and far between, but if there's one big risk that comes with the multiroom audio brand, it's the fact that you can expand your array of speakers so easily. In most cases, it's just a matter of turning a new speaker on, telling the app what room it's in, and enjoying a new audio option.

If you have a TV setup, that's still impressively the case, as I've confirmed recently in a bit of an upgrade journey. After swapping out my first-generation Beam soundbar for a second-gen one and then upgrading my cheap Ikea Symfonisk surrounds with Era 100 replacements, I've now completed my setup.

How? Why, by adding the Sub Mini, Sonos' smallest subwoofer and basically the only option if you don't want to alienate your neighbours to the point of a small claims court case.

It's the final piece in the simplest surround sound setup you could care to build, but there's no denying that the Sub Mini is also the one piece that takes the setup into a new price bracket. After all, between a Beam Gen 2 and a couple of Era 100 speakers, you're up at £797 here in the UK – not a jaw-dropping amount, but already a decent whack of cash.

The Sub Mini costs £429 on its own, and is therefore the single most expensive component in the whole setup, taking it to a total price of £1,226, which is not pocket change or anything close to it. Then again, most experts in the field will tell you that you're going to end up spending north of £1,000 to get proper surround sound, and the whole advantage of Sonos' system is that you don't have to buy it all at once.

So, what's it like to add the heft of the Sub Mini to a Beam setup? Well, in short, it's almost exactly what I expected. I didn't have any issue with the amount of bass provided by the Beam in the first place – it's an impressively powerful soundbar for such a small footprint.

However, there's no doubt that in certain circumstances, whether it's explosive moments in action movies or music tracks with particularly wobbly sub-bass, there's no doubt that it could have a little more heft. So, add the Sub Mini into the equation and you just get a way deeper sense of things.

Some testers over the years (including our own reviewer back in 2022) have commented on the slight lack of precision that the Sub Mini offers, but I have to confess this isn't something I've noticed. I've mostly been using it for TV and movie viewing, and the Sub Mini has just filled out the low-end in a really obvious and beneficial way.

It's not even just when I watch a modern Atmos mix, either (although Master and Commander does sound unreal). In The Wire, which I'm currently watching for the first time, when a character is listening to music in their car, for example, I can really feel the bass in a way that actually matters to the scene.

That sort of added oomph can really impact your viewing experience in a heap of ways, as I've been finding, and it makes for a more complete package sonically. That said, I think there's no arguing with the fact that most people don't need a Sub Mini in their setup. It's aggressively pricy, there's no doubt, and the "Mini" in its name is also a misnomer – this isn't a small bit of kit.

You need floorspace for it, and to consider just how many vibrations you're willing to send through the floor before your neighbours start to get tired of you. It took me a bit of tuning to get my sub level right, too (meaning I had to turn it down a few times before it settled).

If you can afford it, though, and know your Dolby Atmos from your DTS-HD, I won't lie to you – this is a bass upgrade that I'll be sticking with. It sounds superb, and I'll be impressed if any other system makes me envious in the near future.

We've been waiting a while for this: ever since Marshall announced it was entering the soundbar space, and debuted with the hugely impressive Heston 120, we've known that a smaller and more mass-appealing soundbar was on the way in the Heston 60.

As someone whose living room could never accommodate the larger Heston 120 (or Sonos Arc Ultra, for that matter), I'm instead perfectly set up to try the smaller, newer Heston 60 in place of my original Sonos Beam.

And that's just what I've done for this review: over the last fortnight I've been comparing it to both generations of Sonos Beam, to really run the rule over it. If you're going to be considered as one of the best soundbars out there, you have to do a lot right, so how has Marshall managed with its first-ever compact option?

Price and Availability

The market for compact soundbars sees prices right from the bargain basement range up to way more premium levels – and it's pretty clear that Marshall is aiming at the latter.

It has released the Heston 60 now, at a price of £499 in the UK, €599.99 in Europe, $699 in the US, and AU$999 in Australia.

That's a decent old whack of money for a soundbar without any additional hardware, and is crucially a tad more than its biggest competitor, the Sonos Beam Gen 2, which comes in at £449 / €499 / $499 / AU$699.

The gap varies per territory, but regardless it shows that Marshall isn't cutting corners (or it might be banking on a Beam Gen 3 at some point soon, bringing a price hike with it).

Design and Features

The Heston 60 is Marshall doing its best design work, and that means it's a significant departure from the huge army of anonymous black soundbars that have suffocated the market over the last couple of decades. If you thought Sonos dropping a white Beam was innovative, the Heston has to be something even more impressive.

Like the larger Heston 120 before it, the Heston 60 has everything you expect from a Marshall speaker, just stretched out into a compact 73cm-long soundbar form. That means you get a mesh covering over the main body of the soundbar, which hides its various drivers. This is anchored in the middle of the soundbar by a Marshall logo and the control buttons on a lovely brass-style plate.

Unlike the Heston 120, there are no knobs and dials, since Marshall apparently found that buyers at this price point valued simplicity over ornamentation. What the Heston 60 does have, though, is a pretty unique design feature for those looking to mount it on the wall.

In its normal configuration, sitting on a shelf or TV unit, the Heston 60 has its thinnest side pointing forward, and a larger expanse pointing up. However, when you mount it on the wall, you can flip this, moving it into a vertical orientation with the larger fact pointing out into the room.

To complete the look, you can remove that Marshall logo from its magnetised perch and reattach it the right way up on the other face, and flip the button-cover in the same way.

It's a really slick idea, and of course, it's way more technical than it looks, with an internal gyroscope detecting how the speaker is arranged and adjusting its sound output accordingly. Marshall says no listener will hear any difference between the two modes.

That button array offers you some control physically, duplicating in-app controls; you can swap between audio modes on the fly (Music Mode, Movie Mode, Night Mode, and Voice Mode), and also change inputs (Wi-Fi, HDMI, Bluetooth and Aux), play/pause your music, change the volume, and set up one button flick between pre-programmed playlist or radio options.

The back of the soundbar hides its inputs: an HDMI port for eARC/ARC connections, an AUX cable for wired audio, an RCA Mono plug (for connecting a subwoofer), and a general-purpose USB-C.

On the audio front, meanwhile, the key boast here is that despite its size, the Heston 60 is indeed a Dolby Atmos soundbar, able to decode three-dimensional audio and deliver a wider and taller soundstage. In fact, it aims to be more capable on this front than most in its weight class, thanks to a design that allows for more upfiring vertical output than many others.

The codec support on offer is very solid; you get Dolby Atmos and DTS-X for immersive audio, while the soundbar also supports the gamut of SBC, LC3, AAC, MPEG-4, ALAC, FLAC, LPCM, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, and WMA9.

For just playing your music, meanwhile, you can expect good Wi-Fi connectivity; this enables AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect or Tidal Connect (with Bluetooth as another option).

Sound and Performance

So, from a design perspective, I think Marshall has done a stellar job with the Heston 60, but that's really less than half the battle. After all, the reason so many soundbars look so generic is that the real focus is on sound quality above all else.

Here, Marshall scores more points in my testing – this is a really great little Atmos soundbar out of the box, with impressive richness to its audio and a decent amount of spatialisation given it's just a single unit.

I tested the Heston 60 with 4K Blu-rays, streaming content from Apple TV, and a range of music playback, and didn't really find a scenario where it lagged far behind my expectations.

Its audio can be really precise and perfect for smaller or medium-sized rooms (like mine), ensuring that you get a sense of depth and detail in your movies and shows that you might not have even realised was available.

I'm also pleased with the bass response, which is more than decent enough to make an extra subwoofer unnecessary for most people.

Marshall did send me the new Heston Sub 200 to use, however, and I did so for my second week of testing. I found it a welcome wirelessly-paired addition, but also a huge change in footprint and price – at a massive £429.99 / $599.99 extra – that simply won't make sense for most people who need a compact soundbar.

It gives terrific sub-bass and a massive bass boost, but I don't really get why you wouldn't just plump for the Heston 120 if you have enough space and cash to accommodate what is a really chunky sub.

Back to the Heston 60, though, and the promise of more verticality than the likes of the Beam can offer with its Atmos delivery is a big one. I think the Heston does deliver – but it's still virtualised (meaning the sound bouncing off your ceiling), so there's no way you're going to find it comparable to actual ceiling/surround speakers. Still, it's a marker of why the Heston 60 is that little bit more expensive.

Where the Heston 60's performance started to lag behind what I wanted, though, was in general usability. You connect and set up the soundbar using Marshall's app, which is well organised and pretty clear – and it even has a room-tuning feature like Sonos' TruePlay, which is welcome.

However, the more I used the soundbar, the more this app shone a spotlight on some tiny irritations. Take swapping between inputs, for example; I found this always carried a delay of a couple of seconds, which sounds like nothing but grates over time (and the Sonos Beam doesn't do this). Similarly, activating the different sound modes also blanks out your TV's audio for a second, which can mean you miss dialogue in a show.

For that matter, I also found the nature of those sound modes restrictive, since only one can be active at once. This, at times, feels contradictory – if I activate Movie Mode because I'm watching a film, the fact that I can only boost dialogue by changing to Voice Mode entirely is annoying, and it's even more so that Night Mode is completely separate.

It's great that Marshall gives you a dial for each to change its intensity, unlike Sonos for its equivalents, but I'd like to be able to layer them for a setup that's exactly what I want. That said, there is equalisation (EQ) adjustment within the app, so you can create your own personalised solution.

Another issue that sits slightly outside of the Heston 60's own capabilities is that Marshall's TV sound offering isn't really fully built out yet. This means that, unlike rival brands, you can't pick up a Heston 60 and two matching Marshall surround speakers to place behind your viewing position, all at once, which really limits the soundbar's attraction in my eyes. I'd put money on Marshall having surround speakers as a feature in the works, though.

Still, that's a bit of a laundry list of minor gripes, and they shouldn't obscure the bigger headline fact – the Heston 60 sounds tremendous, and its music performance makes this clearer than it does through a TV's speakers.

Marshall Heston 60 review: Verdict

Marshall's compact soundbar is a brilliant-sounding bit of hardware that only needs some light software tweaks to make it as superb as I think it could be – and that's a really positive return for such a new product category in its first iteration.

The Heston 60's design is exactly as "Marshall" as fans of the brand could want, and immediately more interesting than the vast majority of the soundbar competition.

Its app is a mixed bag, though, and while it looks and sounds impressive, it's priced pretty aggressively to match that, making it far from a budget option – unless you're comparing it to the Heston 120.

As debuts go, Marshall's entry into the soundbar world continues to impress, making the Heston 60 a qualified Sonos rival with a different design flex.

Also consider

The compact soundbar market has been dominated by one big recommendation in recent years: the Sonos Beam Gen 2. It's so simple to set up and use, and sounds absolutely terrific, that it's still the best recommendation for most people.

If you want to save more money, though, the Sonos Ray is a credible option for about half the price again, getting you extremely competent sound that almost certainly upgrades your TV's own audio. It's far less fully featured, but still a solid investment.

It was over a decade ago that I first saw Naim's Mu-so – the British audio brand's first all-in-one system, which took the audio world by storm. It's one of the best Wi-Fi speakers that still holds up today.

So when this brand new Mu-so product reveal dropped into my inbox, I was very excited. The Focal Mu-so Hekla is a Dolby Atmos speaker system and soundbar like no other.

It's so named, as French audio company Focal has owned and collaborated with Naim Audio since 2011. Now, with its 'Focal Powered by Naim' stores, the new Mu-so Hekla has just gone on sale in South Korea and China.

That's well ahead of the international launch, where the Mu-so Hekla will be available to the rest of the world in early 2026. But with a £3,000 (€3,300 / $3,600) asking price, this speaker/soundbar is a system pricier than most people's high-end TVs.

So what exactly do you get for your money? Well, as you can see from the gallery of images above, the established Mu-so all-metal look – it's a brushed anodised and sandblasted aluminium, hence its 15.5kg weight – is a slice of industrial engineering and an eloquent visual aesthetic.

There's a mass of speakers on board, too, with the 7.1.2-channel array – that's seven channels front/left/right/side, one central bass, and two upfiring channels – comprising 15 units in total.

To the front there are three woofers (6x3in), two mid-range drivers (2.75in)) and two tweeters (1in); the side has four full-range drivers (1.5x2.75in); while the top has another four full-range drivers of the same size. These are used to cater for Dolby Atmos three-dimensional audio output.

With its eye on being the best soundbar you've ever seen and heard, the Focal Mu-so Hekla also features an HDMI eARC port, so it'll play nice with your fancy telly. There's also an RCA pair for subwoofer connection, plus optical and Ethernet ports.

Why there's only one HDMI and no passthrough, however, does seem at odds with this price point. I know that Sonos gets away with it – even the Arc Ultra only has the one port – but, c'mon, it's 2025 and the lack of HDMI ports on TVs needs to be offset by high-end systems such as this.

Nonetheless, I still love the look of the Focal Mu-so Hekla and want one in my life already. The classic Naim Audio control panel atop echoes the brand's signature, which has been part of all previous Mu-so products.

If you don't want to interact with the physical controls, then your smart device – phone, tablet, etc – will act as the conduit, via the Focal & Naim App (for iOS and Android).

Audio standards are widely supported, and with this being an audiophile-grade product, it can cater for some seriously high-resolution decoding. WAV is supported at 32-bit and 384kHz, for example.

The system itself is geared up for a 30Hz low-end (with 27Hz cut-off), through to 20kHz output at the top-end. Want extra low-end wobble for your movies? You'll want to use those RCA ports for a separate subwoofer – for which Focal offers many (non-Mu-so) options.

So there we have it: after a considerable hiatus, a new Mu-so product is finally upon us. Complete with a new price that'll make this metre-long soundbar the stuff of dreams for most of us. But what a dream to have, eh? I want one already.

For the longest time, I've been a devoted Sonos Beam user – one rooted with the first-generation soundbar after I won it in a sweepstakes about 6 years ago. That was basically the best day of my life, at a time when I absolutely couldn't afford a £400 soundbar, and it's been with me through a heap of house moves and life changes.

Around a year after getting it, I upgraded it with the addition of two surrounds, but again did so in the most affordable way I could, using the Ikea and Sonos collaboration Symfonisk Bookshelf Speakers since they were just £99 each. It added up to a great little living room sound system, and one that I love to this day.

That said, in recent years I've been getting more into my codecs and audio standards (almost with regret), and the first-generation Beam has started to be a hindrance at times, thanks to its slightly spotty codec choices and lack of Dolby Atmos support. So, when I got the chance to upgrade to a second-generation Beam, I leapt at it, trading one of the best soundbars going for one that's even better.

Now I'm just a week into life with the newer Beam, and even though it's a soundbar that came out back in 2021, I can't believe how big the difference really is. For one thing, I'm no longer playing the lottery when I start up a Blu-ray disc, whether it's 4K or not – I'm getting my proper surround sound in almost every circumstance.

That's not just as a result of Atmos support, but also because the newer bar has HDMI eARC support, not just ARC – meaning it can handle a lot more audio bandwidth. I'm noticing that fuller audio, too, with richer sound quality that doesn't make my old bar sound bad, but does let me pick which one's better quite easily.

Atmos support means, in theory, far better simulated overhead audio, and that's an area where the hype doesn't quite match reality. Again, there's no doubt that I can now hear more verticality in my surround sound in appropriate scenes, compared to the Beam (Gen 1). It's not a patch on real overhead speakers, though, and you shouldn't kid yourself otherwise – but it also doesn't really matter, since you can still get a stellar overall sound stage.

I'm also surprisingly taken with the design changes that Sonos made for the newer Beam. The fabric grille on the older version was nice, of course, but with two cats in my household, it tended to be a lint and fur magnet, so losing it in favour of a simpler perforated plastic finish is welcome.

I've also opted to get the new version in white, along with some other Sonos bits and pieces I'll be discussing in subsequent pieces, and not just to tell it apart. I think there's something really clean and modern about how the Beam looks in white, especially if you're not trying to hide it.

All of this means that I've done a 180 on my Beam opinions, to be honest. A couple of weeks ago, I'd have confidently said that I saw no reason to upgrade my Beam, and I think that's still justifiable – few people will have even noticed the codec gripes I encountered. However, the new thing is that I think anyone buying a Beam now should absolutely get the Gen 2, even if they find the first-gen Beam for a good chunk lower on a discount.

It's way more future-proof, at present, and the sound performance it delivers is a cut above its predecessor without rendering it completely obsolete. In fact, the only real hesitation I'd have is in acknowledging that there surely must be a Beam Gen 3 in the works somewhere. We're four years into the second generation now, and that can only mean an upgrade is around the corner again at some point soon. I can't wait to see what it brings, to be honest.

I've been covering technology as a journalist for several decades, having also been the deputy editor of Home Cinema Choice, and I've therefore seen plenty of interesting and unique AV products in my time. But if there's one company that's almost certain to surprise even me, it's Bang & Olufsen.

Often kooky, its speakers especially have come in all manner of shapes and sizes. You only need to cast your mind back a few years to the Beosound Theatre soundbar to understand exactly what I mean. However, they almost always have the capabilities to go with the creativity – and it looks like that could be the case again.

The manufacturer has announced another bar with radically different styling to many of the other best soundbars on the market. The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Premiere is crafted from pure aluminium and features three luxury finishes – gold tone, black anthracite, and natural aluminium. And it looks quite unlike anything we've seen before.

The soundbar features 10 customer drivers, each with its own amplifier, and sports the brand's proprietary Wide Stage Technology to emit a spatial soundstage that is claimed to feel wider and taller than it is.

The idea is that you do not need additional speakers to experience a spatial effect for movies and music. Although adding extra Beolink Surround-capable speakers allows for even more immersion. A Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 decoder inside the Premiere will help drive them.

Bang & Olufsen design, through and through

In terms of the design, the drivers are celebrated as part of the bar's compact form factor, including an up-firing tweeter in front and centre. There are also 90 LED lights that can make the soundbar seem like it is glowing from within. And they also respond to interactions, as settings are adjusted.

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Premiere soundbar will be available from December (the natural aluminium model) and priced at £3,900 / €4,900 / $5,800 / AU$9,400. It comes with a stand that can be used on an AV cabinet or to wallmount the speaker.

An extremely limited Beosound Premiere Haute Edition, which comes with a precision-milled pattern that took over 17-hours to achieve, is available now for £11,000 / €13,000 / $15,700 (around AU$24,155). There will be only 25 of these ever made, however.

JBL is one of those names that some people don't really realise the scale of – you might think it's one of the also-rans in the audio world, but its sales figures are simply astronomical, and there are plenty of device types that it has near-total market dominance in. Still, other areas are hugely competitive, and it isn't hard to tell that the soundbar market is a feisty one right now.

Everyone seems to be throwing their hat into the ring, and the recent arrival of Marshall on the scene has added further spice to the situation. So, JBL's coming back with a big range of new soundbars, building on some of the ideas that it started with in 2024 – including one key feature that blew me away when I heard it at an event in Copenhagen this week.

Last year, JBL launched the Bar 1300, a chunky Dolby Atmos soundbar with one huge new feature: detachable wireless surrounds that didn't have to be wired in to power wherever you placed them. This flexible system got a rave five-star review here at T3, but JBL hasn't rested on its laurels and now has the Bar 1300Mk2, which I heard in a demo setting.

The improvements this time out might not be quite enough to make any original Bar 1300 owners need to upgrade, but if you're coming from a much older soundbar, or none at all, they're pretty major. The bar is a fully-capable Atmos system with a massive 27 drivers in total, and a huge amount of power to call on – as you can see in the transparent version JBL showed me, below.

Played at maximum volume, its output is frankly antisocial, especially with the included wireless subwoofer, but I'm more excited about the new ways it uses its surround speakers. These can be simply detached from the main unit and placed anywhere you like, with a new system in the JBL One app allowing them to wirelessly react to the space they're in and tune their sound accordingly (a much slower manual process on the older Bar 1300).

With each surround having a roughly 10-hour battery life, not only can you watch multiple movies in a row without needing to plug them back into the main bar, you can also walk into other rooms and use them as standalone wireless speakers if you like. There's even a handy toggle to switch them from being surrounds to simply full-driver speakers, so that you can go to another room and keep up with the action from your TV – ideal for a sports game, for example.

Another new tweak is the addition of a clever Night Mode. Rather than just dimming down the bass and volume of the overall system, it actually completely mutes the central soundbar and subwoofer. You can then move the surrounds in front of you, and they become the only sound source, making for what JBL's reps called a "personal sound bubble" that's far less room-filling. I'm hoping there's still a more traditional bass-limiting mode as well, but this new option seems like a brilliant one for those with babies, sensitive neighbours, or any other reason.

JBL's idea of detachable surrounds might be over a year old at this stage, but this was my first time seeing them in action, and I have to say I'm hugely impressed. I have a slightly ageing Sonos Beam Gen 1 in my living room with two Ikea Symfonisk bookshelf speakers as surrounds, and it's been a constant battle to find good places behind either side of a sofa to house them in a non-ugly way.

Being able to put surrounds out when I need them, but put them back away on the soundbar when I don't, is a pretty massive game-changer, potentially, and I suspect I'd find a huge amount of value in it. The only downside is that the feature is only available on JBL's bigger soundbars – the entry-level and much more compact Bar 300Mk2 doesn't have a similar system (or true Atmos, for that matter).

Still, it's not often that I'm won over as quickly as this by a product demo. Sound quality is one thing, and a total prerequisite when you're buying a soundbar; good codec and wireless play support is major, too; still, convenience is everything. If I had a TV stand that could adequately support the width of the Bar 1300Mk2 I'd be keenly hunting one down for review. As it is, I might just have to accelerate my search for that new TV stand quickly.

Marshall has expanded its home cinema audio range with a new compact soundbar and subwoofer. And if they're as good as the five-star Marshall Heston 120, then it's got a surefire hit on its hands.

The Marshall Heston 60 is a more compact version of the Heston 120 soundbar, and the new Heston Sub 200 is designed to work with either model.

They have the same very distinctive, retro-flavoured design touches as Marshall's other speakers, but while the Sub 200 looks like a little Marshall amp, the soundbars are more sleek and modern in their black and cream colour options.

The Marshall Heston 60 can be wall-mounted or sit on your TV unit, and the panel is reversible so the controls look right however you position it. The Marshall logo's magnetic so you can reverse that too.

Marshall Heston 60 and Heston Sub 200: key features and pricing

We said in our review of the Heston 120 that it was "a true rock'n'roll star." And the more compact Heston soundbar has plenty of power too.

The Heston 60 has two three-inch woofers, five 1.25-inch full range drivers and four PSR tweeters, delivering up to 56W of power through seven Class D amplifiers.

Frequency range is impressive for a compact soundbar – 45Hz at the low end and 20kHz at the top – and it supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS-X. There's a wide range of audio codec support too, including AAC Mpeg 4, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC.

The Heston 60 has Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6, with support for AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect and TIDAL Connect. There's an HDMI 2.1 port with eARC, a 3.5mm Aux input, an RCA mono output for the subwoofer, and USB-C. There are also two mics for room calibration.

The Heston Sub 200 has twin 120W Class D amplifiers putting out a peak of 236W through two 5.25-inch subwoofers and a bass reflex port. The frequency range is 30Hz to 150Hz. It has Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio too, plus a wired RCA mono input.

The Heston 60 and Heston Sub 200 will be available from 23 September at marshall.com and will be available a week later from selected retailers.

The Heston 60 is £499.99 (about $669 / €575 / AU$1,028) and the Heston Sub 200 is £429.99 (about $575 / €494 / AU$884).

When you think of multi-room audio, Sonos is probably the first brand that springs to mind. However, Bluesound's BluOS systems include impressive hardware and software, and the firm has just added two very powerful soundbars to the lineup.

One's a full-sized model with 500W power output, while the other is more compact but still capable of kicking out 280W.

The Pulse Cinema and the Pulse Cinema Mini soundbars span 47-inches and 33-inches respectively, with the larger of the two best suited for 55-inch TVs or bigger.

Bluesound Pulse Cinema and Pulse Cinema Mini: key features and pricing

The Pulse Cinema is a full Dolby Atmos system with 16 drivers, including dual four-inch woofers and dedicated up-firing speakers. The smaller Mini doesn't have up-firing speakers but does have angled drivers and Dolby Atmos 2.1 virtualisation.

The soundbars each offer subwoofer outs, HDMI eARC, optical and RCA inputs, plus Bluetooth and AirPlay 2 wireless support. You can also configure them with other Bluesound speakers to create a full surround sound system.

Both soundbars run BluOS, which supports over 20 streaming services, including TIDAL, Qobuz, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora and Deezer. They also support MQA and Hi-Res Audio up to 24-bit/192kHz.

BluOS makes it easy to organise and control multi-room setups, and you can use the new bars with home systems from Crestron, RTI and Control4.

Whichever model you consider, there's more connectivity and flexibility here than the Sonos Arc Ultra – but that comes at a cost, because the larger model is more expensive than its Sonos rival.

The Pulse Cinema has a RRP of £1,149 / $1,499 / €1,299 (about AU$2,315), while the Pulse Cinema Mini is £799 / $999 / €899 (about AU$1,543).

Both soundbars will be available for pre-order from 24 September and will ship from 24 October 2025.

When I'm not immersed in music via a pair of the best headphones, or spinning tunes from my Pioneer setup, I'll quite often listen to tunes using one of the best soundbars instead.

It'll depend on whether work takes me out of my home office and downstairs for some TV testing, usually. Right now, it's very much TV season, though, with the best OLED models forming an orderly queue for my review process.

Having recently commissioned a piece about the best single-box soundbar solutions that deliver spatial audio, it got me thinking about my personal favourite of the year. Or, quite possibly, ever. And, perhaps to the surprise of many, it isn't a Sonos.

Yes, the Sonos Arc Ultra is clearly a 5-star product, as stated in my review. But then Marshall dropped a bombshell with its Heston 120 newcomer earlier this year – which exceeded my expectations in so many ways and, right now, would be my single-box pick above all else. Here's why:

What are the best single-box soundbars?

After some back and forth, my experienced audio expert freelancer and I settled on the fact that, if you want a one-box soundbar solution at the moment, then you're going to want either a KEF XIO (very expensive), a Sonos Arc Ultra (expensive), or a Marshall Heston 120 (still expensive, but the least of the three).

There's something of a problem with both the KEF and the Sonos, though: neither has HDMI passthrough. Which, considering their pricing, is quite a shocker, really. The Marshall? It's HDMI 2.1 passthrough caters for 4K at 120Hz, no problems, as it's the current top spec.

Not everyone is going to need passthrough, granted, but its purpose is to take one of the other new-fangled tech boxes you have beneath your TV and, in effect, provide an additional HDMI socket. It's a semi-solution for one of the bugbears I have with modern tellies (see: Dear TVs, We Have An HDMI Problem That Really Needs Fixing).

Not only does the Marshall have this, it's got the usual HDMI eARC port to effortlessly handle audio sync between soundbar and display. That's a current standard that any soundbar at this price point should deliver.

So why is the Marshall best?

A soundbar being best isn't going to be solely related to how many ports it has, mind, but it's the first obvious one-up the Heston 120 has under its belt. The marginally lower price point, too, marks another.

Visually, it's a striking aesthetic too. Not everyone is going to love it, but I'm so here for Marshall's point of difference. Oh, and it's got a unique physical control panel that no other maker offers too.

But above all else, the Heston 120 is a winner because it sounds bloomin' amazing. You don't need a soundbar with a separate subwoofer if you own one of these, because the bass is just so massive from the one box.

It's no out-of-control bass either: Marshall's many years of experience show, with handling that lends itself well to music or movies, which is a plus point for any soundbar beyond just being good with a TV connection.

There are full surround systems out there, such as the Samsung HW-Q990F, which adds a sub and two rear speaker separates all in the one package. This is great for true surround, of course, as speakers physically sit around you – and no single-box solution can beat that.

But I don't really want a load of speakers plugged in around my living room, as it's not best designed for it. So the Marshall really suits in that regard. Plus, it can decode Dolby Atmos and DTS:X three-dimensional formats, delivering a decent sense of height and width for grander immersion.

The Heston 120's speakers are in a 5.1.2 arrangement, meaning five cater for centre, left/right, side left/right; one is central for bass output; while two true upfiring ones bring the height. It's fully formed, taking on many of the best-of-best large, loud and immersive 'bars on the market.

All of which is why the Marshall Heston 120 gets my vote as soundbar of the moment. It missed the deadline for the T3 Awards 2025, but if there was ever a shout for a 2026 candidate then, well, this is certainly it...

It’s taken its sweet time, but finally KEF has thrown its hat into the increasingly congested ‘premium spatial audio soundbar’ ring with this, the XIO.

The list of technical highlights suggests KEF hasn’t exactly been sitting on its hands – but when you consider just how many very capable alternatives are available for less money, it’s obvious the XIO needs to be something special.

Fortunately, with some caveats, the KEF XIO is one very special soundbar indeed – a worthy contender for our best soundbars list, no doubt, if a single-box solution with no separate subwoofer or additional speakers is what you seek.

Price & Availability

The KEF XIO soundbar went on sale in July, and in the United Kingdom it’s priced at £1999. In the United States it goes for around $2499. Meanwhile, in Australia, you’ll need to part with AU$3599.

That's big money for a single-box soundbar, no two ways about it. But I remember thinking the same thing about Sennheiser’s Ambeo (lately rebadged as ‘Ambeo Max’) when it launched for even more at the start of 2020(!) – a price that didn’t prove too much of an impediment to its sales success...

Features & What's New?

There’s plenty that’s new about the KEF XIO. The company has a very proud tradition of innovation, and it will have done its reputation no harm whatsoever with this new soundbar.

The XIO is arranged to deliver a 5.1.2 -channel sound – and it does this by using the appropriate number of physical drivers, rather than relying solely on digital processing to hack an impression of spatial audio.

So there are four P185 low-frequency drivers, arranged in two back-to-back pairs, in an effort to offer the sort of force-cancellation that should minimise unwanted internal vibrations.

These 51 x 180mm ‘racetrack’ drivers feature KEF’s ‘P-Flex’ technology (the carefully designed driver surround that allows an uncommon amount of excursion first seen on the ‘KC’ series of subwoofers), which the company suggests allows each driver to deliver the same sort of bass performance as a more traditional 10cm drive unit.

The six Uni-Q MX drivers are miniature variations on the established KEF Uni-Q theme, but with some interesting additional technology thrown in. Uni-Q drivers usually feature two separate drive units (mid/bass and a tweeter) in a single assembly – but here KEF has used a mechanical crossover that allows each section of the MX’s dual-diaphragm layout to operate independently.

Three of these drivers face forwards when the XIO is positioned on a shelf, while two fire upwards. Switch to a wall-mounted layout and those three forward-facing drivers now face upwards, while the central driver behind the circle of acoustic cloth now joins in with its two partners in a three-driver forward-facing array.

Two outward-facing full-range drivers of 50mm diameter and more conventional design complete the 12-driver line-up. So, of course, the XIO is fitted with 12 discrete blocks of Class D amplification, and is capable of twisting out a chunky 820 Watts of peak power.

Naturally KEF has deployed a number of technologies in order to bring the best from this layout. ‘VECO’ is ‘velocity control technology’, and it monitors the four P185 low-frequency drivers and generates a negative feedback loop that corresponds to their activity and is designed to minimise distortion.

‘IPT’ (that's ‘intelligent placement technology’) is fundamentally an auto-calibration tool that helps the soundbar optimise its performance to the specifics of its environment using integrated mics.

Lastly, ‘MIE’ (read as ‘music integrity engine’) is a suite of digital sound-processing algorithms covering multi-channel processing, virtualisation and adaptive placement capabilities – in addition to which there are the more common EQ settings covering the likes of ‘night’, ‘music’, ‘movie’, ‘direct’ and ‘default’.

Wireless connectivity is covered by Bluetooth 5.3 and, naturally, dual-band Wi-Fi. Physical inputs, meanwhile, consist of a USB socket, digital optical input and a single HDMI 2.1 eARC.

Here is the only area of the XIO’s specification that seems inadequate – if for no reason other than courtesy, an HDMI passthrough would seem a minimum requirement for a soundbar costing two grand. There’s no virtue in mimicking Sonos in these circumstances – every other soundbar with pretensions towards ‘premium’ features an HDMI passthrough, and very useful they are too. It’s an oversight that seems almost wilful.

The XIO hits back, at least a little, with the breadth of its compatibility where audio standards are concerned. This soundbar is compatible with Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Sony 360 Reality Audio, all of which are good to have. In addition, the control app offers support for Amazon Music, Deezer, Qobuz, and the ‘Connect’ versions of Spotify and Tidal.

Performance

It’s not unusual to be pleased, or impressed, by a new product’s performance when it’s plugged in for the first time. It’s less common to be downright startled – and yet that’s how the KEF XIO made me feel on first acquaintance.

And it’s not even anything specific, really, that’s so startling – it’s more a combination of factors. Give the XIO a well-resolved Dolby Atmos movie soundtrack to deal with, either from a streaming service or, ideally, a 4K Blu-ray disc, and its across-the-board performance is really quite remarkable.

Most importantly, the soundstage it creates is big. It extends in every direction until the sound is as enveloping and immersive as a soundbar has ever been capable of delivering – and the effects on the stage are steered with prompt accuracy.

The height – which is basically the whole point of a spatial audio movie soundtrack – is considerable, and even when the going gets complex or involved, there’s more than enough space to let every individual element express itself in comfort.

Detail levels are very high indeed, at every point in the frequency range. There’s chunky bite and shine to the top end, and real positivity through the midrange – so dialogue projects well, is distinct, and carries all the character and attitude intact.

At the bottom of the frequency range, the KEF is capable of low-frequency presence and punch that is, well, startling. It digs very deep, hits with the same sort of authority as a heavyweight boxer, and controls its low-end activity so well that there’s always speed and momentum to the sound.

Yes, the XIO will support a subwoofer – but hear what it can do by itself before you spend any more money.

There’s plenty of dynamic headroom available for when the action really ramps up – 820 watts of peak power can do that for you. And when things get small-scale or intimate, the attention to transient detail and low-order harmonic variations means the KEF always seems to be handing over every shred of information available.

The frequency range hangs together convincingly, so even when it’s all kicking off at the bottom-end, it never threatens to engulf or overwhelm the frequency information above – for a device capable of such formidable bass presence, the KEF is very careful never to oversell it. The tonal balance is nicely neutral, too, so the conic colour and heat of the sound design takes priority.

Switching to music mixed in spatial audio doesn’t faze the XIO in the slightest. It remains poised and informative, absolutely wide-open in terms of soundstaging, and just as willing to absolutely power through the low-end stuff with control and conviction.

And, crucially, it’s a very musical listen as it does so – the spaciousness of the soundstage doesn’t impact on timing, and it does a great job of unifying the output of all those drive units into one coherent whole.

So the KEF proves the exception to the rule that states that soundbars are good only as ‘occasional’ music speakers. The XIO is so adept that it easily stands up as a dedicated music speaker too.

Design & Usability

The XIO is a pretty big soundbar – at 70 x 1210 x 170mm (HxWxD) – so it’s going to look oversized accompanying any TV of less than 55-inches. But, thanks to the low profile it presents when standing on the same surface as a TV, it’s unlikely to foul the bottom of the screen.

If you wall-mount it, when its dimensions become 170 x 1210 x 70mm (HxWxD), it remains a discreet and, by the standards of big, expensive soundbars, actually a good-looking proposition. It's 10.5kg, so no kind of hardship.

The combination of aluminium and acoustic cloth helps to minimise the bulk, as do the choices of finish (‘silver’, which is grey, or ‘black’ are available). The standard of build and finish is, as the asking price demands, basically impeccable.

There are three distinct control interfaces available. A smattering of touch-controls on the aluminium top-plate offer access to volume up/down/mute (with a little row of LEDs letting you know how much volume has been dialled in), input selection and power on/off.

A remote control handset is provided, and it feels quite nice in the hand – it also controls those three functions, and adds access to a couple of EQ presets, and the basic playback controls of play/pause, skip forwards and skip backwards. It’s not especially responsive, though, and the amount of lag between pressing a button and getting what you ask for is quite disconcerting sometimes.

Happily, the control app that you’ll use most of the time doesn’t have this shortcoming. KEF Connect is a stable, thorough and very usable interface that helps with everything from initial calibration to custom EQ settings. Aside from the inability to control playback when the soundbar is playing via HDMI, it has everything you need.

KEF XIO review: Verdict

Part of me just wants to lambast KEF for charging this much for a soundbar with no HDMI passthrough – and I reckon I could make a case for it.

But everything else the XIO does, it does so very well – and it looks so good while it’s doing it, too.

I have to admit I’d have one in my home in a heartbeat – its miserly HDMI count notwithstanding – because single-bar sound quality this good is a rare thing indeed.

Also Consider

If it’s the KEF’s outright scale of sound that appeals, then your best alternative is the huge-sounding (and, let’s face it, huge-looking) Sennheiser Ambeo Max. It’s the OG spatial audio soundbar and it still sounds the business even after half a decade in production – but its lack of HDMI 2.1 compatibility might count against it. Its trio of HDMI sockets most definitely doesn’t, though.

KEF has unveiled its first ever Dolby Atmos soundbar, the KEF XIO. And as you'd expect from the renowned audio brand, it features some very clever design and impressive specification. It's also one of the priciest soundbars in its category.

The XIO is a 5.1.2 soundbar with an optional wireless receiver for an external subwoofer.

Inside there are a dozen Class D amplifiers powering twelve drivers: two 50mm full range drivers, six 50mm Uni-Q MX drivers, and four 50 x 180mm P185 low-frequency drivers. Together they put out an impressive 820W of power.

One of the things that's particularly notable about this soundbar is that KEF has purposely designed it to excel in music as well as movies. That's not always the case with even the best soundbars, which often prioritise excitement over musical precision.

KEF XIO soundbar: key features and pricing

The Uni-Q drivers in the XIO are smaller versions of the ones you'll find in KEF's high-end speakers, and the three top-mounted ones can detect how the soundbar is positioned and adjust their roles accordingly. For example, if you wall-mount the XIO, two of the drivers take care of upward-firing audio while the third takes care of the centre channel.

The rectangular P185 low-frequency drivers are arranged in pairs, like those in KEF's subwoofers, to take advantage of force cancellation. The vibration from one driver is counteracted and cancelled out by the vibration of its twin, removing unwanted resonances.

The drivers also have KEF's patent-pending VECO velocity control sensor, which monitors the woofer in real time and adjusts its movement to reduce distortion and compression.

The XIO is available now for £1,999 / $2,500 (about €2,300 / AU$3,600).

I've had Marshall's Heston 120 soundbar parked under my 65-inch living room TV for a full month now, fully embracing living with the company's first venture into TV audio enhancement.

It didn't take nearly as long to realise that this soundbar slays, though, and I'd take it as the choice option over a Sonos Arc all day long – for a variety of reasons that I'll get to later in this review.

I'll admit, however, that I did have some doubts. Could Marshall really make a knock-out single-box soundbar solution on its first attempt? Would its on-device physical controls make sense in practice? Is a soundbar of this stature worth its asking price?

Over the last few weeks, however, the Heston 120 has proven to me time and time again that any trepidation was unfounded. Marshall's new soundbar is a rock'n'roll star among the best soundbars out there. Sure, its design may divide opinion, and it's certainly not small, but here's why I think it's a major new chart-topper on the scene.

Price

Marshall isn't mucking around with the Heston 120: it costs £899 in the UK (direct from Marshall's store), $999 in the US, and AU$1,799 in Australia. It's pricey for a single-box soundbar, but then it's better than almost any other single-box soundbar you'd care to mention.

Interestingly, there'll be a smaller Heston 60 in the future, while a Heston Sub 200 subwoofer can be paired with either of these 'bars to bring out some even lower-frequency bass response (further adding to your price tag, of course).

This approach is Marshall's take on the Sonos model, far as I see it. The Sonos Arc Ultra can pair with a Sonos Sub 4, the pair of which would cost far more than the Marshall equivalent outlay.

What's New?

'What isn't new?' is more like it. The Heston 120 represents Marshall's first-ever soundbar, as I said up front, and it's also the brand's first-ever Dolby Atmos-capable product too – delving into the three-dimensional audio space with gusto.

This has been a project years in the making – as told by Marshall engineers when I visited the company's HQ earlier this year – designed to fuse the classic design language of the brand with up-to-date audio solutions, focused on both music and movies alike.

Design & Size

• Dimensions: 1100 x 145 x 76mm // Weight: 7.04kg

Upon unboxing the Heston 120, it was immediately clear how large this soundbar is. It measures 1.1 metres in length, so it'll beef up the audio of any TV, but I suspect you'll want to pair it with a 55-inch or 65-inch – or even something larger, as it'll certainly be able to deliver.

Interestingly, the soundbar's height, at 7.6cm (that's circa 3in), is something you're going to really need to consider in advance. That'll work for many TVs, but not all of them. Marshall's research deduced that 8cm is the 'maximum' height any soundbar could realistically be, to avoid getting in the way of a TV's screen.

Get that tape measure out, then, as you'll need to ensure everything will fit in place. The same goes for visualising the design in your space, too. This is a Marshall product, fitted and finished exactly as you'd expect – with a textured stage-amp-like material, brass logo and brass front edging, making for a surefire statement piece.

I had originally thought the Heston 120 might look too much in my space, but it's not actually so outlandish once in position. I'm sure it'll divide opinion, but I'm fully on team Marshall with regards to this aesthetic. I actually prefer it, as it's not just yet another black box.

Controls

• Controls:
  • 3x brass control knobs
  • 3x preset buttons
  • 4x sound modes

It's rare that a soundbar looks especially different to the next, but the Heston's features of distinction are always delivered with purpose and not just for the sake of standing out. Up top, for example, there are three control knobs and a variety of control buttons – which is actually far less intrusive than some soundbars' reflective plastic tops, as I found out during late-night movie sessions.

This control section is wonderfully crafted, with a great fit and feel. I love the way each of the three brass knobs – volume, bass/treble (toggled by clicking it down, like a button), and source (Bluetooth activated with a press-and-hold motion) – has a progressive red illumination to show you how far up the scale you are. This illumination fades away, as to not disrupt your TV viewing, which is nicely considered.

I'll admit, however, that not having an included remote control might bother some people. You can supplement with the Marshall app via your Apple or Android phone, of course, but guests aren't then likely to have access to this – and I think a way to control presets from afar by all persons present would be handy. Still, any excuse to get up and play with the brass, eh?

Connectivity

• Ports: HDMI eARC, HDMI In Passthrough, RCA, Sub Out, USB-C, Ethernet
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6

One of the reasons I feel the Heston 120 is worth its asking price is because it does what the Sonos Arc Ultra totally missed out on: providing more than one HDMI port.

The Heston 120 features an HDMI eARC for easy connection to your TV, but there's also an HDMI input with passthrough to 4K/120Hz, meaning you needn't forego any slot on your TV when plugging in the latest and greatest AV kit.

There's actually a fair lot more around the back, too, if you want to plug in the works. The subwoofer output is an addition I doubt many people will utilise, but it's a mono RCA, so you could use any wired sub. There's a separate RCA stereo pair, too, if you want to plug in a separate music player source.

Marrying the old with the new, the Heston 120 also brings in modern standards, such as Bluetooth 5.4 LE with Auracast. This is future-proofing, really, as its use won't be fully realised just yet – but it'll be interesting to see what updates Marshall brings in the future in relation to that. Far as Bluetooth connecting, say, a phone or tablet goes, though, it's a rock-solid connection.

Speaker Arrangement

• Configuration: 5.1.2 channel arrangement
• Speakers:
  • 2x woofers (2x5in at 50W each)
  • 5x full-range drivers (30W)
  • 2x mid woofers (3in, 30W)
  • 2x tweeters (0.8in, 30W)

A lot of consideration has gone into the Heston 120's internal arrangement to squeeze the most out of its considerable speaker array. The '120' actually refers to the physical capacity of the product: as it's got just over 120 cubic centimetres to play with.

Inside that space, there are nine speakers and two woofer radiators, with 11 Class D amplifiers powering the lot. That's a considerable outlay, so it'll be of no surprise that it 'can go all the way to 11' – by which I mean it's bloomin' loud. But not at the cost of clarity.

The speakers are arranged in a 5.1.2 fashion, meaning five cater for centre, left/right, side left/right, while there's one central bass output, and two true upfiring speakers – the last pair giving added guts for Dolby Atmos three-dimensional audio decoding.

Sound Quality

• Frequency response: 40Hz - 20kHz
• Decodes: Dolby Atmos, DTS:X

I've spent a lot of time using the Heston 120 to listen to music, however. With Marshall originally being a 1960s amplifier company, it's stuck to its roots and wanted to ensure that this 'bar can be used to deliver the kind of vocal clarity, yet rhythmic drive and low-end that makes music, for a better word, 'sing'.

It's a truly massive sonic experience, too, especially with the ability to cater for users' treble and bass adjustments. Crank that bass up and you'll be looking around the back of your TV to see if there's a 'secret subwoofer' that some rock faerie has installed without you looking. But, no, the Heston 120 is just massively accomplished with the low-end output.

It's a dab hand at dealing with more gentle content – whether TV, movies or music – thanks to those preset adjustments and upfiring arrangement. Treble is always output through the upward channels, even for non-Atmos content, which gives a real verticality to this wall-of-sound output.

What's equally pleasing – arguably more so, given the nature of the product – is how deftly the Heston 120 handles Dolby Atmos content. There's a fair amount of it on the best streaming services lately, and when I dug into watching various 4K Blu-ray discs, or dabbled in a PS5 gaming session, the sense of width and height from this speaker is impressive.

Granted, it's not a true surround system, so you'll never quite achieve that full immersion – as there are no speakers physically behind, overhead or to the sides of you. For that, you'll want to look at, say, a Samsung HW-Q990F, with all the extra boxes included, but as a single-box solution I find the Marshall exemplary. Especially in the context of what other 'bars offer at this level.

Marshall Heston 120 review: Verdict

Simply put: this soundbar slays. Marshall's first-ever foray into the TV audio market doesn't lose sight of its musical history, while embracing all the mod cons that make it such a master for movies. It's enticingly different, too.

Sure, that design may prove divisive, there's no physical remote control, and it's not cheap for a single-box solution. But the on-device brass control knobs are great, it offers as much or more than the competition at this level, and so long as it fits into your AV setup – because it's rather large – the design really isn't outlandish.

I've listened to dozens of soundbars in recent years, and single-box solutions don't come better than this Marshall. The Heston 120's bass response is seismic even without a separate subwoofer, its control over width and height generates a giant soundstage, and its handling of Dolby Atmos delivers a massive frontal wall of sound. It's a true rock'n'roll star.

Also Consider

An obvious (albeit more generic) option would be the Sonos Arc Ultra. It's a truly epic soundbar that's also a haven for bass-lovers. But its lack of an HDMI passthrough is irksome for a soundbar priced as it is.

If true surround is top of your list, however, and you're willing to have all the speaker boxes to accommodate that, then a package system such as the Samsung HW-Q990F (or older 990D) will deliver the full shebang – with a subwoofer included too. It'll cost you more, mind.

Audioscenic has built a soundbar it says is the perfect solution for gamers who want the best of both worlds – the thump of speakers and the clarity of headphones.

It's worked with Philips and NXP Semiconductors to show off the first reference design, and it promises an audio experience no other soundbar can deliver.

The key here is Audioscenic's Amphi Hi-D spatial audio system, which we first reported on last year. It's a beamforming technology that adjusts the audio signals going to each speaker to help position them in a three-dimensional space.

It works much like the head tracking you get in the best earbuds and headphones, but with all the oomph of a proper soundbar.

Could this be the best gaming soundbar you can't buy?

The soundbar is a reference design, not a product at present.

It's for manufacturers, who Audioscenic and its partners hope will be so impressed they'll want to make their own versions. To that end, the design is being shown off at the Computex trade show in Taipei.

The design uses speakers, microphones and some powerful processing to deliver consistent 3D audio as you move around the space in your games, and it uses Philips' BeClear technology to maintain consistent voice quality.

To do that, it removes some of the in-game audio so you can hear voices clearly. That processing is carried out by a Quad Arm Cortex-A53 running at 1.8GHz per core handling 8-channel audio input.

According to Audioscenic's co-founder Marcos Simon, it's a game-changer for gamers: "Philips BeClear running on the NXP chipset with position-adaptive multichannel Hi-D sound unpacks the cluster of game audio and voice, providing remarkable immersive sound and voice clarity without the disruption of noise and echoes."

Audioscenic is demonstrating the prototype this week, and you can find out more about its technology on the company's website.

It was a gloriously sunny morning in Stockholm, Sweden, at Marshall headquarters in mid-April. A surprisingly well-behaved morning, too, with barely a glimmer of hangover from the night before, no staff swinging from the HQ's rafters, no hair metal blaring from speaker stacks (that I heard, anyway).

They'd have the right to all of that, though, given the amount of work that has gone into the company's development of its first-ever soundbar, the Heston 120, which I got to see, hear and try out ahead of its official reveal. There's a smaller Heston 60 coming later, too, so the intent is both bold and broad.

As an audio company 60+ years into the game – starting in London making amplifiers, but accelerating into standalone speakers and headphone categories over the years – Marshall certainly has a rare history in this industry. And while it's somewhat relying on leveraging that to attract new customers, it's got a loyal fan base too.

I sat down with Marshall product managers and acoustic engineers who worked on the Heston 120 to find out the bigger story. From future-proofing and new technologies, to sustainability and beyond – here's how the company "managed to create a soundbar 'the Marshall way'."

Music at its heart

The day prior to my interview, Gustaf Living-Rosell, Marshall's Chief Product & Innovation Officer, had detailed how music was still core to this product proposition – and how most of the best soundbars don't deliver on that as well as they should.

Anders Olsson, Senior Product Manager, agrees: "In audio and acoustics, we [Marshall] are experts and have the legacy. To create a unit that works very well for a movie use-case, but also for music – that's close to our core values.

"Identity is so important, too. The visual expression of the product [Heston 120] and who we are – that's a key property in the product as well."

He's not wrong: the Heston 120 brings that classic Marshall aesthetic, adding brass trim and physical control knobs. It doesn't go so far as to reinvent the very idea of a soundbar's form, but it does ensure the brand's legacy visuals are tied into the design.

Big on the bass

Acoustically, the Heston 120 had to pull out all the stops to deliver a big, bassy, signature Marshall sound. It's a 5.1.2 system – meaning it's the first-ever Dolby Atmos product from the company – comprising 11 active drivers and 15 total vibrating surfaces.

Anton Svensk, an Acoustics Engineer at Marshall, detailed the challenges: "[The Heston 120 is] surprisingly open for how it looks, because so much of the surface is used to produce space. There's a lot of space for cone excursion – a good 50 millimetres [for the woofers], so it doesn't hit [its limits].

"That does make the drivers quite power-hungry. They have to be able to take quite a lot of abuse. So they don't break like there's a standard test that we do: one hundred hours at maximum power, maximum bass. It is a very aggressive test, but it has to pass [to assure quality control]."

The result is a low-end movement that, like its Sonos Arc Ultra rival, doesn't need a subwoofer to impress with its bass output. The Heston 120 slaps – in the best possible way. But Marshall will also be introducing a Heston Sub 200 later, should the 40Hz low-end of the 'bar standalone not satisfy.

New technology, new opportunity

The Heston 120 has been a three-year project in the making, with much of that time used in conceptualisation, testing, and exploring options to deliver the best possible results.

Ed Camphor, an Acoustics Engineer at Marshall working on the project, said: "To bring it [the Heston 120] to the end of concept was almost two years. Then we had a year of actually testing stuff – that quite heavily changing the design."

Olsson adds: "We have really tried to make sure that we are future-proofed. Like we're trying to tick all the boxes in terms of technology – to make sure that this hardware will not be obsolete after a long while, so we have something to build on for the future."

Auracast, part of the Bluetooth 5.3 LE Audio format, embodied by the Heston 120, is part of that puzzle: "We are looking into handoff, in general, between different Marshall products," continues Olsson. "But we have a strong vision to be open and build on open standards. With that said, there might be some parts that work better if you are in a Marshall ecosystem."

Future-proofing, sustainably

It sounds, therefore, as though the Heston 120's feature set will only continue to expand in the future, as Marshall leverages the hardware deployed in the soundbar. Which brings us to the question of longevity and, by virtue, sustainability.

"We have worked very hard to make sure we don't create obsolescence in terms of technology," says Olsson. "We carefully selected the technology solution in this product after a lot of discussions with manufacturers. We needed some headspace in terms of memory and processing power, etcetera."

Like the brand's longstanding amps, many of which have stood the test of time for decades, Marshall wants to continue that drive of longevity. "How can you create a long-term relationship if you make a product that will not last?" says Olsson. "We really believe in that brand loyalty."

The Heston 120 is built under all current European right-to-repair directives, so each driver is accessible and service-centre replaceable, should that ever be needed. "There is a drive around sustainability," confirms Olsson.

That Marshall Heston 120 will go on sale priced at €999 (other regions, including the UK, USA and Australia, to be confirmed). It's making no bones about its want to rock the soundbar world and, at that price, is looking to share the stage with the likes of Sonos. It's earned that place, though, as the Heston 120 has to be heard to be truly appreciated – this is one accomplished soundbar.

Tech writers like me tend to get quite a lot of questions from people we know when sales events like Amazon's Spring Deal Days roll around – and one of the most common is which soundbar they should get. Almost everyone knows by this point that upgrading their TV's sound output can be a huge boost for home viewing and streaming, after all.

Some of the best soundbars on the market can be a little pricy for most folks, but sales events obviously help with that, and Sonos currently has a really tasty reduction on the excellent Beam (Gen 2) that can't be ignored. It knocks £90 off the superb compact Dolby Atmos soundbar to make for a bit of a bargain, and its lowest price in months.

I've been the extremely happy owner of a first-generation Beam for years now, having nabbed one back when they launched, and right now the only upgrade I'd consider would be the second-gen version. Sonos didn't mess with the format much at all, but added some extra smarts to let the soundbar work with Dolby Atmos, for a big boost in audio quality.

I'd love to have that better sound, so anyone who does grab this deal will be doing themselves a favour. If you want more detail about what makes the Beam (Gen 2) so impressive, be sure to read our five-star review from back in 2021.

Soundbars are the type of tech that ages incredibly well since audio formats don't get revolutionised very often, and this has consistently been one of T3's best soundbars for years. In theory this price should last through to Monday, since that's how long Amazon's sale lasts, but it's worth pulling the trigger earlier if you're keen, as you might find that it dips in and out of stock as people buy up the stock.

Samsung's flagship HW-Q990D soundbar is one of several models affected by a serious software update issue, Samsung has admitted.

It has also confirmed that the problem cannot be solved with another update, it needs an in-person repair instead.

It emerged last week that some Samsung soundbar owners with automatic firmware updates enable, found their devices were effectively "bricked". They were no longer controllable via SmartThings, didn't respond to the remote, and couldn't be factory reset, either.

According to posts on multiple sites, including Reddit and Samsung's own user forums, the flagship soundbar wasn't the only affected model. Its HW-Q800D and HW-S801D bars were having the same problems.

Samsung said last week that it was investigating, and US audio head Jim Kiczek has now confirmed to The Verge that there was indeed a problem with the firmware update.

Can you trust automatic updates?

All credit to Samsung, it has moved quickly on this one. The company rapidly confirmed the cause of the problem and has provided affected customers with a solution. You can get a free repair irrespective of warranty status.

However, it's still an embarrassment for the tech firm, because it suggests that Samsung's testing setup isn't as good as it should be. Given that we're talking about a soundbar that's at the high end of the market, problems like this shouldn't be making their way to customers' devices.

This isn't a disaster on the scale of last year's (and still ongoing) Sonos app problems, but it does suggest that it might be wise to disable automatic updates on your everyday devices. You can never be sure what issues they might create.

This is common practice for people who depend on devices for work. For example, music producers don't update macOS X until they're absolutely certain it won't introduce bugs to their music software or create conflicts with their hardware.

For me, it's just as important if you want to be sure your soundbar will work for the series finale of Severance.

A four-piece, wirelessly connected, true Dolby Atmos-compatible 5.1.2-channel system for less than £300/$350? Even those of us who are familiar with the Hisense business philosophy – which is, in a nutshell, 'offer as much as possible for as little as possible' – might do a double-take.

And yet here we are. A full-on spatial audio home cinema audio system for not much cash, looking to compete with the best soundbars as well as the best surround sound systems whilst being kind to your wallet. There has to be a catch, though, doesn't there?

How much does the Hisense AX5125H cost?

The Hisense AX5125H is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it sells for £299, tops. In the US it's no more than $349, while in Australia it sells for a maximum of AU$599 – or, at least, the nearest-equivalent AX5120G does (such is the way with regional naming).

There's no disputing Hisense is offering a lot of stuff for the money in the AX5125H. Whether or not it's worthwhile stuff is a slightly different question, however, so read on for the full review breakdown.

Features & What's New?

Unlike a whole lot of 'Dolby Atmos' soundbar systems that rely on digital sound processing to do their thing, the Hisense AX5125H offers actual, physical upfiring drivers to create the sensation of height and space that's so essential to a spatial audio soundtrack. And it uses actual, physical speakers to create rear channels of sound, too. Obviously this means more actual hardware – but as long as you have the space (and the mains sockets) to accommodate it, the AX5125H seems better equipped to create a true 'home cinema' sensation than pretty much any price-comparable alternative.

As far as the nuts and bolts of specification are concerned, there are some things Hisense is prepared to divulge and, frankly, some it is not. So I can say for sure that the entire system is driven by a total of 500 watts of Class D power. I know that 180 of those watts are taken by the subwoofer in order to power its 165mm driver, and I know that another 40 watts is responsible for powering the pair of upfiring drivers in the soundbar.

What else? Well, I know the system intends to deliver a 5.1.2-channel sound via a total of nine drivers – but apart from the subwoofer's, I don't know the size or the composition of the drivers themselves. I don't quite know what the complete driver layout is, either – one in the subwoofer, one each in the satellite speakers and two on the top of the soundbar makes four, which means the front, centre and right channels facing outwards from the soundbar are somehow served up by five drivers.

When it comes to connectivity, things are a bit more explicit. Each of the four boxes requires mains power, but of course, but then the subwoofer and satellite speakers communicate wirelessly with the soundbar via Bluetooth. The soundbar itself has a couple of HDMI sockets (including one eARC), a digital optical input, a USB-A slot and a 3.5mm analogue input. Wireless streaming is strictly via Bluetooth 5.3 – there's no Wi-Fi or Ethernet provision here.

The AX5125H features 'TV mode', which means that when connected to an appropriate Hisense television the screen's speakers can join in with, rather than be overridden by, this sound system. There are seven EQ presets available, including 'Movie' (which, let's be honest, we're all hoping for) and 'Night' (which flattens dynamic response in the name of good relations with the other occupants of your home). The biggest selling point here is the AX5125H's compatibility with Dolby Atmos and DTS: X soundtracks though.

Hisense AX5125H review: Performance

I'll get to the specifics of how the AX5125H performs in just a moment – but first I think it's worth noting just what an assertive listen this system is. Not for the Hisense this 'revealing your nature over time' nonsense – the AX5125H takes any audio content it's given by the scruff of its neck.

This is particularly true of the soundbar and subwoofer – each is a forward and direct performer, perfectly happy to attack a soundtrack and drive it forward. That's a very welcome trait in some circumstances – a full-on action movie, for instance – but it's slightly less welcome during quieter, more spacious scenes. At these moments it's almost possible to discern the system waiting impatiently for the next time it can kick right off.

The frequency response is tilted towards the low end in much the same way the system response is tilted towards the front. You can dial back the bass using the remote control, but there's always disproportionate low-end representation no matter how you fiddle around the edges of the presentation.

Add this to a tonal balance that's on the thick and slightly blunt side, and the Hisense's intentions are all too plain. The midrange projects pretty well from the front of the soundbar, and there's decent high-end sparkle – but these always play second fiddle to the lower frequencies and their desire to dominate.

The AX5125H establishes a broad and reasonably well-defined soundstage, and when given some Dolby Atmos content to deal with is capable of offering a fair impression of height to its sound too. Those upfiring drivers aren't able to create a sensation of 'overhead' sound, even in a room of average ceiling height, but there's no denying this is a taller, more enveloping sound than a similarly sized soundbar without the necessary physical drivers can create.

Dynamic response in any EQ setting except 'Night' is fairly impressive too – although the Hisense's ability to sound quite loud even when it's describing quiet scenes can hamper it just a little in this respect. And although the rear speakers generally make a worthwhile contribution, when the going gets rowdy they are comprehensively overwhelmed by the activity coming from the soundbar and, especially, the subwoofer. At those moments of big Hollywood bluster, they can disappear from the presentation almost entirely as the two speakers at the front begin to dominate.

The emphasis is similar if you decide to send some music to the AX5125H via Bluetooth. The sound is slightly lumpy and bottom-heavy, and it's a trait that can impact negatively on momentum and rhythmic positivity. There's no denying the vigour and decisiveness of the presentation, though.

Hisense AX5125H review: Design & Usability

The price does rather dictate that 'design' isn't really something that's happened here – 'construction' is a better word to apply. But there's no arguing with the quality of construction Hisense is offering, nor the standard of finish – even if the plastics that make up the majority of the boxes here don't feel anything special. For such an aggressively priced system, the AX5125H makes a strong visual case for itself.

At 60 x 920 x 90mm (HxWxD), the soundbar is of quite harmonious proportions and should slide beneath your average television with too much difficulty. Sensibly, the top surface is covered in fabric, which obviously allows the upfiring drivers to do their thing but also means it doesn't reflect the light of the TV above it.

Each satellite speaker is an equally manageable 141 x 90 x 110mm, and as well as having little rubber feet to protect the surface they may be standing on they feature 'keyhole' wall-mounting too. The MDF cabinet of the wireless subwoofer is a usefully compact 310 x 211 x 300mm.

All four elements feature a quantity of perforated metal as a grille, and there is a dimmable LED display behind that of the soundbar. The grilles wrap across the top surface of the satellite speakers, but don't be fooled – the only upfiring drivers in this system are integrated into the soundbar.

As far as usability is concerned, things couldn't really be much simpler. There's none of your fancy-pants app control here – everything happens using a remote-control handset that's just as prosaic as the system it commands, but it's logical and simple to use. Once each element of the system is receiving mains power, wireless pairing is swift and stable – and the remote allows you to trim the bass and treble output to help get a workable balance in your specific environment.

Hisense AX5125H review: Verdict

It's important to keep expectations realistic when faced with a wireless 5.1.2 home cinema system with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive audio decoding for an almost suspiciously low price. So while the Hisense AX5125H is not the best-balanced home cinema system you ever heard, it does it offer a big, punchy and enveloping sound – the likes of which is very hard to come by at anything like this money.

Also consider

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 isn't much pricier, but uses digital signal processing (DSP) to create a sensation of Dolby Atmos surround, doesn't come with a subwoofer (let alone satellite speakers) – and yet it's the best, most credible alternative to the Hisense AX5125H that I can come up with.

It's definitely a better bet when it comes to listening to music, and what it does with Atmos soundtracks is pretty impressive in the context of its 'just a soundbar' configuration. And yet all I've done here is make the Hisense seem even more compelling, haven't I?

Yes, your new TV looks great – but it sounds underwhelming, doesn't it? Every TV manufacturer seems to have an attempt at making one of the best soundbars on the go, which is basically an admission that its televisions sound rubbish – and Samsung is no exception.

So in an effort to bring the sound you’re hearing into line (in terms of quality) with the images you're enjoying, the Samsung HW-Q800D offers Dolby Atmos spatial audio and a wireless subwoofer for what looks to be a pretty tempting price. Is it really all that tempting, though? And is it, in fact, all that new?

Is the Samsung Q800D worth it?

The Samsung HW-Q800D Dolby Atmos soundbar/subwoofer combo is on sale now, and in the UK it’s routinely available for £699 or thereabouts. In the United States, it sells for $799 or something quite like it, while in Australia it goes for around AU$1099. Check out the shopping widget embedded above for the latest and greatest offers.

What’s new in Samsung's Q800D?

If you’re familiar with the Samsung HW-Q800C soundbar that this new model replaces, it’s enough for me to say 'it’s just the same, but with Bluetooth 5.2 and universal, rather than regional, Chromecast compatibility' and the job, as they say, is a good ‘un.

If you’re not, though, then the Samsung HW-Q800D is a 5.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos and DTS:X enabled soundbar – meaning it's capable of three-dimensional immersive audio decoding – that’s accompanied by a wireless subwoofer in the box.

There are total of 10 drivers in the soundbar, including upward and side-firing ones, along with forward-facing. These do the spatial audio business while a single, much bigger, driver in the subwoofer takes care of the sonic rumble and punch. The amount of power that’s on board isn’t a number Samsung is prepared to share, and the size and composition of those 11 drivers isn’t public information either. But, as we all know, it’s not how big your drivers are or how much power you’ve got, but what you do with them.

And if you have a suitable Samsung TV, the 'Q-Symphony' feature means the television’s audio system can join in with, rather than be overridden by, the HW-Q800D’s efforts. That makes this an easy pick as one of the best soundbars for Samsung TVs, in particular.

Connectivity includes a couple of HDMI sockets (one eARC-enabled), so there’s 4K@60Hz passthrough available – although the lack of full-on HDMI 2.1 is a disappointment, meaning no 4K@120Hz for all sources.

There’s also a digital optical socket for use with more elderly TVs. Wireless connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.2 with SBC and AAC codec compatibility, and the built-in Wi-Fi means that Apple AirPlay, Chromecast and Spotify Connect are all available. The soundbar can also connect wirelessly to your TV if you like, but the latency that results is hard to ignore.

Does the Samsung Q800D sound good?

It probably won’t come as any kind of shock to learn that most Dolby Atmos soundbars sound their best, most convincing and enjoyable, when given a Dolby Atmos soundtrack to deal with. And the Samsung HW-Q800D is no exception.

With a native Dolby Atmos soundtrack incoming via an HDMI socket, the HW-Q800D sounds spacious, direct and – as long as you’ve trimmed the output of the subwoofer effectively – quite impressively punchy. There’s genuine height and width to the soundstage it creates, a proper sensation of movement and direction upon it, and an overall coherence that’s by no means a given from a relatively affordable multi-channel soundbar.

Despite the plenitude of its drivers, there’s good integration of the frequency range from top to bottom. And when the going gets properly bassy, the subwoofer controls the low-frequency stuff with real authority – the 'start' and 'stop' of bass sounds is properly observed, and there’s plenty of information regarding texture and tone available too. Some subwoofers just tend to thump along with what the soundbar is doing, but this one is more accomplished than that.

The midrange projects well and, again, detail levels are high. Dialogue is fundamental where movie soundtracks are concerned, of course, and the HW-Q800D has no trouble giving it enough space even when the overall going gets hectic and complex. There’s more than enough dynamic headroom available too – but even when the intensity really ramps up, the midrange remains focused and distinct. This all means intelligibility is never an issue.

Really, it’s only at the top of the frequency range that the HW-Q800D is less than entirely assured. Unlike the rest of the frequency range, there’s a lack of substance to the treble sounds this 'bar produces – the top-end is thin and toothy, and doesn’t need much provocation where volume is concerned to get rather hard and edgy.

It makes for uneasy listening, and causes the treble reproduction to seem as if it belongs to a different soundbar entirely. Despite the fact that the transition into the midrange is reasonably smooth, the top-end really sounds like it’s doing its own thing where tonality is concerned.

Dolby Atmos music fares similarly, insomuch as it sounds open and nicely defined – and with just as much low-end solidity and variation as movies enjoy. If anything, music mastered in Dolby Atmos allows the subwoofer to showcase its talents even more obviously than movies do – there’s quite a difference between 'bass guitar' and 'almighty explosion at an airfield', after all.

Step down to regular multichannel or even stereo content and the Samsung continues to impress, with the top-end caveats all still strongly applying. It’s always a focused and revealing listen, always controls its low-frequency activity carefully and always sounds a bit zizzy and inflexible at the top. So as a standalone speaker for listening to music, it’s most of the way there – just as it is for multichannel movies.

Is the Q800D well-made?

The HW-Q800D is a properly built, nicely finished product that more than lives up to its asking price in the way it’s presented. At 59 x 1,111 x 120mm there’s plenty of the soundbar, but it wears its relative bulk well – although it’ll be a squeeze beneath anything smaller than a 55-inch TV. The plastics that make up the bottom and the rear of the cabinet are of high quality, and the perforated metal mesh that covers the rest (and allows just a glimpse of the drivers behind) is flawlessly finished.

The subwoofer, meanwhile, is of predictably prosaic vinyl-wrapped MDF – but, like the soundbar it accompanies, it’s put together properly. There are more compact subwoofers around that wirelessly accompany soundbars (this one is 400 x 206 x 402mm), it’s true – but of course, it only needs access to mains power, after which it can be positioned pretty much anywhere you like.

There are a few physical controls on the top of the soundbar, but full control is available via the little remote handset that’s included in the packaging. The Samsung SmartThings control app is compatible too, as long as you don’t mind handing over more information than seems strictly necessary. Amazon Alexa voice control is built in, and if you’re using the app then Google Assistant is available too.

The only display is a little dot-matrix patch at the far end of the front of the soundbar – it’s small, indistinct and not especially helpful. Not unless you get up very close and squint, anyway.

Samsung Q800D review: Verdict

If you own a Samsung HW-Q800C, there’s very little reason to consider an upgrade to this Q800D – if, indeed, an upgrade is what it is.

But if you’re fresh into the 'Dolby Atmos soundbar with subwoofer' market, this Samsung deserves your consideration – as long as you don’t mind the way it deals with treble information.

Overall, if you've got a Samsung TV in particular then this combination will mate with it perfectly using Q Symphony for the best results – but it sounds grand matched with non-Samsung tellies too.

Also consider

Now that the Sonos Arc Ultra is here, there are deals to be done on the outgoing Sonos Arc – and while it doesn’t travel with a subwoofer, it remains one of the better-balanced and more convincing Dolby Atmos soundbars around. If you have to have that low-end presence, though, then you could do a lot worse than hunt down a Samsung HW-Q800C as, to all intents and purposes, it’s the same as the HW-Q800D but less expensive.

Ever since the Sonos Arc Ultra launched, the future of the original Sonos Arc has looked precarious. The newer model improves on the original in several ways and for not much more money.

Now it seems the end is near for one of the best soundbars ever made.

If you pop along to the Sonos website just now, you'll see that the Arc has acquired a "last chance" flag – which is what Sonos usually puts on products it has discontinued. The good news is that there's also a hefty discount of £180 off, bringing the Arc down from £899 to £719.

By comparison, the Arc Ultra has a RRP of £999 in the UK ($999 in the US and AU$1,799 in Australia). So that's quite a big difference.

How does the Arc compare to the Arc Ultra?

The Sonos Arc sounds fantastic, and if we only judged on its audio prowess we'd have given it the full five stars. However, as you can see from our Sonos Arc review there are some design and connectivity issues we weren't so keen on at the time.

So, is the Arc Ultra worth spending £280 more on? We reckon it is the best-sounding single-box soundbar on the market right now, with impressive Sound Motion technology and improved speech performance.

It's a significant upgrade over the Arc – especially in the bass department. It does have some of the same issues as its predecessor, though. There's only a single eARC HDMI, for example, and no HDMI passthrough.

At normal prices there was just £100 difference between the £899 Arc and the £999 Arc Ultra, and the improvements in the latter definitely made that £100 worth spending. But when the gap's £280, I think many would-be Arc buyers will find the original does more than enough for the money.

Samsung's Q Series soundbars have topped our best soundbars table for some time now, but the Korean manufacturer isn't sitting on its laurels. There are two new Q Series models for 2025.

One is an interesting upgrade to Samsung's flagship, the other an all-new design.

The new models are the HW-Q990F and the HW-QS700F. The former is an upgrade to the flagship HW-Q990D, which we gave the full five stars to in our Samsung HW-Q990D review. The latter is brand new for 2025, with some clever thinking in its design.

Both soundbars add support for the new Eclipsa Audio standard, the open source alternative to Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

Samsung HW-Q990F and HW-QS700F: key features

Let's start with the flagship. The HW-Q990F looks very much like its predecessor but has newly engineered dual active subwoofers and a new cube design that makes them half the size of the current subs. This should make them a bit less visually dominant in your front room.

The new subwoofer also has "AI-driven sound optimisation" with Dynamic Bass Control to keep the overall bass levels balanced, Samsung's impressive Q-Symphony surround optimisation, active voice analysis and amplification and better integration with Samsung's TVs. In Q-Symphony mode, the soundbar uses the TV's Neural Processing Unit to analyse and enhance dialogue.

The minimalist HW-QS700F is a compact standalone soundbar that's designed to be mounted in two ways – either on a flat surface or on a wall. And that's where the clever thinking comes in, the soundbar contains a gyroscopic sensor that can tell whether it's positioned horizontally or vertically, so tunes its audio output accordingly.

Neither pricing nor availability have been announced yet, but we'd expect the HW-Q990F to be priced similarly to the model it's succeeding. That has an RRP of £1,699 ($1,999, AU$1,995 ) but is now widely available for much less.

Harman Kardon has been showing off its Sonos-rivalling Enchant series at CES, with the promise of superb surround sound and wireless flexibility.

There are four devices in the series – the flagship Enchant 1100 soundbar and the slightly smaller Enchant 900, the Enchant speaker, and the Enchant Sub.

The Enchant 1100 is made for larger rooms while the 900 is for slightly smaller spaces, and the Enchant Speaker can be a stand-alone portable speaker or part of a setup with the soundbars and Sub.

The soundbars and speakers have Dolby Atmos and multi-beam for immersive audio, and the larger soundbar has DTS:X too. There are 11 drivers in the Enchant 1100 and nine in the Enchant 900, and both have Wi-Fi for cable-free connection to the Enchant Speaker and Enchant Sub.

They both have what Harman Kardon calls PureVoice technology, which is designed to make dialogue clearer.

Harman Kardon Enchant: key features, pricing and availability

The soundbars work with AirPlay, Chromecast Built-in, Tidal Connect and Spotify Connect, and you can also stream over Bluetooth. The flagship Enchant 1100 is also Roon Ready certified.

The Enchant speaker is designed to be flexible, and can be used as a stand-alone wireless speaker, as half of a stereo pair, or as an integral part of a full surround sound setup.

The Speaker has angled side drivers and upwards-firing drivers to deliver a convincing 3D sound field, and it has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth streaming. The speaker also comes with automatic sound calibration, which analyses the sound of your room and tweaks the speaker output accordingly.

The range will go on sale in March 2025 with recommended prices of £849.99 (about $1,069 / AU$1,700) for the Enchant 1100, £429.99 (about $540 / AU$860) for the Enchant 900, £199.99 (about $251 / AU$400) for the Enchant Speaker, and £349.99 (about $440 / AU$700) for the Enchant Sub.

We've long held that almost anyone who doesn't have a soundbar under their main TV is probably missing a major trick – some of the very best TVs out there still have surprisingly muddy sound, and a soundbar can fix that easily.

The best soundbars are often quite expensive, though, and Amazon has clearly clocked a relative gap in the market at lower-end prices. Thus, the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar on review here: a super-affordable multi-speaker soundbar that promises sonic upgrades without a huge price tag. But can it deliver?

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar: Price & Availability

Amazon's budget soundbar has been available in the US for nearly a year – but has only been on sale in the UK for a number of months. Being one of Amazon's own products you can get it delivered super promptly if you're a Prime member (or not, frankly).

Its full retail price was initially at £119.99 in the UK or $119 in the US, although relatively frequent sales have seen it fall below £100 or $100 – as you can see in the shopping widget embedded above.

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar review: Design & Features

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar is a really compact soundbar, coming in at just a hair over 60cm long, and is pretty narrow. This makes it really straightforward to fit into most setups, whether you have a modest TV – such as the best 32in TV – on a stand or a bigger one – such as one of the best 48in TVs – with plenty of room.

There's a lot to be said for going with a more compact design and, having swapped out our normal Sonos Beam (1st Gen) for it, the footprint being taken up was almost identical.

Amazon's design isn't the most inspiring aside from its size, though. The soundbar is mostly covered with a greyish mesh cover at the front, while the rest of the body is black plastic, with some control buttons on the top of the unit.

These let you make adjustments if you like, although you also get an included remote which is more useful. Amazon has designed the soundbar to work with existing Fire TV device remotes, though, so after a quick and easy pairing setup you can stick the included remote in a drawer to gather dust if you already use a Fire TV Stick with your TV.

The speaker is a 2.0 one, meaning it's stereo, so you're not dealing with many channels. And while Amazon says that it has virtualised Dolby Atmos support built-in, you really shouldn't come to this device hoping for impressive virtual surround sound – it's almost non-existent.

Still, this means that the setup process is very simple – at the back of the soundbar there's a plug for power, another for an HDMI cable, or another for optical cable, depending on your choice.

You can also connect to the soundbar via Bluetooth to play music through it, although there's no persistent Wi-Fi option, so you will find it a little more limited than a smart speaker might be.

Finally, despite the name, it's worth clarifying that the soundbar cannot actually act as a Fire TV hub of its own – it can't run apps or anything, so you will need a separate product to do that.

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar review: Performance

A soundbar isn't the sort of thing that most of us expect to look beautiful, so if we're not blown away by the design of the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar that's no tragedy – it's sound performance that really makes it or breaks it. Given Amazon's sterling work on the likes of the Echo Dot and Echo Studio, we've been optimistic that this would be a slamdunk... but sadly things aren't quite that simple.

There's no doubt that hooking the Fire TV Soundbar up will likely feel like an upgrade on your TV audio in one obvious and immediate way – general oomph. It's got a decent whack of power, can get really loud, and has punchier bass than most built-in TV speakers can manage.

However, where precision and clarity come into play, we can't claim to be particularly impressed. One thing a soundbar shouldn't do is make dialogue hard to hear, and while the Fire TV Soundbar didn't worsen dialogue clarity compared to our TV's native speakers, it certainly didn't improve it – and compared to our Sonos Beam it was a huge step-down. Obviously, Sonos prices its products at far more premium points, but the difference is still stark. This lack of precision got worse at higher volumes, too.

As we mentioned earlier, the apparently virtualised surround sound also didn't really manifest at all in our testing – if the soundscape on offer was a bit wider than it might otherwise be, the difference seemed marginal, but there was certainly no impressive audio -ouncing going on.

While it might also be a specific issue on our end, we repeatedly found the soundbar's volume extremely inconsistent when swapping inputs – leaving our PS5 behind to go to Apple TV+'s smart app on an LG OLED would sometimes result in murderously loud sound at the start of a programme or the opposite problem of vanishingly low volume.

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar: Verdict

We love how Amazon has positioned the Fire TV Soundbar in terms of price, and its compact design shows an awareness of what makes sense for most people.

However, it's severely let down by distinctly middling sound quality and a relative paucity of features, making what we've previously thought of as a "no-brainer" upgrade look much less so.

If it included Fire TV streaming software and had more refined audio, this could be a real contender, but as it stands the Fire TV Soundbar should only really be considered if its price is the limit of your spending power.

Also consider

We've mentioned it a few times in our review so far, which means the Beam from Sonos is a great option for those happy to spend a little more. You can occasionally grab it renewed from Sonos at a discount, although the pricier second-gen model is obviously an even better buy if you can afford it.

At a more relevant price point, though, we think the Denon DHT-S316 is a great option. It's chunkier and comes with a subwoofer, but if you have the space for it you'll get terrific sound for the money.

When Bose launches a new soundbar you know what to expect: premium design, superb sound, cutting-edge tech... the usual. But the new £499 Bose Smart Soundbar offers something out of the ordinary and potentially very exciting too. Bose calls it Personal Surround Sound.

Personal Surround Sound is designed to connect your new Smart Soundbar to a set of Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, and to then use those earbuds as your surround sound speakers. If you live in a small space or just want to get a serious surround experience without upsetting the neighbours, this could be just the trick.

Bose Smart Soundbar: key features 

The new Bose Smart Soundbar is the replacement for the Bose Smart Soundbar 600, which got four stars in our review: despite its relatively small size it delivered an impressively big Dolby Atmos sound. And spec-wise it's very similar with five drivers: one centre, two side-firing and two upward-firing. Connectivity is decent too: there's HDMI eARC and optical input (although only the former supports Atmos), Bluetooth, Google Cast, AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect.

The key features here are software rather than hardware. There's Bose TrueSpace, which analyses non-Atmos signals to produce a multi-channel audio experience; the aforementioned Personal Surround Sound; and the same AI dialogue mode as the more expensive Ultra model, which aims to make dialogue clearer during the noisy bits.

The Personal Surround Sound feature is specific to the Open earbuds because of their design: because they don't sit in your ear canals they don't completely block the audio that's coming from the soundbar, so in theory at least they should enhance the audio from your soundbar rather than replace it. Whether it's as good as Bose claims we'll discover soon enough when we get the new Smart Soundbar in for testing, but it's definitely interesting and potentially amazing. 

The Bose Smart Soundbar is available to pre-order with shipping expected from 9 October. The RRP is £499.95.

The ongoing saga of Sonos's troubled app update continues to rumble on. After briefly considering bringing the old Sonos app back before deciding against it, Sonos is continuing with its programme of fixes and improvements – and it's taken an unusual leaf out of the Fortnite book to keep customers informed. Like Epic Games does with Fortnite, Sonos has published a public Trello board showing exactly what it's got planned for the ongoing app updates.

The board, which you can access on Trello here, combines information from multiple parts of Sonos to give you a bird's eye view of the app update progress. Key sections tell you what's "on the roadmap", what's coming soon, what has recently been included in updates and what has already been fixed or implemented. The final column, "what we're hearing & working on" is for longer term fixes.

Will the Sonos app issues ever be resolved?

It does seem like the Sonos issues have been rumbling on forever, and it's certainly been quite a Sonos horribilis for the firm: the app update launched in May, supposedly as a big improvement, but wasn't exactly greeted with delight. However, after months of updates and considerable amounts of money Sonos can no doubt see the light at the end of the tunnel. There's no doubt that the app is in much better shape than when it first launched. 

The problems have been so severe that it overshadowed the launch of the Sonos Ace headphones, and Sonos also delayed the launch of some important new products including the Sonos Arc Ultra. That's the successor to the popular Sonos Arc soundbar, a key part of Sonos's product portfolio. The firm clearly feels that the situation has now improved significantly, and the Arc Ultra is expected to launch soon. We're also expecting to see a new version of the Sonos Sub, the Sub 4. 

Sonos has had a bit of a tough time in the last few months. Ever since its app relaunch in May, users have been experiencing issues. So much so that the company's CEO Patrick Spence even apologised for those issues and assured users fixes were coming.

Hopefully things are now beginning to improve, with bug fixes arriving regularly for the app, while preparations are seemingly underway for two new products. 

There were reports the two products were being delayed because of the app woes, but the most recent leak picked up by Tom's Guide, sees Arsène Lupin posting on X (previously Twitter) that Sonos has "begun preparations to launch its delayed products". 

Lupin said the products would be marketed as Sub 4 and Arc Ultra, with both coming in black and white colour options.

The latter element of that report shouldn't come as a surprise to Sonos users – pretty much all its products come in black and white, with only the Sonos Roam and Move 2 speakers available in different colours (and the Sonos One Hay edition if you're keeping track).

The Arc Ultra also shouldn't be too much of a shock if you have been following previous rumours, with a soundbar codenamed 'Lasso' that looked wildly similar to the Sonos Arc appearing in leaks already.

It seems Lasso and the Arc Ultra are the same soundbar and that device will mark the first bar from Sonos that will offer Bluetooth, along with new driver technology. Lupin claims it will offer "Sound Motion technology" to give a "balanced sound that surrounds you precisely from every direction".  

As for the Sonos Sub 4, it will be interesting to see if this gets a redesign in terms of shape – the current shape has been around since 2012 when the original Sub was released.

The Sub 3 was announced in 2020, but it looked the same as the previous model. We have had a Sub Mini between the Sub 3 release and now, but a successor to the larger Sub has been a long time coming. Lupin claims it will have a matte finish, which the Sub Mini does, and it will offer "dual face-cancelling woofers".

The leak from Lupin doesn't give a release date for the products, but Sonos does have a tendency to reveal products around the trade show IFA in Berlin. That takes place next week – between 6-10 September this year – so it's possible we could see more details on the Sonos Arc Ultra and Sonos Sub 4 very soon. 

It's also possible that delay we mentioned has pushed things back a little, even if only by a couple of weeks. For now, we will have to wait and see.

If you've splashed out on one of the best TVs and want to seriously beef up its sound output, then there are plenty of soundbar options that'll do the job. But here I'm talking about the best soundbars for LG TVs specifically, where you seek high-end audio, truly immersive surround sound, and perfect integration within your setup.

Enter the LG S95TR, the company's 2024 flagship, which comprises one soundbar, a wireless subwoofer, and two separate rear speakers. That means true surround thanks to its 9.1.5 channel arrangement – nine catering for centre/left/right/sides, one for centre sub-bass, and five overhead height channels (three up front, two at the rear) – assuming you've got the space and ample plug sockets to accommodate. 

But that's not the S95TR's overall sell: this soundbar also includes LG's WowCast feature, meaning wireless connectivity (with 2020 LG flagship TVs and later), and there's also LG's WowOrchestra, which uses a synched LG TV's speakers to deliver an even wider and more convincing soundstage. It's a dazzling option for LG TV owners who can afford the pricey outlay, but the reward is true cinema-like sound in your own home.

LG S95TR: Price & Availability

Speaking of price, the S95TR – which some regions refer to as the 'US95TR' (it's effectively the same, though, so don't fret) – is set at £1699 ($1499 / AU$1749) upon launch. That's the same as its S95QR predecessor, so there's no generation-on-generation price increase. The shopping widget embedded above shows you can already buy it for less, though, so be sure to double-check.

Still, that's a lot of money to fork out on one of the best soundbars, even if it does have enough speakers and channels to be considered a true surround system. In the context of its competition, that's equivalent to Samsung's price-matching HW-Q990D – but if you want similar results for less, I'd look to last year's LG S95QR or Samsung HW-Q990C to save a little without compromising too much on the features. 

LG US95TR review: Features & What's New?

So how does this 'SR' model update 2023's 'SQ'? It's a fairly moderate upgrade: the S95TR now features triple up-firing speakers, enhancing on the QR's world-first dedicated centre up-firing driver, for enhanced height presence in its output. 

The biggest new feature of the S95TR, however, is the introduction of it being WowCast Ready. This means it can wirelessly connect to a compatible LG TV, so you needn't worry about wires – that's ideal for freeing up an HDMI socket, for example. I think it's also just a really cool feature, plus it's lossless – so there's no compromise to quality. 

Otherwise you can expect much the same of new soundbar package and old: namely it's a four-unit package, that main soundbar being 125cm long (6.3 tall, 13.5 deep), with a separate wireless subwoofer and two rear speakers. There's a remote in the box, the 'magic wand' style, just as you'll find in most LG TVs' boxes too. 

However, one lacking in this generation is the absence of HDMI 2.1 compatibility. While Samsung has upgraded its HW-Q990D to passthrough 4K/120Hz with variable refresh rate (VRR), LG hasn't gone for that spec. That's only really going to affect gamers, but for this sort of money it's a feature that should have made the cut in 2024. 

LG S95TR review: Design & Setup

Setting up the LG S95TR is really simple. I reckon it was actually harder getting everything out of the massive box and untwisting all the cable-ties to be honest. But I still had a lot of fun upgrading my TV's soundsystem to this super surround sound setup for this review. 

First step is parking the soundbar in front of your TV and, if not using LG WowCast, deciding if you're going to use the HDMI eARC (read more about enhanced Audio Return Channel here) to connect. That'll use up one of your TV's HDMI ports, though, usually the second 4K/120Hz capable slot. 

However, LG does also include an additional HDMI input for passthrough on the soundbar itself (noting the 60Hz typical restriction) which offsets that issue to some degree. If anything I'd actually want more HDMI inputs here, like you'll find on the JBL Bar 1300, for example.

Next up plug in the subwoofer and separate rears. Note that each unit requires its own power socket (as does the soundbar itself), so ensure you have enough available. All units connect wirelessly, though, without being prompted in my experience, which then forms the full surround network in double-quick time. 

From here you're good to go, but I'd suggest getting hold of the LG SoundBar app (for Apple iOS and Google Android devices), as it's here you can easily swap between so-called 'Sound Effect' options – I'd call them sound profiles more accurately, though, including 'Cinema', 'Music', 'Sports' and more – select the input source, calibrate for the room, and tweak volume levels across seven outputs, plus adjust equalisation.

The app is a far more visually comprehensive form of what the bundled remote offers – although using the wand you can make Sound Effect and source changes. I do find the S95TR's multi-coloured LED light display to be paltry in its information for a soundbar of this price point though – it offers a trio of white/yellow/red/green LED illumination to partly inform you of changes made. A visual display would be much more useful, although I can see that would also theoretically disrupt the symmetry of the soundfield in a device with as many speakers as this.  

LG US95TR review: Sound Quality

The LG S95TR is no slouch when it comes to compatibility and quality: it can play formats up to 24bit/96kHz, so Hi-Res Audio, and most importantly plays nice with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sources – these being the two most prolific three-dimensional sound formats today (there's more, too, with DTS Digital Surround, and Dolby Digital, plus AAC/AAC+ supported to serve classic surround encodings too).

While the figures are one thing, I've been most impressed by just how much of a difference the S95TR makes to a home cinema experience. Having reviewed a recent TV with this soundbar disconnected (on purpose, for review purposes, I'm not crazy), plugging everything back in after and the LG delivers a whole world of change.

The soundbar and subwoofer combination deliver a rich tapestry, which allows low-end, mids and highs to live freely – so you'll get clear speech delivered while bass burbles below, no one element distracting from the other. And if you don't have quite enough of one or other element for your tastes, then the app's EQ can add further distinction. You may well want to up the bass impact, too, as LG's take is less forward than, say, Samsung's equivalent. 

In terms of surround, the addition of those rear speakers makes a marked diference – you'll never get true immersion such as this from, say, a Sonos Arc single-bar solution. The LG's rear speakers include overhead channels to project sound upwards, too, which gives a greater sense of the overhead filling that hemisphere of sound space. 

That said, however, and despite there being a trio of height channels on the main soundbar, the S95TR isn't the most adept at getting sound to leap upwards, oddly enough. It's really good, sure, it's just not great at projecting the upward portion into that sphere as strongly as some of the competition. But when you feed the soundbar a Dolby Atmos sound source, I find it's the rear channels that really add to that true immersive feel. 

However, that's where WowOrchestra makes a difference in my opinion, as using a synched LG TV's speakers right to their very top edge gives this additional height and more natural pinpoint delivery of audio based on what's happening on the screen. I've used an LG OLED G4 and this S95TR soundbar at LG's UK headquarters before now, but do note I've not had the same pair for this full review (it's a Philips OLED 809 that's been catering for display duties).

Overall, the upgrade this LG soundbar can deliver is nothing short of incredible. Even for less-than-ideal sources, the app's Surround Sound Setting (on/off) will permit lesser sources to be upmixed and output via all available channels – meaning you'll gain this all-encompassing sound whether listening to premier or stereo. Even music sounds great – although I did have some hiccups with the subwoofer cutting out when paired with a Bluetooth connection.

LG S95TR review: Verdict

If you're the owner of one of LG's recent flagship TVs then the LG S95TR is the perfect solution to deliver an incredible surround sound experience. This four-unit package is bassy yet classy, bold without being overbearing, delivering superb audio for TV, movies and gaming alike right across the frequency range. 

Why an HDMI 2.1 passthrough standard was omitted is perplexing (especially as the key rival Samsung offers this – although only gamers are really going to be concerned), and as an upgrade compared to its S95QR predecessor there's nothing of real note here for non-LG TV owners – the big extra ticket item being WowCast wireless compatibility within that ecosystem.

Still, mate the S95TR with a worthy LG OLED TV and it'll deliver impactful and immersive sound, plus the benefit of WowOrchestra to really enhance that LG ecosystem experience. It'll sound almost as great on non-LG TVs, too, as I've found in this review – with a 65-inch Philips OLED 809 paired up, I've been in home cinema heaven during my weeks of testing. 

Also consider

If you're not worried about connecting wirelessly to your LG TV then the previous S95QR model, despite lacking as many upfiring drivers, is largely just as good – and won't cost you as much. Both offer WowCast to sync TV speakers with soundbar output, making both options as the best soundbars for LG TVs.

If you don't possess a modern LG TV specifically, then I'd also suggest looking to the Samsung HW-Q990D, which delivers a more bass-forward and more immersive experience by comparison. It's ideal with Samsung TVs, too, thanks to Q-Symphony sync (Samsung's equivalent of LG's WowCast).

The months-long saga of the Sonos app continues, with the firm releasing two-weekly updates to fix issues and restore features. And according to Sonos, it's meant the delay of two key products that were originally scheduled for launch later this year.

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence was speaking to investors this week in the firm's scheduled earnings call, as reported by The Verge. During the call he admitted that the launch of the rather excellent Sonos Ace headphones had been "overshadowed" by the app issue.

"Far too many of our customers are having an experience that is worse than what they previously had," he said.

What products has Sonos shelved?

We can't say for sure, because Sonos hasn't announced them. But according to the rumour mill the firm was planning to launch a new high-end Sonos soundbar, codenamed Lasso, which would replace the ageing Sonos Arc.

Sonos was also apparently working on a surprising new product: a set-top TV streaming device.

Sonos has said that it expected much of its 2024 revenues to come from brand new product lines, and a streamer would definitely fit that category. It wouldn't be the firm's first adventures in streaming – its Port streamer is a Wi-Fi network music streamer – but this unreleased box would be a TV streamer and, reportedly, considerably more affordable than the £399 Port.

For now, though, Sonos's priority is the app. "I will not rest until we’re in a position where we’ve addressed the issues and have customers raving about Sonos again," Spence said, adding that "our focus needs to be addressing the app ahead of everything else".

That means delaying the "two major product releases" planned for late 2024 and taking responsibility for the app fiasco. As Spence told investors, "With the app, my push for speed backfired."

When Sonos launched the Sonos Ace headphones, one of the best features only worked with the Sonos Arc soundbar – but now it's available for the first and second generation Sonos Beam and the Sonos Ray too.

The feature is called TV Audio Swap, and it enables you to switch the audio from your Sonos speaker to your headphones. It's one of the features we like best about the Ace, but of course when it only worked with one Sonos device it was pretty limited.

TV Audio Swap is part of a system that also includes TrueCinema, which is a headphone version of Sonos's TruePlay room optimisation. It measures the acoustics in your room in order to recreate the same sound you'd get from your Sonos Arc, but directly to your headphones. It's very clever.

How to get TV Audio Swap on Sonos speakers

The TV Audio Swap feature now works on four different Sonos models: the Sonos Beam, the Sonos Beam (2nd Gen), the Sonos Ray and the Sonos Arc. And while it was originally iOS-only, it's now available in the Android app too.

In order to use the feature you'll need to download the latest version of the Sonos app from the appropriate app store. Then it's just a matter of pressing the content key on the right ear cup, or using the Sonos app, to swap the TV audio from your soundbar to your Sonos Ace. That gives you the same spatial audio with Dolby Atmos (if the content supports it) with the added bonus of active noise cancellation and dynamic head tracking.

This update makes an already excellent pair of headphones even better: in our five-star Sonos Ace review we praised the "intense comfort and beautiful design", the ANC and the battery life. The integration with other Sonos hardware is a huge selling point for the Sonos Ace, and being able to swap the audio to your headphones is likely to ensure you stay popular with your neighbours too.

Home cinema (theater, for our American chums) had a golden period in the mid-2000s during the age of DVDs and Blu-ray, being the Holy Grail for many looking to get the best AV experience indoors. And while it's still massively important to AV purists, along with physical media, the humble Dolby Atmos soundbar has somewhat taken over,

That's more than fine for many, and the best soundbars provide excellent alternatives to a full surround system, but they don't quite replace the visceral feeling you get from a 5.1 setup (or more). There's still a great market for speaker systems and AV receivers, therefore.

That's something JBL believes. It has announced a range of mid- to high-end AVRs and loudspeaker packages to cater for those who aren't willing to settle for a soundbar. And they look stunning, to boot.

The JBL Modern Audio lineup of receivers starts at £499 / €549 for the 5.2-channel, 60W MA310 and rises up to £1,899 / €1,899 for the 9.2-channel, 140W beast that is the MA9100HP.

Available in Latte (white) and Espresso (black) colourways to match the brand's new speakers, the AVRs have sleek, clean fascias with up to full-colour displays front and centre. They are also each Wi-Fi-enabled and can stream Spotify, plus any tracks on a mobile phone via Bluetooth, AirPlay or Chromecast.

The matching JBL Stage 2 speakers come in various guises, with bookshelf, floorstanders, and subwoofers in the range, along with a dedicated centre channel and Dolby Atmos upfiring height modules.

They start at £329 / €375 for a pair (of the Stage 240B bookshelf units), rising to £1,198 / €1,398 for a pair of the magnificent-looking Stage 280F floorstanding loudspeakers.

Getting the ultimate home cinema solution could turn out pricey, considering, but surely the end result will be worth it. Far better than the tinny, tiny drivers hidden in your flatscreen TV, that's for sure.

Indeed, you might even fancy upgrading your set while you're at it.

Sonos has been in the press a lot over the last couple of months, and not always for the right reasons. The company redesigned its app earlier in the year, which led to a number of complaints from users, before announcing its first step into headphones in the Sonos Ace, which too had mixed reviews.

Still, onwards and upwards as they say and it is now reportedly working on a new flagship soundbar to replace its four year-old Arc.

A report from The Verge claims that a new speaker system codenamed Lasso is planned, which is accompanied by a set of exclusive images along with a few details. 

It's also worth noting that the report was written by Chris Welch, who has leaked upcoming Sonos plans in the past. He was responsible for the leak of the Sonos Era 100 and Era 300 before they were officially announced in 2023, and he also leaked the Sonos Ace headphones too.

According to Welch, the new Sonos soundbar is currently named after Ted Lasso – it even uses the same typeface on the prototype models. It also looks remarkably similar to the current Sonos Arc, save for a few tweaks. Inside is said to offer a complete overhaul of components and speaker drivers however, integrating technology from Mayht, a start up company Sonos acquired in 2022. 

Bloomberg previously reported technology from Mayht would be included in the Lasso soundbar, and it suggested it would see a price of over $1,200, which is quite a bit more than the Arc. The images from The Verge meanwhile, suggest there will be a Bluetooth button added to the new soundbar and there's also a physical switch for the microphones. 

Currently, none of the Sonos soundbars offer Bluetooth playback, and they offer capacitive microphone off buttons only so this would see the new soundbar follow the same path as the Sonos Era 100 and Era 300 speakers.

As you might expect, the new soundbar is expected to work with the Sonos Ace headphones like the Sonos Arc does, allowing you to watch your TV and listen to the sound through the headphone or the soundbar, with a simple press of the button on the Sonos Ace or Sonos app to switch between the two.

Nothing official has been revealed yet, but The Verge reports claims the Sonos Lasso soundbar is expected to ship later this year. Sonos often announces new products around consumer electronics show IFA in Berlin so it's possible we will hear more at the beginning of September.

If you enjoy spending time watching TV or movies, investing in one of the best soundbars on the market is a great idea. You'll be able to enjoy the audio as intended, with much higher fidelity and, often, control.

That's just become even cheaper and easier, thanks to Amazon. They've just launched their Fire TV Soundbar in the UK and Germany, offering consumers an affordable option to improve their audio setup.

The device is set to retail for £119.99, though at the time of writing, you can snag one for just £99.99 on the Amazon website.

Don't think that modest price tag means a sub-par product, though. The Fire TV Soundbar packs in some really impressive specs, to help make sure you get the boost you'd hope for.

The bar uses a dual speaker design, with a pair of 20W speakers. Those offer a lot of sumptuous sound quality, without compromising too much on size.

That's important to note here, too. This soundbar is only 61cm long, making it very unobtrusive when sat beneath your TV – perfect for ensuring your artfully crafter home decor remains in tact.

There's a useful amount of I/O on offer, too. On the rear panel, you'll find an HDMI, a USB port and an Optical Port. Sure, it's not the most option-packed device you'll ever see, but it's more than enough for most users.

You'll also get everything you need to hook it up right there in the box. The remote, a HDMI cable and even a wall-mounting kit are all included in the price, meaning you'll have everything you need to get things going quickly.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that the Euros are kicking off tonight. From 14th June, Europe’s finest footballers will meet in Germany for the finals, and many Brits are extremely excited to see it all in action.

However, for those of us at home and not in the stadium, it doesn't mean it's the end of the world. There's still some great ways you can experience the atmosphere, especially from the comfort of your own living room.

To find out more, we spoke to Kevin Walmsley, audio visual expert at AO.com. He's shared his top tips on how to make the most of your Euros setup at home, and what you can do to keep the excitement going. 

1. Get familiar with your TV settings

A good place to start is by having a rummage round your TV settings. If your TV has it, activate Sports Mode, which is designed to automatically optimise your picture settings with football in mind. 

Next, adjust your brightness and contrast, and tweak your sharpness to ensure you’re getting the best image possible. You should also check your TV’s refresh rate as this is a crucial to how much of the fast play and action you capture in real time.

2. Location is key

For the optimal viewing experience, you need to ensure your TV is placed perfectly. If re-positioning your sofa isn’t an option, try moving your TV very slightly. It's generally advised to sit about 1.5 times the screen’s diagonal measurement away. For 4K TVs, that figure is reduced by half. 

Oh, and if you’re setting up a TV in the garden, try to find a position to avoid any glare from the screen.

3. Time for a new TV?

If you’re in the market for one of the best TVs, there’s never been a better time.  Invest in a large, high-definition model to ensure you don’t miss any of the action. 

Aim for a screen size of at least 55 inches or larger and shop around for the best anti-glare screen going, particularly if you’re setting the telly up outside.

4. Make your friends jealous of your sound system

A great sound system can make you feel like you're right in the stadium. You could set up surround sound or one of the best soundbars to amplify the crowd noise and commentary. This will add depth to each match and make the games much more immersive. 

If you already have a soundbar, place this central to your TV. If you’re using surround sound, spread these in the four corners of the room to recreate the stadium atmosphere. 

5. Snacks, always

No football viewing party is complete without snacks and drinks. Remember to stock up the fridge with crisps, popcorn, nachos and dips. 

You should also remember to get lots of beer, wine and more importantly, water. You don't want anyone to be heading home early!  

Interested in more? Check out our guide to the best smart lights to up your at home entertainment experience even more. 

Sonos has revealed its new headphones – not called Sonos Headphones, but Sonos Ace – are now on sale, priced at £449/$449. But beyond simply being a pair of the best active-noise cancelling headphones you can buy in 2026, the Ace feature a special personalised Dolby Atmos spatial audio home cinema experience – which I initially tried back in late April to get a taste of how it works.

Called TV Audio Swap, the new Sonos feature will, at launch, work with the Sonos Ace headphones and the Sonos Arc soundbar via the new Sonos app (Apple iOS only at launch, Android is coming soon thereafter). 

By using either the app or the Ace's multi-functional toggle-button control, it's possible to activate 'TV Audio Swap' and bring the experience from in-room surround to in-headphones surround. I tested out the experience while watching a section of the excellent Barbie movie – and the effect is impressive.

1. Room-measured sound profile

So this sounds like any other spatial audio experience in headphones, no? Not quite! Another technology, called Sonos TrueCinema, works a little like the company's TruePlay feature – a feature which measures room reflection, to adapt sound to compensate for bounce and decay at different frequencies for a cleaner audio output – to measure the room first. 

Sonos tells T3 that "TrueCinema is a technology for measuring the general acoustics of your room, and applying those characteristics to the spatial audio engine for Sonos Ace." 

Why does that matter? Sonos' goal is to recreate the sound output you experience from the Arc in that specific room setup, but direct to your ears via Wi-Fi. It'll give listeners a familiar, comfortable and more at-home feeling, not a 'locked-in' feeling that might feel uneasy or unfamiliar. 

I didn't experience the TrueCinema setup process – even when setting up my own new Arc system at home – but it was explained to me by Sonos' Head of Innovation during my initial private listening session. Similar to TruePlay, the soundbar will emit 'sweep' sounds to measure the room, while the listener is sat in their perfect viewing spot. It'll take under a minute all in all.

2. Profile per Arc soundbar

Interestingly the TrueCinema profile is then saved on that specific Sonos Arc soundbar, so that any Sonos Ace headphones utilised with said soundbar will gain the same experience and "enhance the sense of externalisation, spaciousness, and immersivity," Sonos tells T3. That saves needing to perform the process again.

If you have one Arc upstairs and one downstairs, those two profiles will be distinct from one another. However, only one pair of headphones can connect at any time – you can't have a dual- or multi-listener experience using multiple pairs of Sonos Ace headphones. 

3. Dolby Atmos spatial audio

Because the Sonos Arc soundbar is performing the sound processing and then sending this to the Sonos Ace heapdhones via Wi-Fi, it's able to deliver Dolby Atmos spatial audio, but can also upmix stereo into a 7.1.4 equivalent surround for your ears too. 

The Sonos Ace headphones can perform in-headphones processing for general listening, too, such as from Dolby Audio sources directly – whether Spotify, Apple Music or elsewhere – but can't upmix stereo audio in this way. 

During my Barbie screener, I got a real sense of the surround sound's motion. Indeed, many subtleties of the rear channels felt enhanced in this on-ear experience, highlighting even more detail than I'd expected. Bass is present but not overbearing – not a replacement for a Sonos Sub Mini, but a solid on-ear experience nonetheless. 

4. Head-tracking too

Within the Sonos Ace headphones is an inertial measurement sensor (IMU for short), which can detect and track the direction of your head. That's an essential for spatial audio to adapt the sound when you move your head, so it'll give that 'always centered' experience based on what you're watching – as if you're sitting within the sound mix. 

Other manufacturers do of course deliver similar experiences, such as Apple AirPods Max via Apple TV 4K, or the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones with a two-tier 'Immersion' system (for static or head-motion, the former designed for when on the move). For TV Audio Swap specifically I think the Sonos TrueCinema delivery has the edge – but I think Bose is better for applying its feature to general listening sessions. 

5. What about other Sonos soundbars?

At launch (on 5 June 2024) the Sonos TrueCinema and TV Audio Swap feature will only work between Sonos Ace headphones and the Sonos Arc soundbar. However, Sonos is working to deliver the feature from all its soundbar products. I suspect Beam owners will be particularly keen.

That means in the future (at to-be-determined dates) there will be compatibility for Sonos Beam (Gen 2), Sonos Ray, and the original Sonos Beam soundbars. In those instances, as the system may be able to read a broader frequency spectrum than a given soundbar can deliver, I suspect the in-headphones experience may even sound better.

All in all, Sonos' TrueCinema and TV Audio Swap combination makes for a standout new feature for those who want a personalised home cinema listening experience – without disturbing others around them. At launch it's somewhat limited in scope, though, so I hope those soundbar and Android compatibility updates roll out pronto!