Compare the Best SoundbarsJuly 2018

Soundbar Buying Guide

A soundbar is a type of speaker designed to plug into a television and serve as a sound system for the device. Most soundbars are more powerful and better configured than the speakers built into TV sets, so a soundbar is a good way of improving the audio quality of your TV setup.

Soundbars are usually designed as long rectangles that can be placed directly under your TV screen, though some designers have experimented with other designs - including larger box-shaped designed that can double as a stand for the whole TV. These alternate designs are few and far between however - most are a simple rectangle, making them unobtrusive and easy to fit alongside your current TV setup.

It’s worth noting that a soundbar may be a necessity for more modern televisions - ultra-thin OLED TVs are so thin that they cannot fit any speakers into the unit, so have to rely on an external soundbar for all audio.

Subwoofer

While most soundbars comprise of just the bar itself, others come packaged with a separate subwoofer unit. This is a loudspeaker designed specifically for bass frequencies, meaning it will augment the standard soundbar and provide substantially more powerful bass notes. This boosts the overall sound quality of the TV, and is especially good if you watch a lot of action-heavy blockbusters, since the explosions and gunshots will have a lot more presence.

Wireless Streaming

The majority of soundbars are designed to be plugged in directly to the TV, rather than using a wireless connection. This is minimise any delay in the audio - wireless connections can generate a very slight delay while the data is sent from the TV to the soundbar, meaning that the video and audio signals the TV could drop out of sync. Wired connections have no such delay, meaning the video and audio will always be perfectly in sync.

Many soundbars do have wireless capabilities, but they are instead used for streaming audio from your phone/tablet/etc. Because there is no video signal, the small delay doesn’t really matter. This means that as well as TV audio, soundbars can also be used for music on demand, making them great for parties or just relaxing with your favourite music!

Simulated Surround Sound

Traditionally surround sound works by having multiple speakers (usually 5-7) arranged in such a way as to give the audio a sense of depth and 3 dimensions in order to increase immersion when watching films or playing video games.

Since soundbars only have a single speaker, they are not capable of true surround sound - however some newer soundbars have a method of simulating surround sound. They do this using a trick called ‘binaural audio’, which carefully directs sound to the left or right channels in order to simulate a 3D effect without extra speakers. You can hear an example of binaural audio here - Virtual Barber Shop

Generally only the higher-end soundbars have the is capability, but if you can afford the expenditure, you will gain a far more immersive audio quality from your movies and video games.

Soundbar Prices

The price range of soundbars is from £12 to £1,195 and in total we found prices for 163 soundbars. A new soundbar costs on average £296 and 80% of soundbars are priced between £69 and £600. The Sony HT-ST5000 is the most expensive soundbar that we found at £1,195, and the DELL AX510 is the cheapest at only £13.

Soundbar Brands - Price Range

The average price of Harman Kardon soundbars is £800 which is the highest average price of all soundbar brands. Harman Kardon soundbars range in price from £800 to £800.

The second highest average soundbar price out of all brands is Denon soundbars with an average price of £569. Denon soundbars start at £569 and their most expensive soundbar costs £569.

Klipsch soundbars start at £325 and their most expensive soundbar costs £695. The third highest average soundbar price out of all brands is Klipsch soundbars with an average price of £561.

Soundbar Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 558 expert 0 reviews available online and used this information to determine the average rating for each brand of soundbar.

Biggest Soundbar Retailers

We found 129 current offers for soundbars from Amazon UK making it the biggest soundbar retailer. That is significantly bigger than the second biggest retailer, eBay for whom we found 107 current offers for soundbars. The third biggest retailer is Currys with 45 current soundbar offers.

When Are Most New Soundbars Released?

Over the last 3 years we couldn't see any evident pattern in the release month for new soundbars. In 2017 most new soundbars were released in March, with 24 new soundbars released that month. March was also the biggest month in 2016 for new soundbars, with 29 new soundbars released that month. 34 new soundbars were released in March 2015 making it the biggest month that year as well for new soundbar releases.

How Fast Do Soundbar Prices Drop After Release?

In the first 6 months after release, soundbars drop in price by 26% on average. On a typical new soundbar costing £296, by waiting 6 months before buying you could save on average £76.

Audio Output

'Audio Output' denotes the number of individual channels for the soundbar to use. Specific sounds and parts of the screen are assigned to individual channels, allowing the soundbar to simulate surround sound and create a deeper audio depth.

We found 82 soundbars that are 2.1 channels soundbars, which makes 2.1 channels the most common audio output amongst new soundbars. We found 26 soundbars that are 2 channels soundbars, making 2 channels the second most common audio output amongst new soundbars.

Power

'Power' denotes how powerful the soundbar is, measures in watts.

Comparing all soundbars, the power range from 2W to 600W. The power of the majority of soundbars range from 0W to 60W. The Sony HT-RT4, which is priced at £269.00, has the biggest power and is a 600W soundbar. The Samsung SPU10, which is available at £44.17, has the smallest power and is a 2W soundbar.

Bluetooth

Whether the sounder has support for wireless Bluetooth connections or not.

The vast majority of the 224 new soundbars currently listed on Kagoo are soundbars which support Bluetooth. 195 out of 224 soundbars are soundbars which support Bluetooth.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Soundbars?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying soundbars. For each retailer it shows the total number of soundbars where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying soundbars. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was Amazon UK. 65 of their soundbar prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Soundbars for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for soundbars by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of soundbar prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's soundbar prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was Amazon UK. 50.4% of their soundbar prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.