Home theatre systems

The best soundbars at every price

The best bargain buys, mid-range marvels and premium purchases for your home entertainment system.
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Last updated: 23 Oct 2024
illustration of three differently priced soundbars with ticks

Whether you’re on a budget or you’ve got money to burn, there’s a soundbar that will deliver excellent audio in your price range. 

We test soundbars ranging in price from $119 to $3999 and, while some expensive models are standouts, there are plenty of reasonably priced soundbars that perform well in our testing. 

Don’t make the assumption that more money buys you better audio: our experts were unimpressed by some expensive models but blown away by others that come in around the $400 mark. 

Don’t make the assumption that more money buys you better audio

CHOICE home entertainment expert Denis Gallagher shares his tips for finding the best soundbar for your money. Plus, exclusively for CHOICE members, we’ll reveal the best scoring soundbars at the lower, middle and upper end of the market. 

Why buy a soundbar?

For movie buffs and TV bingers, a full home theatre is the ideal. But they can be complicated, bulky and expensive. A soundbar is a much more streamlined alternative that’ll give you the next best thing, but without the big hit to your wallet. 

Essentially a slim box containing several speakers, a soundbar sits just below your TV screen and boosts your audio experience. It’s not a direct replacement for a professionally installed and calibrated home theatre system, but some do a pretty good job of mimicking the effect of surround sound. 

Read more:
Soundbars to avoid buying

Best placement for your soundbar

Soundbars perform best in small, enclosed rooms, but not so well in large, open-plan areas. Ideally, they should be used in situations where you’re sitting a few metres away from the TV. 

They’re best placed just in front of, or below your TV screen, at around the same height as your ears when you’re sitting on the lounge. 

If you have a model with a wireless subwoofer, you can place it anywhere in the room. 

Not sure what all the audio formats are? Our expert guide to buying a soundbar breaks down all the terminology. 

When you’re ready to set up, check out our article on connecting your soundbar to a TV for a step-by-step guide. 

Read more:
The best smart TVs for watching movies and streaming shows

How we test soundbars

Our rigorous testing means you can be confident in our reviews. They’ll help you buy the best soundbar for your needs. 

We use a panel of experts who have years of expertise testing audio equipment. They assess sound quality for film, music and spoken-word audio. We also take into account the ease of connecting and using the soundbar and remote, and how much energy the soundbar uses when in standby mode. 

Our experts score each soundbar on these metrics to calculate an overall score. All of the details are included in our soundbar reviews, and you can filter by price, brand, features and more to find exactly what you’re after. 

The best soundbars: budget, mid-range, premium

For CHOICE members only, we reveal our expert’s top soundbar picks for your budget. If you’re not yet a member, join CHOICE to get instant access to all of our expert, independent reviews. 

Don’t waste your money on an expensive model that doesn’t deliver on performance or a budget soundbar that sounds worse than your TV speakers. 

No matter your budget, there’s a high-performing soundbar for you. 

These three models sit at different price points – low, medium and high – but they’re all recommended by CHOICE experts. 

Alice

I'm a content creator and marketer here at CHOICE – which basically just means that I write stuff. CHOICE's testing is so comprehensive that we publish vast amounts of data on all the products we test. We know that not everyone likes to wade through numbers to find the best product, so my job is to take the data and translate it into something more easily digestible for readers who are time-poor or just want to know the best products to buy – and which to avoid. I also get to dream up fun ways of taste-testing products, like the Tim Tam challenge and the Democracy Sausage taste test. I write about all kinds of things, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, so each day is different and I'm lucky that I get to learn about all the different things CHOICE does to help consumers.

I'm a content creator and marketer here at CHOICE – which basically just means that I write stuff. CHOICE's testing is so comprehensive that we publish vast amounts of data on all the products we test. We know that not everyone likes to wade through numbers to find the best product, so my job is to take the data and translate it into something more easily digestible for readers who are time-poor or just want to know the best products to buy – and which to avoid. I also get to dream up fun ways of taste-testing products, like the Tim Tam challenge and the Democracy Sausage taste test. I write about all kinds of things, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, so each day is different and I'm lucky that I get to learn about all the different things CHOICE does to help consumers.

Denis

Hi, I'm Denis Gallagher. You might know me from such things as gadgets, phones (landline and mobile), cameras and home entertainment gear. While I've produced tests for ceiling fans, gas heaters, vacuum cleaners and BBQs, these days the digital home is where the heart is. Before CHOICE, I learned how to break technically complex subjects down to understandable and entertaining chunks. I hate seeing companies take advantage of consumers and at CHOICE I get to fight back on your behalf. Life before CHOICE included being assistant editor for Your Computer magazine in the mid 1990s and later editor of a design magazine called PIXELmag. I also contributed photography and tech articles to SMH, PC World, PC Authority, and Green Guide. After indulging my passion for golf as assistant editor at Golf Australia for a couple of years, I thought it might be time to get a real job. Arriving at CHOICE just before Christmas 2006, everyone was on annual leave so I basically sat alone at my desk till mid-January 2007. I've been pretty busy since then, though! You can find me on LinkedIn.

Hi, I'm Denis Gallagher. You might know me from such things as gadgets, phones (landline and mobile), cameras and home entertainment gear. While I've produced tests for ceiling fans, gas heaters, vacuum cleaners and BBQs, these days the digital home is where the heart is. Before CHOICE, I learned how to break technically complex subjects down to understandable and entertaining chunks. I hate seeing companies take advantage of consumers and at CHOICE I get to fight back on your behalf. Life before CHOICE included being assistant editor for Your Computer magazine in the mid 1990s and later editor of a design magazine called PIXELmag. I also contributed photography and tech articles to SMH, PC World, PC Authority, and Green Guide. After indulging my passion for golf as assistant editor at Golf Australia for a couple of years, I thought it might be time to get a real job. Arriving at CHOICE just before Christmas 2006, everyone was on annual leave so I basically sat alone at my desk till mid-January 2007. I've been pretty busy since then, though! You can find me on LinkedIn.

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