![]() READ NEXT: Our favourite TVs to pair with your soundbar Other things to consider before buying a budget soundbar Bluetooth is great for playing music and podcasts directly from your phone, laptop or tablet if you’re in the mood for a casual listening session. Wi-Fi-enabled bars such as the Polk React allow for the use of voice assistants – in the React’s case, Amazon Alexa – and can be incorporated into multiroom wireless speaker systems. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity are becoming increasingly popular inclusions in soundbars and not just the pricey ones. Analogue 3.5mm inputs are less common than they once were, but you’ll still find plenty of soundbars incorporating them. This is generally the simplest method of connecting a soundbar to a TV that doesn’t support ARC. Some soundbars feature additional HDMI inputs, which are useful for connecting external devices such as games consoles or a Sky TV box if all of the ports on your TV are already in use.Īside from HDMI sockets, most budget soundbars also give you the choice of connecting via an optical digital cable (also referred to as TOSlink or S/PDIF). ![]() Ideally, both your TV and soundbar will have HDMI ARC (audio return channel) ports and, assuming they do, you simply connect the two to enable your bar to play audio from your TV and any devices connected to it. The easiest way to hook up a soundbar to your TV is by using an HDMI cable. What’s the best way to connect a soundbar?Įven budget soundbars offer a range of connectivity options and, generally speaking, the more ports present, the better. The least powerful bar on this list, the Roku Streambar, is able to fill a reasonably sized room with sound. Larger soundbars with more speaker drivers are capable of outputting bigger sound than their compact competitors but don’t worry too much about finding a bar with massive audio output. Most manufacturers state the peak and average (Root Mean Squared or RMS) output of their soundbars in watts (W). READ NEXT: Save big with this month’s best soundbar deals How important is power output for a budget soundbar? You do sometimes find “all-in-one” 5.0 and 5.1 soundbars where everything is housed within a single bar, but you can expect to pay more than £300 for one of those. Those additional channels are most commonly incorporated via rear speakers connected to the soundbar wirelessly or with cables. Meanwhile, 5.0 and 5.1 devices add a further two channels to create a surround-sound effect and really ramp up the immersion. A 3.0 or 3.1 soundbar features a central channel in addition to left and right ones and is generally better at delivering dialogue compared with its 2.0 and 2.1 counterparts. Rarer at under £300 are soundbars with three or even five primary audio channels. Both types have advantages: soundbars with built-in subwoofers are more space-efficient, while standalone subs generally deliver fuller, more impactful bass. Subwoofers are sometimes built into soundbars, but many come as separate units included in the price. So, a 2.0 soundbar possesses two audio channels – left and right – while 2.1 bars add a third via a subwoofer. The first digit reflects the number of primary channels, while the second indicates the presence of a subwoofer to handle low-end frequencies. The number of channels present in a soundbar is represented by two digits separated by a full stop. How many channels should a budget soundbar have? If a soundbar doesn’t significantly improve your TV’s audio, there’s no point in spending your hard-earned cash on it.Īudio quality is affected by a number of factors, including the size and type of speaker drivers used, the audio formats supported and the number of audio channels a soundbar incorporates. Top of your priority list should be sound quality. There are a number of things to consider when shopping around for the best budget soundbar. ![]() How to choose the best budget soundbar for you
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