Sony HT-G700

PRICE: £399

This is the Marvel movies of soundbars: it isn’t the most sophisticated option, but it works really well for just about everyone. It’s a soundbar and separate subwoofer, with wireless communication between them (they link out of the box seamlessly). The soundbar is 98cm long: perfect for TVs from 43 inches to 58 inches. It’s a little small to be optimal for 65 inches, but it’d still work well.

The soundbar has three speaker drivers in, with Sony using digital sound processing to create a virtual surround system from them, with Dolby Atmos 3D audio support. It’s incredibly effective for a system with so few actual speaker units in – while it can’t quite make it feel like the sound is above and behind you, it does create a soundscape that fills the wall in front of you. Sometimes it’s amazing how close to true surround sound it gets.

It provides a huge meatiness upgrade to audio quality across the board compared to tinny built-in TV speakers. The dedicated subwoofer helps a lot here. Dialogue is clearer thanks to the centre speaker driver on the soundbar.

It connects to your TV over HDMI eARC, and it has an HDMI input, with passthrough of 4K HDR video, so you don’t lose an HDMI port on your TV by having it connected. It also has Bluetooth built in. A screen on the front tells you what mode it’s in or what the volume is, and it comes with a remote, but by connecting over HDMI, you can control it from your TV’s remote.

At £399 this isn’t the cheapest soundbar, but it is the cheapest good Dolby Atmos soundbar. This utterly nails the balance of being affordable and still a huge upgrade.