Promised you a miracle...

Few people these days will consider a full AV receiver and surround set-up in their lounge. But you’ve got to have something — native TV sound alone is unlistenable, today’s thin TVs delivering, with very few exceptions, underpowered sound that is a disgrace to the wonderful images available from their large screens.

There are good stereo options — plug the TV output into a traditional hi-fi, or neater still a pair of active speakers flanking your TV.

But the market success has, of course, gone to soundbars, and as competition for this growing category has mushroomed, the claims for their abilities have become ever more effusive. They promise you a miracle. Very few of them deliver.

Which are they? The four reviews that follow are all of soundbars from $599 to $999, and were selected for being front runners in the sound stakes from companies of repute. . Two come with subwoofers included; two are designed to work as bars alone, though each can have a subwoofer added (at significant cost — in the case of the Sonos Beam the sub raises the system price from $599 to $1499).

One bar here outperformed the others significantly— it was the priciest of the three, but the improvements well outweighed the differential. In others we encountered the common soundbar trait of impressive sound for movies, but less so for music. One proved a fine all-rounder. Read on...