Is a soundbar worth it? 6 benefits of a soundbar

Soundbars have become very popular in recent years, promising better sound than modern televisions, but what is a soundbar, and is a soundbar worth it? Soundbars are usually long, flat rectangular audio units designed to sit in front of your TV or be mounted on a wall. They feature multiple speakers and are designed to replace your TV’s audio, increasing the volume and clarity of any audio content.

How much difference you’ll notice in sound quality depends on how you use your television, but whether you watch regular TV shows, tune in to sports, or binge-watch series on streaming services, you’ll experience a major boost in clarity and volume for any kind of dialogue. If you’re into console gaming, or you’re a movie buff, the power and sound quality of a soundbar will make all your entertainment sound and feel more exciting than your built-in TV speakers ever could.

The short answer to the question “Is a soundbar worth it?” is yes. Here are 6 reasons why.

Modern flat-panel televisions offer an amazing viewing experience, with larger 4K panels transforming a living room into a home theater, providing a cinematic feel. However, they still come up short when it comes to sound quality which is why people often upgrade their TV’s built-in speakers to home theater speakers. Because of their thin, flat construction, there’s very little room for speaker drivers. There's even less room for the space and bass ports most speaker cabinets utilize to take advantage of resonance, which is just as important as the driver itself in creating a full, balanced sound. Due to these constraints, modern televisions really struggle to reproduce bass frequencies. To make matters worse, the TV speakers are often facing backward from the front of the panel, meaning the sound is also muffled.

Soundbars feature multiple drivers using cutting-edge technology and audio design to produce a full frequency range. What’s more, with a Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar, you can fine-tune the sound using AdaptIQ technology, which adjusts the EQ balance to perfectly suit the shape and size of your living room. If you move to a new home or apartment or change the location, you can simply recalibrate it to any new space for perfect sound. As a bonus, they’re sleek, too, so they won't stand out against your flat-screen TV.

By using multiple drivers facing toward your viewing position, soundbars can produce much higher volume levels than built-in TV speakers. The sound is also much clearer, so you won”t need to turn up the volume to hear what’s going on in dramatic scenes with lots of fast-moving dialogue, or quieter passages of speech. When you do want to increase the volume for cinematic impact while watching a movie or gaming, soundbars are much better at immersing you in the action.

Discrete surround sound systems can also offer high-quality sound, but they come at a premium price, with a lot of connections. Instead of separate components like a receiver, multiple speaker cabinets, and a mass of cables, soundbars offer a convenient, affordable, all-in-one audio solution. Most soundbars only require a single HDMI-eARC cable to connect to your TV. If you have an older TV, you can usually connect using optical audio, which is also a very simple cable connection.

Once it’s up and running, you can control everything from the included remote, or with the Bose Music app on your smartphone.

Soundbars aren’t limited to TV and movies. They’re also great for music streaming, connecting to your smartphone via Bluetooth®, so you can play music from any streaming service. Enjoy your favorite albums, use a custom playlist to keep a party pumping, or listen to a podcast while you prepare a meal in the kitchen. Bose Smart Soundbars also have Wi-Fi connectivity, plus Alexa and Google capabilities. Soundbars can do it all, wirelessly and easily.

Bose Smart Soundbars take advantage of Dolby Atmos®, the latest in immersive audio technology, to provide a truly amazing surround sound experience. Bose Smart Soundbars have up to nine speakers, including upward and side-firing transducers to bounce sound off the ceiling and walls. This makes it feel like sounds are moving all around the room, including overhead. If you’re serious about creating a home theater in your living room, Dolby Atmos–enabled smart soundbars are the way to go. Even if the source content doesn’t contain Dolby Atmos channels, Bose Smart Soundbars can upmix regular stereo audio into right, left, and overhead channels, providing immersive sound for any content.

If you want an even greater audio experience, you can add a separate subwoofer to reproduce window-rattling low frequencies, and surround sound speakers to place sounds behind you for truly immersive surround audio. These additional wireless speakers can connect to your soundbar, creating a powerful surround system that looks and sounds amazing. Not only that, but if you have a Bose Bluetooth® speaker, you can pair it with your soundbar, so you can listen in two separate rooms, or use the paired speaker to add a further boost to your audio.

Once you experience the difference a soundbar makes to your home entertainment, you'll wonder how you ever lived without one. The ease of setup and ability to dramatically improve any audio source makes soundbars a great choice for a fast and affordable upgrade to your home audio.

< BACK TO STORIES