Awards season is upon us, with it being less than a month before our team put on their finest glad rags and reveal their Product of the Year choices at the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2024 ceremony.
But ahead of that, if you’re looking for a great soundbar, we have created this guide detailing the top savings currently doing the rounds on our 2024 Best Buy winners – which make up the shortlist for each of the main event’s Product of the Year winners.
Every bar on the list has been put to the test in our dedicated viewing and listening rooms, where our experts ran them through a series of comparative tests, to see how they perform against their direct rivals.
This means we can personally confirm they are currently the best option you can get in their class. On top of that, at the prices we have found on some of them, many of the soundbars are currently an absolute steal.
1. Sonos Beam Gen 2
The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is the best soundbar under £500 for yet another year. Though it is beginning to show its age, the small form-factor, Dolby Atmos ready soundbar still beat every similarly priced rival we put it against in our listening rooms in the key areas we care about. Fantastic warm refined sound? Check. Solid handling of Dolby Atmos? Check. Dinky design that will fit on even the tiniest of stands? Check.
It is also currently selling at a reasonably good price, with Amazon offering the Sonos Beam Gen 2 for £381.38, a solid £67.62 saving on its regular price. The only reason we’re not screaming about the deal louder, is that we have seen the unit sell for even less recently.
Specifically, the Sonos Beam Gen 2’s price dropped to an amazing £338.99 during Amazon’s Big Deal Days event at the start of October. With Black Friday coming up we wouldn’t be surprised if its price were to drop to roughly the same level in just over a month, which is why, unless you need it now, you may want to wait.
2. Sonos Arc
The Sonos Arc is the best soundbar £500-£1000 winner. But it is also one of the trickiest options on this list to recommend at the moment. This is because it’s about to be replaced by the Sonos Arc Ultra – which sadly we are yet to get into our listening rooms for testing. The Arc in this year’s winner list is close to retirement as a result. So for those who can, we recommend waiting to see how the Ultra gets on when we get it in for testing in the near future.
If you can’t wait, the good news is that the Arc remains a fantastic soundbar in its own right, that delivers excellent Atmos audio with wonderful gusto and detail. And it is currently selling at a good price, too. You can currently pick up an Arc for £699 at Sevenoaks Sound and Vision. That’s a healthy £200 saving on its regular price.
Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9
The Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 is a new winner for this year’s Awards and the best soundbar you will get for £1000-£1500. During testing it delivered the best Dolby Atmos performance we have heard from a soundbar its price this year, offering a wonderfully wide, but accurate soundstage.
Add to this its superb clarity, classy design and generally stellar audio, and it became an easy recommendation and clear improvement on its predecessor. The Sony HT-A7000 – which launched in was itself a three-time What Hi-Fi? Award winner, before the Bar 9 was introduced it this year.
The only downside is that it is so new there are yet to be any solid discounts on it. On every retailer we have checked, including Amazon, the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 currently sells for its full £1399 price.
Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max
The Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max is a repeat What Hi-Fi? Award winner and our current best soundbar over £1500 recommendation. Though we find the soundbar to be a little fussy when it comes to positioning, once set-up correctly, it remains the best performer in its class.
Featuring 13 front, side and upward-facing drivers, the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max delivers a generous 5.1.4 channels of audio and one of the most convincing Atmos representations we have heard on a soundbar. If you don’t want satellite speakers but crave an Atmos “dome of sound” experience, then this is the bar to get.
On top of that, it is also currently selling for a very reasonable £1599 on many specialist retailers, including Sevenoaks Sound and Vision. That’s a solid £600 discount and the best price we have seen it sell for since July.
Samsung HW-Q990D
If you’re interested in one of the growing number of wireless soundbar systems doing the rounds, we currently recommend the Samsung HW-Q990D. The Award-winning system pairs a Samsung soundbar with two wireless satellite speakers and a subwoofer.
This gives it a massive 11.1.4 total channel count. During testing, the system easily earned its Best Soundbar System Award, offering a large, immersive and three-dimensional sound that carried a solid amount of heft and detail. This led to a truly immersive home cinema experience and makes the Samsung HW-Q990D our current benchmark for quality for soundbar systems.
As an added perk, there are currently a few solid deals doing the rounds. The best currently running lets you grab the Samsung HW-Q990D for £1199, a £500 saving on its normal price on a few retailers. However, if you need a new TV too we recommend looking at Peter Tyson’s current Samsung HW-Q990D deal, which lets you claim £400 cashback with your purchase.
MORE:
These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars we have tested
We rate the best OLED TVs
Our picks of the best surround sound packages
