Mistakes people make when buying a soundbar

You don’t need me to tell you that the sound your lovely television makes doesn’t live up to the standards of the images it delivers. Unless you’ve paid proper money for a Philips or Panasonic TV that features the words ‘Bowers & Wilkins’ or ‘Technics’ somewhere, that is.

The most obvious and straightforward way to bring the audio quality of your TV up to the point that it bears comparison with the video quality is to invest in a soundbar. However, selecting an appropriate soundbar requires just as much forethought and research as buying the television did in the first place.

So here is the Expert Reviews guide to some of the more common mistakes people make when buying a new soundbar – because knowledge is power, right? If you want to buy the right soundbar first time out, give this the once-over.

1. Check your TV’s sound settings first

Have a look at the ‘Sound’ section of your TV’s set-up menus. Unless yours is an older model, it’s very likely to have quite a few options when it comes to defining the way your television sounds – and it’s important they’re all set up appropriately.

TV placement is important – is your screen on a stand or fixed to the wall? You’ll often find televisions have modes tailored specifically for how they are installed in your living space.

The sound mode your TV is in is another; as well as settings for ‘Music’, ‘Sports’ and so on, there’s likely to be a ‘Night’ mode too. This will flatten the dynamic response of your television’s audio system, and the result will be undemonstrative sound that won’t be especially easy to follow.

Some TVs feature a room calibration routine to help the television adjust its sound to best suit the room it’s in – if yours has this feature and you haven’t made use of it, make sure you do. It could be the answer to all your sonic problems.

2. Consider the type of content you watch

Yes, your TV is likely to have several presets for different kinds of content, but it’s worth thinking about the sort of stuff you tend to watch and if it’s the same sort of stuff you find unsatisfying when heard through your TV.

If you’re a big move-watcher, for instance, or a keen gamer, you need to decide if it’s the straightforward sound of your television that makes you consider a soundbar, or whether you crave the sort of immersive sound you’re more used to at the cinema. Because if it’s the latter you fancy a bit of, a soundbar may not necessarily be the way forward…

3. Might a surround-sound system be more appropriate?

Some full-on surround-sound systems can make your nice tidy living room look like a corner of a loudspeaker warehouse, but it doesn’t automatically have to be like this if you want a cinematic audio experience.

Smaller, lifestyle-orientated packages like the Samsung HW-Q990D, which includes a soundbar, or the Sony Bravia Theatre Quad can offer a more immersive sonic presentation than even the most accomplished soundbar is capable of churning out.

If you do your research, you’ll discover that some of these systems feature rear speakers that not only wirelessly connect with their partners but are battery-powered too, so don’t even need mains power. You’ll have more speakers in your room than if you simply buy a soundbar, of course, but for some listeners, the compromises will be worth it.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that some surround-sound systems such as the LG US95TR use a soundbar to function as the centre channel, or even as all three front channels – so you could just use the soundbar most of the time and then crack out the rear speakers on special occasions.

4. Consider the soundbar’s position relative to the TV

No matter if you’re watching movies or broadcast TV, in almost every instance it’s dialogue that constitutes the majority of the soundtrack. That’s why the centre channel in a serious home cinema system is so important, because that’s where the overwhelming majority of the dialogue is routed through.

If it’s important to you that a voice comes from as close to its owner’s moving mouth as possible, you need to consider the position of your soundbar relative to the TV it accompanies. Ideally, you’ll place the soundbar beneath the bottom of the TV no matter if it’s standing on a surface or fixed to the wall.

However, if your TV sits particularly low on its stand, there’s a chance a soundbar will block the bottom of the screen. And no one wants that. A shelf below the surface the TV is standing on could be acceptable, but only if the soundbar doesn’t respond badly to fixed boundaries all around it.

Renowned audio/video tech journalist Steve Withers goes a little further: “While it might seem obvious to position your new soundbar beneath the TV screen – either using a stand or wall-mounting – it’s important to also ensure all the built-in speakers are unobstructed.

“Many modern soundbars use multiple drivers to bounce sounds off walls and ceilings to create a more immersive audio experience. So if you go and put your new soundbar in a cabinet you might be sonically scuppered before you’ve even started.”

5. Don’t forget about futureproofing

Upgrading your TV’s sound is all well and good, but it’s worth thinking about what you might want to achieve in the future. For instance, if you subscribe to one of the more popular movie streaming services that are available, you can’t have failed to notice that there’s an ever-increasing amount of content available in either the Dolby Atmos or DTS:X object-based audio formats.

If you’re considering putting your hand in your pocket for a top-tier streaming service subscription, it’s well worth considering soundbars like the Bose Smart Soundbar or Sonos Arc Ultra. These are equipped to deliver a facsimile of the spatial audio effect so beloved of every cinema up and down the country. Because if the sound is half of the entertainment in a movie (as George Lucas famously claimed) then it doesn’t make any sense to spend money on a soundbar that can’t fully exploit it.

Steve Withers doesn’t disagree: “Any soundbar that claims support for Dolby Atmos or DTS:X will create the illusion of overhead channels by bouncing sound beams off the ceiling.

“As a result of this approach, your ceiling becomes a vital component in your immersive audio setup. The flatter, lower and more reflective it is, the better your experience. If you have a very high or vaulted ceiling you might want to consider a different approach to enjoying spatial audio.”

6. Think about its connectivity

How new is your TV? New enough that it has HDMI sockets? New enough that one of those HDMI sockets is either ARC or eARC-enabled? Audio Return Channel (or enhanced Audio Return Channel) allows your TV to send all of the audio parts of whatever it’s receiving in complete and uncompressed form, and eARC can work in the other direction too.

So if your system is getting to the point where you don’t have enough HDMI sockets to support all your equipment, look for a soundbar with an HDMI passthrough, which means more than one HDMI socket. That way, you can connect your Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 to the soundbar, which will strip the audio information before sending the picture information to the TV using eARC.

Of course, your TV may predate HDMI sockets. If that’s the case, you need to establish whether or not it has a digital optical output. If it does, you’re in business. If it doesn’t, you’ll find the number of soundbars ready to partner with it is restricted in the extreme.

7. How does it sound?

This is the big question, of course. It’s important to have considered the first six points before we get to this – but there are no two ways about it, there’s no point in spending good money on a soundbar if you don’t enjoy the sound it makes or you can’t tell the difference compared to the sound of the TV alone.

Admittedly that second scenario doesn’t seem all that likely, but not enjoying the sound is a live possibility. Make sure you get to hear the products that have made it onto your shortlist before you commit to anything because there can be a huge variation between ‘Sound A’ and ‘Sound B’ delivered by soundbars from ‘Brand A’ and ‘Brand B’. And what’s “good sound”? It’s the sound you like best, of course.