Tired of watching your favorite movies through the tinny built-in speakers on your TV? Cyber Monday is the perfect time to upgrade your TV room with a new soundbar, a simple addition that can revolutionize everything you watch. We found a variety of discounts on everything from budget-friendly standalone bars to expansive home theater systems with premium bars at the center. Our favorite soundbar for most people, the Yamaha SR-C30A, hits its lowest price in the last 30 days for Black Friday and Cyber Monday at just under $220 from Amazon . What it lacks in high-end features, it more than makes up for with its super simple and compact setup, and the sound quality is more than good enough for your weekly movie night. It even has a wireless subwoofer, so you get all the benefits of dedicated bass without having to run wires across your living room.

We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. A wireless soundbar can change the entire feel of your home theater. No matter what kind of content you consume, sound quality makes a world of difference, and these wireless systems allow for impeccable quality without pro installation. Most systems include a soundbar as well as satellite speakers and a subwoofer, all of which communicate wirelessly with no delay. We've tested some of the most popular and powerful wireless soundbars and systems on the market and came up with these recommendations for any type of viewer. Still, the Samsung HW-990F reigns as the best overall wireless soundbar, but the competition gets closer all the time. I [Markkus Rovito] have previewed and reviewed products--both in the pro audio and home audio realms--on and off throughout most of the 21st century for outlets including Mix, Maximum Tech, DJ Tech Tools, Bob Vila, and some defunct publications printed on paper called magazines. Between the PopSci staff [Stan Horaczek, Tony Ware, Brandt Ranj], we've tested variations of these wireless surround sound systems firsthand. Beyond our own favorable experiences, these wireless surround sound systems have all proved popular with expert reviewers. Each of these systems offers something a little different from the others, but they all include rear satellite speakers because we wanted to limit this list to systems that actually surround you with speakers.

We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. It's more affordable than ever before to take your home media viewing experience to new heights thanks to streaming services, smart TVs, and soundbars. With this increased content availability enriched by new surround sound audio formats, a whole new world of entertainment possibilities comes to light. One of the easiest, most space-efficient ways to drastically improve the quality of your TV (or 4K projector) audio is by upgrading to a soundbar to give you sound as vivid as the 4K video you're probably enjoying. The top soundbars are compact, quick to install, and an unbeatable way to present your movies, music, and video games with elevated volume, clarity, and immersion. And many of them--like our best overall, the Sennheiser AMBEO Plus--sound great on their own but can be expanded with matching subs and satellites if you decide you want a bigger home theater experience down the road. If you're looking for a quick and cost-effective way to upgrade your home theater system, we'll help you find the best soundbars to do the job.

Nearly every TV on the market today is a smart TV, but not every operating system is a winner. A media streaming device lets you pair whichever user interface you prefer with just about any screen that has an HDMI port. In some cases, such as with older or less expensive smart TVs, a streaming stick or dongle could even be speedier and less glitchy than your TV's built-in system. At home, these handy gadgets make it easier for cord cutters to watch the millions of hours of content streaming services provide without cable. And while traveling, a streaming player lets you watch your preferred content on hotel sets (without painstakingly typing in a bunch of passwords or activation codes). We tested out streaming players from Roku, Google, Apple, Amazon and more, gauging the usability and the performance of each to come up with our list of the best streaming devices you can buy. Google's TV Streamer, the Apple TV 4K, Amazon's Fire TV Sticks and Roku devices are the most popular players in the space.

Bose has a new soundbar for the fall shopping season, and it includes a few neat tricks for owners of the company's clip-on earbuds. The Bose Smart Soundbar is a "small, sleek" model with AI Dialogue Mode and a Personal Surround feature for owners of the Ultra Open Earbuds. The Bose Smart Soundbar has five transducers, including two side-firing (racetrack-shaped) ones, a center tweeter and two up-firing transducers. This arrangement helps with Dolby Atmos content, with the side-facing ones focused on horizontally positioned audio and the upward-facing ones bouncing sound off the ceiling for an overhead illusion. The center tweeter handles dialog. If your content doesn't support Dolby Atmos for a spatial surround experience, the soundbar's TrueSpace feature can mix them in real time to create a faux surround effect.

Samsung is pushing forward the idea that bigger is better with the announcement of its new 98-inch Class QN990C Neo QLED 8K TV. It joins 2023's 65-inch, 75-inch and 85-inch 8K QN900C Neo QLED TVs, with the latest addition debuting at the CEDIA Expo 2023 alongside its 4K counterpart (available in sizes ranging from 43-inch to 85-inch). The 98-inch Class QN990C Neo QLED 8K TV is made up of Quantum Mini LEDs to produce over a billion colors and uses AI to enhance any content you watch up to 8K quality. It's also equipped with an Anti-Glare screen and Ultra Viewing Angle technology, which Samsung says should allow you to see what's going on from any angle without the need to block out light. The TV's structure is made with a 360-degree All-Metal Design and has a Slim Fit Wall Mount to give the TV more of an appearance of being flesh to the wall.

Dolby has announced a new Atmos feature to pair your TV speakers with any wireless speakers you have in the room. Officially dubbed Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, the tech will appear first on 2024 TCL TVs. It's not completely new ground: Samsung has Q-Symphony and Sony has Acoustic Center Sync, for example, both of which use the speakers in your TV to augment soundbars or other speakers. Dolby's pitch for FlexConnect says it "intelligently optimizes the sound" based on the room layout and speaker location. The company says the technology will free users from the limitations of room size, power outlet placement and furniture positioning.

Amazon's Echo Studio usually sells for $200 and rarely goes on sale, but you can get the supersize Alexa hub right now in Charcoal or Glacier for $160. We called the Echo Studio the "best sounding speaker Amazon has built" in our review when it was released in 2019. The company has released more speakers and smart displays since then, but the Echo Studio remains a solid option for immersive, high-resolution music streaming. Amazon's Echo Studio speaker is on sale for $160. We gave the Echo Studio a score of 88 in our review and praised it for having excellent audio quality best demonstrated by high-definition and Ultra HD tracks.

CES is typically the place a lot of companies debut new soundbars and this year is no different. Samsung has announced the HW-Q990C and HW-G60C models, both of which offer Dolby Atmos audio but do so in different formats and in different sizes. If you're looking for a robust surround sound setup with multiple speakers or smaller all-in-one option, Samsung's two latest soundbars tick both of those boxes. First, the HW-Q990C is a flagship model that comes with two rear speakers and a wireless subwoofer. With the display and speaker combo, Samsung explains that Q-Symphony can leverage 22 total audio channels with the help of the processor inside one of the company's compatible televisions.

Yellow Submarine, Ringo Starr's turn on Revolver, has been a gateway for children into the music of the Beatles since its release in 1966. A new reissue of the album makes that relationship more explicit: Giles Martin, son of original producer George and the sonic custodian of the Beatles catalogue, says his "de-mixing" of the album – using AI to separate individual instruments that were originally squeezed together on four tracks – was done in part with a playlist-listening younger audience in mind. Martin recently told Variety that his teenage children listen to old and new music side by side, veering from Fleetwood Mac to Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. "[W]hat I want to make sure is that when people hear the Beatles, that it has the same dynamic as the other stuff they're listening to," he said. He added that 1969's Abbey Road, recorded on a then luxuriant eight tracks and the first Beatles album not released in mono, stands out from the band's catalogue as "it sounds more hi-fi than the other Beatles albums".