The TV soundbar market has plenty of great alternative options available that cost half, and in some cases, a third of what some premium models sell for. We’ve compiled a list of the best soundbar packages we’ve heard under $200 and ranked them based on their sound quality and features. Read on to find which are our pick of the best cheap soundbars.
Top 3 best cheap soundbars
The best cheap soundbars you can buy right now
The Creative Stage V2 soundbar is incredible value for money. In addition to a sleek soundbar with a relative bounty of connectivity, including HDMI ARC, the small outlay also gets you a dedicated subwoofer to help pump out impactful bass. Sound quality is very good overall, and can be tweaked to match what you’re watching. For instance, you can choose to boost the bass or treble at any time, and there are “Dialog” and “Surround” to try out as well. The latter doesn’t provide digital surround sound per se, but does widen the soundstage for more exciting action scenes. Read our full Creative Stage V2 review. Vizio has a variety of soundbar and subwoofer bundles to choose from, but our current favorite is the V-Series 2.1 Home Theater Soundbar V21-H8. The speaker itself has a nondescript, minimalist design that blends nicely into any home theater setup. There are numerous inputs to hook up other media devices, including televisions, gaming consoles, and any Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri smart speaker. Bundled with the combo is a highly functional remote to enable playback, volume, and even DTS Virtual:X and DTS TruVolume, which help produce bigger and more encompassing sound. Staying in standard mode will also reward your ears with clear voices and rich mid frequencies. Bass fanatics might enjoy the emphasized low end that comes out of the small subwoofer, but critical listeners won’t since it lacks precision and creates muddiness on certain songs and soundtracks. Read our full Vizio V-Series 2.1 Home Theater Soundbar V21-H8 review. The Alto 6 Plus is even cheaper than the Stage V2, and it also has its own dedicated subwoofer — only this one is wireless. It’s powerful, too, proving more than capable of filling out movie action scenes or music playback with deep, rumbling bass. The downside is that this low-end isn’t as tightly controlled as it is on pricier soundbar/sub combos, and your options for adjusting the sound profile are relatively limited. But we were still impressed with how forceful the Alto 6 Plus sounded in our testing, and its simplicity means that home theater beginners might actually appreciate how easy it is to complete setup. Read our full TCL Alto 6 Plus review. One of Roku’s earliest audio products, the Streambar Pro is an impressive device that stuffs a 4K Roku streaming player into a tiny soundbar. Virtual surround sound is available right out of the box to fill up your living room. Bass is decent considering there’s no subwoofer bundled with the package. It also comes with one of the most user-friendly remotes available, which features a button for voice search and headphone jack for private listening. Lack of Dolby Atmos support will disappoint those seeking a more immersive listening experience. So will the sluggish performance when going through the menus and app. Nonetheless, to get quality sound and Roku functionality from a speaker makes this a sweet deal. Read our full Roku Streambar Pro review. Another good option for smaller TVs is the LG SK1. Its compact design only includes two speakers and claims a modest 40W power output, which is enough to outperform many TV audio systems. The plug’n’play setup, simple interface and included remote also help streamline everyday usage, which might be ideal if you just want a better TV speaker without a ton of extras. Still, we’d recommend turning on the Bass Blast mode for some extra low-end punch, and you can connect a Bluetooth device if you ever want to use the SK1 as a music speaker as well. Read our full LG SK1 review.
How to choose the best cheap soundbar for you
The best cheap soundbar for you depends on the features, connections and size that will help you most enjoy watching movies and TV. Some of these soundbars come with a subwoofer — a speaker dedicated to producing the tactile rumble that’s evident when watching action movies. Think about whether you need a remote as some designs are better than others. Soundbar size: There are a number of factors that play into deciding which soundbar you should buy. Size will likely be prohibitive for most customers; you obviously need a soundbar that will suit your TV and space constraints within your entertainment console. And, because a soundbar is one of the centerpieces of your home theater setup, it has to look good and fit stylistically. Then you have to factor in the size of the room you’re dealing with, and the distance viewers would typically be sitting from the TV. If you’re dealing with a larger space, it’s probably best to target soundbars that come with a subwoofer — you’ll surely appreciate the extra bass. Connectivity: Connectivity is crucial too, both in terms of wired and wireless access. Not every soundbar comes with an HDMI port; some force you to make do with optical audio. That’s perfectly fine if you want to use your TV as a pass-through, but those who are in dire need of more HDMI ports — because their capacity is limited between game consoles, streaming boxes and so on — will need to prioritize options that offer those additional connections. You’ll also want to pay attention to the audio outputs on your TV or monitor. Although the majority of the soundbars now come with an HDMI port for audio output from your TV, but the LG SK1 offers optical digital only. Pricing considerations: Obviously, price is a big consideration when looking for the best soundbars. Although there are always exceptions, big-name brands will typically command a bit extra, but generally speaking, the less you spend on a soundbar the greater the chance that sound and features will be compromised. Going for a budget option isn’t always the best choice, as any money you save on your purchase won’t do you much good if the sound quality is poor. As the saying goes: timing is everything; and right now it’s worth checking out the holiday season sales when many of our favorite models will be discounted at online retailers, meaning you can bag a bargain for even less. Contributions from: Michael Gowan Next: For more TV and soundbar info, check out our helpful guides on choosing the right big-screen TV for you, the best TVs right now and how to improve your TV sound. More: Yamaha unveils SR-C30A entry-level soundbar to rival the similarly priced Sonos Ray. While at the other end of the spectrum check out what we made of the most powerful soundbar we’ve ever heard in our Devialet Dione review.
How we test the best cheap soundbars
We test soundbars for vocal clarity and low-end effects by watching a variety of movies and TV shows, including video in action and drama genres. We also listen to various songs ranging from rock to hip hop to acoustic to evaluate music performance. We benchmark volume using an app that measures decibels. Ease of use depends on how quickly and simply we can connect the soundbar to the TV and how easily we can make adjustments to the sound quality. We’ll let you know if this process is particularly easy or difficult, though cheap soundbars pretty much never require specialist audio knowledge to set up. Once testing is completed, we rate the best soundbars based on our five-point system (1 = worst, 5 = best). Products that hit nearly every mark are awarded an Editor’s Choice badge. Find out how we test for more information on our reviewing procedures
