Investing in a smart soundbar is an easy and fairly inexpensive way to improve your home entertainment setup. It won’t just enhance the sound profile of your TV; it’ll also consolidate the number of boxes on your TV cabinet, notably by saving you from having to buy an extra smart speaker. The latest smart soundbars come with a lot of bells and whistles, including voice assistants, music streaming and sometimes even video streaming. And the best part? They don’t cost an arm and a leg anymore. You can get some of the best smart soundbars on the market for around $150.
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What’s the difference between a smart soundbar and a smart TV? Smart TVs will give you onboard streaming apps while a smart soundbar typically includes an onboard voice assistant — usually Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
Most soundbars will work any TV whether the speaker, or TV, is smart or not, but there are a couple of exceptions — for instance, the FlexConnect system, such as the TCL one, will only work with TVs made by the same manufacturer, and the Roku Wireless soundbar speakers will only work with those TVs. Yet, if you’re looking for an all-in-one music streaming speaker with a voice assistant, these are the soundbars you should buy.
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The Polk React with DTS Virtual Surround Sound is a single soundbar update to one of my favorite smart soundbars, the Polk Command Bar. While it misses the subwoofer, you can always buy an add-on one, and rears too. The 3D surround sound technology offers excellent sound quality, and the Alexa onboard is responsive. But the Yamaha YAS-209 is worth considering for its subwoofer and additional HDMI port, and it can often be found for the same price or less than the Polk.
Pros
- Excellent sound in a compact size
- Amazon Alexa onboard
- DTS Virtual:X
- Articulate subwoofer
The Yamaha YAS-209 offers excellent sound quality in a compact soundbar with Amazon Alexa voice control built in. The mics work well in loud environments, and you can use them when you’re streaming music. The soundbar offers DTS Virtual:X surround sound processing and a wireless subwoofer. The YAS-209 doesn’t use the company’s MusicCast system, though, so you can’t sync up with other Yamaha speakers. It’s often on sale for less.
With the addition Dolby Atmos, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 is now the midpriced smart soundbar to get. It offers a choice of either Alexa or Google voice assistant, and the Sonos ecosystem is one of the best music streaming platforms around. You may be missing out on deep bass without a sub, but this compact speaker makes your movies sound huge with its virtual surround capabilities.
After Sonos ditched Google Assistant with its newest soundbars, the decision left Bose as the high-end solution for people who wanted a choice of onboard voice assistant. The Sonos Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar uses dedicated, upfiring Dolby Atmos speakers for an added edge in movies, and the soundbar boasts plenty of bass punch for people who don’t want the expense or have the space for an additional subwoofer.
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