Budget Soundbar Recommendations

9 Stone Elvis · Friday at 18:38

Im looking for a budget soundbar for a spare room. I want the most bang for buck and functionality but ideally not wanting to spend more than around £250. I know that's the low end of the market but I have expectations to match the budget. Just want to boost the sound from the 50 inch telly that's in the relatively small room. Something compact would be ideal. Im out of the loop with what's available and I appreciate everything may be a much of a muchness but thought I would ask anyway! Thanks.

Simmz · Friday at 20:13

If you can up it a bit the Sennheiser Ambeo mini is on special at Amazon for £320 at the moment!

Otherwise grab a Sonos beam 2 ex display model from Sevenoaks for £279.

Or can give you a 30% off code at JBL so you could grab the JBL BAR 500 for about £280 as well.

If wanna come under budget then go for the Bose TV speaker at £200.

9 Stone Elvis · Friday at 20:26

Cheers thanks, I’ll look into those!

Slogan · Friday at 20:57

For what it's worth, I had an original Sonos Beam and thought it was very good. I have since upgraded to the Arc but for the price of the Beam, it worked very well with minimal fuss.

9 Stone Elvis · Saturday at 12:58

Slogan said:
For what it's worth, I had an original Sonos Beam and thought it was very good. I have since upgraded to the Arc but for the price of the Beam, it worked very well with minimal fuss.

Ive just seen that the Beam has HDMI, for some reason I thought it was just optical connections. Seems to have a few Black Friday deals as well....

hornetstinger · Saturday at 13:03

Don't touch Sonos.

Quartz · Saturday at 13:27

9 Stone Elvis said:
Im looking for a budget soundbar for a spare room.

I have a SoundBlaster Katana v2 soundbar which sounds great to my non-audiophile ears. I have it hooked up to my PC via USB.

Slogan · Saturday at 14:14

9 Stone Elvis said:
Ive just seen that the Beam has HDMI, for some reason I thought it was just optical connections. Seems to have a few Black Friday deals as well....

The older Sonos products were optical only, such as the Playbar. It was (is) considered to be a very good product as well but the optical was a limitation, compared to pretty much all other soundbars around and even below the price point.

Just note that the HDMI on the Beam is for HDMI Arc from your TV. It's not a HDMI input but you probably knew that.

9 Stone Elvis · Saturday at 19:24

Slogan said:
The older Sonos products were optical only, such as the Playbar. It was (is) considered to be a very good product as well but the optical was a limitation, compared to pretty much all other soundbars around and even below the price point.

Just note that the HDMI on the Beam is for HDMI Arc from your TV. It's not a HDMI input but you probably knew that.

Yeah that's ok, I just need it to attach to a tv and (very) occasionally a projector. Most of its life will be spent just making a tv sound better in a room that isn't the main tv watching room if that makes sense. Hence why I dont want to throw major cash around and dont want a surround system as the room isn't very big.

Slogan · Saturday at 21:35

I've been thinking about doing a similar TV setup in one of the bedrooms and I know I would go for the Beam again for that. Even in the large living room we have, it filled the space very well and I only went down the Sonos Arc route because I "wanted" Atmos.

Everyone's tastes are different but I did have a high end Samsung soundbar (and sub) before I returned it and bought the much cheaper Beam. The removal / simplification of losing the HDMI inputs on the soundbar and the additional remote was what I needed for those in my household and I was most importantly, pleased with the sound. The Beam then and the Arc since have sat under my living room TV and they don't need any interaction at all. I would say I've had to turn the soundbar off at the plug switch about 3 times in the last number of years when it has lost sync with the TV and that has been the most bother it has given.

I was going to say the one thing I didn't like about the Beam was that it was a fabric covered device, which made it look more homely but left it vulnerable to stains and fabric snags. But from what I can see the Beam 2 has dropped the fabric in favour of the same perforated plastic that the Arc uses. And the Beam 2 has Atmos support as well.