Looking to upgrade your home cinema sound system to Dolby Atmos, but not keen on the idea of drilling holes in your ceiling for the privilege?
Then we have some good news. Though we’re yet to find a soundbar that can match a proper 5.1.2 speaker package for Dolby Atmos, the category has come on leaps and bounds in recent years.
While early Atmos soundbars had a limited soundstage and struggled with height in particular, many newer models have markedly improved and deliver a truly immersive virtual surround sound experience.
But be warned. While some Dolby Atmos soundbars are excellent, for every good one we test there’s at least one that’s downright terrible, and not worth your money, no matter how heavily it’s discounted.
Which is why we’ve created this buying guide, where our team of home cinema experts detail the top Dolby Atmos soundbars they’ve fully reviewed and recommend. Every product on this list has been put through a rigorous comparative testing process in one of our test rooms to ensure it is worth your cash and delivers a truly thrilling home movie experience.
We explain more about how we test Dolby Atmos soundbars at the bottom of this page. And if you want even more options, check out our choices for the best soundbars.
I’m What Hi-Fi?’s TV and AV Editor, and I’ve been testing TVs and home cinema products (as well as hi-fi kit and headphones) for over 16 years. It’s always been obvious to me that great home cinema is 50 per cent picture and 50 per cent sound, which is why I’m so frustrated by the poor quality of TV audio. That’s the reason I’m so passionate about Dolby Atmos soundbars. There’s no simpler and neater way to get immersive cinema sound at home – as long as you choose the right model.
The quick list
Best overall
The Bravia Theatre Bar 9 is the latest What Hi-Fi? Award winning Dolby Atmos soundbar from Sony, and based on testing the best money can buy right now.
Best small
Don't be fooled by the Sonos Beam Gen 2's small stature, it delivers spacious and immersive Dolby Atmos audio all while costing considerably less than its peers.
Best for versatility
If you're after a soundbar that can do it all, then the Arc is for you. Its modular compatibility with the whole Sonos ecosystem allows for optional surrounds and subwoofers.
Best premium
If money (and space) is no object, then the Ambeo Soundbar Max should be right up your street. Unapologetically bold, this Dolby Atmos soundbar sounds the part too, delivering epic, room-filling spatial sound.
Best cheap
Providing affordable Dolby Atmos audio is the name of the game with the HT-S2000. Sony's budget Dolby Atmos soundbar is a convenient and great value way of enhancing the sound of your favourite shows and movies.
Best package
The Q990D combines a soundbar, two surround speakers, and a subwoofer. It manages to refine the formula of the preceding model and delivers immersive Dolby Atmos audio in a way few soundbar packages can match.
For
- Large, immersive and three-dimensional sound
- Dynamic, weighty and detailed
- Two HDMI 2.1 inputs
Against
- Very occasional bassy crackle
- Hard-to-read display
The best Dolby Atmos soundbars we recommend in 2024
Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test.
Best overall
The Bravia Theatre Bar 9 is the successor to the Sony HT-A7000 which previously sat at the top of this list. Testing the two directly against one another, we found the Bravia Theatre Bar 9 isn’t just a solid step up on its older sibling – it’s the best Dolby Atmos soundbar money can buy right now.
Though you’ll need a fairly long stand to sensibly free stand it, the Bar 9 is packed with hardware. The Atmos soundbar comes with 13 individual drivers and quad passive radiators. These include four woofers, three standard tweeters and two beam tweeters as well as two up firing speakers. The new woofers are particularly impressive, being 1.7 times larger than those of the HT-A7000 and being built with an overt focus on boosting the soundbar's bass and midrange performance.
Despite sitting in a very competitive segment of the market, with big name rivals including the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus and Samsung HW-Q990D and soon to be released Sonos Arc Ultra, the Theatre Bar 9 offered best in class audio in a number of key areas.
Whether it was the rumbling grunt of the Batmobile during a car chase scene in The Batman, jets screaming overhead in Top Gun: Maverick, or the booming explosions in Oppenheimmer, the Bar 9 delivered an impressively wide and accurate sound full of clarity, detail and punch.
Hence its perfect five star rating and our conclusion:
”For clarity, detail, dynamics, solidity and outright Atmos-ness, [the Bravia Theatre Bar 9) is hard to fault.”
As an added benefit for those that want to expand the bar and use it as the central channel for a proper system, you can purchase Sony SA-RS5 and SA-R3S wireless surrounds and SA-SW5 and SA-SW3 wireless subwoofers – though we haven’t tested it with any of the optional units yet, so can’t talk about its holistic performance in this setup yet.
Read our full Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 review
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Sound | Excellent Atmos performance and superb clarity | ★★★★★ |
| Features | No display | ★★★★☆ |
| Build | Nicely classy looking abd solidly built | ★★★★☆ |
Best small
Delivering Dolby Atmos from a small chassis is no mean feat but the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Sonos Beam Gen 2 achieves a convincing, immersive performance without so much as an upfiring speaker in sight.
Instead, when watching Atmos content, two of the soundbar's five front-facing arrays are dedicated to reproducing overhead and surround sounds. With its hefty processing power, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 uses psychoacoustic HRTF (head-related transfer function) technology to give the impression of height without needing to get vertical.
While genuine overhead sounds are perhaps a stretch too far for this petite performer, based on our experience testing it, the bar's virtual delivery of the Atmos format outstrips any similarly priced soundbar and even a few that are more expensive. The Beam Gen 2 offers an enveloping, spatial soundscape with rich, detailed audio as well as tangible motion and depth.
Not that many soundbars at this price point come with networking capabilities, but this being a Sonos product, the Beam Gen 2’s ability to integrate into a wireless multiroom system is fundamental to its design. This means you can stream to the Beam Gen 2 from a handheld device using Apple AirPlay 2, and Spotify Connect is built-in too. Sonos introduced an update to add support for Amazon Music Ultra HD audio too, which gives access to lossless 24-bit/48kHz tracks as well as Dolby Atmos Music.
Don't let the lack of any upfiring drivers put you off. If space and budget are limited there isn't a better Dolby Atmos soundbar that we'd recommend at the money.
Read the full Sonos Beam Gen 2 review
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Sound | Warm and effective handling of Atmos | ★★★★★ |
| Features | Robust suite of streaming smarts | ★★★★★ |
| Build | Dinky design makes it a great option for small rooms | ★★★★★ |
Best for versatility
At the time of writing, the Sonos Arc is the only soundbar in the company's line-up that employs dedicated upfiring drivers to help deliver Dolby Atmos sound. Compared to the compact Beam Gen 2 which features higher up this list, the Arc is aimed at bigger TVs, namely 55in and above.
It uses 11 drivers in total and as is the Sonos way, you've got the option of adding one of its subwoofers and/or a couple of its wireless speakers to turn your set-up into a more traditional surround sound package.
Once you've got the soundbar dialled in through Sonos' Trueplay tech, the Arc bounces sound off your walls and ceiling to great effect. It doesn't just give an impression of height, during testing we found it produces a convincing three-dimensional and immersive soundfield. Whether they're localised Dolby Atmos effects or more general room-filling and atmospheric moments, the Arc delivers detail and dynamic in spades.
Its tonal evenness makes the Arc a good deal more musical than lesser rivals too, with a fine level of clarity and organisation given to tracks. It's not the most direct-sounding and the quantity of overall bass is relatively modest but we wouldn't consider either of these deal-breakers.
In terms of design, the Arc is a curvy, good-looking bar although it's worth noting that it does stand 8.5cm tall, so just make sure you won't be obscuring your TV's picture once it's in place.
Needless to say, all of Sonos' excellent streaming features come as part of the package, so you can access services like Spotify, Tidal and Amazon Music Unlimited. There's also AirPlay 2 and both HDMI and optical digital sockets.
Read the full Sonos Arc review
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Sound | Dynamoc, detailed and controlled Dolby Atmos performance | ★★★★★ |
| Features | All the usual Sonos smarts included | ★★★★★ |
| Build | Discrete with a low profile | ★★★★★ |
Positioning is crucial if you're going to make the most of the sound quality on offer from your new Dolby Atmos soundbar. Place it on a stable surface, with its feet making full contact to minimise the effect of any vibrations. Also, if your bar has upfiring drivers then we wouldn't recommend placing it on a shelf below your TV as the sound will be obstructed by the shelf above.
Best premium
Sennheiser's Ambeo Soundbar Max is hugely impressive in both senses of the word. It's a beast, weighing 18.5kg and standing almost 1.3m wide – that's noticeably heavier and larger than the competition. But all that extra space has been put to excellent use. While most soundbars rely on an external subwoofer, the Ambeo simply crams in larger, more powerful drivers – and it works a treat.
During testing, we experienced spine-tingling 3D audio that sounds totally effortless, backed up by sparkling dialogue and plenty of bottom-end grunt that will make the most of your favourite movie soundtracks. Connectivity is just as impressive, with Bluetooth 4.2, AirPlay 2 and Chromecast for streaming plus three HDMI 2.0 inputs and one HDMI eARC port.
Admittedly its size makes it a little tricky to position. And it doesn't come with a wall mount, so you might need a separate trip to your local hardware store. But once you have it set up correctly, we guarantee the results are breathtaking.
Read the full Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max review
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Sound | Rich, natural sound | ★★★★★ |
| Features | All the connectivity you'll need | ★★★★★ |
| Build | Larger than most soundbars | ★★★★★ |
Best cheap
If you're looking to spend less, the Sony HT-S2000 offers exceptional value for money. It’s a fairly compact bar (slightly wider than the Sonos Beam Gen 2, which is our pick of the smaller bars) that’s focused solely on improving your TV’s audio while keeping the cost down. Sony went with a straightforward design and feature set with the S2000, aiming for an impressive performance over fancy frills.
The soundbar features Bluetooth 5.2 and HDMI eARC – something lacking from comparably priced bars such as the Sonos Ray. It is configured in a 3.1-channel arrangement with a built-in subwoofer and a total power output of 250W. As there are no upward-firing drivers, the height channels for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X compatible audio are achieved through Sony’s Vertical Sound Engine, its psychoacoustic sound processing system.
During the testing process, we grew to really appreciate this bold little Sony soundbar. We admire that it knows where its strengths lie and how it doesn’t try to spread itself thin with unnecessary features. You can spend more on bigger, weightier soundbars, but at this price, the S2000 offers plenty of quality and will no doubt provide clearer, more direct sound than your TV will ever be capable of.
Read our full Sony HT-S2000 review
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Sound | Clear, dynamic sound | ★★★★★ |
| Features | No streaming functionality | ★★★★☆ |
| Build | Solid and compact | ★★★★☆ |
Best package
For many, a full surround system isn't feasible. On the other hand, a lone soundbar might not quite cut it. This is where a soundbar package such as the Q990D steps in.
The system is made up of a soundbar, a subwoofer, and two surround speakers. The step up from the Q990C to the Q990D isn’t huge, but several small improvements and refinements mean this new model earns a five-star review.
It's an 11.1.4-channel system, with 22 drivers in total. The bar itself features six elliptical midrange drivers, three tweeters that fire forwards, four side-firing drivers and two up-firers. Each of the surround speakers features one forward-, one side- and one up-firing driver, and the subwoofer has a 20cm driver behind a smart-looking plastic plate.
The main feature improvement for the Q990D is the HDMIs, which have been upgraded to 2.1-spec, with full support for advanced gaming features such as 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM.
Read our full Samsung Q990D review
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Sound | Large, weighty, dynamic sound | ★★★★★ |
| Features | HDMI 2.1 and plenty of streaming options | ★★★★★ |
| Build | Solid build but limited display | ★★★★☆ |
Also consider
The best Dolby Atmos soundbar alternatives we've tested:
Sony HT-A3000: in terms of pricing and features, the Sony HT-A3000 is just like the Sonos Beam Gen 2. Its detail and dynamics will improve the sound from a lot of TVs, but the main drawback is that it struggles to match the Sonos in terms of Dolby Atmos audio.
Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus: this soundbar pushes the dominant Sony HT-A7000 closer than any of its rivals. Dolby Atmos sounds wonderfully spacious and immersive, it's easier to accommodate and the Sennheiser is also packed with useful features including two HDMI inputs.
LG S95QR: the LG is a little different to the others on this list as it comes with wireless surround speakers and a subwoofer in the box. It doesn't have the precision or overhead impressiveness of the Sony HT-A7000 or Sonos Arc, but the connectivity options and features on offer are impressive.
How to choose the best Dolby Atmos soundbar for you
Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test.
A slew of Dolby Atmos soundbars have hit the market in the last couple of years, and there's now a range of models to suit most budgets. The more you spend, the more features you tend to get and the more driver units the soundbars tend to use; hence, most of our entries tend to be pricier than ordinary soundbars.
In our experience, spending more also means you should get a more convincing home cinema sound, although some of the poorer-sounding soundbars could easily be outperformed by a more affordable model.
There are a few things to consider when weighing up a Dolby Atmos soundbar. A lot will hinge on the size and dimensions of your TV. This will influence the size of the soundbar you go for; after all, you won't want to use a tiny bar with a huge 77-in TV.
Also, check the height of the soundbar – if you need to place it directly in front of your TV, you don't want it obscuring half the picture. Also, upfiring drivers need a clear line of sight to your ceiling to be effective.
It's important to note that not all Dolby Atmos soundbars have upward-firing drivers. Some decode the format and present it virtually using DSP processing to create an illusion of a 3D soundstage. The performance of virtual Atmos models varies, and while genuine height effects are certainly beyond their scope, there's more to Atmos than just the Y-axis. In some cases, a high-quality virtual Dolby Atmos soundbar can deliver more immersive and engaging sound than a mediocre model with upfiring speakers.
Whenever a soundbar does have height drivers, it's important to remember that you'll get better results if you have low ceilings to bounce the sound off and that the top of the soundbar needs to be uncovered and placed clear of the TV screen.
Typically, soundbars are a single long speaker with several drivers inside, but some come with external subwoofers for extra low-end extension and rear speakers for surround sound effects. Some Atmos soundbars even come with satellite speakers with upward-firing drivers. If floor-shaking bass and encompassing sound are high on your priority list, then these are models you'll want to consider.
Moving on to features and connectivity, Dolby Atmos soundbars tend to boast either ARC or eARC-enabled HDMI ports necessary to handle multichannel audio formats and also allow you to control the volume of your soundbar with your existing TV remote. It's worth considering if having a separate physical remote for the soundbar is important to you or if you're comfortable with controlling settings from a smartphone app.
Most Dolby Atmos soundbars have some options for wireless music playback with wifi streaming via services such as Airplay 2, Spotify Connect and Chromecast, as well as Bluetooth connectivity. If you have external devices such as games consoles or a 4K Blu-ray player, keep an eye out for additional HDMI sockets that could make your setup more flexible.
If the highest-quality 3D sound is important to you, you'll want to make sure both your TV and potential soundbar support Dolby TrueHD and eARC. Some Dolby Atmos Soundbars will only have ARC, and while that can handle Dolby Atmos, it can only do so in its lossy Dolby Digital Plus form. In contrast, Dolby TrueHD can deliver full-fat Dolby Atmos in all its lossless glory.
Further down your list of priorities you might want some kind of voice assistant functionality built in. To that effect, some bars do come with built-in mics that allow you to control certain aspects of their performance. Alternatively, you've always got the remote or in some cases, your smartphone to help out here.
You don't have to look far to find Dolby Atmos content. Besides 4K Blu-ray discs, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Netflix and Disney+ offer plenty of Atmos movies and TV shows. Ready to boost your binge-watching with the best Atmos soundbar? Let's take a look at the options...
How we test Dolby Atmos soundbars
Like the normal models we test, Dolby Atmos soundbars are partnered with a reference TV and are directly compared to a rival at a similar price point. it could be a current What Hi-Fi? Award winner (which we always have to hand) or another model we've tested recently which we feel is a suitable comparison.
All our reviews are impartial and to make sure we're testing the soundbar thoroughly, we use a mix of video, from daytime TV shows to Hollywood blockbusters to get a feeling of its strengths and weaknesses with a wide variety of audio formats. We give the Dolby Atmos soundbars plenty of running-in time too, to make sure they are ready to be put through their paces.
Dolby Atmos content features heavily, whether played through a video streaming service or off a 4K Blu-ray disc. During the reviewing process, we'll ask ourselves questions such as 'how easy is it to set up?' 'how does it handle dialogue?' and 'how does it process Dolby Atmos soundtracks?'.
We'll also play music through the soundbar to learn more about its audio abilities and streaming skills over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and use the accompanying control app where possible, before checking all the other features on offer such as the HDMI connections.
We have state-of-the-art test rooms in London, and Reading where our team of experienced, in-house reviewers test Dolby Atmos soundbars. One member of the team will write the review but overall verdicts are agreed upon by the team to eliminate any personal preference and to allow us to be as thorough as possible.
There's no input from PR companies or our sales team regarding the verdict, with What Hi-Fi? proud of having delivered honest, unbiased reviews for decades.
MORE:
Best home theatre speaker systems
20 of the best film scenes to test surround sound
F.A.Q
Are Dolby Atmos soundbars worth it?
We think Dolby Atmos soundbars are worth it, especially if you're watching a lot of content that uses the audio format. The best examples, like the Sony HT-A7000, Sonos Arc and the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max will give you a much more immersive experience compared to just playing content through your TV's speakers. They also have the potential to create a 3D soundfield that traditional soundbars simply can't manage, especially if they also happen to have upfiring drivers.
Can all soundbars do Dolby Atmos?
All soundbars can handle a Dolby Atmos signal, but it's what they do with the signal that matters. Those that don't strictly support it will just strip the standard surround audio off the signal and process it like a standard 5.1 surround sound track, while a proper Dolby Atmos soundbar will take all the information from the audio track and process it differently in order to accommodate the extra
Does Netflix support Dolby Atmos?
In a word, yes. A multitude of streaming services now support the format, including Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Netflix.
However, you will need to check if the device you're streaming it from also supports Atmos and can output the format to your Dolby Atmos soundbar. Also, Dolby Atmos support only tends to be included with certain subscription tiers. For example, only the top tiers of Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix offer the format for streaming.
Recent updates
- 23rd October 2024: Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 added as the best overall entry.
- 10th May 2024: Added the Sony HT-S2000 as Best Cheap option.
- 19th February 2024: Added new 'Also Consider' section, new F.A.Q section.
- 28th September 2023: Changed to new Best Buy format, removed Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus, Sony HT-A5000 and LG S95QR from the main list.
- 13th July 2023: made specification boxes uniform, added new images for entries.
- 10th March 2023: Added the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus as Best Premium option.
