Best Dolby Atmos Soundbars to Level Up Your Home Cinema

We know the temptation is to go big when it comes to home audio – but even we’ll admit that the Ambeo Max on our list is too much for some homes. It’s hard to admit, but not everyone can accommodate a soundbar that’s nearly 20 kg and 126 cm long. Thankfully, Sennheiser has the answer: the Ambeo Plus. You’ll have to accept cutting the speakers from 13 to 9, but this is lighter, smaller and almost £1,000 more affordable.

That said, it’s not a small soundbar (for that, go for the Ambeo Mini instead). You’re getting Dolby Atmos compatibility, two up-firing speakers and sound that can adapt to your room in a few minutes. We’ve tested it out – paired with the booming Sennheiser Ambeo Sub – and the results are consistently inspiring. The chase scene from The Batman is aggressive and punchy, and Top Gun: Maverick’s Mach 10 opening is borderline transcendental.

Vocals cut through the mix very well, and you get lots of volume that is easily room-filling for small-to-medium sized spaces. It’s essentially plug-and-play, we set it up, connected to our wifi and changed a few EQ settings via the app in a few minutes. While the Max is still our favorite soundbar overall – the Plus is a solid runner-up. There are more affordable Dolby Atmos options out there in 2023, but the Plus is a new home theater favorite.

If you’re looking for “real” Dolby Atmos performance via upward-firing speakers rather than a virtual Atmos environment, Bose’s Smart Soundbar 600 is one of the best ways to bring a massive upgrade to your home cinema setup.

This bar is loud, full of detail, and comes with loads of connectivity extras. We had it all fully set up within a matter of minutes, delivering an immersive experience when we watched The Tomorrow War (a so-so movie that has some great whooshing surround effects) and Top Gun: Maverick.

The performance on the latter was so enveloping that we had to go to the window to check that the sounds weren’t coming from outside the house.

So, you’re after a single standalone soundbar to do it all. Look no further than the Sonos Arc: a gorgeous device that delivers massive sound without the need for additional speakers. This comes in with dimensions that make it a little wider than your average 48-inch telly, so we reckon it’s a good pick to go with a bigger model, at least 55 inches, if not more.

Complete with 11 internal drivers (including two that point upwards), the pushed out sound rocked our house, pumping crisp, detailed effects all around us at impressive volumes.

This unit is a proper all-in-one package, and it comes into its own with its ability to connect to music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and Sonos Radio, in addition to built-in voice control via Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa and multi-room audio via other Sonos speakers or Apple’s AirPlay 2. Long story short: the Arc is the real deal.

The most obvious competition for the Sonos Arc is this Bose that comes in a similar form factor and at around the same price. The feature set is so similar when comparing these two rivals head-to-head that your choice may come down to personal preference, or whether you already have other Sonos or Bose products at home.

You can rest assured knowing that the 900 also delivers a wonderful sound, with loads of clarity, spaciousness and atmosphere. We reckon the Bose looks just a bit more minimalist – if that sways you at all – but that kind of opinion on design is going to vary from person to person too. Both bars support Alexa, Google Assistant, AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect.

While the 900 has two fewer drivers (it lacks the side-facing ones), it still has upward-firing speakers, and you can send music to it via Bluetooth, a feature missing from the Arc. Overall, it’s a close-run thing between these two, and both are deserving of spots on our list.

If you’re planning to invest in a lavish home cinema system that’ll last for years to come, it’s worth taking a close look at the gorgeous Beosound Theatre.

It has a modular design so that it can be updated when upgrades are required, and even if your needs are just for a powerful standalone soundbar right now, it connects to the range of Bang & Olufsen speakers to develop into a full-fledged surround system in the future.

The high-end bar from the Danish luxury audio brand brings an exceptional cinematic experience to your living room, in a striking design that delivers punchy audio from its configuration of 12 speaker drivers blasting out a total of 800 watts of amplification.

It doesn’t quite beat the Ambeo Max when it comes to spatial effects, but it gets close. Revamping the whole telly setup? It’s also available with a combined 55, 65 or 77-inch LG screen when you buy it via B&O.

The one soundbar to rule them all? It’s the Ambeo Max from the audio wizards at Sennheiser. This massive beast has a steep price, weighs in at 18.5kg and is 1.26m long, so the first thing to make sure of is that you have the funds and the space (or a wall with enough structural integrity, if you’re mounting it) before you even start to consider it.

Still here? Clearly, this is the one for you, as it's the most impressive sound system for your precious home cinema. It's a hulking bit of kit that will scan your living room’s walls and ceiling before blasting out the highest quality sound from its 13 speakers (yes, you read that right – that’s six woofers, five tweeters and two upward-firing drivers).

It is, by far, the best soundbar we’ve ever heard, and it took No Time to Die to another level in our tests. It doesn’t skimp on those all-important connectivity options too, with a recent software upgrade adding support for Apple Airplay 2, Spotify Connect and Tidal in addition to its Bluetooth and Chromecast capabilities. It comes at a serious cost, but if you’re not on a budget, it's certainly worth it.

Speakers: 13 (including 2 that fire upwards)
Optional Subwoofer: No
Wireless Connectivity: Wifi, Bluetooth, Chromecast, AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Tidal
Dimensions: 14 x 126 x 17 cm
Weight: 18.5kg

We know thrifty movie lovers will be asking “what is the cheapest Dolby Atmos soundbar?” and we’re confident that this is the best budget option. For £399, you’re getting a solid sonic upgrade that’ll improve dialogue and effects whilst delivering a satisfying boomy bass.

We'd assume you want to avoid compression and distortion, so we wouldn’t dial up the volume too high, but if you just want to simulate an Atmos experience in your living room this is a great option.

You can get a better surround and an improved soundstage from something like the Sonos Beam Gen 2, but the dedicated subwoofer with this Sony makes it a better option for bass lovers.

While there are a lot of impressive soundbars on our list, they’re mostly focused on delivering audio from in front of your TV, whereas true surround sound tends to well, surround, you. JBL has the answer, with its pair of detachable battery-powered wireless surround sound speakers that can either connect to each side of the soundbar or sit anywhere in your room for an amazing three-dimensional effect.

We tested this out with a few action-heavy Atmos scenes, including the music note fight during the climax of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the concluding battle in Avengers: Endgame.

This approach elevates movie moments like this, prioritising detail and clarity while adding loads of punch and rumble to all the explosions and fast-paced fisticuffs. It has an excellent subwoofer too, but this overall package is probably overkill for a smaller sitting room – it’ll perform best in a bigger space.

While positioned as another rival for the likes of the Sonos Arc and the Bose 900, it’s worth noting that this is much more of a big boy. It’s longer and heavier, making it much better suited to the big TVs of the world.

That 130cm length makes it about as tall as an average ten-year-old if that comparison helps at all. Essentially, it’s wider than the average 55-inch telly, so pair it up with a 65-inch (or bigger).

Housed within are 11 speakers – that’s a pair of upward-firing drivers for height, two tweeters, five forward-facing drivers and two built-in subwoofers. It’s a serious Dolby Atmos system, and potentially the most capable setup you can buy in 2023 (if you’ve got the space for it).

In addition to its powerful and dramatic movie-elevating performance, it comes with Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and Chromecast, as well as Alexa and Google Assistant built-in for smarts.

For its size and price, we were impressed by just how big the sound out of the Denon 550 is. Without any tweaking in the app, it’s a bassy and booming presentation that filled up our living room.

The Dolby Atmos here is via its digital processing as this bar doesn’t have any upward-firing drivers, so you’ll miss out on the immersive experience of the height channel, but we still found the effect convincing and cinematic when watching All Quiet on the Western Front.

This compact bar delivers a clean and detailed sound and has loads of physical connectivity options in addition to a wealth of options via its app, including multi-room audio, Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, AirPlay 2 and Alexa as its built-in smart assistant.

We did find the app a bit clunky, though, and it’s worth noting that you can get this soundbar’s closest rival, the Sonos Beam 2, for less cash. The Sonos lacks some of the physical ports here but it does deliver a better app, so it may come down to whether you already have some Denon speakers at home.

If you’ve got a lot of space on your TV cabinet, you might be looking for the longest soundbar you can find. This Samsung ticks the right boxes with its ultra-slim and long form factor. It's just 4cm thick, but a whopping 116cm long. That’ll pair nicely with a telly that’s at least a 55-inch size, but it might look a bit more appropriate in front of one even larger.

It’s possible to wall-mount it too, but it may look a little ridiculous. It comes with a powerful wireless subwoofer to handle bass and loads of tech crammed into the thin bar, including several smaller speakers and a pair of upward-firing drivers for cinematic Atmos height to the audio.

If you like to have a few physical connections, this one is a bit too slim for all that. It has just one HDMI port and that’s not a typical one too, it’s a mini-HDMI connector (and it comes with a mini-HDMI-to-HDMI adapter cable). There is no support for eARC, but the addition of wifi enables extra streaming options, and it has AirPlay 2 and Chromecast too, making it an excellent all-in-one option.

After the smallest soundbar that you can find but still want to hear virtual Dolby Atmos effects? This diddly Polk is the way to go. At 37cm wide, it’s a bit outrageous how tiny this is, and yet it sounds so much more impressive than it has any right to.

It uses five drivers within the soundbar to deliver clarity and detail for dialogue, while the chunky included wireless subwoofer (to be placed anywhere, as long it’s up to nine metres from the bar) handles bass.

This has the complete selection of all the main ports you’ll need too, along with wireless connectivity for Apple AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast, Spotify Connect and Bluetooth. So, if you’d rather have a discreet soundbar that doesn't draw any attention to itself, this is well worth considering.

Sonos’ second-generation Beam is a compact and affordable alternative for those of us who struggle to justify dropping too much cash on a home cinema setup. It costs more than the Sony HT-G700 but won’t set you back as much as the Bose 600.

And, the smaller size makes it considerably easier to slot into your existing system, but you still get crisp audio from the five internal drivers. It’s an entry-level soundbar that we reckon is a great choice for smaller living rooms and bedrooms.

It can still work in a larger main room thanks to the wealth of audio-enhancing features and connectivity options, like its ability to sync up to other Sonos speakers – like the Sonos Roam, among our favourite portable speakers – to really pump up the volume.

Potentially the sleekest and most stylish soundbar on our list, this B&W bar is designed as a premium all-in-one Dolby Atmos package, complete with dedicated speakers for bass and two upwards-angled 5cm drivers for height. In total, there are an impressive 13 separate drivers in this bar, allowing it to offer a complete experience.

The overhead effects don’t quite match those of the Sonos Arc, but it’s possible to find this at a lower price than certain rivals and it still delivers a stunning sound. Things only get better when it comes to music too, where this soundbar blasts out clean and detailed audio, more than competing with some of the best wireless speakers for your home.

It comes with support for Amazon Alexa, Apple AirPlay 2, high-resolution Bluetooth and Spotify Connect and is operated via the same Bowers & Wilkins Music app that we already enjoy for sending music directly from Qobuz to some of our favourite over-ear headphones, the B&W PX8.