Group test: Home cinema soundbars

Setting up a home cinema needn’t be a hassle: if you want to avoid a mess of cable that makes your lounge look like a plate of spaghetti from your local Italian, and a load of hulking speaker boxes that make you feel like you’re in a night club, then you can opt for an all-in-one soundbar.

A single speaker (sometimes accompanied by a subwoofer), soundbars aim to replicate the effect of multi-speaker surround sound eithers by “projecting” sound-beams around your living room or bouncing sound off the walls.

So do soundbars really work? Happily, the answer is yes, but to differing degrees – we’ve assembled five models to see which of these tech-packed blocks delivers the best audio experience.

Philips HTS8140

Despite some size and cable issues, the HTS8140 is an impressively squashed down home cinema that produces the goods when it comes to both picture quality and surround sound. Its built-in upscaler means DVD pictures are pushed to near-HD standards, while Ambisound sprays audio effects to every corner of your room – a bit like your incontinent cat, only more pleasant.

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Go to the Philips HTS8140 product page >>

strong> Samsung HT-X810R

The HT-X810R doesn’t blow us away with either its design or its performance. From a distance God is watching us, and equally from a distance these look pretty stylish. Get up close and personal and well, let’s just say these have more plastic than Bill Gate’s wallet. That said, considering the low price, this still remains a decent purchase. The subwoofer’s wireless connectivity is a big plus from an ease-of-use perspective, and while surround sound isn’t simulated particularly well, we still got a sense of an all-enveloping effect at times. It’s not going to win any sonic awards, but as long as you don’t expect any miracles this is a decent offering.

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Go to the Samsung HT-X810R product page >>

Denon DHT-FS3

In the right room layout the DHT-FS3 can produce excellent pseudo-surround sound, with more booming effect than Brian Blessed with a megaphone. And despite its two-box configuration, the small size of the bar and sub make it very easy to live with. That said, the lack of any HDMI passthrough option and the fact that its surround sound is less effective in certain room layouts mean it’s not quite the world beater we were hoping for.

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Go to the Denon DHT-FS3 product page >>

Logic3 SoundStage 5.1

The low price and powerful performance makes this a great replacement for your television’s built-in speakers, but otherwise it’s not all that impressive. You’ll need a lot of room for this enormo-soundbar, so if your lounge is anything like ours, prepare to move a lot of pizza boxes and “important stuff”. The humungous size and weight and patchy surround sound performance mean there are far better alternatives available. But if you can look past the dodgy sound and massive size, and you only have a small budget in the first place, then this might be the soudbar for you.

Click to read the full review >>
Go to the Logic3 SoundStage 5.1 product page >>

PriceRunner recommended
Yamaha YSP-40D

If you can stomach the high price, this soundbar delivers a truly superb one-speaker audio experience. With a solid, heavyweight case and multiple drivers projecting the various channels around your room, sound is both powerful and precise, leading to a brilliantly involving audio experience. The added bonus of great connectivity means you can also use the bar as a hub for all your audiovisual gear, including games consoles, set-top boxes and DVD/Blu-ray players. Nice.

Click to read the full review >>
Go to the Yamaha YSP-40D product page >>

Like these soundbars? Why not get chatting about them on the PriceRunner forums.

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