Nothing beats a full-blown home theater system, but for many people a sound bar is the best compromise between wanting better sound and not wanting an imposing home audio system. We've rounded up the best sound bars on the market, with an emphasis on low-hassle systems that sound better than they should considering their small footprint.
For many people, the experience of watching movies and TV shows at home is changing-fast. New smartphones and tablets are letting us access our favorite programs in ways we've never imagined before, and project them onto big-screen HDTVs from the devices themselves. The urge to go wireless-or, at least, minimize the number of wires-has never been greater.
Why a Soundbar? Because frankly, the speakers in your TV suck. Flat panels are nice and thin and look great on a wall, but those razor-thin designs leave no room for decent speakers. Many displays now resort to firing audio out the back, so when mounted against a wall you'll get even worse quality.
Most home-theater setups include a TV, cable box, DVD or Blu-ray player, and maybe a gaming console - and more and more people are adding a digital set-top box like the Roku or Apple TV. But your big flat screen can only produce so much sound.
With TVs getting shiveringly slim, as many as a quarter of TV buyers now snap-up a soundbar on the spot. At the other end of the scale, those with home cinema speaker cable spidered around the skirting board have doubtless been told to get rid of it by now.
