The best Sonos soundbars of 2024

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Sonos makes top-notch soundbars that pack a punch when watching movies, flipping through TV channels, or playing video games. The best Sonos soundbars also support wireless music streaming, and the brand makes models suited for every budget.

Over the years, I've tested all of the company's soundbars, and can fully endorse the Arc Ultra as the best of the bunch. The Arc Ultra achieves this by offering excellent Dolby Atmos performance while integrating new Sound Motion technology. Sound Motion enables bigger bass without the need for a separate subwoofer. Meanwhile, buyers on a budget who want something more compact should check out the Sonos Ray, which is a smaller, more affordable bar that's better suited for apartments and bedrooms.

Below, you can find all my picks for the best Sonos soundbars, as well as recommendations for add-on speakers and subwoofers that you can use to create an even more immersive experience.

Our top picks for the best Sonos soundbars

Best overall: Sonos Arc Ultra - See at Amazon

Best on a budget: Sonos Ray - See at Amazon

Best midrange model: Sonos Beam (Gen 2) - See at Amazon

Best subwoofer add-on: Sonos Sub 4 - See at Amazon

Best rear speaker add-on: Sonos Era 300 - See at Amazon

Best overall

The Arc Ultra is the best Sonos soundbar available. It's a beast of an audio system and will leave you wanting little else. The Arc Ultra debuted at the end of 2024 and pulled out all the stops to accommodate people looking for a powerful all-in-one soundbar with great Dolby Atmos and bass performance.

The single speaker unit can produce 9.1.4 channels of audio when playing Dolby Atmos surround sound. It also has dedicated up-firing audio drivers to bounce sound off your ceiling. This means that audio effects can sound like they're coming from all around the room, including above your head. In my tests, the Arc Ultra delivered an incredibly immersive experience, whether watching movies or listening to music. The sound is so expansive that I had a hard time believing it all came from just one device under my TV.

One of the Arc Ultra's secret ingredients is its new Sound Motion driver. This component packs multiple woofers into a compact space, offering deeper bass than the original Arc, without making the soundbar any larger in size. While the Sound Motion driver can't quite match the performance of a dedicated subwoofer, it does give movies and shows more low-end presence and depth with a full, rich quality that few stand-alone soundbars can beat.

The Arc Ultra also has exceptional dialogue clarity. The device offers an optional speech enhancement mode, but I rarely had to rely on it because the bar's internal drivers are already so well-tuned for delivering clear speech. If you do find yourself needing an extra boost, the speech enhancement emphasizes dialogue even more without muddying explosions or altering other sound effects. It's impressive.

On the downside, the Arc Ultra is Sonos' most expensive soundbar, and it's disappointing that it doesn't support DTS:X, another 3D audio format that rivals Dolby Atmos. It also lacks HDMI video passthrough, so you can't use the bar to route extra devices to your TV, like a gaming console or streaming player. But these shortcomings are small compared to all the Arc Ultra gets right. If you want a single, powerful speaker in your living room that's capable of handling all your home theater needs, the Arc Ultra is the best Sonos soundbar there is.

Read our Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar review.

Check out our guide to all of the best soundbars.

Best on a budget

The Sonos Ray is the brand's most affordable and compact soundbar. Thanks to its minimal footprint, it's the best Sonos soundbar for bedrooms and apartments. For comparison, it's less than half the width of the Arc Ultra and a few inches shorter and less deep than the Beam (Gen 2). Despite its stature, it still far outdoes the capabilities of most speakers embedded in TV sets, especially lower-end models.

In terms of audio quality, you can expect a smooth experience that will bring any movie to life. You won't get the window-rattling lows or all of the flourishes offered on Sonos' pricier soundbars, but the Ray is impressive for its size, with a surprisingly detailed sound signature.

Streaming music on the Ray over WiFi is great, too, offering better quality than a Bluetooth connection would provide. That said, it is a bummer that Sonos doesn't also include Bluetooth support as an alternative for those instances when WiFi might not be an option.

The Ray is also a bit lacking in wired connectivity. It doesn't include an HDMI port and can only connect to a TV (or PC) via an optical cable. This does mean it has wide compatibility among older televisions, but it also means that it doesn't support lossless audio formats, Dolby Atmos, or automatic pairing with your TV remote.

On the plus side, you can still connect a Sonos subwoofer or rear Sonos speaker wirelessly to the Ray to boost its basic surround sound configuration. Like all Sonos soundbars, it also supports grouping with other Sonos speakers to create a multi-room audio setup, and it can pair with the Sonos Ace headphones so you can switch between soundbar and private listening with your TV.

Check out our guide to all of the best budget soundbars.

Best midrange model

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) serves as a middle ground between the brand's flagship Arc Ultra and its entry-level Ray. It's powerful enough to fill a medium-sized space with sound but isn't that much bigger than the Ray, so it can still work well in a bedroom or smaller living room. (That's where I've predominantly used the speaker.)

Beyond size, the midrange Beam really differentiates itself from the cheaper Sonos Ray by adding an HDMI eARC connection and support for Dolby Atmos. This means it can automatically work with many modern TV remotes and it has a wider sound stage. For under $500, the Beam punches well above its weight class. It's a proper home theater in a box, perfect for most living rooms or other places that could use an audio upgrade.

But while the Beam supports decoding multi-channel audio formats with boisterous and vibrant performance, it doesn't feature any up-firing drivers. Instead, it relies on virtual processing to simulate a sense of overhead audio which just isn't as effective. As a result, you won't get the same kind of atmospheric overhead sound effects as you would on the more expensive Arc Ultra.

Still, movies sound immersive, and the Beam fills my space well, even when set to under 50% volume. "Dune" is a great showcase for the Beam, with booming effects and a drum-heavy soundtrack that pounds along.

Music also sounds rich and full. It's impressive enough to serve as the DJ for home gatherings. Streaming music via WiFi through the Sonos app works well and encompasses a vast amount of services, but the soundbar also supports AirPlay for a more immediate listening experience. That said, like the Ray, the Beam is missing Bluetooth support.

Best subwoofer add-on

If you crave more bass, the best add-on you can buy for your Sonos soundbar is a subwoofer, specifically the Sonos Sub 4. It can wirelessly connect to the Ray, Beam, or Arc Ultra so it can be hidden in the back of a room or even on its side under a couch.

The subwoofer's force-canceling drivers produce deep, commanding bass for intense dramatic effect during movies. But the woofer never becomes unwieldy in reverberations or rattling.

If you love bass so much you want to marry it, you can even pair two Sonos Sub 4 units together. However, with two Sonos subwoofers, there are certain combinations of older models that will and won't work. You can learn more on the Sonos website.

Given its premium performance, the Sub 4 pairs best with an Arc Ultra, though you can still use it with the smaller Beam or Ray. But for those more compact bars, the less expensive Sonos Sub Mini is a great alternative. It's not ported so it doesn't have the same audio characteristics as the Sub 4 — it's a little tighter and more punchy — but it can still add new dimensions to your home theater setup.

Best rear speaker add-on

The Sonos Era 300 is built to work as a stand-alone wireless speaker or as an add-on speaker that you can connect to the best Sonos soundbars. When two Era 300 units are paired together and used as rear speakers in conjunction with an Arc Ultra, Beam, or Ray you can enable a true surround sound experience.

The Era 300 has built-in drivers firing in all directions, including upward. This allows it to provide genuine Dolby Atmos support with audio effects that bounce off your ceiling. If you have a Beam (Gen 2) or Arc Ultra, the Era 300 will work with them to provide an even more convincing sense of overheard audio and a wider Dolby Atmos sound stage.

However, adding a pair of Era 300 speakers to your Sonos soundbar setup does require a fair amount of physical space, and they're a bit pricey.

If that's a problem for your room and budget, a pair of smaller, cheaper Era 100 speakers can also do a solid job as wireless rear speakers. That said, the Era 100 speaker does not have up-firing Dolby Atmos drivers.

How we test Sonos soundbars

To determine the best Sonos soundbars for different needs, I tested all of the brand's models. I paired each one to the same TV and got a sense of how each bar performed on its own and compared to each other. I focused on aspects like audio quality, physical size, connectivity, software features, and ease of use to help inform my decisions about what kinds of circumstances they work best for.

In my hands-on time, I also used the best Sonos soundbars in various rooms around my house to get a sense of how they worked in different spaces. I based a lot of my assessments on how the soundbars performed while watching movies with high-quality surround sound mixes. But I also watched sitcoms and older films to hear how they sounded with lower-quality and non-pristine tracks. For music, I streamed songs from my phone and used the Apple Music app on my Apple TV streaming box.

With the exception of the Sonos Ray, which only supports a digital optical connection, I stuck with an HDMI eARC connection to get the best-quality audio on each soundbar.

Sonos soundbars FAQs

Can you wall-mount a Sonos soundbar?

All of the best Sonos soundbars included in this guide can be mounted to a wall or placed on a tabletop surface. Sonos makes mounts for each of its speakers, but third-party mounts usually cost less.

Can you pair a subwoofer to a Sonos soundbar?

All of Sonos's current soundbar models support the brand's Sub 4 or Sub Mini. The Arc Ultra even supports dual subs, as long as you pair a Sub 4 and/or Sub 3. It's also important to note that Sonos soundbars are not compatible with subwoofers made by other brands.

For soundbar recommendations that include a subwoofer, visit our guide to the best soundbars with subwoofers.

Can Sonos soundbars play Dolby Atmos surround sound?

Both the Sonos Arc Ultra and Sonos Beam (Gen 2) support Dolby Atmos. However, only the Ultra has up-firing audio drivers to produce overhead Atmos sound effects. In contrast, the Beam uses its processing power to simulate overhead sounds, which isn't as convincing.

To learn more about the format, check out our Dolby Atmos guide. For more soundbar recommendations with Atmos support, visit our roundup of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars.