Our Soundbar Sound Tests

Sound Enhancement Features

Room correction features automatically adjust audio reproduction based on the unique acoustic characteristics of the room you're listening in. The shape, size, and contents of your room can all affect the way sound is perceived, so your audio content could sound a bit different if you move the bar to a different room. Room correction uses microphones to analyze different sounds reproduced in the space and adjust the sound to get closer to a predetermined "target curve," which should be more pleasing for listeners. Many Sonos and LG soundbars come with room correction features, including the Sonos Arc and the LG SP9YA. It's a more premium feature, so you won't find it on every soundbar we test. That said, if a soundbar offers a room correction feature, we perform our stereo frequency response tests with it turned on.

Dialogue enhancement features adjust your audio, letting you hear the frequencies associated with the human voice more clearly. As a result, dialogue is easier to understand, and voices sound more crisp and distinct. This feature can be useful if you listen to a lot of dialogue-centric content, like TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks. However, we don't evaluate its performance.

If you like to watch TV at night, an auto-volume or night mode may be an especially useful feature. Night mode features apply a dynamic range compressor to your audio to reduce the volume change between different programs. As a result, the louder portions of your audio, like explosions, aren't dramatically louder than the rest of your content, and the quiet parts of your audio are still audible. Auto-volume modes, however, level out the average volume to keep it roughly the same across different programs while still allowing for a difference in volume between the loudest and quietest parts of your audio. An auto-volume mode is handy for watching TV when you don't want your commercials to be dramatically louder than your show. We report whether a soundbar includes these features; however, we don't evaluate their performances as part of our testing process.

A subwoofer level adjustment feature can help you add more thump and punch to your audio by adjusting the amount of bass that the subwoofer reproduces. However, unlike bass adjustment features, it doesn't change the amount of bass reproduced by the soundbar and the satellites. Fans of bass-heavy music may want to increase the subwoofer level to feel more rumble, while listeners who prefer a more neutral sound may want to reduce the amount of boom in their audio. This tool is useful for users who listen to a lot of music and movies, but it won't matter much for dialogue-centric content like TV shows since there typically isn't much bass mixed into that content.

A bass adjustment feature is a common sound enhancement tool that lets you adjust the amount of bass in your audio content. Unlike the subwoofer level adjustment, this feature adjusts the amount of bass reproduced by the bar, the subwoofer, and the satellites all at once. If you like to feel the thump and punch in bass-heavy music and action-packed movie scenes, you may want to increase the bass level. However, you may want to reduce the bass level when watching dialogue-centric content like TV shows since there isn't usually much bass mixed into those programs. We usually tweak the bass adjustment feature when creating our stereo frequency response with calibration graph.

The treble range is where vocals and lead instruments get their brightness and clarity. A treble adjustment feature lets you adjust the amount of treble in your audio, so you can increase it to make those instruments brighter and sharper or decrease it to get a warmer, less detailed sound. This tool can be helpful for music fans who want to customize the bar's sound profile more to their liking. We usually tweak the treble adjustment feature when creating our stereo frequency response with calibration graph.

An equalizer, or an EQ, is a tool that gives you even more control over the bar's sound profile. Many soundbars offer EQ preset modes, which are predetermined by the manufacturer to enhance certain listening experiences like watching TV or listening to bass-heavy music. However, more premium soundbars come with graphic or parametric EQs, which let you personalize the sound profile by adjusting specific frequencies and augmenting or reducing them based on your preferences. Many Samsung soundbars, like the Samsung HW-Q800A, come with a graphic EQ, as well as other premium bars like the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar.

If you like to watch movies, a surround level adjustment feature could be helpful for you. Increasing the surround level typically increases the size of the soundstage, resulting in a wider, more immersive sound that makes audio seem like it's coming from all around you. Keep in mind that we don't evaluate this feature's performance as part of our testing process.

A virtual surround feature is helpful for movie lovers who want to feel immersed in their favorite movies without adding lots of additional speakers to their setup. This tool uses specialized psychoacoustic techniques to convince your brain that audio is coming from all around you, even if the bar lacks extra satellite speakers. However, some soundbars have an unnatural sound with this feature turned on, like the Sony HT-S350. That said, we don't evaluate this feature's performance.