The 5 Best Soundbars Under $500 - Fall 2019
Reviews

The best soundbar under $500 that we’ve tested so far is the Vizio SB36512-F6. It's a full 5.1 setup with a wireless subwoofer and two surround speakers. It gives you an immersive feel when watching movies thanks to the speakers’ localization, and it even supports Atmos for the illusion of height. This soundbar also has a great stereo performance and plenty of connection options.

The wireless subwoofer provides adequate bass that has an extra punch while the bar delivers a very well-balanced audio reproduction, which is suitable for a wide variety of content. It also supports most audio formats and is able to play content wirelessly via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and it even has Chromecast built-in.

Unfortunately, this setup doesn’t feel and look as premium as other 5.1 setups we’ve reviewed, but it's to be expected at a lower price point. You also need to wire the surround speakers to the subwoofer, which can be constraining if you don’t want wires around your couch. The app is also quite slow and seemed to be hard to use. Nevertheless, for a full 5.1 soundbar system, the Vizio gives the best bang for your buck and can provide good performance regardless of what you’re listening to.

The best soundbar under $500 for dialog we’ve reviewed is the Samsung HW-R650. It's practically identical to the Samsung HW-Q60R, but without the Acoustic Beam for surround content. It's also noticeably cheaper, so if you're only looking for a soundbar for voice-oriented content like audiobooks, podcasts, or TV shows, this is a great option. Its 3.1 speaker configuration offers a dedicated center channel which makes voice clearer in movies, which is great.

The overall sound quality of this soundbar is good thanks to a well-balanced audio reproduction. It can also get pretty loud, so you won’t have trouble hearing voices. It has a dialog enhancement feature, which helps with making speech clearer regardless of the volume. This, along with the night mode, will help people that have trouble listening to voice content at low volume.

However, this soundbar isn’t as versatile as other options on this list and doesn’t support Atmos content due to its lack of up-firing speakers. Some people may also feel like it's a bit disappointing on low-bass, but this shouldn’t impact dialog too much. On the upside, it's a great 3.1 system setup that's very well-built and stylish.

The best small soundbar under $500 we’ve tested is the Sonos Beam. It packs quite a lot of punch for such a small soundbar. It's easy to fit on your TV table, between the legs of your TV, or even on a desk. It's also quite easily upgradable with a wireless subwoofer and rear speakers, though that would bring the price point higher than $500. The bar by itself still has decent overall performance.

The sound profile of the Beam bar is very neutral and well-balanced, although a bit bright, which can help with dialog. Voices are very well reproduced and are clear and easy to understand, especially when using the dialog enhancement feature. It also has a night mode which helps making dialog even clearer at low volume. This soundbar also has a useful Room Correction feature that applies small corrections to its sound delivery, depending on your room.

Unfortunately, the bar by itself lacks a bit of sub-bass, so although it might be good for dialog, it won’t be as versatile for bass-heavy music and action movies. There are also no Full HDMI ports or DTS support on this soundbar, meaning you can’t use it as a hub for most of your devices. Nevertheless, the Sonos Beam is a good soundbar that offers decent performance, especially for its small size factor.

The best 2.1 soundbar under $500 we’ve tested is the Yamaha YAS-408BL; it's also known as the MusicCast Bar 400. It's a good performing soundbar that comes with a decent wireless subwoofer that delivers a good amount of bass. It's noticeably better-built than the cheaper Yamaha YAS-207, but the performance isn’t that much better.

Its sound profile is great with stereo content, with an extended bass for a thumpy and punchy experience on top of having great mid and treble performance. This will result in great performance regardless of the stereo content you listen to. It can also get pretty loud, although we don’t recommend pushing the bar to its limits as there's some compression in the bass range and you might hear some distortion as well.

This soundbar also lacks sound enhancement features like an EQ, although it might not need one if you’re looking for a neutral sound reproduction. However, it lacks a night mode, which would have been useful. On the upside, it has tons of connection options, whether you play content wired or wirelessly. If you don’t care about the metal grill and just want a straightforward soundbar that offers great performance, you can also check out the cheaper Yamaha YAS-207.