The 5 Best Soundbars Under $500 - Fall 2024

The Vizio M Series M512a-H6 is the best soundbar under $500 we've tested. It's a great choice for everything from music to movies to TV shows, offering a versatile overall performance at a more affordable price than more premium models. This setup comes with two rear speakers that help position sound effects to pinpoint locations in the soundstage. Whether you're watching 5.1 surround sound formats like Dolby Digital or object-based formats like Dolby Atmos, you feel like the action is taking place all around your living room. Its sub also brings the rumble in the bass during intense scenes for a real cinematic feel.

Out-of-the-box, this soundbar has a balanced and even sound that's suitable for listening to lots of different types of audio content. Vocals and instruments in your favorite tunes are present and detailed in the mix, and dialogue is reproduced with great clarity. Of course, this bar doesn't offer as many sound enhancement features as more premium setups, so you won't find a room correction feature, meaning that it sounds a bit different depending on your room's unique acoustics. That said, its bass and treble adjustments still give you some ability to control its sound, which is nice. Overall, it offers great value for the price.

Depending on the setup of your living room, you may not have enough space for a soundbar with dedicated satellite speakers. In that case, you'll want to look at the JBL Bar 500. This 5.1 setup consists of a soundbar and a subwoofer, and that's it. However, this bar can reproduce a clean and clear sound that is well-suited for a variety of audio content, including music and TV shows. While it delivers a bit of extra boomy bass, you can adjust the sound using the app's 3-band graphic EQ.

This soundbar supports many audio formats commonly found on streaming platforms and Blu-rays. For example, it supports Dolby Atmos, although it has to downmix this content into stereo to play it. As a result, without dedicated satellites, it doesn't bring the same immersive feel with multi-channel content you get with the Vizio M Series M512a-H6. Instead, sound effects aren't as clear and, instead, are a bit boomy. If you don't watch much surround sound, it's not a big deal, though, and if you're low on space, you may find it's the better deal overall. Keep in mind that this bar can sometimes jump in price beyond $500, but more often than not, you can find it for a bit cheaper.

If you don't have a lot of room in your setup, you can always opt for a small standalone bar like the Sonos Beam (Gen 2). Since it doesn't come with a subwoofer like the JBL Bar 500, it takes up even less space in your living room. The bar is less than 25 inches wide, so it easily fits underneath your TV stand or monitor. You don't have to sacrifice sound quality with a small bar, either. This bar brings a wide and immersive soundstage performance that actually rivals that of some home theater speakers. Audio formats like Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital are more immersive and life-like as a result.

This soundbar has many of the same features as Sonos's more premium offerings. For example, its companion app allows you to connect the bar with other Sonos products to spread audio throughout your room. Also, the TruePlay room correction tool automatically calibrates the bar's output based on your room's unique acoustics. It's only available with iOS devices at this time, but if you're an Android user, you can still manually adjust the bar's sound with its bass and treble adjustments. Of course, without a sub, you don't get as much rumble in the bass. Still, it's a solid choice if you're low on space and mostly listen to content without a lot of bass mixed in.

Lots of soundbars on the market come with sound customization tools so you can switch up their sound to your liking—and the best we've tested under $500 is the Samsung HW-Q600C/Q60CC. This versatile 3.1.2 setup comes with more traditional bass and treble adjustments as well as a graphic EQ so you can customize its output across the range. There are lots of EQ presets on hand, like Standard, Surround, and Adaptive Sound. If you want a lot of control over how your bar sounds, this soundbar is worth a look.

The Samsung supports many audio formats that you'll likely find on both streaming services and Blu-rays, like Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos. The manufacturer's unique Acoustic Beam technology uses side-firing drivers inside the bar to send audio through a 'beam' and out a series of up-firing drivers for a more immersive sound. You won't find a room correction feature like with the JBL Bar 500, but thanks to its wide array of customization tools, you can manually make up for any adjustments in the sound based on the acoustics of your room.

Dolby Atmos is a popular object-based audio format found on many different streaming platforms, especially with newer releases. However, not everyone needs a soundbar that can decode this format. If you prefer to watch stereo content, like most music and TV shows, or 5.1 surround formats like Dolby Digital, you can save a lot on a bar without Atmos capabilities. With that in mind, the best we've tested under $500 is the Vizio V Series V51-H6. It's getting harder to find in stock but is still worth checking out if you want a budget-friendly option with a subwoofer and two satellites.

From the jump, this bar offers a great sound quality that makes it suitable for listening to many different audio formats—besides Atmos. The sub brings the rumble in action-packed movie scenes while the satellites spread sound effects into the space around your couch for a more immersive feel. Naturally, though, you don't find as many features as with the top-of-the-line offerings—there's no room correction, for example, so the bar sounds a little different depending on your room's acoustics. Thanks to its bass and treble adjustments, you can still make up for this and control the bar's sound to get it more to your liking. Overall, this bar is a solid value pick.