The 6 Best Dolby Atmos Soundbars - Fall 2019
Reviews

The best Dolby Atmos soundbar we've tested so far is the Samsung HW-Q90R. It's a great soundbar that comes with not only a subwoofer but also two satellite speakers that you place behind you for a real surround sound experience. The whole setup feels very well-made and comes with lots of connectivity options, including wireless playback via Bluetooth or WiFi.

This soundbar has an impressive frequency response, with the best low-frequency extension we've measured yet. This means it can accurately deliver the deep thump and rumble you'll find in a favorite action movie or hip-hop track. It has an otherwise very neutral sound profile, so it's good for other genres of music as well as TV shows and can get very loud with little compression or distortion.

The soundbar setup uses up-firing speakers on the bar and satellites to help reproduce the unique height feature of Atmos content. While it does a decent job, objects in the sound image are diffused and don't sound as real as they would with dedicated down-firing speakers. That said, it's still much better for Atmos movies than your TV's integrated speakers, and is among the best soundbars we've tested overall.

The best standalone Dolby Atmos Soundbar we've tested so far is the Sennheiser AMBEO soundbar. It has 13 speakers integrated directly into a single soundbar and features a neat 3D audio mode which helps sound feel like it comes from over and around you. The result is an impressively immersive experience for a standalone soundbar.

With the AMBEO mode disabled, the soundbar's frequency response is sub-par: it struggles to accurately reproduce sounds in the bass range, so you'll find deep thump and rumble of explosions to be quieter than other frequencies at the same volume. This makes it sound a bit bright, but on the upside, it features a built-in parametric EQ so you can tweak the way it sounds to better suit your tastes. However, when using the AMBEO mode, the immersion is noticeably improved and the soundbar gives you the impression of height and surround sounds. 

Not only is this Sennheiser soundbar the most expensive one we've tested, but it's also the largest. It's notably heavier than other soundbars and looks huge in front of your TV. If you don't mind the relative lack of bass and size, though, it's worth considering thanks to its unique 3D audio feature that pairs well with Dolby Atmos content.

The LG SL10YG is a decent soundbar overall but has poor Dolby Atmos performance. Its default sound profile is pretty good overall, with overemphasized bass and treble that can make music sound more exciting, but isn't ideal for TV shows. It feels very well-made, though, with a premium design and a couple of different customization features.

This soundbar has an overall great bass performance and will be able to recreate the deep thump and rumble from bass thanks to its dedicated wireless subwoofer. It also performs quite well at its max volume, but the bar seems to be limited when it comes to volume output, as it performs noticeably quieter than other models we've reviewed. Some people might also hear a bit of distortion on higher frequencies when pushing the bar to its limits. However, we don't expect people to use the max volume with real-life content, so this shouldn't be an issue for most.

Also, this soundbar has a V-shaped sound profile, with overemphasized bass and treble ranges. Some people may prefer this exciting sound signature, but it won't be the best for a more neutral or accurate listening. The sound profile also changes drastically with Atmos content: the bass seems lower than usual and there's a lot of detail missing in the treble range. On the upside, this soundbar seems to often be on sale, so it could be worth considering if you can find it at a good price, but note it won't be as good for Atmos content as the Samsung HW-Q90R or even the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar.