Get insider access
Preferred store
Your browser is not supported or outdated so some features of the site might not be available.
To try to better understand how long a TV should last, we're running 100 TVs through an accelerated longevity test for the next two years. Learn more about our latest findings with our latest video, which has been posted to our new RTINGS com R&D channel.

The 4 Best Sounding TVs - Spring 2023 Reviews

Updated
Best Sounding TVs

No home entertainment system can deliver an extraordinary experience without proper sound quality, even if you have the best picture quality from your TV. Like in a movie theater or a stadium, sound plays an important role in immersing the audience. TVs are getting thinner and thinner, and this means less space for proper speakers. Despite this, modern high-end TVs can get loud, some of them have okay bass and deliver clear and understandable dialogue, but the sound quality is still nothing compared to a proper sound setup. If you want the best sound, we suggest you check our recommendations for the best soundbars.

We've bought and tested more than 380 TVs, and below are our recommendations for the TVs with the best sound you can buy. Make sure to check out recommendations for the best TVs, the best outdoor TVs, and the best smart TVs. Most brands will start releasing their 2023 lineups soon, so make sure to vote on which ones you want us to buy and test first. If you want to find out more about the 2023 models, check out our 2023 TV lineup page.


  1. Best Sounding TV

    The best sounding TV we've tested is the LG G1 OLED. It's an impressive TV that delivers fantastic visuals with good sound quality. It has a very good frequency response, with one of the best bass responses we've measured on a TV, so unlike most TVs, there's a bit of thump and rumble. It also gets very loud, but there are some compression artifacts at max volume. It has an extremely well-balanced sound profile at moderate listening levels, so dialogue is very clear and easy to understand. It also supports eARC, which is great if you plan on connecting it to a home theater system or soundbar.

    It also delivers fantastic picture quality thanks to its OLED panel. Blacks are perfectly deep and uniform in a dark room, which is great for watching movies as there's no distracting blooming or haloing around bright objects or subtitles. It can display a wide color gamut with HDR content, which looks incredibly vivid and lifelike. It's been replaced by the LG G2 OLED, but the new model has a worse frequency response overall, with slightly less bass and a less balanced sound profile.

    See our review

  2. Best Sounding Upper Mid-Range TV

    The best sounding TV we've tested in the upper mid-range category is the Sony X95K. It's a great TV overall that sounds good. It has a well-balanced sound profile, so dialogue is clear and easy to understand. It doesn't get as loud as the LG G1 OLED and has less bass, but it has less compression and very little distortion at high volume levels. Like the G1, it supports eARC and supports a wider range of audio formats than the G1, including DTS:X via DTS-HD MA, which is great as that's the most commonly supported format on UHD Blu-ray movies.

    It delivers fantastic picture quality, but whereas the LG delivers perfect inky blacks with no blooming thanks to its OLED panel, the Sony relies on a Mini LED full array local dimming feature to achieve deep blacks, so there's more distracting blooming around bright objects. It still looks great, though, and with its excellent peak brightness in HDR, bright highlights stand out. It also has a wide color gamut, so HDR content looks vivid and lifelike.

    See our review

  3. Best Sounding Mid-Range TV

    The TCL 6 Series/R646 2021 QLED is the best-sounding mid-range TV we've tested. It's a great overall TV available in a few different sizes, from 55 to 75 inches, and it combines its great picture quality with good sound quality. It has a decent frequency response with a well-balanced sound profile that delivers clear dialogue, which is great for watching the news or TV shows. It also gets very loud as it's one of the lowest TVs we've tested, with very little distortion, even at max volume. If you're planning on using an external soundbar or home theater system, it supports eARC audio passthrough with all major formats.

    It delivers similar overall sound quality to the Sony X95K but has slightly worse picture quality, as it's not as bright as the Sony and has a narrow viewing angle. It performs well in dark and bright environments thanks to its great peak brightness and very high contrast ratio. It uses the user-friendly Google TV smart platform, which is easy to use and has a huge selection of streaming apps, so you can easily find your favorite streaming content.

    See our review

  4. Best Sounding Budget TV

    The Insignia F50 QLED is the best budget TV with decent sound quality that we've tested. It's a simple TV with okay overall performance, and it offers good value for its cost. It surprisingly has an alright sound quality for a budget-friendly TV, as most other low-cost options have mediocre sound. It gets fairly loud and has a well-balanced sound profile, meaning it's a good choice for listening to dialogue, but like most TVs, it doesn't produce much bass, so get a soundbar for the best sound possible. If you do, the TV supports Dolby and DTS audio formats for passthrough.

    The built-in Fire TV platform is user-friendly, and navigating through the menu feels smooth. It has a bunch of apps you can download, and the mic built into the remote gives you access to the Alexa voice assistant feature. It also has decent overall picture quality with deep blacks if you want to use it in a dark room and decent peak brightness and reflection handling in bright rooms. It's a bit difficult to find, as it's been discontinued, but the 50-inch and 65-inch models are still readily available.

    See our review

Notable Mentions

  • Sony X90K: The Sony X90K is a lower-end version of the Sony X95K. It means it doesn't sound as good and isn't as bright, but it still has decent sound quality and excellent peak brightness, so it's still a good choice for well-lit rooms if you want to save a bit of money. See our review
  • Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021: The Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021 has decent sound and is overall better than the Insignia F50 QLED. However, it has worse smart features and costs more. See our review
  • Sony X75K: The Sony X75K is a decent-sounding TV for a good price, but it has low contrast and just okay picture quality, so the TCL 6 Series/R646 2021 QLED is a better choice for most users. See our review

Recent Updates

  1. Mar 10, 2023: Verified our picks for accuracy and availability, and added the Sony X75K as a Notable Mention.

  2. Jan 09, 2023: Verified our picks for accuracy and refreshed the text.

  3. Oct 21, 2022: Moved the TCL 6 Series/R646 2021 QLED to the 'Best Mid-Range' pick, and added the LG G1 OLED and the Sony X95K as the 'Best TV' and 'Best Upper Mid-Range TV', respectively.

  4. Jul 29, 2022: Restructured article to keep a focus on sound; made the TCL 6 Series/R646 as the 'Best Sounding TV' and replaced the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021 with the Insignia F50 QLED in the budget category; renamed the Sony A90J as the 'Best For Home Theaters' and added the Sony X95K as the 'Best For Bright Rooms'; removed the Samsung Q80A and the Hisense U6G.

  5. Mar 31, 2022: Replaced the LG C1 OLED as 'Cheaper Alternative' to the LG G1 OLED with the Sony A90J, as it supports DTS. Removed a few Notable Mentions that are no longer relevant, and added the LG C1 OLED as a Notable Mention.

All Reviews

Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best sounding TVs to buy for most people with different tastes. We factor in the price (a cheaper TV wins over a pricier one if the difference isn't worth it), and availability (no TVs that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).

If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here is the list of all our reviews of TVs, sorted by their sound quality. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no TV is perfect, most TVs are great enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them. Keep in mind that no TV can deliver the sound quality of a dedicated sound system or a soundbar.

Discussions