The best Dolby Atmos soundbars for 2023

Even with some of the most cutting-edge TVs on the market right now, and more on the way this year after CES 2023, it’s still widely acknowledged that adding a soundbar to your TV is a great way to take its sound to another level. But if you want to take it up a notch higher, there’s no better solution than a Dolby Atmos soundbar.

Dolby Atmos soundbars do an amazing job at creating a stunning and immersive three-dimensional soundscape for your home theater setup that would otherwise only be possible with a costly and elaborate 5.1.2 (at minimum) system made up of several speakers, a subwoofer, and an AV receiver. With an array of speakers, including “up-firing” drivers that bounce sound off the ceiling, and front and side drivers, Dolby Atmos soundbars deliver an experience that’s as close as you can get, without all the components.

Several premium brands are in on the Atmos soundbar game, including Bose, Sennheiser, Vizio, Samsung, LG, and more. For our money, however, the Sonos Arc is the best Dolby Atmos soundbar you can buy. High-performing, room-filling sound is what you get, and even though the price tag is a bit on the steep side, it’s well worth it. We’ve also taken a look at some of the other top Dolby Atmos soundbars and lined them up for you.

Sonos Arc

The best overall Dolby Atmos soundbar

With great sound, support for Dolby Atmos, and your choice of voice assistants, Sonos is carving out more space for itself in the premium home theater category. This all-in-one soundbar is also at the higher end of the price spectrum (between $800 and $900), but since it has all the bells and whistles, that’s perhaps not surprising.

The sound quality of the Arc is outstandingly detailed, it gets plenty loud, and it’s got loads of low end, which is key for movie watching (though you can also add the separate Sonos Sub, or the excellent Sub Mini, to your kit if you need more). High tones are sharp and clear, mids and voices slice through easily when watching TV and movies, and it’s just as impressive when it comes to music, thanks to a wide soundstage.

But let’s get right to the main attraction — what does the Sonos Arc’s Atmos sound like? Our reviewers referred to it as a “stellar audio experience,” and although the results can vary depending on your room size and ceiling heights, the Arc’s upward-firing speakers do a great job at creating a sense of a bigger 3D space, with ricocheting bullet sounds and speeding cars bouncing off the walls for some great movie immersion.

The Sonos Arc soundbar is controlled via the Sonos app on your smartphone or by asking Google Assistant or Alexa. The Sonos app lets you take control of your speakers in your home and customize the sound, plus with AirPlay 2, you can stream from your iPhone and keep more of the sound quality.

Samsung HW-Q990B

The best Dolby Atmos soundbar for large rooms

While we don’t often shine too much light on Samsung for its audio accolades, the Samsung HW-Q990B is an Atmos-ready wireless soundbar system that demands attention. And just because this is a big speaker wire-free bundle, that doesn’t mean you’ll be spending hours setting it up.

An HDMI eARC connection is all you’ll need with the HW-Q990B. Once you’re plugged into your TV, the surround speakers and woofer pair up with the soundbar automatically, and if you’re using a modern Samsung TV, eARC will also activate your TV’s Q-Symphony Sound feature, which uses your TV speakers to add more nuance to your overall soundstage.

In terms of actual sound quality, the HW-Q990B is going to rock the house in style. The soundbar’s up-firing drivers go above and beyond in creating that simulated top-layer of sound that only Atmos can deliver, but beyond the iconic Atmos experience, the Q990B pushes a refined, room-filling sound, complete with articulation and oomph where it needs to be (thanks in part to its beast of a wireless sub).

It may not be the most cost-effective Atmos system on the market, but if you’re looking for an elegantly styled, all-in-one solution with tons of wow factor, look no further than Samsung’s latest foray into Atmos audio handling.

Check out our video review of the Samsung HW-Q990B as well.

Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

The best compact Dolby Atmos soundbar

Sonos soundbars have a penchant for delivering big, bold audio regardless of actual speaker size, and you’d be amazed how much Dolby Atmos sound the second-gen Sonos Beam can deliver from such a small chassis.

If you’re buying an audio product that has “Sonos” somewhere in the name, we’re content in saying you’re in very good hands — at least in terms of sound quality and versatility. Sonos gear is remarkably easy to install, and the Beam takes that simplicity to the next level.

Out of the box, the only connection you’ll be working with is HDMI, although Sonos does provide an HDMI-to-optical adapter for TVs without HDMI ARC capabilities (more on that in a second), and adding the Beam to your Sonos network is just a matter of launching the Sonos app and following the instructions.

Onboard support for Alexa and Google Assistant allows you to use the Beam as a go-to smart speaker, and you can even stream and share audio from an iOS device using Apple AirPlay 2.

In terms of performance, the latest Beam delivers phenomenal soundstaging, especially when you consider the size. There’s plenty of detail in the mid- and high-range frequencies, and the bass is pretty punchy, too. But if you think you need a little more rumble, linking a Sonos Sub Mini is never a bad idea.

All in all, the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) grants an impressive entrance into the world of Dolby Atmos sound, and for a relatively affordable price, too.

Bose Smart Soundbar 900

The best Dolby Atmos soundbar for Bose fans

If there’s an Atmos soundbar on this list that we would pit against the Sonos Arc, we’d tag the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 into the ring without a second thought.

Two oval cutouts at the top of the bar house up-firing drivers underneath — a key element for any Atmos system, simulated or not. These speakers are designed to shoot sound toward the ceiling, filling out the vertical end of the Atmos virtualization. For plug-and-play options, the 900 can be connected to your TV with HDMI or digital optical, but you’ll want to use the former (with an HDMI eARC-compatible TV) to get that Atmos signal from A-to-B.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a great soundbar for HDMI switching, seeing as there’s only one port to play with (and it’s an output, not an input).

Out of the box, the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 delivers brilliant articulation across mid- and high-range frequencies, with a good amount of bass, too. However, we do recommend you download the Bose Music app (available for iOS and Android devices) for adjusting certain aspects of the EQ (we felt the 900 needed a bit more low-end push and some extra volume for its height channels).

Bose Music also allows you to use AdaptIQ to calibrate the 900 to the listening space it’s placed within, and if you plan on using AirPlay 2, Alexa, or Google Assistant, the companion app is a necessity for getting the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 connected to Wi-Fi.

The Smart Soundbar 900 is the company’s flagship soundbar, and while the price is high, and the remote control is a bit basic, basic is not the word we would use to describe the Atmos experience you’ll get with the 900. Incredible is more like it.

Vizio Elevate

The best multi-speaker Dolby Atmos soundbar

As we noted, the best way to get that overhead audio effect is to have overhead speakers, but when you can’t, upward-firing speakers as part of your soundbar can go a long way toward replicating that full 3D sound.

Packed inside the Vizio Elevate are 18 high-performance speakers with four up-firing speakers in the soundbar, plus more upward-aiming speakers as part of the two rears included in this kit (a separate subwoofer is also part of the package). With this kit, you’re literally being surrounded by sound.

The bar of the soundbar actually rotates to aim the sound up and over your head to project all that Dolby Atmos goodness to your ceiling. Our Vizio Elevate review shows just what this rotating soundbar can do in more detail.

Elevate’s Adaptive Height Speakers also rotate forward to blast you with the full force of the audio that aims to create a much broader soundstage. The Elevate also boasts that you’ll hear clearer vocals and concert hall levels of power and performance. The bass to shake your space vibrates down to 30hz and the whole system gets up to 107 decibels, making Vizio Elevate a great Dolby Atmos soundbar for gaming, movie watching, and listening to music.

Vizio M-Series M51a-H6 5.1 Soundbar

The best mid-priced Dolby Atmos soundbar

Utilizing virtual surround instead of the up-firing speakers of some of the other soundbars on our list, the Vizio M-Series M51a-H6 fills the room with spacious sound, with support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. This soundbar set also comes with a pair of low-profile surround speakers that are volume-adjustable, plus a 6-inch wireless subwoofer for deep bass with power and boom. A backlit display remote control rounds out the offerings inside the box, making this a great get-it-all-for-a-great-price option.

A flexible setup allows you to choose two placements for your speakers. They can go traditionally at the rear or use Front Surround Mode, where they can be placed at the front of the room for a wider soundstage (also handy for smaller spaces with no room behind the sofa), or Dual Stereo Surround Mode, which sends the same audio to all the speakers at once. An HDMI eARC port is an added bonus (and a rarity at this price point), allowing high-bandwidth and lossless audio when paired with a compatible TV, and the M51a-H6 also includes Bluetooth, optical, and USB connections.

The Vizio M-Series M51a-H6 kit is also smart, and you can use it with Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant devices too.

Sennheiser Ambeo

The best ultra-premium Dolby Atmos soundbar

Under the hood, 13 high-end drivers power the Sennheiser Ambeo soundbar to deliver a 5.1.4 Dolby Atmos sound experience, with support for various other 3D audio formats. Sennheiser also brags that the Ambeo is capable of producing extremely deep 30Hz bass without the need for an extra subwoofer. Plus, outfitted with advanced room calibration, it immerses you in studio-grade sound adapted to the specifics of your space for a truly fine-tuned sound.

Engineered to produce more realistic highs and lows, more dimension, and more nuanced details than you ever imagined possible, the Sennheiser Ambeo soundbar lets you tailor your listening experience with support for MPEG-H — whether you’re watching a movie, TV show, or listening to music — with a built-in equalizer and three sound modes so you can adjust things to your own individual taste. Its auto-calibration feature makes setting it up for your unique listening quirks easy, too.

Sennheiser has billed the Ambeo as a soundbar unlike anything else on the market, and it flags two aspects in particular that set it apart: Ambeo virtualization technology, which creates what it believes to be the best 3D sound that can be reproduced by a single device, and its six proprietary 4-inch, long-throw woofers that achieve improved bass reproduction without that external subwoofer. For nearly $2,000, we’d expect no less.

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