4 Underrated Soundbar Brands That Can Rival Sonos

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Immersive home theater sound doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve outfitted your living room with a huge armada of speakers and subwoofers. Most of the best soundbars on the market are fully capable of delivering a mesmerizing 5.1 or better experience, and one of the go-to brands for this level of power and sonic detail is Sonos. Since the release of the Sonos Playbar in 2013, the prolific audio company has revolutionized the way we watch our favorite movies and shows, and that’s after revolutionizing the way we listen to music wirelessly.

These days, the Sonos soundbar lineup includes heavyweights like the Sonos Arc Ultra for larger home theater footprints. There’s also the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) for small to medium-sized rooms, and even the Sonos Ray if you want to improve the sound quality of your guest bedroom TV. But as you might have guessed, Sonos isn’t the only reputable soundbar manufacturer on the market. There is a lot of competition and many of the best options tend to go unnoticed.

We’re talking about audio titans like Nakamichi and JBL, as well as a few other names in the high-end AV sector. For research purposes, we’ve selected four underrated soundbar brands that can give Sonos a run for its money.

While soundbars don’t offer the same level of immersion as proper surround sound, Sonos comes pretty close, as does Nakamichi. The latter might actually be a better option in terms of cinematic detail and sheer power, and systems like the Nakamichi Shockwafe Ultra 9.2 eARC soundbar are a testament to the brand’s home theater prowess. Delivering up to 1,300 watts, this monster soundbar set comes with two 10-inch subwoofers and four surround speakers.

This is the kind of 360-degree audio that a bar like the Sonos Arc Ultra does a decent job with, but the Shockwafe has more discrete channels and increased speaker separation. In most rooms this should result in a wider soundstage with convincing rear and spatial effects. It also costs more to buy a comparable Sonos Arc Ultra set with a Sonos Sub 4 and just two Era 100 speakers ($2,311 versus $1,900 for the Shockwafe). Unfortunately, $1,900 is on the lower end of Nakamichi’s price, and there are some compromises as well.

Although the Shockwafe Ultra 9.2 has three HDMI 2.0 inputs, a digital optical port, and a few other physical ports that you won’t find on the Arc Ultra, it doesn’t support Wi-Fi. You’ll still have access to Qualcomm aptX HD over Bluetooth, but you’ll miss out on features like multi-room audio, AirPlay, and ecosystem controls (e.g. Alexa, Google Home). Still, we’d be hard-pressed not to mention Nakamichi in a roundup of Sonos competitors.

Although Sennheiser is best known for its high-end microphones and headphones, the German manufacturer also makes a handful of soundbars that can go toe-to-toe with the Sonos arsenal. Unlike Nakamichi, Sennheiser soundbars focus a bit more on surround virtualization, relying on up-firing and side-firing drivers built into the bar to create a three-dimensional audio experience.

Systems like the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus are more expensive than Sonos’ Arc Ultra Cinematic ($1,800 versus $1,100), but the former has more physical connectivity, including two HDMI inputs, an LFE output for a dedicated subwoofer, and a stereo L/R audio output. Not only can these inputs and outputs be difficult to find on a home theater soundbar, but the entire Ambeo line can also be connected to the Internet. That means native support for platforms like AirPlay, Spotify Connect, and Google Chromecast, as well as built-in Alexa support.

There’s also the sub-$1,000 Ambeo Soundbar Mini, a smaller version of the Plus with fewer speakers and connections, but still enough room for two built-in woofers. Similar to the Sonos app, Sennheiser’s Ambeo OS software also gives you access to expanded features and settings, including a room calibration tool to tailor the bar’s performance to your theater space.

Klipsch has maintained a consistent presence in the home theater industry for decades. Revered for its iconic horn speakers that double treble clarity, Klipsch applies this engineering to many of its soundbars, making these systems especially perfect for crisp, clear dialogue and vocals. But soundbars like the Sonos Arc Ultra and Sonos Beam (Gen 2) are just as effective at articulating spoken words, so what else can Klipsch soundbars do that Sonos should worry about?

For starters, the Klipsch Flexus Core 300 5.1.2 audio system (Arc Ultra’s competitor) is the only soundbar on the market to integrate Onkyo’s Dirac Live room correction software. Using sound correction algorithms to analyze speaker placement and theater footprint, Dirac Live ensures your Flexus Core theater is as immersive as possible. Every bar in the Flexus Core line also supports Dolby Atmos and the Core 300 also supports DTS:X.

The Klipsch Connect Plus app is a robust companion software that gives you access to music streaming platforms like Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, AirPlay, and more. You’ll even have access to EQ presets, Night Mode, Dialogue Boost, and other advanced customizations. And if you want to expand your Klipsch soundbar experience, you can add Flexus Surr 100 speakers and a Flexus Sub down the line.

Portable audio has always been a strong point for JBL, an audio brand perhaps best known for its wide range of Bluetooth speakers. In recent years, JBL has experimented with more home theater equipment, including soundbars and AV receivers. We’ll focus on the former, because systems like the JBL Bar 1300XMK2 are exceptional in more ways than one, while challenging Sonos in several key categories.

For $1,700, the XMK2 features JBL’s PureVoice 2.0 and MultiBeam 3.0 audio technologies for enhanced dialogue clarity and a wide, immersive soundstage. The system supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, while the Sonos Arc Ultra only supports Atmos and the bar comes with a powerful 12-inch subwoofer. Although it’s not as multi-room compatible as the Sonos family, the XMK2 has a unique portability feature: its battery-powered surround speakers are detachable and can be connected to a Bluetooth device to play music.

The XMK2 also supports Wi-Fi for accessing services like AirPlay, Spotify, and Tidal, as well as room correction capabilities and built-in HDMI switching. If $1,700 is a bit much, JBL also sells less expensive soundbars, including the $900 JBL Bar 700MK2, a 7.1 system that also features detachable battery-powered speakers.

Multi-room audio is one of the biggest benefits of a Sonos system, whether you buy one of the brand’s flagship soundbars or a single Era 100 speaker. We knew from the start that it would be difficult to find competitors that could do whole-home audio better than Sonos. So we decided to focus on other important criteria, namely price and overall performance.

We also stuck to reliable audio brands with a proven track record. Each of the products we chose scored 4 stars or higher on Amazon or the manufacturer’s site, and we made a point of comparing them to recognizable Sonos products like the Sonos Arc Ultra and Sonos Beam (Gen 2).