Best budget soundbars: cheap options under £300

The likew The design of modern TVs are not without their limitations. Flatter TVs leave less room for speakers and while top TVs do sound good, they can never beat a top soundbar.

You might expect a soundbar to cost less than a TV, but they can easily exceed it. The most expensive soundbar we've tested recently costs £1,999.

Thankfully, there are plenty that cost far less and will still give your TV sound a boost.

See all our soundbar reviews to find out how they fared in our lab tests

The best cheap soundbars

How cheap is too cheap for a soundbar?

We've tested soundbars from both ends of the spectrum, from the £36 Majority Bowfell up to the £1,800 Kef XioDevialet Dione, and while a high price doesn't guarantee brilliant audio, there comes a point when a soundbar has no chance of sounding good.

We rarely test soundbars for less than £200 that impress and in the sub-£100 arena you definitely shouldn't bother. These extremely low-end models aren't going to improve your TV sound. 

What features won't you get if you spend less?

All soundbars are simple devices with a simple purpose: improve your TV sound. They don't need lots of flashy features to achieve their goal, but there are things a cheaper soundbar won't have that can make a difference.

• Up-firing speakers Dolby Atmos sound processing that sends sound over your head is all the rage, but soundbars can only simulate this effect without up-firing speakers. You won't find these on cheaper soundbars.
• Smart features Most soundbars have Bluetooth, which allows you to connect your phone to play music. It tends to be more high-end models that are internet-connected, so you can control them from wherever you are in the house or have streaming apps, such as Spotify or Tidal, built in.
• Rear speakers Most soundbars have a stab at simulating surround sound, with mixed success, but some high-end models have rear speakers giving you true surround sound. There are some cheaper models that have this, too.
• Automatic calibration Equalisation allows you to adjust sound levels for more bass or treble, but some soundbars take the reins in this process and can set the perfect sound levels for the acoustics in your room at the push of a button.
• Brand-level TV integration Most TV brands make soundbars and, unsurprisingly, they want you to buy one and pair it with their TV. To give you some incentive, brands including LG, Samsung and Sony, have special sound modes that utilise the TV speakers in tandem with those in the soundbar. You tend to see these features on more high-end soundbars.

There are a few surprising things you do commonly get, too. Some of the best soundbars we've tested don't even have a separate subwoofer and there are soundbars at just about every price point that have separate subwoofers, so don't assume you won't get one for your budget and don't assume you need one either. 

HDMI ARC is also just about ubiquitous at this point. It means you only need to connect one HDMI input between your soundbar and TV and it can send audio and video signals both ways. It's useful way of freeing up ports on your TV and soundbar for more devices.

Best soundbars for 2026: our top-rated, best-sounding options

Will a cheap soundbar sound better than my TV?

Yes, but only if you buy the right one. 

There are some things any soundbar will do, even poor ones. They will likely be louder than your TV, but if you want to boost clarity, depth, richness and the sort of spatial sound that sees a soundbar dot effects around your room rather than sending everything in a muddled beam straight ahead, then you need to buy a good one.

Choosing the cheapest soundbar you can find assuming that it will sound better than your TV is bound to end in disappointment.

Will I hear dialogue more clearly on a cheap soundbar?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, yes, if you buy the right one.

Dialogue sounding muffled and indistinct, or being drowned out by other sounds is one of the most common reasons people seek out a soundbar.

That's why we do a specific audio test to make sure it's easy to pick out dialogue even in the busiest scenes.

The worst soundbars sound just as bad as the worst TVs and you'll have a better chance of hearing a whisper at a Metallica gig than picking out any dialogue. 

Better models really do a stellar job of amplifying dialogue even without using the specific speech enhancing modes most soundbars come with. You'll definitely notice an improvement in speech clarity.

You can learn more about boosting TV sound to hear dialogue in our guide how to hear your TV better.