Four sound bars that blew me away

I got to spend some quality time with these four banging sound bar systems and walked away impressed each time. All of these systems offer a serious boost to your TV sound, of course, but each system comes with unique features that help it stand out from the pack.

Read on for a detailed look.

Big sound in a small package — Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar | Mini

I was able to check out the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Mini over the course of a few days at home. I came away impressed with how powerful and deep the soundstage was for such a small sound bar.

I'd listened to a demo of one of the Mini's big brothers, the AMBEO Plus, earlier in the year at Crutchfield's Southwest Virginia training facility. I found myself surprised at how close to that level of performance the Mini got in a real-world home environment. I have a small- to medium-sized living room and the Mini was the perfect match, more than capable of filling my space with sweet home theater sound.

Rediscovering lost details in the fantasy trilogy

Call it habit or true nerd love, but the first thing I tested out with the Mini was The Lord of the Rings. I've seen each of these movies so many times I know them by heart, so I was delighted to discover little sonic details I'd never heard before.

In the opening sequence I could pinpoint the subtle jingle of the armor being worn by the clashing armies onscreen and then distinguish with more clarity the swish of countless arrows taking flight. And even without the bar's voice enhancement feature activated, the soft sound of Galadriel's narration came through strong and clear.

I think the most striking moment for me, though, was a quiet conversation between Frodo and Gandalf. For the first time, I noticed that there are actually birds singing and chirping in the background. The Mini brought these sounds out, but in a way that felt natural and unobtrusive. It provided me the feeling of a real, living space the characters were inhabiting as they spoke, breathing new life into a scene I'd long taken for granted.

Grinding steel and hissing steam

I'm a huge gamer, which meant it was time to boot up my PS5 and put the AMBEO Mini through its paces with a mecha-powered favorite — Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. The AMBEO Mini didn't feel "mini" at all as I piloted several tons of metal through a dystopian landscape, smashing enemy robots to the sound of roaring flames from my boosters, punctuated by the sizzle of my laser shotgun and hiss-crackle-pop of missile salvos.

When things got intense, the Mini did admirably, supplying clear directionality and sound cues so I could keep track of the action. And because it added surprising impact to every explosion (and there were lots of them), I eventually had to tone down the volume — my trail of destruction was waking the kids! There's a Night Mode for a reason, folks.

Jamming with the family

The morning after my robot rampage, I got the day started with a little music. The kids love music every bit as much as I do, so I paired up my phone, pulled up Qobuz, and cranked it up while we danced to MGMT's banger Little Dark Age. The AMBEO Mini delivered crisp vocals and kept us moving our feet with the low hum of the song's electronic rhythm.

I then introduced the family to a few of my favorite songs from The Cure, dipping the mood into melancholic intensity with Burn and bringing it back up with the cheery sarcasm of Friday I'm in Love. In each case, the Mini helped us rock out with rich, detailed sound.

Details

• powered sound bar delivers 7.1.4-channel virtual surround sound
• six built-in speakers, each powered by a dedicated built-in Class D amplifier
• AMBEO 3D virtualization technology creates an immersive experience using 32-bit processing and room calibration to virtually place speakers around the room
• built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® 5.0 for wireless music streaming from compatible devices

What our customers say about the AMBEO | Mini

High-quality sound, easy to expand — Klipsch Flexus CORE 200

I've been a fan of Klipsch's classic sound for years — we made frequent use of one of their tabletop speakers back when I was a trainer in our call center. So I was excited to snag a sample of the Flexus CORE 200 sound bar and "test-drive" it before its release.

Klipsch Flexus CORE 200

4.5 out of 5 stars

109 reviews

C$749.00

View product

Even cooler, I also got a hold of the matching Flexus SUB 100 wireless subwoofer and Flexus SURR 100 rear speakers. I tested the system by progressively adding more components as I went. Perhaps not surprisingly, my favorite experience was the full system — bar, sub, and surrounds — playing together. But the CORE 200 rocked hard all by itself, offering expansive sound, clear detail, and solid bass for such a slim bar.

For the next phase, I hooked up the SUB 100 by plugging its included USB transmitter into the back of the sound bar. Then I switched over to X-Men '97, an update to an old favorite from my childhood. The subwoofer's extra bass added tactile vibrations to the action, thumping with each impact as my favorite mutants smashed into sentinels left and right. The bar's bass was good, but nothing beats the rumble of a dedicated subwoofer.

Delicious dungeon sounds and '90s nostalgia

I started my test with my current binge-watching favorite: contemporary Japanese anime series Delicious in Dungeon. I found I could track all the dialogue with ease, even without activating the bar's voice enhancement feature. That clarity persisted even as the episode got chaotic and the show's misfit heroes battled for survival against a mad mage. The bar perfectly captured the sizzle of spells and monster food cooking on a pan.

Swords, spears, and legendary heroes

For my final test, I hooked up the SURR 100 rear speakers and fired up my PS5. I jumped into Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, a dark fantasy game version of the Chinese literary classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Where else could I hear the singing steel of twin blades carving through demon shrimp pirates?

As I charged through a level of burning ships lashed together, I could track the sounds of battle in the distance, hear the creak of wood under strain all around me, and follow the dialogue of my allied NPCs as they trailed behind in my wake. Each well-timed sword parry offered up a satisfying clang before the thunder of my cinematic finishing moves. The combination of bar + sub + surrounds filled my room with crisp, detailed sound and made me feel like I was being transported right into the action.

Details

• 3.1.2-channel sound bar with integrated subwoofers for impactful bass
• nine drivers with Dolby Atmos processing for engaging home theater sound
• built-in Bluetooth lets you stream music directly from your phone
• add deeper bass impact with one or two Klipsch Flexus SUB 100 subwoofers
• add true wraparound rear-channel sound with Klipsch Flexus SURR 100 surround speakers

What our customers say about the Klipsch Core 200

Incredible fidelity plus powerful bass — KEF XIO

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a sample of the KEF XIO right at launch. KEF has a reputation for high-quality sound, especially among my friends here at Crutchfield, so I was excited to put the bar through its paces. After a weekend with the XIO, I found myself more than impressed with its accuracy, spacious soundstage, and rich bass.

KEF XIO

4.5 out of 5 stars

10 reviews

C$2,798.00

View product

Getting the bar ready to go was painless, too. I plugged into an AC outlet, connected an HDMI cable, then used the KEF Connect app to breeze my way through setup and room calibration. Let me say that as a former customer service guy, I really appreciated the sturdy, well-organized packaging. The box even has a handle so you can carry it like a suitcase — which made dragging it to and from the office a lot easier on my middle-aged back.

Ten tons of thunderous steel to start

I'm a huge fan of mecha (read: giant robots), so the first thing I put on was Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance. The first episode opens almost immediately into a huge battle. I found myself struck by each booming explosion and the rumbling footsteps of these giant machines. I quickly realized that the XIO has the hardest-hitting bass of any solo sound bar I've listened to yet. But it wasn't just the bass that caught my attention.

In all that chaos of gunfire and shredding metal, I was able to clearly pick out individual sounds and place them in the soundscape — jets zoomed high above the battle, tanks rolled low over the torn-up ground, and artillery screeched from one side of the screen to the other. And the whole time, the dialogue of the soldiers caught in the fight came through clearly. In particular, I keyed onto the way that the voices of the pilots echoed within the confines of their helmets, punctuated by the detailed sound of their breathing…and yet every line was as crisp and intelligible.

Stylish sword-swinging androids

The XIO clearly performed for movie night, but it also rocked during my gaming sessions. I jumped into my save at the later hours of Stellar Blade, hunting down organic anti-air cannons across the roofs of a flooded cityscape. With each parry, there was a satisfying thunk but also fine electric sizzles in the aftermath. The XIO never lost the little environmental details, even as it captured big, action-packed moments.

One of the coolest experiences I had with the XIO was discovering that I could pinpoint the deep resonating thoooom of those cannons firing even as I continuously moved around while exploring. It didn't matter if the cannons were above, below, or off in the distance. The bass would hit, and I would immediately get a clear sense of where it was coming from on (or off) the screen.

A little punk and prog rock to wrap up

After watching (and playing) some bangers, it was time to see how well the XIO handled music. After all, musical fidelity is a big part of KEF's reputation. I wanted to share my experience with the folks working at the office, too, so I set the XIO up in the break room of our company's Southwest Virginia facility. It's a large space, and there's plenty of ambient noise coming from the call center floor, so it would also be a more challenging test of the bar's output than my modestly sized living room.

I started off with a new discovery of mine: “Scarecrow” by the '80s post-punk band Siouxsie & The Banshees. I played a CD-quality version of the track from my Qobuz account. The song starts slow and quiet, guided by low, haunting lyrics. It then builds momentum with a galloping drum beat accentuated by jagged guitar riffs as the vocals open up into a mournful howl. The XIO captured it all with clarity, depth, and more than enough power to catch the attention of my coworkers sitting at their desks.

For my last test, I booted up 2112, my favorite Rush album. This time I went high-res (24-bit/192kHz), and the XIO handled the extra definition perfectly. The main 20-minute self-titled track is a masterpiece that really lets the XIO shine, from the hard-rocking electric riffs of “The Temples of Syrinx” to the gentle acoustics of “Discovery” — all of it driven by precise, layered drumbeats from one of the most celebrated players in rock history. The XIO belted out hard licks and thumping bass the whole time, expertly staged and detailed. “We have assumed control” indeed.

Details

• 5.1.2-channel sound bar with integrated subwoofers for impactful bass
• automatic sound optimization lets you install the bar flat on the wall or place it on a tabletop
• 12 high-fidelity drivers powered by built-in Class D amplifiers
• Music Integrity Engine® (MIE) for Cinema uses custom DSP algorithms to intelligently expand your soundstage and virtualize spatial sound effects
• built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for wireless music streaming from compatible devices

What our customers say about the JBL Bar 700

Elegant all-in-one sound — Devialet Dione

When I first got a hold of the Devialet Dione, I was curious to see how well it handled quiet moments like dialogue, but I also wanted to get a feel for its low frequency performance — it's supposed to be an all-in-one home theater system, after all. So, I tested the Dione with a movie first, picking the action-packed X-Men: Apocalypse. If I had any doubts about the bar's ability to handle both ends of the spectrum, they were quickly dashed. The Dione rocks.

I was immediately struck by just how crisp and detailed the sound was, especially the voices. Even during hectic action scenes, I never missed a word. Speaking of action, the Dione delivers way bigger, deeper bass than its slim figure would lead you to believe. When Magneto taps into the earth's magnetic field and rips up an entire factory, the low rumble resonated hard enough in our break room that I was almost worried I'd disturb my coworkers. But then I remembered I work at Crutchfield. It's par for the course here.

Not just for movies

After I'd watched Quicksilver save an entire school of mutants in slow motion to the beat of "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics, I decided it was time to check out some more tunes. It only took a few seconds to pair up my phone with Bluetooth and away I went. In a moment of whimsy, I decided the best song for my ear (and funny bone) would by "Tribute" by Tenacious D. Jack Black's crescendo of nonsense words never sounded better.

Impressions from our team

I wasn't the only person here at Crutchfield that had the opportunity to spend some time with the Dione. My fellow writer David, who set up our demo at HQ, had this to say: "We demoed [the Dione] in a space far larger than most household rooms, and it still poured out a huge amount of clear, strong audio. And all without a separate subwoofer. After testing it with Dredd and The Incredibles, I could tell a lot of engineering went into the Dione."

There was a bit of a buzz from folks at HQ after the demo, so we had the Dione brought down to our call center in Southwest Virginia as well. Athena, who spent years as one of our Advisors and has recently joined our writing staff, let me know that she tested out several Hi-Fi tracks with Tidal: "...transitioned effortlessly from Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' to Outkast's 'Hey Ya.' [The Dione] has very respectable bass for a solo bar, good clarity at lower volumes, and no distortion at higher frequencies."

Our Training Coordinator JR was also a big fan. (Check out our video review for some of his thoughts.)

Details

• powered 5.1.2-channel sound bar with support for Dolby Atmos
• 17 built-in speakers deliver immersive, three-dimensional sound
• Devialet ORB® spherical center speaker adjusts to the sound bar's position
• embedded DAC (digital-to-analog converter) supports high-resolution playback up to 24-bit/96kHz resolution
• built-in dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless music streaming from compatible devices

What our customers say about the Devialet Dione

Get started today!

There are tons of great sound bar systems to choose from, and we're here to help. We have even more tips in our full sound bar buying guide. And if you need a little guidance finding exactly what you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our friendly Advisors.

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