Best Cheap Soundbar 2025: Discover cinematic audio on a budget

When it comes to budget soundbars, the one that’s been the top of our list for several years is the Wharfedale Vista 200S. It’s been on the market since around 2019, and while the price has fluctuated, you can get it now for a reasonable price..

The design is one we found attractive in appearance while the build quality is durable. The black finish and glossy top surface doesn’t scream cheap, and with a width of 900mm, it’s made to partner TVs up to 65-inches in size. Its slim form factor also means you won’t be living in fear of the soundbar blocking the picture.

In terms of features, There’s not much aside from its active wireless subwoofer. If you want wireless connectivity, you’d be better off seeking the smaller but slightly more expensive Sonos Ray. There are three preset EQ settings for media playback in Movies, Music and News to optimise the soundbar’s sound for those types of content.

Our reviewer found the sound was especially good, with the 200S putting in a great performance across the frequency range with a top-end that didn’t suffer from a lack of detail along with some punchy bass. We also observed the Vista 200S could get loud without sounding harsh or compressed due to its 120W of built-in amplification. It dealt with dialogue well, even without a dedicated centre channel, and if you’re interested in playing music, then it delivers on a smooth and clear performance.

Alternatives around this price include the Sharp HT-SBW202 and the Yamaha SR-C30A, but even after a few years, we haven’t heard a rival that offers as much performance-per-pound at this price as the Wharfedale.

Reviewer: Steve Withers
Full Review: Wharfedale Vista 200S

If you’re looking for a compact and affordable soundbar, the Sonos Ray is our top pick. Designed to make non-HDMI TVs sound better, the Ray is smaller and has fewer features than other Sonos soundbars, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t offer powerful sound. 

The Sonos Ray has a thin and compact design with curved ends forming a lozenge shape and the option of a black or white finish. The Ray is only slightly smaller than the Sonos Beam at 71 x 559 x 95mm and, like the Polk Signa S4, pairs well with TVs that measure up to 55-inches. You can choose to sit the soundbar in front of your TV, mount it on a wall or event place it in an open cabinet if it’s big enough to accomodate. 

The Ray doesn’t come with an HDMI port, sticking with just an optical S/PDIF input and providing a cable in the box. There are touch controls on top of the soundbar for controlling playback, skipping tracks, and adjusting the volume. 

The setup is quick and the Trueplay configuration allows you to tune the soundbar to your room. The Ray has an IR input, so you can tune it to use your TV’s remote to control the volume. 

Then there’s the app, which makes it easy to connect and disconnect from rooms with multiroom support, as well as play music from Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer or via AirPlay 2. 

There’s no Dolby Atmos audio but Dolby Digital still sounds great, albeit not as clean and detailed. There’s also no microphone for voice commands. You can set up skills and control the soundbar with your favourite voice assistant, but you’ll need a separate smart speaker to do so. 

Despite its small size, the Sonos Ray has a surprisingly wide soundscape, offering a clear improvement over the audio from the TV we had paired it with. The Speech Enhancement setting boosts voices, and there’s a Night Sound feature for boosting quiet sounds and limiting loud sounds later in the evening. The bass is effective too, though not as room-shattering as the Sonos Arc’s bass response. 

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full Review: Sonos Ray

The Razer Leviathan V2 is our top affordable gaming soundbar, delivering great audio whether you’re gaming or listening to music. 

The Leviathan V2 is one of the more toned-down devices we’ve tested from Razer. Both the soundbar and subwoofer sport a matte black finish, with the latter also free of any RGB lighting or other effects. The soundbar is small and slim, fitting snuggling under a monitor for a clean look, though you may need to place the subwoofer under your desk depending on the size of your furniture. 

The soundbar feels sturdy and comes with another set of feet for tilting it upwards, but the port selection is lacking. Razer removed the 3.5mm input found on its predecessor, leaving just USB-C and Bluetooth. There’s also a simple selection of buttons, including power, volume, source, and Bluetooth. 

18-zone custom RGB lighting lets you customise the soundbar to fit the rest of your gaming setup, as well as match the cues in games and songs. There’s a range of audio presets in the Razer Synapse app, with custom settings for music and gaming, as well as a Bass Boost mode and THX Spatial Audio support to give the sound a more immersive feel. 

The audio quality is warm and balanced with an emphasis on bass that feels perfect for FPS games. The sound can easily fill a room, with THX Spatial Audio creating an immersive soundstage, despite not quite being as accurate as Dolby Atmos. Even slower games like Stardew Valley are enhanced with this soundbar, as details are given more clarity and attention. 

We found that the connection was stronger than Bluetooth, offering better clarity and depth than the wireless connection, though we still appreciated the inclusion of Bluetooth as an option. 

Reviewer: Gemma Ryles
Full Review: Razer Leviathan V2

The Polk Signa S4 is our favourite cheap Dolby Atmos soundbar, delivering deep bass and immersive audio at an affordable price. 

The Signa S4 has a similar design to Polk’s other soundbars with its simple rectangular shape and black fabric finish blending into its surroundings. The subwoofer is also matte black, sitting on larger feet. 

Like the Sonos Ray, the Polk Signa S4 is intended to be paired with medium-sized TVs up to 55-inches either standing or wall mounted, with the soundbar measuring 1046 x 60 x 95mm. The subwoofer measures 200 x 280 x 328mm. 

You can find basic controls on top of the soundbar, with more options on the small remote that comes in the box. 

The Signa S4 uses a 3.1.2-channel system to deliver Dolby Atmos, with additional support for Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD. The soundbar can also decode PCM, but there is no support for DTS formats. 

Connectivity is based around a single HDMI port that supports eARC, allowing lossless audio to be sent back from supporting TVs. There’s also an optical digital input, a 3.5mm analogue auxiliary input, and wireless support with Bluetooth. 

Other key features include Polk’s VoiceAdjust to keep dialogue clear and precise, and three sound modes – Movies, Music, and Night. 

Sound-wide, the Signa S4 is a good all-round performer that produces a decent front soundstage with a solid foundation of bass. The delivery is smooth, with a clean treble and well-defined midrange, while the upward-firing speakers are effective at generating the front overhead channels and the well-integrated subwoofer adds plenty of low-frequency impact to create a genuine sense of scale. 

Reviewer: Steve Withers
Full Review: Polk Signa S4

Majority has traded in affordable audio devices. The Snowdon II is a single-bar home cinema soundbar that’s best utilised if you’re considering wall-mounting your TV.

The reason we say that is because the design is on the large side for putting it beneath a TV, to the point where it covers up the TV’s IR receiver and blocks the remote signals. We didn’t find it to be the most elegant looking soundbar either, but arguably most shopping at this price won’t be as bothered about aesthetics. Around the back brackets for wall-mounting the soundbar and that seems to most optimal way of using it.

Annoyingly, the Snowdon doesn’t ship with any digital optical cable (but does come with an RCA and auxiliary cable). We would expect a digital cable to be packaged with the bar rather than rely on other means of connection since the optical input is the best available on this bar.

Features aren’t much in the grand scheme of things, but there are four EQ preset modes in Flat, Music, Movie and Dialog to optimise the performance for whatever you’re watching’ and the Music and Flat modes can be further tweaked in terms of their frequency range.

The sound quality from this 2.1 system is consistently clear, and at times punchy, delivery of audio. It features an integrated subwoofer but it is limited in terms of bass depth, so in more dynamic soundtracks where more weight and extension to low frequencies is required, it can sound flatter than the similarly priced Groov-e 160 Soundbar.

The Movie preset is the one we found that offered the biggest-sounding performance, as well as sounding more natural with dialogue as the Dialog mode can sound a little processed. Streaming music over a Bluetooth connection offers a similar performance to movies and TV, with good clarity and decent space for vocals to exist in the track. We also found it sound with gaming as well, producing a big, large and detailed performance that avoided sounding cluttered or shrill at higher volumes.

Majority has the Teton Plus model, which is effectively the same but comes with a subwoofer. We’ll be reviewing that model in the coming weeks.

Reviewer: Kob Monney
Full Review: Majority Snowdon II