Best Budget Soundbars UK: 5 Picks Under £250 Tested
By Robert Jones · 2026-08-19
The five best budget soundbars you can buy in the UK right now, plus plain-English advice on HDMI ARC, Dolby Atmos and whether you really need a separate subwoofer.
Right, let's talk about the awkward bit of buying a soundbar on a budget: nearly every list you read online quietly assumes you've got £600 burning a hole in your pocket. Most people haven't. Most people want their telly to stop mumbling, want the football to sound like an actual stadium, and want change from £250. I've spent over twenty years in and out of listening rooms, living rooms and far too many electronics shops around Bristol, and the honest news is that cheap soundbars have got genuinely good. Not "good for the money" in that patronising way — properly good. The gap between a £150 bar and a £700 bar is now mostly about room-filling scale and Atmos height, not basic clarity. This guide covers what actually matters when you're buying at the budget end in the UK, the five bars I'd happily recommend to family, and the jargon (HDMI ARC, eARC, Dolby Atmos, virtual surround) explained in plain English so you don't overpay for a feature you'll never use. ## What counts as "budget" in the UK right now For this guide I've drawn the line at roughly £250. Below £100 you're mostly buying a plastic box that's louder than your TV but not much clearer. Between £100 and £250 is the sweet spot: real drivers, a proper HDMI connection, and in some cases a wireless subwoofer thrown in. Above £250 you start paying for upfiring Atmos drivers, better room correction and brand-name tuning. Those are lovely things. They are not the difference between "I can hear the dialogue now" and "I still can't hear the dialogue". ## The five things that actually matter ### 1. HDMI ARC — insist on it ARC stands for Audio Return Channel. In practice it means one HDMI cable carries sound from your TV back down to the soundbar, and your existing TV remote controls the volume. No second remote. No optical cable fiddling. No lip-sync drift. If a budget bar only has optical and 3.5mm, walk away unless it's dirt cheap and you know your TV is old enough that it doesn't matter. Optical works, but it can't carry the newer audio formats and it won't give you that single-remote convenience. **eARC** is the enhanced version. It carries lossless and full-fat Dolby Atmos. You will almost never find true eARC at this price, and honestly you don't need it — the bandwidth is wasted on a bar this size. ### 2. Dolby Atmos: real vs virtual Real Atmos means drivers firing upward, bouncing sound off your ceiling so helicopters pass overhead. That needs physical speakers pointing at the sky and a flat ceiling, and it costs money. Virtual Atmos, which is what budget bars advertise, is clever psychoacoustic processing that widens the soundstage. It does make films feel bigger. It does not put sound above your head, whatever the box art suggests. My advice: treat virtual Atmos as a nice bonus, never as the reason you're buying. A bar with clean midrange and no Atmos badge will beat a muddy one with the logo every single time. ### 3. Does it come with a subwoofer? A separate wireless sub is the single biggest upgrade in perceived quality at this price. Bass out of a slim bar is always compromised — there simply isn't enough cabinet volume to move air. A little cube sub in the corner fixes that in a way no processing can. The trade-off is a second box, a second plug socket, and neighbours. In a flat, an all-in-one bar with decent built-in bass drivers may genuinely be the better neighbour-friendly choice. ### 4. Size and placement Measure the gap under your telly before you buy anything. A 100cm bar in front of a 43-inch TV looks daft and can block the IR sensor. As a rough rule: bars around 60–70cm suit 40–50 inch sets, 90–110cm suits 55 inches and up. Also check the height. If your TV sits on feet only 6cm off the shelf, a 7cm-tall bar will clip the bottom of the screen. It happens more than you'd think. ### 5. Connectivity you'll really use Bluetooth is essentially standard, and it's the feature most people use daily for music. Wi-Fi streaming, Chromecast and AirPlay are lovely, but they push the price up. Ask yourself honestly whether you'll stream from your phone occasionally or run a whole multi-room system. ## The five best budget soundbars in the UK Prices below are typical street prices at the time of writing and shift constantly, especially around sales events. ### 1. Majority Bowfell / Elias — the "just make my TV audible" option **Around £50–£80** Pros: absurdly cheap, small enough for a bedroom or kitchen telly, optical and Bluetooth on board, genuinely clearer than any flat-panel TV speaker. Cons: no HDMI ARC on the cheapest models, so you'll be juggling remotes. Bass is polite at best. Who it's for: a second room, a student flat, or an elderly relative who just needs to hear the news properly. Don't expect cinema. ### 2. Hisense HS214 / HS218 — the value all-rounder **Around £100–£130** Pros: HDMI ARC included at a price where it usually isn't, a wired or included subwoofer depending on model, and a surprisingly even tonal balance. Dialogue mode works. Cons: build is plasticky, and the display is a row of LEDs rather than anything informative. Who it's for: the classic first soundbar. If someone rings me asking what to buy their parents, this tier is where I start. ### 3. Sony HT-SF150 / HT-S100F — the clarity pick **Around £130–£160** Pros: Sony's voice processing is the best in class down here. Speech sits forward and clear without sounding thin, which is exactly what most complaints about TV sound are really about. Compact single-bar design. Cons: no separate subwoofer, so action films lack real weight. No Atmos badge at all. Who it's for: flats, small lounges, and anyone whose main gripe is mumbled dialogue in dramas. ### 4. Samsung HW-B450 / B550 — the bass-with-a-sub bargain **Around £150–£200** Pros: proper wireless subwoofer, DTS Virtual:X for a wider film soundstage, and seamless pairing with Samsung TVs including Q-Symphony on the higher model, which uses your TV speakers alongside the bar. Cons: the sub can be boomy in a small room until you turn it down two or three notches. Do that on day one. Who it's for: film and sport fans with a Samsung telly who want scale without going past £200. ### 5. LG S40Q / Sharp HT-SBW202 — the Atmos-curious upgrade **Around £180–£250** Pros: wireless sub included, virtual height processing that genuinely widens the sound, and HDMI ARC with proper remote pass-through. This tier is where budget starts feeling like mid-range. Cons: still virtual, not true overhead Atmos. You'll notice the ceiling isn't doing anything. Who it's for: anyone stretching their budget who wants the most convincing "home cinema" feel available under £250. ## Setting it up properly (ten minutes well spent) Plug the bar into the HDMI port on your TV labelled **ARC** or **eARC** — not just any HDMI port. Then, in your TV's audio settings, switch the output from "TV speakers" to "HDMI ARC" or "External". Enable **HDMI-CEC**, which every manufacturer insists on naming something different: Anynet+ on Samsung, Bravia Sync on Sony, SIMPLINK on LG. Put the subwoofer on the floor, ideally along the same wall as the TV, not wedged inside a cabinet. Corners boost bass but make it boomy. Then sit down, watch ten minutes of something you know well, and trim the sub level down until you can feel it rather than hear it as a separate instrument. Finally, find the dialogue or voice enhancement mode and leave it on for everyday telly. Turn it off for music. ## Common mistakes I see Buying by wattage. The power figures on budget boxes are marketing fiction and can't be compared between brands. Ignoring the room. A hard-floored, glass-walled room will make any bar sound harsh. A rug and curtains cost less than a soundbar upgrade and often do more. Assuming more channels is better. A well-tuned 2.1 system beats a badly tuned 5.1.1 virtual one, every time. ## The verdict If you want one answer: get a bar with **HDMI ARC and an included wireless subwoofer** in the £150–£200 range, and ignore every Atmos claim at this price. That combination fixes the two real problems — unintelligible speech and non-existent bass — and everything above it is refinement you can buy later. Budget audio has never been better value in the UK. Spend the money on the sub, not the sticker. ## FAQ ### Do I need Dolby Atmos on a budget soundbar? No. At under £250 any Atmos badge refers to virtual processing rather than upfiring drivers, so you won't get genuine overhead effects. Prioritise clear dialogue, HDMI ARC and a subwoofer instead. ### Is HDMI ARC better than optical? Yes, for most people. ARC lets your TV remote control the soundbar's volume over a single cable and supports more audio formats. Optical still works fine for stereo and basic surround, but it's a fallback rather than a first choice. ### Will a cheap soundbar work with my older TV? Almost certainly. If your TV lacks an ARC-labelled HDMI port, choose a bar with an optical input, which nearly every set from the last fifteen years has. You'll just need to control soundbar volume separately. ### Should I buy a soundbar with a separate subwoofer if I live in a flat? It depends on your neighbours and your floors. A separate sub gives far more convincing bass, but it also transmits through floorboards. If that's a worry, an all-in-one bar with built-in bass drivers is the more considerate option. ### How much should I spend on a first soundbar? Around £150 hits the point of diminishing returns for most UK living rooms. Below £100 you gain clarity over TV speakers but little else; above £250 you're paying for genuine Atmos hardware and room correction.