This Sony soundbar is an Amazon bestseller — and it's the best way to upgrade your TV for under $160

I test a lot of the best soundbars. I've reviewed everything from $1,700+ full-room setups to $67 teeny-weeny TV speakers. Some are mind-blowingly immersive and genuinely bring the movie theater home. Some are... less so.

Times are tough right now, and if you're anything like me, you'll probably want to spend as little money as possible without sacrificing sound quality. Enter the Sony HT-S100F.

This tiny, cheap soundbar is widely regarded as the best budget soundbar money can buy. It's also an Amazon bestseller, and for good reason.

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Sony HT-S100F: was $159 now $98 at Amazon

Although its list price is $159, the HT-S100F is $98 right now, so I'd grab it while it's discounted. With powerful, ferocious bass and fantastic dialogue, the HT-S100F is the best cheap all-rounder on the market.

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Sony HT-S100F is a winner

Although I reviewed it at $99, the HT-S100F is $159 now. Even so, it's often discounted to its original MSRP, so you should be able to grab it at the lower price if you're patient.

At this price point, there's very little competition. I've tested a fair few cheap soundbars at this point: the $67 Majority Naga 60, the $99 Majority Elias, and the $169 Creative Stage Pro come to mind. These are all competitively priced models, and I'd recommend checking out the Naga 60 if you really can't spend over $100. If you're set on getting a subwoofer, the Stage Pro is a fair option, too.

However, the HT-S100F is miles apart from the rest of the budget crowd. Usually, there are some annoying trade-offs when it comes to cheap soundbars. The Naga 60 comes with frustrating connection foibles; the Elias's "Dolby Atmos" is practically nonexistent; and the Stage Pro has no eARC and muffled dialogue.

The Sony HT-S100F? No annoying habits. The most annoying thing is that the remote lacks a Bluetooth button, so you have to activate Bluetooth via the on-bar buttons. But hey, if you're looking to get your steps in, this isn't the worst thing in the world.

So although most cheap soundbars have one irritating habit, the HT-S100F seems immune to this curse. Praise be the soundbar gods.

Bass bass bass

Like pretty much every soundbar I've tested, the Sony HT-S100F has "Cinema" mode. This mode increases the volume of low-frequency sounds. Watching a movie with rumbling monster trucks? Explosions? Bass-heavy soundtracks? No problem!

In my review of the HT-S100F, I wrote, "In the opening scene of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, I was really impressed with the level of bass. Considering the HT-S100F has no subwoofer, I wasn’t expecting the bass to be great. However, the bass notes in ‘Danger Zone’ were groovy and didn’t overpower the sounds of the jets taking off."

Although you'd need a subwoofer to get really good bass, I was really impressed considering the HT-S100F's lower price tag. Unfortunately, the HT-S100F isn't compatible with an external subwoofer, so if you want to build your setup gradually, you'd probably need to get something with a higher initial cost. (Check out Klipsch's range. I recently tested the Klipsch Flexus Core 100 and was really impressed.)

Crystal-clear dialogue

Thanks to its "Voice" mode, the HT-S100F is ideal if you struggle to understand muffled or mumbled dialogue from your TV speakers. In addition to explosions and bass-heavy music, 'Top Gun: Maverick' has a lot of radioed dialogue that my TV speakers struggle to transmit. That just wasn't the case when I connected the HT-S100F.

In my review, I wrote, "I could hear all the headset dialogue clearly. There was no muffled speech, and I wasn’t straining to hear even over the radio crackling sound effect."

I also watched Netflix with 5.1 audio to test the HT-S100F: "As promised, [Voice] mode made dialogue clear without overpowering the sound effects and background music. I could still hear characters pouring cereal and drinking beer without drowning out dialogue."

Seeing as TV speakers struggle with separating diegetic sound effects at similar frequencies — female dialogue and high-frequency sound effects like clinking cutlery or quiet laughter — this performance was excellent for $159.

Powerful...but it won't blow the roof off your house

I'm going to be honest with you, though: if you want a true home theater setup, the HT-S100F won't be able to rival a surround system. Considering the $159 price tag, it's fair to say that the HT-S100F is intended to be used as a step up from TV speakers, but not necessarily a replacement for a full 5.1 system.

If you want a setup with surround sound and pumping bass, then you probably want to check out the Polk Audio Signa S4 ($449), which has a 3.1-channel setup (with a subwoofer).

There's a $300 price difference between those two options, however, and that's not an insignificant amount of money, especially in this economy.

If you want an audio upgrade without going all-in on a multi-channel surround system, you should definitely check out the Sony HT-S100F — it's widely regarded as the best budget soundbar for a reason.

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