I've sifted through the dregs of Amazon so you don't have to — and I've found savings for five of my highest-rated soundbars. As one of Tom's Guide's resident soundbar reviewers, I've tested enough of these home cinema bad boys to know exactly which ones are worth your time (and money).

It's not even Prime Day yet, and Samsung, Sony, and Bose have all slashed prices on some of their best soundbars, including the super-budget Sony HT-S100F, Bose Smart Soundbar (usually $550!), and my personal favorite mid-range soundbar, Samsung Q600F. I genuinely didn't believe this price when I saw it — $371. For a — really good — soundbar and subwoofer? Its launch price was $599! Is this real life?

I wouldn't wait for Prime Day with deals like this, but if you want to stick around for the Tom's Guide Savings Squad to save the day, we've selected the best Prime Day deals on everything from TVs to headphones to coffee makers to smart watches.

Best early Prime Day soundbar deals: Quick links

• Sony HT-S100F: was $118 now $98 @ Amazon
• Klipsch Flexus Core 100: was $349 now $249 @ Amazon
• Sonos Beam Gen 2: was $499 now $369 @ Amazon
• Samsung Q600F: was $599 now $371 @ Amazon
• Bose Smart Soundbar: was $549 now $399 @ Amazon

Best early Prime Day soundbar deals

We're tracking all the best Prime Day soundbar deals

Record Store Day 2026 arrives on April 18th, and like most years, I usually make a mistake or two when checking out my cart.

There's something about the occasion that bypasses the part of your brain that asks sensible questions, and if your shelves look anything like mine, you've got a growing section of limited pressings you bought because the sleeve was beautiful and have listened to approximately once.

This year, instead of adding to the pile of records I'll never play, I started thinking more about the listening experience itself, and these twelve accessories are what I'd actually point you towards to celebrate your record listening.

These 12 products might not be the most exciting, but anyone starting out on their record collecting journey will instantly improve their setup with just one or two products from the list below.

After ten years of collecting I've come to the conclusion that half the joy of vinyl is in the ritual around it, and the right kit makes that ritual considerably better. Everything here is worth your money, and while you might not notice the improvement straight away, even the act of seeing your sleeve on display is a simple joy that's worth having.

Happy Record Store Day to all who celebrate, I hope you manage to snag all the limited edition pressings you've got your eyes set on. But remember, you don't need to buy records on Record Store Day to take part in the hobby, so don't fall for the FOMO unless you absolutely love what's on offer.

Most TV setups aren't complete without one of the best soundbars. As someone who watches a lot of TV and plays video games on it too, I'm well aware that a TV's built-in speakers can never sound as good as a dedicated soundbar. I don't know about you, but when I'm curled up on my couch, I want to feel like I'm at the movies instead — and the Marshall Heston 60 makes me feel just like that.

The Heston 60 is one of Marshall's two soundbars — the other being the Heston 120 — and it's a compact, mid-range option for those short on space.

As compact soundbars go, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 is the undisputed king, so why would you buy the Marshall? It looks good, sounds good, it's got Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support to boot. Here's why you're going to love it.

A sight for sore eyes

I've tested my fair share of audio gear — headphones, earbuds, speakers, soundbars, you name it. But I've never drooled over a brand's product as much as I have over Marshall's. The British manufacturer's design philosophy is one of sophistication and class, and the Heston 60 is no different.

Available in either black or cream with gold accents, the soundbar looks and feels premium — from its tactile buttons to the soft mesh grille covering.

As I mentioned earlier, the Heston 60 is ideal for small spaces as it measures 28.74 x 4.88 x 2.68 inches and weighs 6.08lbs. It's easy to move it around if needed, and it fits well with sub-55-inch TVs. It's wall-mountable and the Marshall logo is magnetic, so you can stick it wherever you like on the soundbar depending on your setup. I've never seen this feature on a soundbar before and now I wish all of them had it.

It should be noted that the Heston 60 isn't as petite as the Sonos Beam Gen 2, but by soundbar standards, it's still the ideal space-saving solution. The Heston 60, like the Beam Gen 2, is built extremely well too, and looks like it could stand the test of time. That's the least you'd expect from a soundbar that costs $699 / £499, of course.

10/10 performance across the board

It's not just a pretty face. The Marshall Heston 60, like many other Marshall products, sounds extremely good, and you shouldn't be fooled by its size. The Heston 60 is well-endowed, featuring two 25W and five 5W Class D amplifiers which help it produce a maximum power output of 56W.

Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support mean you're engulfed by immersive, spacious soundscapes where sounds are placed precisely above or around you. You feel like you're at the cinema, to be honest.

On paper, the Heston 60 sounds near-perfect, but is it any good in real world usage? Absolutely. 'Top Gun: Maverick' is the benchmark film for soundbar testing here at Tom's Guide, so that's the first movie I watched. The metal clinking of the fighter jets and the ropes whooshing as the planes took off in the opening sequence was loud and clear, and I could feel the bass response in my chest.

The balance between the various frequencies sounded sublime, and dialogue separation was excellent too, especially in 'F1: The Movie' where each commentator's, driver's and pitlane engineer's voice was discernible and clear.

There are four sound modes for users to enjoy, and though the bass is reduced in Voice mode, the low rumbling of the cars was enough to provide a good backbone to the film.

It's worth noting that I watched these two movies on 4K UHD Blu-Ray, but the Heston 60 performs formidably even in non-4K UHD movies and TV shows. Clear sibilance and plosives made it a treat to watch 'Agatha All Along,' and the Salem Seven's shrieks and bone-crunching noises worked harmoniously with the bass to deliver a spine-chilling soundscape. You can, of course, check out my in-depth sound analysis in my full Marshall Heston 60 review.

But is it worth the price?

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 retails for $499 / £449 but you can often find it down to $349 / £349 during sales events, like Black Friday. This isn't surprising, of course, given that the soundbar came out all the way back in 2021.

The Marshall Heston 60, in comparison, was released towards the tail-end of 2025, so it hasn't received any major discounts yet. You can grab it for $699 / £499.

I know that sounds like a lot of money, and it's $200 more than what the Beam Gen 2 costs. While you miss out on voice assistant support, you gain DTS:X support instead, which is arguably a better feature to have. Both soundbars are also compatible with their respective subwoofers — the Sub Gen 3 ($799) for the Sonos and the Heston Sub 200 ($599). This brings the price of each package to $1,298. If I had to choose one, it would have to be the Heston 60.

In my opinion, the Heston 60 delivers more consistent Dolby Atmos performance but the Beam Gen 2 boasts slightly improved dynamics. You don't get as many connectivity options on the Beam Gen 2 either — there's no 3.5mm aux in, USB-C or Bluetooth which you'll find on the Heston 60. You can stream music over Wi-Fi, yes, but I like the additional option of streaming over Bluetooth or using the USB-C and 3.5mm jack for wired playback.

It's pricy, but it's well worth it.

More from Tom's Guide

• Marshall’s compact soundbar isn’t just a pretty face — I tested it and it feels like a genuine threat to the Sonos ecosystem
• Sonos Beam Gen 2 review
• Best soundbars in 2026

I’ve been waiting for the Sonos Era 100 SL for a long time, I just hadn’t realized I’d been waiting for it. See, I use a pair of old Sonos Play:1 speakers as the left and right surrounds in a home theater setup in my back room. They’ve been overdue for an upgrade for years, but Sonos never made a speaker that fit the bill in terms of price-to-performance ratio — until now.

The Sonos Era 100 SL is the company’s most cost-effective speaker with an MSRP of $189/£169 — a tidy saving on the £199/$219 Sonos Era 100. In a year where everything simply seems to be going up in price, more affordable releases like this and Apple’s recent MacBook Neo are refreshing.

To keep the cost down, Sonos has trimmed the fat in a couple of ways. First, there’s no mic on the speaker and therefore no voice control. You can’t ask Sonos Voice Control or a third party like Alexa+ to set timers or answer questions for you. That suits me just fine — I need these speakers to round out a passive sound system, not to be an active participant in my smart home. However, if you pair the Sonos Era 100 SL with a voice-enabled soundbar you can still benefit from voice control that way. Getting rid of a feature I would never use anyway to save me more money is a win-win in my book.

Because of the lack of microphone, there’s no Trueplay technology for Android phones. Instead, it’ll only work with an iOS device. If you’re using one of the best Android phones, this could be a deal-breaker —or at least a reason to pay more for the regular Era 100. But since I have access to an iOS device, this also isn’t a problem for me. Another tick in the plus column for the Era 100 SL.

If you lift the lid, the Era 100 SL has the same sonic architecture as the regular Era 100. When we reviewed that speaker in 2023, we gave it 4.5 stars, saying Sonos “Elevates the sound performance for its new entry-level home speaker with twin tweeters for stereo sound from a single cabinet, and a larger woofer for richer-sounding bass.”

Our reviewer said it was a noticeable step up from the Sonos One, and I can confirm it's absolutely streets ahead of my tired old Play:1 speakers. Bass at lower volumes is noticeably improved which works exceptionally well when you want to use it as part of a larger setup where the soundbar is doing the heavy lifting.

So Sonos is giving me better sound at a lower price by cutting features I either don’t use or aren’t affected by. Sign me up!

Setup is a dream

In the past, I’ve been critical of Sonos’ app and the general frustrations encountered in its software. The company has promised that those are a thing of the past and this is my first time setting up a new speaker on my system since the crisis of the new Sonos app back in 2024. The process couldn’t have been smoother and achieves almost Apple-levels of simplicity.

Once the speakers were plugged in, all I had to do was add them in the Sonos app and, once they were updated and linked to the Wi-Fi network, I was automatically asked if I wanted to group them in with my existing soundbar and mini sub.

It took all of about five minutes to add both speakers through the app, and there wasn’t a single hiccup during the entire process. Technology can all too easily become a rabbit hole of settings and configurations, but adding a pair of Era 100 SL to my setup was handled entirely in the app in a matter of minutes.

If you’re someone who doesn’t want to tweak and fiddle with a setup but would prefer to get on with watching your content with surround sound, I definitely recommend this.

Bottom line

Sonos is pitching the Era 100 SL as the entry to a Sonos home theater and I agree with that wholeheartedly. For example, the speaker doesn’t support Dolby Atmos spatial audio for music but does support Dolby Atmos and surround channels in a home theater setup. So, if you’re in the same boat as me and looking to build out a (or upgrade an elderly) Sonos system, you should stop reading right now and buy this speaker.

On the other hand, if you’re on the hunt for your first Sonos speaker primarily for music playback, it’s probably not the one to go for — even if it is affordable. For ultimate versatility, I would suggest looking at the brand new Sonos Play which gives you the benefit of both a home-based and portable Bluetooth speaker.

The Era 100 SL is a real return to form for Sonos, offering a really solid core performance whilst keeping the cost down by cutting away the window dressing. It would have been even nicer if the company had cut the cost even further through the double pack you can buy for $378, but perhaps that was one step too far.

More from Tom's Guide

• Sonos Play review: One of the best portable speakers in years
• Sonos launches Sonos Play and Era 100 SL speakers — specs, price and what’s new
• Sonos' epic noise-cancelling headphones are the cans I'll take to my grave — and Amazon's Big Spring Sale just dropped them by $100

The Sonos Move is, hands-down, my favorite speaker Sonos has ever made. It has a big sound, big battery and Bluetooth support. My only complaint is that, at over 6.5 pounds, it’s slightly just not portable enough for most situations where you’d actually want to use a wireless speaker. Enter the $299 Sonos Play.

Sonos Play takes the same idea as the Move and scales it down into a sub-3-pound package that’s genuinely convenient to carry, complete with a utility loop and 24 hours of battery life. You still get Wi-Fi for streaming, voice assistants, multi-room listening and all the other core Sonos system features at home. It’s even line-in ready for my record player. But Bluetooth, and waterproofing means this speaker can join me on outings, too.

From someone who’s part of the company’s long-term user base, Sonos has far from escaped its series of software controversies unscathed. But Sonos Play is the kind of product that brings the focus back to what the brand does well — connected smart speakers that fill your space with great sound. And that’s the takeaway you can read more about in my full Sonos Play review below.

Sonos Play cheat sheet

• What is Sonos Play? A portable Sonos speaker that offers Wi-Fi multi-room audio as well as Bluetooth, designed for both home use and on-the-go listening.
• How much does Sonos Play cost? It costs $299.
• Can you use two Sonos Plays together? Yes, pair two for stereo sound over Wi-Fi, or group multiple speakers (including up to three additional Play or Move 2 units) over Bluetooth.
• Can you use Sonos Play with a record player? Yes, as long as you have the $20 Sonos Line-In Adapter. And yes, it has to be the Sonos one to work properly.
• Sonos Play vs. Sonos Move 2? The $399 Sonos Move 2 is larger and more powerful, but less portable. The $299 Play is lighter and easier to carry while still delivering strong stereo sound, plus it has more sophisticated Bluetooth pairing than the Move.
• Sonos Play vs. Sonos Roam? The $179 Sonos Roam is a smaller Wi-Fi/Bluetooth speaker and weighs under 1 pound, but without a charging base or line-in, it’s less appealing for in-home sound system use.
• What is Sonos Play battery life? Up to 24 hours, plus it doubles as a power bank to charge your phone.

The ups

Practical, portable design

While I’ve always sung the praises of the Sonos Move, I’ve never felt the same way about the Sonos Roam. It’s a perfectly fine Bluetooth speaker, but at its price, it’s hard to ignore how many comparable options are out there for less. It doesn’t quite justify itself in the same way something like the Play does.

The Play feels unmistakably like a Sonos speaker, with intuitive controls and a large enough audio presence to complement any Sonos system. But much like the Move, it lives on a wireless charging base at home, then seamlessly transitions into a travel speaker designed for everyday carry. It even has a removable utility loop that makes it easy to grab and go. It’s also IP67-rated, so dust and water aren’t a problem.

To sum it up, the Move is too big of a home speaker to be truly portable, while the Roam is too much of a portable speaker to be practical at home. The Play strikes the perfect balance between them within Sonos’s battery-powered options.

Balanced, room-filling sound

For a speaker this size, the sound is impressively well-rounded. Vocals, whether I was listening to podcasts or stripped-down tracks, come through crisp and clear, thanks to that dedicated midwoofer.

At the same time, bass-heavy tracks (think Kendrick Lamar’s ‘m.A.A.d city’ or electronic playlists) still hit with enough depth to feel satisfying without overpowering everything else. The dual passive radiators do a lot of work here, while the Automatic Trueplay feature adapts playback in real-time to suit your listening space.

Like most Sonos speakers, though, I wouldn’t push it to max volume in most circumstances. It holds up well, but it’s clearly tuned for balance over brute force. The key to getting a bigger sound from Sonos Play is your pairing options.

Flexible pairing

There are lots of different ways you can play music with Play. First, you can listen to it solo over Wi-Fi, either casting (I use AirPlay) or using the Sonos app with your synced streaming services. With the compatible Sonos line-in adapter, the Play can also hook up to a record player and cast to your other speakers.

If you have other Sonos speakers, you can also assign it for multi-device and multi-room playback, too. Better yet, you can stereo pair two Plays over Wi-Fi for a more immersive setup at home.

Over Bluetooth, you can connect one Play to your phone, then sync up to three additional speakers, including the Sonos Move 2, just by holding the pairing button. That’s a newer feature the Move doesn’t have.

24-hour battery life

Sonos rates the Play for up to 24 hours of battery life. I left it off the charging base for about 3 days, and my hours of active listening landed just around that estimate. Comparing the other battery-powered Sonos speakers, the Move 2 lasts 24 hours as well and the Roam lasts up to 10 hours. Both the Play and Move 2 have replaceable batteries, which I think is a meaningful factor for speakers you’d want to last in your home for a long time.

What’s more, the Play doubles as a USB-C power bank. Being able to top off my phone while I was out made this speaker feel even more multi-purpose.

The downs

Pricey depending on what you’re looking for

I’ll be honest, I struggled to find much fault with the Sonos Play. For what it offers (Wi-Fi streaming, multi-room audio, voice control, strong battery life and portability) it actually delivers a lot of value.

That said, you don’t need to spend $299 for a Bluetooth speaker of this size and with solid sound. For example, the UE Everboom can usually be found for $199 and it’s pretty similar in dimensions. I also like the JBL Charge 6, which tends to go on sale for about $170. I’d recommend these if you’re not looking for any “smart” features via Wi-Fi.

Verdict

The Sonos Play takes everything that makes the Sonos ecosystem great and packages it in a design that provides comprehensive versatility between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Unlike past attempts, the Play doesn’t feel like you’re compromising in either direction.

That balance is what makes it stand out against both the Sonos Move 2 and Sonos Roam. One leans too far into being a home speaker, the other too far into being ultra-portable. The Play sits right in the middle, offering enough power for your living room and enough practicality for a park day, weekend trip or if you're like me, concert in the shower.

$299 is a lot if all you want is a Bluetooth speaker. But if you’re even slightly invested in the Sonos ecosystem, or want a speaker that can grow into one, this is easily one of the most well-rounded options the company has debuted in years.

Sonos has come back onto the scene with two new speakers for 2026, but I'm here to let you know the brand's epic headphones, the Sonos Ace, are currently on sale at thanks to Amazon's Big Spring Sale.

Right now, you can get the Sonos Ace for just $299 thanks to a 25% discount as part of the retailer's spring sale. That's $100 off these excellent premium cans.

• shop Amazon's entire Big Spring Sale

I've been using the Sonos Ace as my go-to headphones since 2024 when these noise-cancelling cans were first launched, and I'm constantly impressed by them. They're comfortable and sound great — not to mention looking pretty slick in my humble opinion.

One of the main issues — as is usually the case with Sonos — is that the price was a little on the high side. Thankfully, now these headphones are a couple of years old we get deals like this knocking a sizable amount off the MSRP.

Battery life on these headphones is exceptionally solid at 30 hours, and the sound you get is rich and detailed. I always appreciate the wide soundstage whenever I slip these headphones on. And thanks to the soft-touch foam earcups and the fact the headphones only weigh 312 grams (11 ounces), it doesn't take long before you forget you're wearing them.

The killer feature

My absolute favorite part about the Sonos Ace is how they can switch seamlessly from a Bluetooth connection to a Wi-Fi link to your Sonos soundbar to play content from your TV. The headphones deliver the full Dolby Atmos experience directly into your ears without disturbing anyone else nearby. This is an absolute godsend if you want to watch movies or play games late into the night without disturbing a partner, your neighbors or the kids sleeping in the room upstairs.

And because it's coming from the soundbar's input, you can use it with any streaming service or any games console hooked up to your TV.

Finally, there's a real joy to using the physical controls on these headphones. There's a tactile "Content Key" on the right earcup letting you play/pause as well as volume up/volume down, while a secondary button gives noise control on/off, aware mode, and voice control options.

If there's one complaint I have with the Sonos Ace, it involves the protective case the headphones ship with. Getting them into it almost always involves awkwardly trying to slide the earcup stems inward to make the headphones compact enough to fit. But come on, if that's the only thing I can find to complain about then that should tell you all you need to know.

Long story short, this is an Amazon deal I definitely recommend you look into, and that goes double if you've already got other Sonos products in your home. Finally, check out our Amazon Big Spring Sale live hub for the latest discounts we've spotted all this week.

We're just two weeks out from the release of the new Sonos Play portable Bluetooth speaker but, in the meantime, Sonos is running some decent discounts on some of its most popular speakers.

As the maker of some of the best speakers and best soundbars on the market — Sonos products are rarely discounted by more than a few bucks, but every once in a while you can save $100 or more.

Case in point? The Sonos Sub Mini and Sonos Move 2, both of which are $399 this week after a $100 discount. Looking for something cheaper? The most affordable model in the lineup, the Sonos Roam 2 is down to $139 at Amazon for a limited time, too. Here's a link to all the Sonos deals on Amazon, and for more discounts, check out our guide to the best Amazon promo codes.

Quick Links

• shop all Sonos deals on Amazon
• Sonos Roam 2: was $179 now $139
• Sonos Ray: was $279 now $219
• Sonos Era 100: was $249 now $219
• Sonos Beam: was $499 now $369
• Sonos Sub Mini: was $499 now $399
• Sonos Move 2: was $499 now $399
• Sonos Arc: was $899 now $749

Best Sonos Deals

If you plan on using your TV's built-in speakers to watch every game during March Madness, you better plan on missing out on some key game details.

Whether it's a hard-to-hear announcer, inaudible band noise or the barely there chants in the crowd, TV speakers simply struggle with the multitude of fine details found in every broadcast.

The good news is that even the best soundbars aren't hefty investments and some models can be found for well under $500. Here's our top draft picks. For more deals, check out our guide to the best March Madness TV sales.

Quick Links

• shop all soundbars at Amazon
• shop all soundbars at Best Buy
• Samsung Q600F: was $699 now $449 @ Best Buy
• Klipsch Flexus Core 200: was $549 now $499 @ Amazon
• Bose Smart Soundbar: was $899 now $729 @ Amazon
• LG S90TR: was $1,199 now $796 @ Amazon
• Samsung Q990F: was $1,697 now $1,597 @ Amazon

Best soundbar deals

Sonos has announced two new speakers today, its first new products of 2026, following a whisper-quiet 2025 and a tumultuous 2024. The two products — Sonos Era 100 SL and Sonos Play — look set to shore up the company's product line by offering affordability and portability.

The Sonos Era 100 SL handles the former. It's essentially a cheaper version of the Sonos Era 100, stripping out the mic and paring down the features to serve as a new entry point to the ecosystem. Sonos is pricing this speaker at USD $189 / GBP £169 / EUR €199 / AUD $289 with pre-orders going live today and general availability on March 31.

Far more interesting, however, is the latter. The all-new Sonos Play is something of a middle-ground between the Sonos Move 2 and the Sonos Roam 2. It's loaded with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth depending on whether you want to use it at home or out and about. There's 24 hours of battery life but Sonos also includes a wireless charging base so the Sonos Play can sit happily at home until you need to go mobile.

There's an IP67 waterproof rating, a removable fabric loop for portability and even a built-in power bank so you can use it to charge your phone. You can interact with the Sonos Play through the Sonos app or use voice control.

Spotify Connect and Apple AirPlay 2 are both supported and you can, of course, link it to any other Sonos products you also own.

The Sonos Play hits the price point between the $499 Move 2 and the $179 Roam 2 at USD $299 / GBP £299 / EUR €349 / AUD $499. Like the Era 100 SL, it's also available to pre-order from today and will go on general availability March 31.

“We believe a great sound experience shouldn’t reset every time you add something new. It should get better," said Tom Conrad, Chief Executive Officer of Sonos.

"Sonos Play and Era 100 SL are a clear expression of what Sonos does best — creating products that feel simple on the surface, but are deeply powerful because of the system behind them.”

Both the Move 2 and Roam 2 are some of the best Bluetooth speakers you can buy, so it makes sense for Sonos to do more in this category, offering a Goldilocks choice for buyers. Meanwhile, the brand has often been painted as a premium choice so bringing a new Era in at $60 is a welcome addition to the lineup in a time when everything is getting more expensive.

Providing Sonos can keep customers happy on the software side, these two new devices could be the first steps along the road to redemption for the audio company. We'll be testing both these speakers in the upcoming weeks to make sure you check back for our full review of each.

More from Tom's Guide

• Ditching your headphones for speakers might be best for your health
• The Sony WF-1000XM6 are here — here’s everything you need to know
• I tested the AirPods 4 ANC vs Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 — and there's a clear winner

Harry Styles ' latest studio album, "Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally" is finally here, and let me tell you, my wife is incredibly excited.

After weeks and weeks of relistening to Aperture on repeat, she was the first in line this morning to pick up the ex-One Direction superstar's new record, and I've been hearing the dance anthems blast throughout my apartment as I write this article.

We've been collecting records for years now, and I'm pretty happy with my current turntable setup. I've listed all of the products I recommend for the perfect record player setup below, and I genuinely use all of them.

You might think a Sonos speaker is a weird choice, but the nifty Sonos Line-In Adapter allows me to stream my records around the whole house, and it adds a little less friction to listening to tunes, which makes me listen to my vinyl collection even more.

Soon, the Sonos family of portable speakers will gain a new member — the top-secret Sonos Play. Rumors have been circulating about the new device for months, but the product finally leaked on a Best Buy page over this past weekend.

The posting was spotted by The Verge and was quickly taken down. Before it came down, however, the outlet recorded some of its key features — including a 24-hour battery life, IP67 water resistance, AUX input, wireless charging base and support for AirPlay 2.

The listing cited a release date of March 31, though that could just be a placeholder until the speaker gets formally announced by Sonos sometime this month.

Meet Sonos’ new slightly more affordable Bluetooth speaker

Based on its purported price of $399 CAD (around $290), the Sonos Play will sit in between the cheaper Sonos Roam 2 ($179) and the more expensive Sonos Move 2 ($499).

Its specs also seem to support its middle-of-the-road placement. At 24 hours of battery life, it would offer twice as much juice as the Roam 2 but, based on the photos, it wouldn't be as heavy duty as the 6.6 pound Move 2. The Move 2 and Roam 2 are two of the best Bluetooth speakers, so you can understand why there's so much interest in the forthcoming Sonos Play.

There’s a good chance that Sonos will launch the new Play portable speaker with a refreshed version of its app. According to Bloomberg, a new version of the beleaguered app is in development and already available internally. The timing appears to match up with this speaker’s end-of-month launch date.

We’ll of course reach out to Sonos for comment on its potential upcoming product launches, but we expect to hear more closer to the end of March rather than at the beginning.

More from Tom's Guide

• You could buy AirPods Pro 3 right now — but here are three other options you should consider instead
• Should you prioritize a subwoofer or smart features? I put my favorite Bose and Polk Audio soundbars head-to-head, and the results will surprise you
• I'm only excited about one pair of upcoming earbuds, and it's not the AirPods Pro 3

The Sonos Ace are kind of like the black sheep of the headphones world. Unlike their competitors, Sonos' Ace headphones have no stablemates. There's no Sonos Ace Pro, or WH-1000XACE 2. They might share the spotlight with Sonos' home speakers, but as the only pair of headphones in Sonos' repertoire, they're quite lonesome.

That's a shame, because they're rather good. While they might not be my primary headphones, they're a great travelling companion thanks to one important feature — their excellent spatial audio for movies and TV on the go.

As good as they are, however, they could use some refining: There are some sonic issues that need fixing, along with battery life that could still use work. All of that could be fixed in their sequel — so where are they?

The case for the Sonos Ace

If you only care about sound quality, the Sonos Ace aren't going to wow you. Their sound lacks a little drive and punch, and they're a bit too warm. But there's so much else to love about them.

See, I often find myself on longer trips by car, coach, or train. Those can get noisy, and sometimes I want to completely distract myself from my surroundings and watch some TV or a movie. Most headphones do a good job at this — but the Sonos Ace have an ace up their sleeve that secures them a permanent place in my backpack.

It's the way that they handle spatial audio from just about any streaming service I might throw at them. They make me feel like I'm not in the back of a car or nestled into a train seat. Rather, I'm sitting in the theater, about to watch my favorite movies in stunning surround sound.

The rest of their features — their solid ANC and their comfortable fit — make them a compelling alternative to the more established competition. Their Spatial Audio gives them a Raison D'etre — the movie lover's perfect companion.

So why do I want a new one?

As much as I love my Sonos Ace, not everything is perfect. Unfortunately, some technical issues have killed a few pairs and, try as I might, it's hard to ignore those sound quality issues mentioned above, along with the lack of greater integration into the wider Sonos ecosystem.

There are numerous improvements to make — but it looks like Sonos isn't keen to fix them. There have been no rumors as to the Sonos Ace 2, sadly, and I think there could be a couple of reasons why.

The first would be sales. The Sonos Ace, while critically successful, don't seem to have made the same impact with buyers — you know, the people who are actually going to spend money on the headphones. Given the brand's struggle at the moment, it would make perfect sense that investing into a potentially less popular product would be secondary to other new products.

The second could be that Sonos are looking at a longer refresh cycle. After all, the Ace aren't that old in the grand scheme of things.

As reasonable as that all sounds, it doesn't lessen my desire for a sequel — a proper-sounding Ace that delivers audiophile-grade sound over Wi-Fi.

Until that surfaces, I'll keep my eyes on the water. I'm itching to see what the brand might do next.

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The big game is just around the corner — a couple of days at the time of writing. If you're thinking of getting a new soundbar to put under the TV to make sure you're getting the best sound possible, you've almost run out of time.

Thankfully, you've only almost run out of time. Thanks to the wonders of next-day shipping, you can grab one of the best soundbars and have it at your door within a day. Perfect for making sure that your TV sounds the best it can to watch the biggest football game of the year.

There's a bar here for every budget, and some even come with special surround speakers for even larger sound. So let's get you sorted for Super Bowl 2026 with a brand new soundbar. Need a new TV as well? We've counted down the best Super Bowl TVs as well.

While many people will receive their soundbars the next day, some locations may offer a different delivery time. These delivery times are correct at the time of publishing, based on a New York address. Next-day delivery requires an Amazon Prime Account.

The Super Bowl is the exciting culmination of the NFL league, and for many, it's one of the highlights of the year. Whether it's your team playing or not, or if you're not even into football, Sonos is helping everyone join in the celebrations by offering up to 26% off their Sonos Home Theatre products.

Our top three picks include the Era 100 for $179 (save 18%), the Sub mini for $399 (save 20%), and the Arc Ultra + Sub 4 bundle for $1599 (save 20%). These are just a few of the discounts, though, so we recommend checking out the Sonos sale page to see what takes your fancy.

A sale like this doesn't come along every day, so if you're in the market for one of the best speakers or best soundbars, then now's the time to strike.

Save with Sonos this Super Bowl

Our top three Sonos picks

This Super Bowl-inspired sale ends on Feb 16, but if you've missed out, then there are still other opportunities to save with Sonos. Just head over to our Sonos promo codes hub for the most up-to-date ways to save.

Sonos has been quiet for about a year. It's been working in the background, improving the controversial app and ensuring users get the best possible experience. When I put together my living room's Sonos surround setup, I learned that there are still some kinks — but we're otherwise there.

It looks like the firm has also been working on something new to give the world. It's called the Sonos Amp Multi, and instead of the loud-and-proud Arc Ultra soundbar or the Era 300 smart speaker, it is designed to be the wired-in center of a whole-home audio system. Let's dive in.

For all the speakers

The Amp Multi isn't going to work on its own — it's an amplifier that needs speakers to make the sound. There are eight different stereo channels on the back of the amplifier, which you then need to wire to speakers around the house.

That's going to be done by an installer, so it's unlikely to be something you'll do yourself. Unless you're a Sonos installer with a house that needs speakers.

Once you've wired up all the speakers around the house (through the walls and the floors), you can create rooms for each channel. You can put multiple channels in one room for more sound as well.

All running through the Sonos app

The amp and all the speakers you attach to it are going to be powered by the Sonos app — and depending on your viewpoint, that could be either a great thing or some of the worst news you've ever heard.

For the most part, current experiences with the Sonos app are positive. It seems like the alarm and playback issues have been ironed out, and users of the Era line and other smart speakers are not experiencing anywhere near as many issues as they did when the app was relaunched.

But things aren't perfect, even now. I recently set up a full Sonos surround system in my living room, and I had to spend days troubleshooting before disconnecting everything from the internet and starting completely from scratch. I even had to disconnect my router before TruePlay would work, and the surrounds would make noise.

Despite these issues, the Amp Multi seems to be evidence that Sonos is now ready to leave them in the past. This is a device that relies entirely on the app, with no controls on the device at all. You choose your channel in the app, and then play your tunes/podcast/whatever audio thing you want.

Volume? App. Playback? App. It looks well featured for connection standards, as you might expect, including "Apple AirPlay, Spotify Direct Control, and more." It'll get wired into your house's cable internet for better stability, making for fewer potential app issues. You can still connect to Wi-Fi, if you wish — but if you're wiring in speakers, it would be a waste not to get an ethernet cable plugged into the back.

There are physical connections as well, including a USB-C port and a pair of RCA inputs. You won't be short of ways to plug in — although I'm sure some will miss an HDMI port.

With ProTune, you can dial in the sound for each room (or channel) individually. There's a Parametric EQ for fine adjustments to room acoustics, giving more granular control than TruePlay. This is likely going to be a part of the install, sorted out by your installers.

Still, there's a lot of faith here for a new product to rely on an app that's previously been troubled. It's also a lot to ask of potential consumers, considering that this is going to be permanently wired into your house. Or, at least, wires traipsed around the house. Either way, it's a larger investment than a soundbar or smart speaker.

Simple design that you're not supposed to see

Sonos has made the Amp Multi look as attractive as a permanently situated box could ever be. But given that it's supposed to be tucked away in a media console or even placed in a rack, it's still very much just a black box with some speaker interconnects on the back.

Price is available when you book yourself an install — it's all paid at once. So the box on its own doesn't yet have a price. If you're interested in picking up (or getting one buried in your wall), you can enquire on the Sonos website.

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The big game is nearly here, but there's still plenty of time to get a new soundbar for the Super Bowl. After all, if you can't hear everything going on on screen, what's the point?

Grab one of these excellent soundbar deals with up to $200 off for your Super Bowl party and get the best performance possible. While you're at it, check out the best Super Bowl TVs as well — why not upgrade your whole system?

Super Bowl soundbar deals

• Amazon Fire TV soundbar: was $119 now $99 @ Amazon
• Creative Stage Pro: was $169 now $149 @ Amazon
• Bose TV Speaker: was $279 now $199 @ Amazon
• Sony HT-2400: was $299 now $258 @ Amazon
• Klipsch Flexus CORE 100: was $349 now $279 @ Amazon
• Samsung Q600F: was $497 now $447 @ Amazon
• Sonos Beam (Gen 2): was $499 now $465 @ Amazon
• Klipsch Flexus 200: was $549 now $474 @ Amazon
• Sony Bravia Theater Bar 9: was $1499 now $1198 @ Amazon

The soundbar that lives in my living room, the Sonos Arc Ultra, is one of the best soundbars that you can buy today. The surround sound is amazing, the dialogue clear, and even the bassy rumble is impressive. But, as with even the best TV speakers, there's one clear issue.

What do you do when everyone else has gone to bed, and you want to watch a film? Or, what if you live in a Flat, and you don't want to disturb everyone who lives around you while you watch an action flick? There's a solution — although, unfortunately, it's only for some of us.

To find out how viable it is, I've left my soundbar turned off and used some popular headphones to watch my movies and TV. Here's how I did it, and how it's gone.

How I did it

First off, I should mention that there are some irritating restrictions to my experiment. The first is that you can only use certain headphones with your TV, and they have to be connected to a specific device.

For example, you can use the best AirPods to watch TV shows and Movies, but you need to connect them to an Apple TV 4K box for it to work. That means you can't use your AirPods to watch anything outside of the things you're streaming from the device. That's a shame — Apple 65-inch OLED TV when, please?

The other option is to use a pair of Sonos Ace and a compatible soundbar. This is a more flexible option, given that you can watch TV and Movies from anything plugged into your TV. There are still restrictions, however. It only works with the Sonos Ace headphones, and you need a soundbar that supports the tech.

I've tried both options. The Sonos Ace connect with my Sonos Arc Ultra, and my AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods Max connect to my Apple TV. I've used both for about a month now, doing all my personal TV watching to see whether they might replace my soundbar.

Spoiler: No. But I might start using them more than I have before.

Sound surprising

There were a couple of things that I was certain of going in. I knew that I would miss the bassy rumble of explosions and the incredible holographic surround of my Sonos Arc Ultra and surround satellite setup. I did, indeed, miss both of those things, but I still found plenty to like when using either for my TV watching — and something quite surprising.

All of the headphones and earbuds I used during my experiment already sound great, which does help. They all have class-leading, in some way, Dolby Atmos playback, so we're off to a good start.

That meant that watching movies was a great experience, whether through the Apple buds or my Sonos Ace. The latter are slightly better for the format, given that Sonos developed them especially for both music and movies, but I wasn't disappointed by either.

One of the most surprising things was how immersive everything felt. While the sound wasn't anywhere near as expansive or huge as my surround setup, the more restricted soundstage made me feel more integral to the movie's sound.

Everything was happening around me, and I felt slightly closer to the action. Rather than a better experience (or even a worse one), what I got was a different experience. One that seems to realise it's never going to compete with a full setup in dynamics, space, or even fidelity, and so focuses on the things it can be good at.

The dialogue was clear, and at times unnerving. I was watching a horror movie, and a scene where a horrifying creature talks behind you felt like it was whispering in my ear. Jarring, uncomfortable – and wonderful.

Not perfect

The restrictions are irritating. The fact that you have to own at least hundreds of dollars worth of equipment before you can even begin, be that an Apple TV and some AirPods or a pair of Sonos Ace and a Sonos soundbar, feels like you're being bled dry financially.

Both a fairly seamless to get working, thankfully, but I do wish that AirPods had a way of working without the need to watch everything through your Apple TV. You can use HomePods like this, so why can't my AirPods? That feels like a missed opportunity.

The lack of bassy rumble and other sound bits is also a trade off. If you've got the opportunity to use your full setup without waking anyone up or disturbing the neighbours, that's still going to be the way to go.

A worthy nighttime alternative

My experiment has been, in my eyes at least, successful. If you've got the tech to do it, and you want to watch movies and TV when other people are asleep, then it's a great alternative to your big, noisy soundbar. I even really enjoyed that there were other sonic reasons to enjoy my headphones rather than the soundbar, to the point I might switch over even when I don't need to.

It's also a great proof of concept. I'd like to see more headphone and TV manufacturers bring headphone Dolby Atmos connections to the table, so you don't have to rely on these expensive options. Still, that's one for the future. As it stands, these are great ways to keep the noise down while enjoying some cinema.

I'm off to go watch Gladiator, without keeping my family up. Adios!

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A Sonos soundbar, before you've even dipped into the many (many) settings available, is a fantastic addition to your TV stand. Handsome, performant — there's little more you could ask.

Only, you can ask for more. Open up the (now mostly fixed) Sonos app and you'll find pages upon pages of different settings to change so that you can get the most out of your soundbar. But which should you turn on, and why? These are all the settings you should change on your Sonos soundbar to get every last drop of performance.

1. Download the app

It might sound completely obvious, but you'll need to download the Sonos app if you really want to get the best out of your Sonos soundbar. Fear not, the many technical issues that Sonos has faced after the application relaunch are now mostly fixed, and its a must-install for all Sonos users.

It unlocks the full range of features on your soundbar, and there are versions available for both Android and iOS. You won't have any of the below settings and features without it, so you should get it sorted before moving on.

2. Tune the sound to your room

While your new Sonos soundbar is going to sound good out of the box, it's well worth spending some time tuning the bar so that it sounds good for your surroundings. After all, the core tuning is handled in a controlled test room. Which, I'm going to guess, is something your living room is not.

TruePlay plays a series of different sounds, and then uses your phone's microphone to judge the acoustics of the room. From there, it changes the sound to better match your needs.

Head into the app and find the soundbar settings. From there, select the TruePlay tuning section. The simple tuning means you can sit still, but its results won't be as transformative. Use the complex option if you want to eke all the performance out of your bar.

Follow the instructions, and you're done!

Note: this is only available on iOS devices at the moment, sadly. Sorry, Android users, you're out of luck!

3. Use dialogue enhancer

One of the biggest improvements a soundbar can bring is better speech for your movies and TV. Even then, there can be shows and other content that just have muffled dialogue straight out of the studio. Thankfully, some Sonos soundbars can improve this with very clever AI dialogue enhancement.

It picks out the voice line of a movie or TV show and then increases the volume. There are different strength options; the stronger the dialogue enhancement, the greater effect you'll see in the rest of the soundscape.

Note: Don't use it for listening to music. It sounds bad.

Head to the settings menu and find the speech enhancement menu. Select your desired level — mine is the middle — and get to watching your favorite Netflix documentaries with clearer speech. David Attenborough has never sounded so good.

4. Activate Dolby Atmos

This is only accessible for Sonos Arc and Sonos Beam Gen 2 users, but it's well worth activating. After all, if you want to use all those fancy upfiring drivers and get the best soundtracks and movie experience possible, you're only going to get it with Dolby Atmos turned on.

These are often turned on by default, but you'll still want to double-check just in case. Head to the soundbar settings in the Sonos app, and check the surround option. You'll also want to turn on the Spatial Music option.

Now, head to Netflix or Disney+ and find a movie or TV show with Dolby Atmos. Press play, and check the 'now playing' screen on the Sonos app. There should be a "Dolby Atmos" logo.

If there isn't, you should check the sound settings on your TV. Here, you'll either need to make sure that the sound options are set to Dolby Atmos or 'pass through.' Also, check the device you're using and the audio settings there.

Go back to your streaming service and try again — there's an annoying number of roadblocks, but it's well worth getting Dolby Atmos turned on properly.

5. Turn off the status light

Ok, so this one might sound really silly, but believe me, it's worth it. If you're anything like me (and it's very possible you are, given you've landed here), you like to watch movies in a dark room. That means that any lights, especially ones extremely close to the TV, are an eyesore. An irritating distraction.

Thankfully, you can turn the little light atop Sonos soundbars off in the settings menu. Find the Status light setting in the soundbar menu, and toggle that badboy to the "off" position.

Done! No more annoying little lights under the screen when you change the volume, or to let you know that the soundbar is turned on. It also works with any surround speakers you might have attached to the bar.

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My Sonos Move 2 has sat by my bedside pretty much from the moment the speaker arrived on my doorstep. I unboxed it, did my testing, and then realised "that's the perfect shape and size for my nightstand."

So onto my nightstand it did go, one of the best Bluetooth speakers available at the tap of a button; Until now. A new speaker, from Wiim, has taken its place. The beguiling screen on the front is part of my shift, but there are other reasons why my poor Move 2 has been relegated to spare bedroom music duties.

Why I got tired with the Move 2

Don't get me wrong, the Move 2 is a great speaker. I like that it's portable, and I'm a big fan of the sound quality. It's big and rich, and the Sonos app finally feels like it's worth its salt.

But there are cracks appearing in our relationship that I'm not sure can be fixed with therapy (or app updates). As much as the Sonos app has improved, I still prefer using my whole-home music streaming service, Roon. The Move 2 and Roon are... not friends. At all.

They were at one point — the Move 2 connected easily to the service and played music when told to. Then something happened, and I've not been able to get it to work since. That, in my eyes, is a bit of a deal breaker. A great cosmic shame.

Then there's the charging dock that keeps it powered and filled with battery. In theory, it's great. You don't need to remember to plug it in when you've finished using it around the house. Placing it in the charging dock ring will juice it back up, and keep it going when you need it.

Until it doesn't. I've found that dust and other assorted schmutz on the speaker and the docks' contact points can put a kibosh on charging and power, leaving me high and dry when I want to listen to something heavy upon waking up.

I love the Sonos Move 2. It's still one of the greatest Bluetooth speakers you can buy right now — there are just significant pain points that have necessitated its eviction from my nightstand.

That, and there's something shiny and new that wants to take its place.

The replacement

This handsome devil that has captured my heart is the Wiim Sound. It already had my attention from the first unveiling of the speaker — I adore Wiim and pretty much everything the brand produces. The Wiim streaming app is one of the best around, and while I prefer Roon, it's a fantastic free alternative.

The Wiim sound is the brand's first foray into powered speakers, and it's taking the fight directly to Sonos, Amazon, and even the Apple HomePod line. That's a busy, highly contested market, but I think there are plenty of reasons to choose one of Wiim's speakers instead.

For one, the Wiim Sound has a screen on it. It's only little, but it's super clear and very flexible. I like that it can show a clock when the speaker is in standby. If you choose, you can forgo the screen entirely and have it turned off — but then you'd miss the super-fun spinning disc of album artwork it can show!

I don't have to worry about charging and power anymore, either; it's perma-plugged into the wall, drinking power from a wall socket. It works when I need it to work, no questions asked.

It works seamlessly with Roon as well, so I don't need to dip into a different app to play any of my music at home. I can set alarms for the morning, just as I could with the Sonos Move 2.

Thankfully, the sound quality matches well with my sonic sensibilities. I actually like the sound more than the Move 2. It's more refined, with greater high-end clarity and detail retrieval. The bass is clear and direct. I had to make sure I did the room correction in the Wiim app to make sure it sounds its best.

The Wi-Fi connection is solid, and I really like the addition of an Aux port next to the Ethernet port on the back, so that you can plug other devices in. You can even connect several for stereo playback — although I'd suggest picking up the screen-free variant, the Wiim Sound Lite, so that you're not all screened out.

Not all plain sailing

That's not to say my new love hasn't been without its pain points. There are bugbears here. For one, I leave the screen on overnight. The light doesn't bother me at all — until it decides to turn off. And then back on again a minute later. I'm not sure what's going on there, but I'm hoping there's a software update in the future to get it fixed.

I'm also getting used to not having a speaker I can pick up and carry everywhere. Now, when I want my music to follow me around, I have to pick up a Bluetooth speaker and take it with me instead. It's a minor thing, but I did have to get used to it.

I also can't command the speaker with my voice without the remote control. The Sonos Move 2 has mics built in all over the place so that it can hear commands from anywhere, while the Wiim needs you to press the little mic button on the controller for voice control. Irritating, but not the biggest dealbreaker.

Either way, the Wiim Sound is here to stay with its little OLED display, excellent sound, and great connectivity. I'm sure we can work out our few differences in time.

Until, perhaps, something even shinier comes along.

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Sonos' makes some of the best soundbars that you can buy. From the uber-costly but monstrously powerful Arc Ultra to the budget-friendly Ray, there's a Sonos soundbar for almost every budget.

But which soundbar is the best for you, beyond even price? You might not need something as impressive as the large Arc Ultra, even if you can afford it, and you might need something beefier for your larger room than the Ray. Let's break it down.

For a mid-sized room, you'll want...

The Sonos Beam Gen 2

You don't need something massive like the Arc Ultra, and you don't need to spend the extra money. Instead, you should grab the Sonos Beam Gen 2, the middle child of the Sonos range.

You'll still get Dolby Atmos, and you can add in extra surround speakers if you want a more impressive surround experience. The Beam Gen 2 sounds amazing as well, with plenty of bassy wallop for all your movies and TV.

If you want a little extra impact for explosions and other bassy happenings on screen, you might want to grab a subwoofer. I'd suggest the Sonos Sub mini for your bassy fix – it's plenty powerful enough for your mid-sized space.

Buy the setup:

• Sonos Beam Gen 2 $499 @ Amazon
• Sonos Sub Mini $499 @ Amazon

Bedroom movies do very well with a...

The Sonos Ray

A bedroom doesn't need enormous amounts of Dolby Atmos sound — you want something that sounds good without taking up loads of space. The Sonos Ray fits the bill perfectly.

It sounds great and gives you much more cinematic sound than the speakers built into your TV. You could go a little further with the Beam Gen 2 if your bedroom is slightly larger, but you don't need it for what is likely an occasional TV.

You can always attach a subwoofer if you want some extra bass.

Buy it

• Sonos Ray $219 @ Amazon

You have a large room to fill, so you'll need...

The Sonos Arc Ultra

The Arc Ultra is Sonos' most powerful soundbar, perfect for large spaces. There are 9.1.4 channels of Dolby Atmos goodness here along with some extremely powerful internal amplifiers that go loud enough to shake windows three streets down.

Cranking the volume for large spaces doesn't lead to any amount of sound thinning, giving you the best experience possible. If you want something even bassier and better for the low stuff, you should add a Sonos sub 4 for some truly epic sound.

Buy the setup:

• Sonos Arc Ultra $1,099 @ Amazon
• Sonos Sub 4 $899 @ Amazon

For beginner's Dolby Atmos, you should buy...

Sonos Beam Gen 2 and a pair of Era 100s

The Beam Gen 2 provides solid sound quality on its own, and even does a valiant job with surround sound. If you want even more channels without stretching the budget too much, however, there is a way – grab some Sonos Era 100s.

They act as physical surrounds, pumping sound all around you. It's a wonderful way of getting a bigger sound without taking up loads of space — although it does cost more in the long run.

Buy the setup:

• Sonos Beam Gen 2 $499 @ Amazon
• Sonos Era 100 (x2) $199 each @ Amazon

If you want the ultimate Dolby Atmos experience, you should buy...

Sonos Arc Ultra, a subwoofer and a pair of Era 300s

The Sonos Arc Ultra already pumps out some massive Dolby Atmos sound, but there's always a way to make it even better. Case in (very expensive) point — adding in a pair of Era 300s and a massive subwoofer.

The Era 300s are already good at Spatial Audio on their own, so add them to the soundbar and you've got the Dolby Atmos envy of all but the most invested home theater buffs. The subwoofer brings even more low-end punch for the movies experience of a life time. If you can stomach the cost, of course.

Buy the setup:

• Sonos Arc Ultra $1,099 @ Amazon
• Sonos Sub 4 $899 @ Amazon
• Sonos Era 300 (x2) $449 each @ Amazon

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What's more exciting than pulling a brand new Sonos soundbar from under the tree? Getting it plugged into the TV and watching your favorite movie, that's what. But hold! Don't get watching "Star Wars Episode III" just yet – there's some settings you'll want to change first.

Let me guide you through the process. Once you've got everything setup, there are some extra steps to make sure your soundbar is performing its best. Get your phone ready, and prepare to see what Sonos soundbars are really capable of doing.

1. Download the Sonos app

While the Sonos App has had its fair share of problems over the last few months (or just over a year — but who's counting?), it's still a useful way to control your Sonos soundbar.

Pop over to the app store, and find the "Sonos" app. From there you can connect your Soundbar. It also unlocks the smart features of the soundbar, so you can use the built-in voice control and stream music wirelessly over Wi-Fi.

And before anyone says "well that seems obvious," I know someone who went months without downloading the app for their soundbar. They had no idea you could stream music to it – or that they needed to activate the Dolby Atmos setting.

2. Tune with TruePlay

There are a great many things that can affect the sound of your soundbar, including room acoustics. Not that you really need to worry about all that, thanks to Sonos' built in tuning system called "TruePlay."

It listens to a series of sounds from your soundbar, and using the soundbar's mics and the mic in your phone, it builds a sonic picture of your room. From there it can create a profile that makes sure it sounds the best possible according to the unique sonic characteristics of your room.

It's easy to find. Go into the app, and find the settings of your sound bar. Find the TruePlay tuning option. There are two options here. A simple option where you don't have to move around, and a more complex one that sees you walk around the room waving your phone around.

Follow the instructions on screen, and wait for the loud laser noises to finish. Et voila! One tuned soundbar.

3. Activate Dolby Atmos

Generally, spatial audio and Dolby Atmos are turned on by default, but you'll want to check. That way you can be sure you're getting surround sound for your favorite movies, games and music.

Head into the settings menu of your soundbar, and head down to the "surround" options. From there, check that Surround is turned on and that you've got Spatial Music turned on.

To check that things work correctly, play a movie on Netflix or Disney+ that you know has Dolby Atmos. Go into the Sonos app while the movie is playing, and check that there's the 'Dolby Atmos' logo on the screen.

If you see "stereo PCM," then Dolby Atmos isn't activated. Go back to the settings screen and check all the settings from above to make sure you're getting the best sound possible.

4. Activate speech enhancement for better dialog

This is only going to work with the Sonos Arc Ultra, but it's well worth turning on, especially if you like to watch TV and movies with lots of spoken words. Using some very clever AI, the soundbar will highlight dialog to make it easier to understand with speech enhancement so that you never miss a word.

It's easy to turn on. Head to the settings menu in the Sonos app, and then find the Speech Enhancement menu. From there, you can select a level — the higher the level, the louder the dialog.

The highest levels to affect the sound of the movie or TV show, so I'd recommend you stick with the middle level. That will enhance the dialogue a good deal without affecting the sound of the rest of the movie.

You should also turn it off when you listen to music – it sounds bad.

5. Add some streaming services

You can actually stream music to your soundbar directly from the Sonos app — you just need to sign into your services. When you search in the app, it will search through any streaming services you've added, making the potential library even larger.

Just head to the first page of the Sonos app, and press the 'Add' button under 'your services.' Follow the on-screen instructions, and log in to Tidal, Apple Music, Spotify, and more.

You can also stream from Sonos radio, although you don't get to choose the tracks you're listening to there.

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When I know I'm in for a longer journey, be that on a train, in a car, or packed inside an airliner, there's only one pair of headphones that I turn to — the Sonos Ace. Not only do they sound great for music, they're my preferred way of watching movies on the go.

They're now back down to their lowest price, so you can get a pair for your lengthier traveling. The Sonos Ace are now just $279 at Amazon, $170 off their full price. The perfect last minute Holiday gift for a loved one (or yourself).

The Sonos Ace are one of the best pairs of wireless headphones if you're looking for a great spatial audio experience. Sonos, known more for surround sound soundbars and smart speakers, put every ounce of Dolby Atmos experience into the Sonos Ace, and we've ended up with the best pair of headphones for spatial listening.

They're a more convincingly natural-sounding spatial listen than the likes of even the AirPods Max, and they work way better for movies than just about anything else. That makes them great for travel.

After all, what better way to wear away the hours of a long-haul flight than to watch your favorite movies? The Sonos Ace are the final piece of the puzzle, bringing the surround sound and impactful bass for a cinema experience on the go. I love it — Transformers (don't judge me) never sounded better in the back of a car than with the Sonos Ace.

They're great at everything else, of course. The ANC makes blocks out for your fellow passengers, so you can enjoy your movies, and their comfortable fit ensures you can wear them for the whole trip.

30 hours of battery life is more than enough for even the longest flight, and it will also get you to your hotel when you arrive. Looking for a lovely Holiday gift for your movie buff family member? Forget that new 4K Blu-ray player — this is what they want.

If I had my way, my living room would have a full system of speakers and subwoofers connected to one of the best home theater receivers. Unfortunately, I, like many others, have "the council of people I live with" to get past before I can enjoy surround sound movies at their very best.

So I turned to the Sonos soundbar that lives on our TV stand. The Sonos Arc Ultra is one of the best soundbars, and it connects to other Sonos speakers for a true surround experience. Speakers I already own. So getting it past the council of elders was a whole lot easier than buying an amp, buckets of speakers, and wall mounting a whole new setup. My experience hasn't been smooth sailing — but it's definitely here to stay. Let me tell you why.

How does it work?

The Sonos Arc Ultra is already a very proficient surround sound device before you've connected all your extra speakers. There are 9.1.4 channels already built in for some impressive virtual Atmos surround, creating a fairly convincing Dolby Atmos bubble around you when you're watching movies and cinematic TV shows.

But it's not quite enough. See, you can link up other Sonos speakers for a "true surround" system (note: not a virtual one). In my case, that's a pair of Sonos Era 300 speakers and a Sonos Sub 4 to add some extra bass to the mix.

That actually places some of the sound behind you, as opposed to the soundbar bouncing the soundtrack off the walls and into your ears.

It all connects using Wi-Fi. The Sonos Arc Ultra makes its own mini-network within your home Wi-Fi, sending the audio signal through a high-quality, and most importantly, lag-free wireless connection to each speaker.

Sound complicated? Well, that's because it is complicated. And, as much as Sonos might tell you otherwise, it's also a massive pain to set up.

My surround setup nightmare

I'd hoped that my Sonos setup would be much easier than it proved to be. After all, previous devices have hooked up without complaint, despite the difficulties that the app has seen over the last, like, year.

Alas, it was not to be. Connecting everything was to be a Sisyphean task, with numerous unpluggings, disconnectings, and even uninstallations to get everything working.

It should be easy. Just a couple of taps in the Sonos app, and you're away. That's how I started. I put the speakers in their spots and pressed the "add as surrounds" button. A quick loading screen later, and I was off to the races — or so I thought.

The surround speakers didn't work. When I tried out some spatial music or watched a Dolby Atmos movie, there was no surround sound. My Era 300s were completely silent. The TruePlay tuning in the app stopped halfway, never to get to the surround speaker part.

I tried everything I could think of. I power cycled the Era 300s, the soundbar, and the sub. I tried uninstalling the application and then re-logging in again. I tried each device separately to make sure they were working. They were — so why on earth would they not connect together so that I can watch Star Wars: Episode III in glorious Dolby Atmos?

For a time, I gave up. The Era 300s sat in their surround spots, ready for me to make the effort to try again. And then — a revelation. Why not start afresh?

So I started fresh. I disconnected all the Sonos speakers from the power, and reset my internet router. I uninstalled the app and restarted my phone. I was ready to get it all started, from square one.

I reinstalled the Sonos app and signed in. "No Sonos network found" — just what I was hoping for. I started with the Arc Ultra. I factory reset the speaker by holding the Bluetooth button while I plugged it in, waiting for the orange light on the front to pulse green.

It appeared in the app like a brand new device, and I hooked it up. I did an initial TruePlay tuning, and everything seemed ok. Now for the Subwoofer. Hold down the pairing button, connect the power, and wait for the orange light to turn green. Connect it to the system in the app, and run TruePlay for the soundbar again.

So far, so good.

Now for the bit that gave me issues the first (few) times around. I moved onto the rear surrounds, starting with what would be the rear right. I held the Bluetooth button and connected the power to factory reset it. It appeared in the app, and I set it up like a normal speaker. A quick TruePlay tuning later, and it's working as a smart speaker.

But not like a surround. Not yet.

Things so far are looking good, but until Anakin is wheeling around my head in his Jedi Starfighter, we're not done. I applied the same process to the final speaker in the system — hold the Bluetooth button, and plug it in. Wait for that green light, and set up the speaker in the app.

I ran TruePlay on the second Era 300. I'm getting ever more nervous as I am excited. I've been at it for hours, days even, and I'm nearly there. It might work.

Now for the crucial part: adding the speakers as surrounds. There's a quick button in the app labelled "add Sonos Era 300 as surrounds." I tap it. I select the speaker making noise to tell the system which speaker is left and which is right. I've been here before, but things feel different now.

A drop of sweat drips from my brow as I watch the connection status bar reach completion. It could have been hours, days, weeks, or even years before that bar finalized. It felt like an eternity, watching it connect everything.

And then — success. "Surrounds connected," the app tells me. But it's the power on/confirmation/triumphant jingle that rings from every speaker in the room that says my gambit has paid off.

It works. One nerve wracking TruePlay setup later, and we're away. Was it one of the most painful setups I've ever dragged myself through? 100%. Was it worth the effort (and massive expense)? Absolutely.

Worth every drop of sweat (and dollar)

There's very little like a decent Dolby Atmos setup at home. And the full Sonos surround system is, indeed, a decent Dolby Atmos setup. It might not have the ceiling mounted speakers of something even more premium, but it's a great option if you've got a council of deciders to get through.

When tuned with TruePlay properly, the surround sound is epic. Noises that almost came from behind you and around you before now actually sound like they come from all around, immersing you in your favorite movies like little else.

Star Wars Episode III might not be my favorite Star Wars movie, but it's one of my favorite ways to listen to a surround sound setup. That opening scene as Anakin and Obi-Wan plummet through enormous capital ships — you almost have to duck your head as the hot-headed young Jedi almost buries his fighter in the back of your skull.

But it's not just surround sound that the setup helps. The speakers taking on some of the load means that there's less for the soundbar at the front to do, so it can focus on the stuff it's really good at. That means the dialogue is noticeably clearer, and movie soundtracks are more immersive.

Explosions feel far more impressive as the whole room is filled with the noise, and bits fly off behind you. Car chases are more immersive as vehicles pass by. It's remarkable just how much of a difference some surround speakers make to the experience.

Look, it's expensive and connecting it all was a massive pain — but the result is the perfect compromise between space used and Dolby Atmos experience. It's well worth it if you've got the dollar — and the time to reset everything in the house.

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As all my colleagues went bananas for Spotify Wrapped, I didn't need to check out the green circle to see what my listening stats were. No, I needed to look at my whole home music system, Roon.

See, not only does it bring all my music streaming services and devices into one cohesive whole, but it also tells me how much music I've been listening to. No, it's not smothered with fancy graphics — but it does tell me that I've listened to 457 hours of death metal this year.

And what more could you want? Well, the rest of Roon and its excellent features. Let me tell you all about it.

Bringing disparate parts together

As much as Sonos, Wiim and other companies might want us to fill our homes with devices from one particular manufacturer, the reality is a whole lot tricker. My home, for example, features smart speakers from Sonos, streaming boxes from Wiim, and even HomePods from Apple.

Controlling all of them together can be, for lack of a better term, nightmarish. Different apps for each speaker, and not all of them support the Qobuz or Tidal connect standards. Enter Roon.

It works with all the different devices of my house together, so that I can stream music to them without heading into a different application. It's something of an audio revelation, especially given how easy it is.

When I want to listen to something on my Sonos Era 300, I select it from the list, and choose some tunes. Then I move room, so I want to change the playback device. Back into the list, and new music device selected — simple.

Built-in music server

I've had numerous music servers so that I can play my collection of tracks around my house through different speakers. There's been a Plexamp, I've used Sqeezeplayer (with its lively and fiercely loyal online fan base), amongst other options.

Roon has made it very simple. I went the easy way — I bought one of Roon's pre-made server boxes (called a "nucleus"), and then filled it with a hard drive and all of my music.

You can make your own Roon Nucleus server with an old computer, so you don't need to spend the money on one from Roon, but it is nice to have a simple, all-in-one boxed solution.

Once you've setup your nucleus and signed into all your music services, you can now access your own music collection alongside the extensive libraries of either Qobuz or Tidal (or both).

Those can both be streamed to your smart music devices. This is not a streaming service in and of itself, and neither does it want to be. Instead,

Bring your music on the go

I don't know about you, but it's annoyingly hard to find a phone with expandable storage in 2025. I don't really want to fill my phone's limited storage with FLAC tracks. So when I want to listen to music that's not available on anything but my home music server, live becomes a whole lot trickier.

At least it was. Thanks to Roon Arc, an extra app, I can listen to my entire library on the go, including all the tracks stored within my server. It's very cool and means I can play the music of Wendy Carlos without having to take up extra space on my phone.

Tracking those stats

One of my favorite bits about Roon is how it can track the music you listen to, and give you constant read-outs that let you in to the secrets of your listening habits. I don't have to wait until the end of the year to find out like everyone else — I can just have a look on my Roon app.

Let's see how much death metal I listen to in 2026...

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• 7 top new movies to stream this week on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and more (Dec. 9-15)

Cyber Monday is officially here, and it's brought some awesome soundbar deals along with it. The best soundbars with Dolby Atmos are expensive, so it's even more important to grab them when they're discounted.

I've tested 15 soundbars this year, ranging from $1,700 JBL setups to $67 uber-budget TV speaker replacements, and I've rounded up the 11 best Cyber Monday soundbar deals for your viewing pleasure. All of these soundbars have Dolby Atmos (except one, which has fake-but-still-good DTS:VirtualX), so let me help you find the cheapest way to transform your living room into a movie theater.

My top recommendation is the Bose Smart Soundbar for just $399 at Amazon. This is my personal soundbar and a great option for the soundbar that can do it all — movies, TV, and music. Or, if you want to save as much as possible, I recommend the unbelievably good value Insignia 5.1.2 Soundbar — you get rear speakers, a subwoofer, and the soundbar itself for just $129 at Best Buy. If we were in a cartoon, my head would have exploded when I found that deal. A full surround system for $129 is incomprehensibly cheap.

But there are more soundbar deals where that came from. Read on to see my favorites.

Soundbar deals: Quick links

• Insignia 5.1.2 Soundbar: was $229 now $129 @ Best Buy
• Amazon Fire TV Soundbar: was $249 now $149 @ Amazon
• Samsung HW-B650: was $399 now $199 @ Best Buy
• Polk Audio Signa S4: was $449 now $359 @ Amazon
• JBL Bar 500: was $649 now $399 @ Best Buy
• Bose Smart Soundbar 2024: was $499 now $399 @ Amazon
• Samsung Q600F: was $699 now $499 @ Best Buy
• Bose Smart Soundbar Ultra: was $899 now $699 @ Amazon
• Sonos Arc Ultra: was $1,099 now $879 @ Best Buy
• Samsung Q990D: was $1,999 now $999 @ Best Buy
• JBL Bar 1300 MK2: was $1,699 now $1,99 @ Best Buy

Best Cyber Monday deals on Dolby Atmos soundbars

For more discounts, check out our Cyber Monday deals live blog.

Shop today's best Cyber Monday deals

• Amazon: 50% off Ring, Ninja, AirPods and more
• Walmart Plus: 50% off @ Walmart
• REI: half-off Arc'teryx, Patagonia, more
• Dell: monitors from $69, laptops from $299
• Nectar: 50% off mattresses + bundles
• Best Buy: laptops from $149
• Lenovo: doorbuster deals from $319
• Wayfair: up to 80% off home decor
• Lululemon: top picks from $9
• Newegg: Doorbuster deals from $6
• Walmart: holiday gifts from $15
• Birkenstock: deals from $20 @ Nordstrom
• Saatva: luxury mattresses from $1,099

I love Sonos' gear. But you know what I love even more? When you can get that gear at lower prices thanks to the Black Friday sales. And if you head over to Currys right now you'll find loads of different Sonos speakers for up to £200 off — now that's what I call a good deal.

The Sonos Arc Ultra is down to a low, low price. The Sonos Era 300 — you guessed it, a low price. The Sonos Roam 2 is now just £139, another low price. If you've been thinking about picking up a new Sonos speaker, now is just the time to do it.

Quick links

• Sonos Roam 2: was £179 now £139 @ Currys
• Sonos Era 100: was £199 now £169 @ Currys
• Sonos Ray: was £199 now £169 @ Currys
• Sonos Beam (Gen 2): was £449 now £339 @ Currys
• Sonos Sub mini: was £429 now £339 @ Currys
• Sonos Era 300: was £449 now £356 @ Currys
• Sonos sub 4: was £799 now £639 @ Currys
• Sonos Arc Ultra: was £999 now £799 @ Currys

Sonos deals at Currys

For more discounts, check out our Amazon Black Friday deals live blog and our main Black Friday deals live blog.

Cyber Monday is here! That means some of the best soundbars I've reviewed this year are majorly discounted. There's never been a better time to upgrade your home theater.

This year's Cyber Monday sees awesome savings on the Bose Smart Soundbar (2024) for just $399 on Amazon right now — that's a massive $100 saving. Or, if you're looking for a serious cinema-quality setup, the JBL Bar 1300 MK2 is just $1,199 at Best Buy — that's a huge $500 saving on a soundbar that came out only a month ago.

If you're on a tight budget, I'd recommend the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar, just $149 right now. This soundbar has Dolby Atmos for just $149!

I've reviewed 15 soundbars this year from big names like Bose, Samsung and Sony, and also budget bars from lesser-known brands. To help you choose which soundbar to buy, I've rounded up the best discounts this Cyber Monday so far.

Soundbar deals: Quick links

• Amazon Fire TV Soundbar: was $249 now $149 @ Amazon
• Hisense AX3120Q: was $279 now $199 @ Best Buy
• Samsung HW-B650: was $399 now $199 @ Best Buy
• Polk Audio Signa S4: was $449 now $359 @ Amazon
• JBL Bar 500: was $649 now $379 @ Best Buy
• Bose Smart Soundbar 2024: was $499 now $399 @ Amazon
• Samsung Q600F: was $699 now $499 @ Best Buy
• Bose Smart Soundbar Ultra: was $899 now $699 @ Amazon
• Sonos Arc Ultra: was $1,099 now $879 @ Best Buy
• Samsung Q990D: was $1,999 now $999 @ Best Buy
• JBL Bar 1300 MK2: was $1,699 now $1,199 @ Best Buy

Best Cyber Monday soundbar deals

For more discounts, check out our Cyber Monday deals live blog.

Shop today's best Cyber Monday deals

• Amazon: 50% off Ring, Ninja, AirPods and more
• Walmart Plus: 50% off @ Walmart
• REI: half-off Arc'teryx, Patagonia, more
• Dell: monitors from $69, laptops from $299
• Nectar: 50% off mattresses + bundles
• Best Buy: laptops from $149
• Lenovo: doorbuster deals from $319
• Wayfair: up to 80% off home decor
• Lululemon: top picks from $9
• Newegg: Doorbuster deals from $6
• Walmart: holiday gifts from $15
• Birkenstock: deals from $20 @ Nordstrom
• Saatva: luxury mattresses from $1,099

As the Audio Editor for Tom's Guide, I'm lucky enough to try out some very cool gear. Even better is when some of that gear gets reduced in the Black Friday sales — because then I get to tell you how good it is, and how cheap it is.

Well, maybe not cheap. But some of my favorite things have been reduced to their lowest ever prices. For example, right now you can grab the Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar for $879 at Amazon, its lowest price ever. Meanwhile, my very first audiophile headphones are now just $99 at Amazon and my desk speakers are $200 off. These are the 5 audio deals that I'd actually spend my money on this Black Friday.

My favorite deals

• Sennheiser HD 599 SE: was $239 now $99 @ Amazon
• Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4: was $449 now $199 @ Amazon
• Kanto ORA4: was $449 now $239 @ Amazon
• Beyerdynamic AVENTHO 300: was $399 now $279 @ Amazon
• Sonos Arc Ultra: was $1,099 now $879 @ Amazon

1. Sonos Arc Ultra

The Sonos Arc Ultra is the primary soundbar in my house, and it's one of the best things I own period. The surround sound is second to none, even if you don't have any extra speakers dotted around the room. I love watching movies with the Arc Ultra, thanks to its impressive dialog clarity and its ability to separate all the little bits of a movie's soundtrack.

It's not the most reliable for wireless music — the Sonos app still isn't perfect — but there really is nothing better for watching movies. For the full bass hit you want, you should grab a Sonos Sub to go with it, but it's still our pick for the best soundbar. It's also at its lowest price ever for Black Friday, with a $220 discount bringing it down to $879.

2. Sennheiser HD 599 SE

Joining the audiophile fold can often seem like a big jump — after all, the headphones we use seem expensive, a barrier to entry that not everyone can afford. It's really not that hard, though, and needn't be expensive. The Sennheiser HD 599 SE are the perfect example of how you don't need to spend loads for great sound.

They've got buckets of detail in their sound signature, a comfortable fit for all-day wear, and one of the widest soundstages around. They're open-backed, which means you won't wear them on the bus, but they're a great listen at home. For $99, you're not going to find anything like this — it's my Black Friday deal of the week.

3. Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4

Sennhesier's Momentum 4 headphones bring loads of audiophile features to the table. First up is the EQ hidden away in their app, letting you dial in your sound profile with the help of plenty of adjustment bands. There are pre-set audio settings as well, should the EQ be too daunting.

It's the audio that really gets heads turning though. They sound amazing, with a detailed and effervescent profile. They're not as bass forward as the competition, allowing for more sonic analysis. I really like these headphones — and at this price I think you will too. 60 hours of battery with ANC on? Sennheiser, you spoil us.

4. Kanto Ora4

The Kanto Ora4 are my desk speakers. Be it listening to music while working, relaxing with a podcast, or watching YouTube videos over lunch, they have a permanent place in my workplace. There's not really anything else I could imagine taking their place.

They look cool, sound excellent, and plug into everything on my desk without any extra fiddling around. USB-C for my laptop, RCA for my digital audio player, and Bluetooth when I want something wireless to play my tunes. And with $210 off, they could now be your desk companions as well. What are you waiting for? Buy them. Now.

5. Beyerdynamic AVENTHO 300

When I first tested the Aventho 300, I didn't know that they'd work their way into my heart in the way that they have. In them I've found an audio companion that I like to keep close all the time, and it's all thanks to their personality.

They sound unlike anything else you can buy for the price. They don't sound better than the competition (they sound excellent, to be clear), but they do sound different. And a whole lot more pleasing. They've got a mid-forward sound signature with more detail orientation — and I really like it.

Add in dynamic bass and crystal highs, and you've a great pair of headphones — that also happen to be $120 off in the Black Friday sales. Epic headphones, epic price.

For more discounts, check out our Amazon Black Friday deals live blog and our main Black Friday deals live blog.

Shop today's best Black Friday deals

• Amazon: 50% off Ring, Ninja, AirPods and more
• Walmart Plus: 50% off @ Walmart
• REI: half-off Arc'teryx, Patagonia, more
• Dell: monitors from $69, laptops from $299
• Nectar: 50% off mattresses + bundles
• Best Buy: laptops from $149
• Lenovo: doorbuster deals from $319
• Wayfair: up to 80% off home decor
• Lululemon: top picks from $9
• Newegg: Doorbuster deals from $6
• Walmart: holiday gifts from $15
• Birkenstock: deals from $20 @ Nordstrom
• Saatva: luxury mattresses from $1,099

I’ve tested a lot of speakers over the years, and Sonos speakers permanently rank among my favorites. But I'll admit, enjoying Sonos sound doesn't come cheap, at least, usually. Thanks to an epic Sonos Black Friday deal on the Era 100, it's possible to start a Sonos system without breaking the bank.

Right now the Sonos Era 100 is on sale for $169 as part of the slew of Sonos Black Friday deals happening right now. It's usually $219, and while $50 might not sound like a massive discount, you need to keep in mind that Sonos speakers almost *never* go on sale.

For even bigger savings, Sonos is offering a stereo set of the Era 100 for $319 on sale, which is a $119 discount and takes another $10 off each speaker.

If you happen to have a larger budget, the Sonos Move 2 is on sale for $399. This deal takes $100 off a portable speaker with super powerful sound. Compared to the Era 100, the Sonos Move has a built-in battery. This means you could move it around your house, to your backyard or even bring it on an outing.

Speaking from experience, it holds up great against weather, drops and general roughing around. For something with luxurious sound, it keeps up pretty well with daily life.

Sonos has a several other enticing Black Friday deals, but the Era 100 and Move 2 are my favorite recommendations. People usually assume that buying Sonos will hurt your wallet, but these sales prove you (and your ears) can experience excellent audio for less if you're smart about shopping during Black Friday. It's the kind of deal that I'm flagging to my friends, knowing they love my own Sonos setup whenever they visit.

Shop today's best Black Friday deals

• Amazon: 50% off Ring, Ninja, AirPods and more
• Walmart Plus: 50% off @ Walmart
• REI: half-off Arc'teryx, Patagonia, more
• Dell: monitors from $69, laptops from $299
• Nectar: 50% off mattresses + bundles
• Best Buy: laptops from $149
• Lenovo: doorbuster deals from $319
• Wayfair: up to 80% off home decor
• Lululemon: top picks from $9
• Newegg: Doorbuster deals from $6
• Walmart: holiday gifts from $15
• Birkenstock: deals from $20 @ Nordstrom
• Saatva: luxury mattresses from $1,099

I love Sonos gear. Now that the app actually works, the brands speakers and soundbars are firmly at the top of "you should buy this one" lists — and powering my own home audio system for movies and TV. But, as always, there's that big Sonos flavored issue that makes them tricky to put in your living space; they're not cheap.

They're still not cheap now, but these impressive Black Friday deals have made them a whole lot more affordable. The Sonos Roam 2 portable speaker is down to $139 at Sonos, and the Era 300 smart speaker is now just $379 at Sonos. Those are some big savings — and there's plenty more to be found in the Sonos Black Friday sales.

Quick Links

• Roam 2: was $179 now $139 @ Sonos
• Era 100: was $219 now $169 @ Sonos
• Sonos Ace: was $399 now $279 @ Sonos
• Beam gen 2: was $499 now $349 @ Sonos
• Era 300: was $479 now $379 @ Sonos
• Move 2: was $499 now $399 @ Sonos
• Sub 4: was $899 now $719 @ Sonos
• Arc Ultra: was $1,099 now $879 @ Sonos

Best Black Friday Sonos deals

Looking for a new soundbar so you can watch "Home Alone" for the 20th time? Well, you're in luck — as Black Friday rears its head for another year, there are some great deals to be found on soundbars, from the cheapest models to expensive surround setups.

Want something cheap? You can pick up the Roku Streambar SE for $78 at Amazon thanks to a decent discount. Want something a bit smarter? The Bose Smart Soundbar is now $399 at Amazon after a $100 discount. There are loads more besides — here are the best early Black Friday soundbar deals.

• Roku Streambar SE: was $99 now $78 @ Amazon
• Yamaha Audio SR-C20A: was $179 now $159 @ Amazon
• Sony HT-S400: was $299 now $229 @ Amazon
• Hisense AX3120Q: was $279 now $229 @ Amazon
• Sony HT-S2000: was $499 now $298 @ Amazon
• Bose Smart Soundbar: was $499 now $399 @ Amazon
• Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 6 3.1.2: was $699 now $498 @ Amazon
• Sony BRAVIA Theater System 6, 5.1: was $799 now $598 @ Amazon
• More Speaker deals: Walmart | Best Buy | Amazon | Dell

The best early Black Friday soundbar deals

When people ask me about the best Dolby Atmos soundbar, I have only one real answer. Go out and buy the Sonos Arc Ultra. It's a spectacular piece of under-TV hardware, powering a surround system out of one box. Now that's cool.

It's also quite expensive. Not everyone has a thousand dollars lying around to spend on a soundbar, or even the space for Sonos's TV stand dominating tube of sound. There's a wonderful alternative to the Sonos Arc Ultra that costs less than half the price.

Sono's mighty soundbar

Once you've dropped the $1,099 on the Sonos Arc Ultra, you'll be wondering what kind of experience you're in for. In a word, spectacular. In a few more words, it's a stunning movie experience that makes it feel like you're sitting in the theater.

The only thing you need for the full effect? Some expensive Coca-Cola and a massive bucket of popcorn. Although with the amount you'll have spent on this setup, you'll probably be stuck with a small bag of Hershey's Kisses and a tin of pop.

Spaceships flying overhead that feel like they've just scraped the top of your cranium, jungles that surround you with environmental sounds, rainstorms that make you feel like you're getting wet. Bassy explosions that shake the room. It's all incredibly immersive, and a whole lot better than the "all-in-one box" solutions that do fine for most people.

But then, we're not most people.

If you want to maximize your Sonos Arc Ultra experience, you can augment your surround sound with additional speakers and subwoofers. My Sonos Arc Ultra is paired with some Era 300 speakers and a Sonos sub 4.

The speakers sit around the back of the room for some physical rear surrounds, and the subwoofer provides some seriously impressive bassy kick. That makes an already expensive soundbar cost even more, so it's not for the faint of heart.

You can always grab a cheaper Sonos sub mini or some Era 100s for surrounds. That's flexibility, baby, something that most other soundbar packages lack. It all adds up to make the Dolby Atmos soundbar that I recommend to anyone who uses the words "I want the best Dolby Atmos possible."

The cheaper alternative

If the full Sonos Arc Ultra gives you the financial heebie-jeebies, there are options that won't break the bank. Are you going to forgo that monster audio performance? Absolutely, as you might expect. But you won't have to take out a mortgage for it either.

We adore the Polk Audio Signa S4 for a number of reasons. First, and perhaps most importantly, is the Dolby Atmos performance. For something that costs half as much as the incredibly impressive Sonos soundbar, the virtual surround that the Signa 4 kicks out is pretty good.

We loved how the characters moved about the room while watching "The Wild Robot," and the Jets flying overhead during "Top Gun: Maverick" placed us directly on the deck of a massive naval carrier.

It packs in more than just excellent Dolby Atmos performance, of course. It looks slick for a start, and comes with a subwoofer in the box for low-end performance. The bass is super solid to boot, making sure that you're firmly immersed in your movies and TV.

Another benefit of the soundbar, as with most, is increased clarity for dialogue. That's going to improve things when watching the news as well as movies and cinematic TV shows, so that you'll be able to hear more of what people on screen are saying. That's one of the biggest pros over your built-in TV speakers.

It lacks smart features like the Sonos Arc Ultra, but there's Bluetooth for wireless listening. The controller is comprehensive, setup simple — there's really very little more you could want from the Signa S4. Except, perhaps, a popcorn dispenser.

More from Tom's Guide

• OLED vs Micro-LED: Which TV technology will dominate the next decade?
• 9 hidden iOS Messages features I use to text like a pro — try these now
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Wi-Fi headphones have been rumored for some time at this point. Correction — more than rumored, we've seen them in real life at events like CES. The promise of top-quality audio on the go that uses your phone's Wi-Fi antenna instead of its Bluetooth module.

So why, then, are we still without a pair of Wi-Fi headphones? Why do I not have a lovely pair of cans that play We Didn't Start The Fire to the best of their ability, instead of relying on lossy Bluetooth codecs and battery-draining sound improvement engines? Where, oh Zeus, are my Wi-Fi headphones?

I've got a few ideas, each one of them more depressing than the last. So join me in what I am calling "a lament for Wi-Fi headphones." Get the tissues ready, we're in for a sad one.

The Wi-Fi headphones promise

To say we haven't had Wi-Fi headphones at all would be a small lie. The Sonos Ace used a form of Wi-Fi connection to play the same audio as your soundbar so that you can enjoy surround sound without bothering the rest of your house at 3 a.m. It's not going to connect your phone to your headphones, but it does, in some way, work.

It's also not entirely what we were promised. See, there were a few things that we were supposed to get out of Wi-Fi headphones. Better sound quality, for one — not so with the Sonos Ace. Improved connection on the go — unless you're going to take your Sonos Arc Ultra on the go, also not going to happen with the Sonos Ace.

So we do, technically, have Wi-Fi headphones. But not the Wi-Fi headphones we were promised, and certainly not Wi-Fi headphones that give us everything we were looking for.

What's gone wrong? Here are three possible reasons we're so far behind my Wi-Fi headphone dream.

Reason 1: Low adoption

If Wi-Fi connection headphones are real, then you need manufacturers to put the technology in their headphones. Any Wi-Fi headphones we've seen at events have been from smaller brands, as opposed to larger ones — and it's the bigger companies like Bose and Sony that need to buy in for it to really take hold.

You may have noticed, if you've spent any time looking at the best headphones, that Sony and Bose have not adopted Wi-Fi connections for their headphones.

Perhaps, deep within the bowels of Sony HQ, there are some mad audio scientists researching the technology but if so, they're keeping quiet about it.

Until the big brands start to make a noise about this, it's always going to stay on the back burner unless a truly disruptive audio start-up grabs the industry by the scruff of the neck.

Reason 2: It doesn't work

There's another reason that might explain why we haven't seen any true Wi-Fi headphones hit store shelves. It simply might not work — after all, we've seen mockups and devices at CES to show us what we could have, but nothing that we can actually buy from a shop.

Perhaps getting the connection to not interfere with other wireless protocols is causing issues. Maybe stability is a problem, or maybe battery drain is simply too much on the source device?

Whatever the case, it would explain why there are no Wi-Fi headphones that I can buy today.

Reason 3: It doesn't actually exist

Wi-Fi headphones don't exist as we hoped. Perhaps the only kind of Wi-Fi headphones we're going to see are rooted in place, connected to a soundbar or other static device. The dream of latency-free, high-quality headphones on the go remains a pipe dream that I'll keep telling myself is right around the corner.

It could all just be vaporware. I hope that it's not the case — I'd actually quite like a pair — but it's certainly starting to feel that way.

Maybe, in a year, a pair will land on our laps and we'll be blown away by their performance. Or, maybe, they'll finally release and it'll be like Duke Nukem: Forever all over again.

Either way, you can count on me to continue to dream (and to write) about Wi-Fi headphones long after everyone else has stopped listening and gone back to enjoying their music on a pair of the best noise-cancelling headphones they can get.

What do we have instead?

There are a couple of ways that firms have managed to give us something similar to what Wi-Fi headphones promise us. High-quality codecs like LDAC and aptX get close, but they don't give us that completely lossless listening that many audio fans are actually looking for.

USB-C listening gets closer, but it misses out the key component – wireless listening. Then there's true wired listening, with a pair of expensive audiophile headphones and some snazzy gear like a DAC and amp. That's going to sound amazing, but again, it misses that crucial wireless connection that would make Wi-Fi headphones so cool.

So, as far as alternatives go, we're pretty much stuck in the mud. It's only when (or if) Wi-Fi headphones land that we'll see the promise fulfilled — and I'm not sure that it's ever going to happen.

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"Oh, Black Friday — that's the best time to find a deal" is something you'll hear often if you're looking to save some money on a new soundbar. Well, as always, Amazon has apparently sought to prove us all wrong with some great savings to be grabbed on soundbars — and Black Friday is still a few weeks out.

We've got savings on the likes of the JBL Bar 300, which is now just $299 at Amazon, thanks to a $100 saving. That's a great price for a Dolby Atmos sound bar. If you want something even cheaper, there's the Sony S100F, which is $119 at Amazon for a great soundbar deal.

There are more savings to be found as well — here are just a few of my favorite deals right now.

Quick list

• Razer Leviathan V2: was $99 now $69 @ Amazon
• Sony S100F: was $159 now $119 @ Amazon
• Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus: was $249 now $174 @ Amazon
• Denon DHT-C210: was $229 now $199 @ Amazon
• YAMAHA SR-B40A: was $299 now $259 @ Amazon
• JBL Bar 300: was $399 now $299 @ Amazon
• VIZIO 5.1.2 Elevate SE Soundbar: was $499 now $399 @ Amazon
• Sonos Beam Gen 2: was $499 now $464 @ Amazon
• Klipsch Flexus CORE 200: was $549 now $474 @ Amazon
• More Speaker deals: Walmart | Best Buy | Amazon | Dell

Great soundbar deals

The Sonos Ace were supposed to bring Sonos into an entirely new era of streaming and introduce the brand to a completely new product segment. Unfortunately, thanks to a rushed software launch, the brand's first headphones fell to the wayside as headlines focused on other, more pertinent user issues.

That was a massive shame, because the headphones at the heart of the app debacle are actually really nice. They're a comfortable, good-looking pair of headphones that sound good and offer the best spatial audio of any set of cans you can buy today. Expensive? Undoubtedly. Excellent? Arguably.

So what's next — the Sonos Ace have had a couple of years to marinate in the market, so all eyes turn towards the future. So I've been thinking about the Sonos Ace 2. What will they have in store? Perhaps more importantly, what do we want from them?

I can only speak for myself, but as a massive fan of the first model, there are some key improvements I'd like to see if Sonos decides to invest in a new version of its headphones.

Improved ANC

The Sonos Ace have excellent noise canceling. It's not quite enough for them to feature heavily in our list of the best noise-canceling headphones, but plenty to keep out the noise of your commute. There are better options — the Sony WH-1000XM6 and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, to name a few — and it's one of the main improvements I'd like to see in a second model.

In particular, I'd like some extra blocking of high-range sounds and voices. The first model does a stellar job with rumbling engines and tires, but they struggle more with nearby conversation. That extra ANC would go a long way in potentially making them some of the best headphones you can buy today.

Even better sound

The Sonos Ace sound good. There is no argument there. They're a dynamic, detailed pair of headphones with solid bass reproduction and a reasonably spacious soundstage. But they're not the best.

Comparing them to the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3, you'll notice that the bass can get a little flabby, and some of the detail gets lost in a pervasive mid-range. They're a great-sounding pair of headphones, but a new model should sound even better.

I'd like to see tighter bass, and more rounded mids. Highs that are bright and effervescent, vocals that are smooth and well-delivered. Sonos knows what it's doing in the sound department; the Arc Ultra and all the other smart speakers show us that. The Sonos Ace 2 could be the portable ace up the manufacturer's sleeve.

Spatial audio for the ages

The Sonos Ace are some of my favorite headphones when it comes to spatial audio, making them perfect for watching movies on the go. As a result, they're my headphones of choice for longer trips, where I fill the hours with rewatches of the Transformers movies. No, I'm not kidding.

I'd like things to get even better. There's still the thinning out of some of the audio that happens with all spatial audio headphones — I'd like more bass for explosions and car chases. There are times when sounds don't quite match where they're supposed to be, and it would be great to see those match up better with Atmos expectations.

There's also still nothing that persuades me that spatial audio is the future of music — perhaps Sonos' next pair of headphones could be what does it for me. If they're good.

All the small things

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Generally, if you meet me while I'm out and about, you'll find me with some form of Bose logo hanging on the outside of my ear. After all, if you want to keep the noise of the outside world out, there's little better — the firm makes the best noise-canceling headphones and the best noise-cancelling earbuds.

I'd recommend the brand's headphones and earbuds to anyone looking to make their commute a little smoother, their plane journeys more engaging, and roadtrips more chill. However, I've recently found that in most areas of my life, I actually don't really want to block that much noise anymore.

But why? When I literally have the cream of the crop of noise-canceling headphones available at my fingertips, why on earth am I choosing to listen to the world around me more and instead listen to my music through more noisy headphones? Or, in the case of being outside, not listen to music at all?

It's getting dangerous outside

The outside world is very noisy; this much is true. But it's also an increasingly dangerous place to spend any amount of time, especially when you live in a city. Traffic is picking up, cars are getting larger and quieter, and there are more people than ever riding electric bicycles and scooters on footpaths and other places that should be reserved for those walking.

Walking to work has more hazards than I've ever seen. Even just walking down a station platform is treacherous, as people mill past and knock you left, right, and center like a fleshy pinball. As a result, it's incredibly important to have all of your senses available — and that includes your hearing.

I can see things happen around me, and I can even, to some degree, feel when hazards are nearby, but I also need to be able to hear what's going. Electric cars (in my locale, at least) are required to make noise, but they're still quieter than an internal combustion beast. ANC headphones keep all that noise at bay — for better or for worse.

It means that wearing my trusty QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds gen 2 feels more stressful than helpful when I'm walking around a town, city, or train station. So in order to feel and potentially even be safer, I'm going to leave them off.

Wires sound better

When I'm at home, I don't really need noise canceling. Sure, the buildings across the road can get noisy on occasion, and someone doing the vacuuming can get irritating, but for the most part, I don't really need ANC. There are even things that I need to listen out for, like the door, or my pet guinea pig begging for another treat.

Instead, I want something that just sounds really, really good — and there's not much I'd choose over something wired like the Meze 105 AER, or similar.

It doesn't matter to me that they don't block out noise — only that their open-backed design allows for a very wide, very pleasing sound. They're more detailed than ANC-closed backs could ever hope to be, as well as being lighter and more comfortable to boot.

That, and I'll never have to recharge them.

My experiment

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I have the pick of the crop when it comes to headphones for longer journeys — but it's the Sonos Ace and their excellent spatial audio that always end up in my bag. Because it's all about the movie performance when I'm on the go and watching Pacific Rim for the seventieth time because I can.

Now you can join me in my mobile movie madness without spending as much money. The Sonos Ace are down to $298 at Amazon after a hefty $100 discount, bringing them down to their lowest price ever.

Sonos cut its teeth making home audio gear and soundbars that have Dolby Atmos and spatial audio at their core, so it's no wonder the spatial audio performance of the Sonos Ace is as impressive as it is. It places the surround elements of your movies better than just about any other pair of headphones, even the far more expensive Apple AirPods Max.

So you can imagine how much I love them when I watch a movie on the go. See, that's how I get my kicks when a journey gets really long. I like to change things up — from music one minute to my book the next, interspersed with various long-form visual content. When it's movie time, I want the best surround mix, so that it feels like I'm in front of my home cinema without having to be in the living room.

Thankfully, they're excellent at everything beyond the home cinema sound as well. Their musical sound quality is good, coming close to that of their class competition. They're comfortable, so I can wear them for every hour of a long trip without taking them off. 30 hours of battery life is more than sufficient for any trip I might take.

They're the best headphones for spatial audio, that much is certain, but they're also good at everything else. They're well worth a look if, like me, you watch movies on the go, but also if you're just after your next pair of ANC cans. And at this deal price, which makes them as much as $150 cheaper than their closest competition, they're kind of unmissable.

Want to listen to your music wherever you are in your home? There are a couple of solutions. You could have one, big speaker in one room and pump the volume as loud as you possibly can. That's a bad idea. Or, you could hang one of the best Bluetooth speakers from your belt, and wander around the house listening to tinny tunes. This is also a bad idea.

So what is a good idea? One of the best smart speakers is a start. You'll get better sound thanks to the Wi-Fi connection and generally higher quality audio internals. You'll also get voice control and other smart features, like simple audio streaming from your phone to the speakers. One of the most common manufacturers of smart speakers is Sonos — and they're very good.

But I don't use Sonos — or at least, not Sonos's whole home solution. Mine is a mad Frankenstein that's made up of a couple of different systems, built around some of my favorite devices. Here's how it works.

If you have a large, multi-room house, you need a different audio device in each to be able to hear your music wherever you might find yourself.

If you're like me, you'll want to use different speakers in each room that serve a slightly different purpose but can, should I need them to, all play the same music simultaneously. Or, if I'm sharing my space with someone, each speaker can play something different, but still be controlled by a single app.

That's where Roon comes in.

I've written about Roon before. It's a kind of all-in-one music streaming service, bringing together all your smart speakers and streaming devices so that you can stream music from both a home music server and services like Tidal and Qobuz. I've now been using it for the better part of six months, and it's completely changed the way my music listening at home works.

Say, for example, that I want to listen to Cannibal Corpse in the living room, while someone else listens to some garbage some pop music in the kitchen, I can use the Roon app to choose one of the living room speakers. Their music won't get stopped, and we can even listen to the same source service.

Even better, I have a music server built into Roon. See, I have a device called a Roon Nucleus One, which has a hard drive filled with my music collection so that I can listen to music at a much higher quality than you'd find on a streaming service. It also means I can listen to tunes you simply won't find on anything, be that Spotify, Tidal, or Qobuz. The music of Wendy Carlos is simply impossible to find, for example, unless you have her full CD back catalog ripped onto your hard drive. Like me.

It's easy enough to use. Plug in the Roon Nucleus One server, create an account, and log in with the Roon app. Then you can add all your streaming services, connect your devices (which are listed the moment you connect Roon to the WiFi — chef's kiss,) and you're off.

Any drawbacks?

So Roon itself doesn't have any kind of voice control support, which for some is going to be a contentious problem. I'm not bothered at all, given I only use voice controls to create timers in the kitchen (which still works with our kitchen HomePod), but some potential users aren't going to like that they can't ask the system to play music without pulling out their iPad or phone.

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You might think that finding a soundbar for a small room is easy. Just, like, buy one of the best soundbars, and put it under your TV.

Unfortunately, it's much harder than you might expect, thanks to boring things like "acoustics" and "the size of your TV." So, which is the best soundbar for a small room?

There are plenty of options out there, but my favorite is the Sonos Ray. It's a compact soundbar that pumps out excellent sound that'll fill your small room, without any of the problems that introducing something larger can bring. No need to worry about directional speakers and spatial audio formats — this is just a solid plug-and-play soundbar that sounds great no matter what you're watching.

Small room, small bar

In a small room, it's very likely that you've not got a massive TV. Instead, you've probably got something that's closer to the 32-40 inch mark. That's plenty big for a small space that doesn't warrant the need for a large soundbar like the Sonos Arc Ultra.

Instead, you're much better off matching your small TV with something like the Sonos Ray. It's a small soundbar, but it's easily the best sounding for its size. It's a bit tall, so you might need to raise your TV up slightly (I've found a couple of books under the stand works well), but length-wise it's perfectly sized for your small room.

In a smaller room, you probably don't have enough space for multiple audio devices. That means your soundbar has to pull double (or even triple) duty as a movie, TV and music player. Unlike many soundbars, the Sonos Ray is surprisingly good for music.

It's shaped like a Bluetooth speaker, and while you can't move it around the house, it sounds as good, if not better than, the best Bluetooth speakers. Thanks to its movie-based design, the soundstage is quite wide, and instrument separation is pretty good, too.

There's also the smart connection to the Sonos app that makes playing music super simple. You can stream music to the bar with Wi-Fi, including the best music streaming services like Tidal, Qobuz and Apple Music. There's also a Bluetooth connection, should you want a more old-school wireless connection.

Movie Magic

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The Sonos Ace are notable for a few reasons, but there's one feature that stands out amongst the rest. Sonos' ability to switch audio seamlessly from a compatible soundbar to the headphones is interesting not in its function, but in how it works. Rather than a simple Bluetooth connection between the headphones and, for example, an Arc Ultra soundbar, it uses a form of Wi-Fi to get a better sound and greater bandwidth for spatial audio.

Wi-Fi has greater potential in the headphones space than audio swap, of course. Imagine better battery life, improved sound quality, and better gaming performance, to name but a few examples. But why haven't we seen it take off in the headphones space after Sonos proved you could fit a Wi-Fi antenna in your cans?

As you might expect, the answer is fairly complicated — although there is plenty of evidence to show us that Wi-Fi headphones are coming. Bluetooth is getting older and older by the year, and its weaknesses become ever-more evident. The future, then, looks Wi-Fi-flavored. But what does that mean?

The potential benefits

Bluetooth, while very useful and infinitely improved thanks to years (decades) worth of updates, still has many limitations when it comes to a wireless connection. It has to carry loads of information over a very dated system, with more strain than ever, thanks to ever-increasing bit rates and features like aptX. You can see it in action — go and listen to some music on your laptop, and then boot up a Google Meet call. You'll notice the quality of the music plummets, because the connection now has to handle both the music and the signal the microphone built into your headphones is sending to your computer.

Wi-Fi looks to negate these issues with a more robust connection method. Even older versions of Wi-Fi are capable of sending much larger data packages, without any kind of hiccups or issues. For internet connections, that means 4K YouTube videos piped to your phone or laptop, and for headphones, it could mean lower latency for gaming, better sound for audiophiles, and potentially even better battery life as well.

How could it work?

At the moment, we've little reference to go from when it comes to how a Wi-Fi connection could work with headphones and earbuds. It would likely use the Wi-Fi chips inside your device to connect, although it's more likely to be through dongles and other devices at first.

While Sonos has found a way to use Wi-Fi for a connection between its headphones and soundbars, that's only available for compatible devices, built with this specific feature in mind. Perhaps in the future, we'll see headphones that connect via Wi-Fi just as your current best headphones connect over Bluetooth.

So, what's coming?

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Sonos speakers just went through a whirlwind of confusion following a firmware update that launched on Wednesday, August 6.

Reddit users fanned the flames, with user ClearWinter2840 describing in a post a "cranked up bass" affecting all their Sonos speakers after an update. The user tried adjusting their bass settings to no avail, and the comments section was ablaze with similar findings.

Except, Sonos claims no audio changes, be it bass or otherwise, were included in the update. A Sonos spokesperson on Reddit with the username KeithFromSonos explained that "No changes were made to the sound profile in the last firmware update."

So, what exactly is going on here?

Are my ears playing tricks on me, or are my speakers?

A war broke out on the Sonos subreddit with one side of users claiming their speakers sounded better following the new update. Meanwhile, the other side claimed the opposition was just hearing things.

Many attested these claims of improved audio on Sonos speakers to a pseudo-placebo effect. It's commonly associated with healthcare and, more specifically, when taking medical treatment that doesn't have any actual benefits. Except, for some odd reason, the person does feel better even if the substance or treatment is known to be inactive.

In this case, it would appear as though the ears of several Reddit users were simply playing tricks on them...or so it would seem. It wouldn't be until two days later when KeithFromSonos returned with a rather interesting update.

Keith explained in a now-day-old post that Reddit users weren't, in fact, going crazy. He attributed the strange nuances across the Sonos community to a set of DSP fixes that were introduced in the recent patch, something they had overlooked when interacting with users on the subreddit.

DSP, or Digital Signal Processing, is sort of like the brain that operates inside a speaker. It's used to enhance audio by way of the digital signal, which can include a variety of different methods, many of which occur simultaneously, such as time alignment, frequency response, and equalization.

Keith goes on to explain that the DSP fixes in Sonos' recent update directly affected "how lower frequencies were being represented." In this case, bass, which can typically range anywhere from 20 to 500Hz on the audio spectrum.

It makes a whole lot of sense, considering that many users reported improved sound quality from their Sonos speakers. Although the placebo effect is common in audio, especially for Sonos users (which Keith even jokingly notes in their post), it seems this time Sonos fans actually did get audio improvements to their speakers.

And, you know what? That's certainly better than nothing.

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Sonos hasn't had a good time over the last couple of years. We've seen an app launch that's definitely not to be envied, hardware launches plagued with niggling issues, and sales drop after a loss of trust from consumers. Now, there's a new problem looming for the smart audio firm, and it looks like it's down to those pesky tariffs that are threatening the tech sphere at every crossroads.

According to a report from Bloomberg, "Sonos Inc. will raise prices on some products later this year." The report adds that it "threatens to complicate its comeback attempt following a tumultuous 2024." Tumultuous is one way of describing the many highs and lows for Sonos in 2024, but it's no great surprise that it's happening now.

The firm uses factories in Vietnam and Malaysia, two countries hit hard by President Trump's tariffs. We know that we can expect price rises, then, but by how much?

What this means for you

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Update: Sonos confirmed the problem to Tom's Guide and provided some answers on why. Read on to find out.

Sonos can't seem to catch a break. In the last few days, a number of first-gen Sonos Roam owners have reported the Bluetooth speakers are overheating and, in some cases, partially melting or setting on fire.

The company acknowledged the problem in a statement to Bloomberg while saying that there are a "very low" number of complaints that the company has "closely tracked." The company is not issuing a recall at this time.

Sonos Roam: Melted and charred

The recent Reddit posts showed photos of the Roam USB-C charging port partially melted and charred. There are some older posts from a few months ago reporting similar problems. Some Redditors claimed that Sonos replaced their speakers which had similar problems.

This may be a known problem. A search on the official Sonos Community forums reveals a number of posts concerning melted, burned or smoking charging ports and cables from up to a year ago. Other indicate overheating in that area.

What Sonos is saying...

A spokesperson went on to say that environmental conditions may play a role but it wasn't elaborated on. Additionally, they said that the company has taken "several proactive steps" to prevent the issue from occurring via software updates and hardware improvements.

According to Sonos, the problem "appears to be related to external contaminants making contact with the first-generation Roam charging cable components." They said the port and cable could be affect by things like rain, salt water and sand.

To help prevent future incidents, Sonos says that it has issued a software update for the first-gen Roam that refines the "charging behavior under certain environmental conditions."

The company also updated some of its Roam support articles with new charging guidance. Currently, it recommends inspecting the cable and port to ensure they are dry and free of dirt and debris before using them to charge the Roam.

There are suggestions for cleaning the cable including air drying or using a dry cloth to remove excess water and debris. They strongly recommend that you never use a hair dryer or "other forced hot air" to dry your speaker.

The page also notes that the USB-C cable is weather resistant and "should only be used indoors."

What about the Roam 2?

From what we can tell the Sonos Roam 2, released last year, does not seem to have this charging problem.

A Sonos spokesperson told Tom's Guide that there were design improvements between the Roam and Roam 2 that "further reduce the risk" of overheating including an improved USB-C to USB-C cable. Plus, the software updates to help with battery charging.

It appears that the reports Sonos has received "suggest that a limited number of first-generation Sonos Roam charging cables are experiencing this issue."

The company says it is monitoring feedback and exploring refinements.

Sonos Turmoil

This all all comes after a period of relative quiet for the beleaguered audio company which couldn't stop stepping on rakes in 2024, thanks to the release of a busted version of the Sonos app that outraged customers and eventually cost former-CEO Patrick Spence his job and delayed or halted a number of projects at the company.

Sonos only recently named interim CEO Tom Conrad as the official new head of Sonos in July.

Meanwhile, the Sonos Move 2 is excellent, and as far as we're aware doesn't suffer from overheating. It is twice as expensive though.

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About a year and two months ago, I was watching an interesting briefing about the Sonos Ace headphones. There was palpable excitement about the new product — the (botched) app update hadn't yet come to the table, and Sonos was riding high after years of excellent hardware releases.

There was one big takeaway from the meeting about the headphones. Replaceable parts, and a software update pathway that would help them last a long time. That's a big promise to make, given the often throw-away nature of even expensive flagship headphones. Yet, here we are, a full year later, with new features coming in a software update.

This approach has rung true for the Sonos Arc Ultra as well. There are new features for the soundbar designed to make it more useful for every user. But just how good are these new features, and what do they say about the potentially tumultuous future for Sonos?

The new Sonos features have now been around for a month or so, and I've been thourougly road testing them to see what they're all about.

Sonos Ace — TrueCinema

The Sonos Ace has always had some form of audio swap feature that plays your soundbar's audio in your headphones when you don't want to wake up the rest of your house. This updated feature is supposed to make the mode sound more like your own setup, so that it's less jarring when you switch over.

Does it work, though? Yes, it does — and very well too. Since the update, I've found the spatial mix for movies and TV a lot more spacious, with objects much easier to place in the environment. Helicopters flying overhead, or cars flying past you.

There's still some degree of "I wish my soundbar actually sounded like that" given how much easier it is to make a surround bubble with headphones that are right next to your ears as opposed to a soundbar at the end of the room. It does a great job of acoustically matching your space, though, and as a result, feels more convincing.

I'd already say that the Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos playback were excellent reasons to buy the Sonos Ace, but this gives even more incentive to Sonos soundbar users to upgrade their headphones.

Sonos Ace — SideTone

SideTone is something that loads of headphones have, but you still might not have heard of it. The idea is that your voice is pumped into the headphones when you're calling someone so that it feels more natural. I've never been a huge fan of the technology, and things aren't all that different now.

I've become so used to hearing my headphone-muffled voice when speaking that SideTone (whether it's here on the Sonos Ace or with another pair of the best headphones) it feels pretty jarring with the switch over when I initiate a call.

Despite my reservations, however, the Sonos' Ace's new SideTone works very well. Your voice sounds good, and fairly natural. It just takes a moment to get used to hearing your voice like you're whispering into your own ear.

Shudder.

Sonos Ace — TV Audio swap updated

TV Audio swap has always been one of my favorite Sonos Ace features, and now it's even better. It's a simple update this one. Instead of just one person using the TV swap feature and watching surround sound movies all on their lonesome at 3am, now you can watch your Dolby Atmos content with two pairs of headphones.

It works! It's TV swap for two people. Perfect if the kids have gone to bed and you really need to get that annual rewatch of Predator 2 going at 11 PM.

Sonos Ace — smarter ANC

Finally, and one of the best updates to the Sonos Ace, are the noise canceling improvements. The ANC of the Sonos Ace was already good, I need to make that clear. It was up there with Sony for noise blockage, and when music is playing it can completely silence an office.

But the improvements are many. It's not really about blocking more noise, but making the ANC more consistent amongst a variety of use cases. That means the ANC has been reworked so that it can work around stuff like long hair or a hat so that the ANC is still good without a perfect seal.

To test it, I wore the headphones with a baseball cap and with my hair down over my ears. I wanted to test it with a wintery bobble hat, but there where two problems; my head is too big for the headphones to fit over the bobble hat, and I suspect my melon may well have melted in the summer heat.

The update has worked very well indeed — the noise canceling pre-update when wearing a hat was not as good as it is now. It's seems to do a better job when reading the enviroment and adapting the ANC to compensate. The result is more consistent ANC — which is always a good thing.

Sonos Arc Ultra — Speech enhancement

As good as the Sonos Arc Ultra is, it can't negate the dreadful surround mixes from the likes of Netflix and Disney Plus. You know the ones — when you have to turn up the volume to hear what the characters are saying, and then turn it down the moment there's an action scene with loads of loud noises.

Except, now it can negate those dreadful surround mixes. The speech enhancement mode now built into the Sonos Arc Ultra experience has been a game changer for movie buffs like me. I'm now able to hear what characters are saying when I watch movies on Netflix, without having to constantly adjust the volume.

I was watching Chef over the weekend, and I was surprised by how clear the dialogue was — it never had been before. I turned off the speech enhancement feature, and quickly discovered the same old woeful muffled dialogue.

It's very clever, and uses AI to boost the volume and clarity of dialogue. There are even more extreme modes for those who are hard of hearing, making it even easier to make out what characters are saying on screen.

I don't think I could live without Speech enhancement anymore as a result — it's easily my favorite new Sonos feature of the bunch.

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Soundbars are really expensive, there's no doubt about it, which means the best time to get a soundbar is 100% during a sales event like Prime Day or Black Friday. Right now, some awesome sales are coming in, like the Sonos Beam 2, just $369 on Amazon.

Because soundbars are so pricey, I've rounded up some of the best deals this Prime Day. These deals include iconic brands like Sonos, Samsung, Sony, and JBL, and the sales extend to both the U.K. and the U.S., so keep scrolling!

Quick links

• shop all Prime Day deals at Amazon

• Sony HT-S100F: was $159 now $97 @ Amazon
• Samsung HW-B650: was $397 now $229 @ Amazon
• Sonos Beam 2: was $499 now $369 @ Amazon
• Polk Audio Signa S3: was $299 now $249 @ Amazon
• JBL Bar 2.0: was $219 now $149 @ Amazon
• Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar: was $899 now $699 @ Amazon
• Bose Smart Soundbar 2024: was $499 now $399 @ Amazon
• JBL Bar 9.1: was $1,199 now $759 @ Amazon

Best soundbar deals

Shop more Prime Day sales

• shop Prime Day deals at Amazon
• YETI sale: up to 25% off
• Prime for Young Adults: 50% off
• Amazon Haul: Adidas, Columbia, from $5
• Lego: deals from $8
• Carhartt sale: deals from $9
• Amazon devices: from $14
• Switch 2: games/accessories from $14
• Outdoor String Lights: just $21
• Samsonite: travel essentials from $31
• Ninja appliances: deals from $44
• TV sale: from $69
• Garmin: from $149

If you're feeling in the mood for some Amazon deals, be sure to check out our Amazon Prime Day live blog for major savings. We've rounded up discounts on everything from kitchen appliances to TVs. You can get freebies this Prime Day, too!

It's 1am — the rest of the house is sound asleep. Yet, despite the impending early morning and long day of work, I remain awake, staring at the TV.

After all, my binge-watch of "HomeTown Cha Cha Cha" isn't over yet, and I've got three quarters of an episode to watch.

But, thanks to my Sonos Ace, no one is awake to hear my midnight TV session. And it's all thanks to the ace hidden up my best headphones sleeves —the audio handover mode.

It might just be one of my favorite inventions ever on a pair of headphones, and I learned recently that I actually can't live without it.

Audio handover

The feature in question is called "TV Audio Swap", and it lets the Sonos Ace take over from your Sonos soundbar, like the Arc Ultra, when you don't want to disturb the rest of the house. For me, it's been utterly instrumental in making sure that I don't annoy the people I live with whenever I want to watch some TV or watch a movie.

It's easy to set up and use — it's in the settings menu. You slide a switch, tell the app which soundbar you'd like it to work with, and you're away. When you want to watch TV with your headphones, just press and hold the control slider on the headphones. One audio confirmation later, you're all hooked up and listening to your TV audio over your headphones.

It's one of the few features I haven't really had any issues with at all over the course of my ownership of both my Arc Ultra and my Sonos Ace. I've used it to watch everything from political question time shows that follow elections to Nascar races at three in the morning and movies that need massive sound at stupid o'clock, when I should really in be in bed.

Personal spatial audio

The way that the TV audio swap feature was sold to me when I first chatted with Sonos was a "personal home cinema."

That's because it uses the virtual surround of the headphones to make your movies sound like a cinema, or a fully equipped Sonos Arc Ultra setup. The Sonos Ace were already my favorite spatial audio headphones, so to use them for movies felt like a good side step.

It's super impressive. The headphones do a great job of taking a spatial audio mix and making it sound like it's all around you. Space battles in Star Wars that surround you in action, car chases that make you feel like you're in the thick of it, and soundscapes that place you directly into the action.

It's not quite as good as a cinema, obviously. You don't get the rumble of subwoofers, for example. But it's more than enough to have a great time when you don't want to wake anyone up.

One of the coolest parts is the TrueCinema feature. That uses the TruePlay mapping of your space, and then makes a virtual surround version in your headphones. It's loads of fun, and if you've got a Sonos surround already set up it can make things feel more seamless.

I can't live without it anymore

When I went to use my Sonos Ace a couple of weeks ago, they wouldn't start up. "Kaput," I believe the Germans would put it. They simply wouldn't power up. The battery had completely drained, and they wouldn't charge. "Bereft of life, it rests in peace."

Of course, it happened just as I wanted to watch a movie before bed, when everyone else was already getting 40 winks. I was gobsmacked — what was I going to do?

For the next few days, I was unable to watch my surround sound at a decent enough volume. I had to slum it with low volume. No spatial audio, just low volume and no bass. Incredible sadness, queue the tissues and the red wine.

It was my time without the Sonos Ace that made me realize how much I use the feature. Thankfully, I was quickly able to get myself another pair, but it highlighted how important it has become in my TV watching.

More headphones and soundbars should do this

Look, I know I'm very lucky. Not everyone has or can afford the $449 for the Sonos Ace, as well as a compatible Sonos soundbar. It's a lot of money to ask for a feature, and I would love to see it come to some more affordable option.

I'm thinking it'd be like a way to connect your Sony headphones to your Sony soundbar, no matter how much you've paid for either. As both headphones and soundbars become a more expected part of people's audio setups, it would be excellent to see them work together more.

But for now, you'll need to spend at least $800 on the Sonos Ace and a Sonos soundbar.

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The Sonos Arc Ultra is an excellent soundbar — there's a reason it tops the list of the best soundbars you can buy today. It features amazing Dolby Atmos performance, along with super smart features. It's not cheap, but it's worth every penny of its $1,000 price tag.

But you might not be getting the most out of your pricey soundbar.

So, let's make sure that your Sonos Arc Ultra is working its absolute best as you watch your favorite movies. Get that Sonos App installed, and lets get your soundbar tuned up.

Trueplay tuning

Ok, so some of you might already know how this works, but if you've just plugged your soundbar in and not checked out the app yet, the bar might not be properly attuned to your space.

Every room, be that a bedroom, a living room, or even a bathroom (if you've got a Sonos Arc Ultra in your bathroom, I suspect you might be Lex Luthor), has different audio parameters. Sound is bounced around in different ways by wall layout, and even the stuff that you've got in the room, like sofas, tables, and even light fittings. Some things absorb sound, changing the way the movie sounds even further.

That's where TruePlay comes in — the soundbar plays a series of noises, and then listens to them to make sure the sound is as good as it should be. It doesn't take long, but it's a must if you want your movies to sound the way the director intended.

First off, tap the TruePlay button, and then follow the on-screen instructions. From there, the soundbar will play a series of noises to read the room, and then change the EQ from there to make sure that it sounds its best.

It'll let you know when it's done. Now you can enjoy amazing sound!

That said, remember to redo the TruePlay tuning if you significantly change the makeup of your room, like moving furniture. Also, redo it if you put the soundbar in a different room. Preferably out of the bathroom, Lex.

Change the height setting for superior Atmos

Not getting the full effect of the height channels when you're watching a Dolby Atmos-encoded movie? Make sure you check the height channels in the Sonos app. The height channels in the Sonos Arc Ultra are bounced off the ceiling, so raise them to make sure they're coming in at the correct height.

It's another simple fix. Go to the height channel settings in the Sonos App, and then raise and lower them until you're hearing overheard effects.

Not sure what to watch? I like to use the Dolby Atmos test video, although you'll have to pick up a special DVD and DVD player to make it work properly. Otherwise, use your favorite movie on Netflix or Disney+ that you know features a Dolby Atmos channel, and adjust accordingly from there.

My room needs about +1 to the height channels for the full effect, although your room may vary depending on the ceiling height or how tall your TV stand is.

Make the dialogue super clear

Dialogue is a tricky thing for any kind of audio equipment to get right. Perhaps there's lots going on in a scene, or there's some mad director's decision that's left the dialogue feeling lost and muffled (I'm looking at you, Christopher Nolan). Either way, the Sonos Arc Ultra has some excellent built-in features to make the dialogue in your favorite movies sound even better.

There's a setting called "Dialogue enhancer," which make the voices in your movies sound clearer and easier to hear. It's easy to find and use, and very useful if you or someone you know is hard of hearing.

Find the Dialogue Enhancer option in the Sonos app, and from there find the option that works best for you. The "Low" and "Medium" settings are the least intrustive, but they don't enhance the dialogue as much for people who struggle with busy sounding move mixes.

"High" and "Max" are the options you'll want to use if you struggle to hear the dialogue. They quieten the rest of the scene, and raist the volume of spoken parts to make them easier to hear. They aren't very close to the director's intent, but they're a great way of making movies more accessible for more people.

And we can finally hear what the characters are saying in Tenet. No thanks to you, Nolan.

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It's been a little while since the Sonos Ace ANC headphones were released, and their "headphones that last" mission seems to be finally coming to fruition.

You can now download a free update for your headphones that brings four new features to the table, including one some of us have been asking about for some time.

You might need another pair of Ace...

The first new feature is called Personal Home Theater for Two (quite a mouthful). It does exactly what it says — two people can now use Sonos Ace headphones to listen to TV audio.

Two pairs of headphones can now connect up to a Sonos soundbar, like the Sonos Arc Ultra, and you and a fellow Ace owner can listen to movie or TV audio together. That's a cool update, and it's something that lots of users have been asking for. Perfect for couples who live in an apartment and want to watch movies without annoying the neighbors.

The second feature is Realistic Surround Sound. Sonos is bringing its 'TrueCinema' technology to the Sonos Ace, which will read your surroundings and then create a tailor-made surround setup just for you.

Or, as Sonos puts it, it will make "it sound like you have a beautifully tuned 3D audio system right in your headphones."

The third is Enhanced Noise Canceling, and as you might expect, it improves the ANC. It's been refined to adapt to long hair, glasses, and even hats in real time, allowing it to mitigate ANC loss from sound leaks. That's cool.

Finally, there's Smoother More Natural Calling. Again, does what it says in the title — with some clever software, the Ace now offer clearer call quality, giving you high-resolution calls and SideTone (which makes it more natural to talk in noise-canceling headphones).

Until I've had a hands-on with the new updates, it remains to be seen if this brings them further up the list of the best headphones. Until then, it's great to see that Sonos is bringing such large updates to its now year-old headphones.

How to download the update

If you've got the Sonos app downloaded, the update should be automatic. You can double check by dipping into the app, and checking the settings menu of the headphones. There, you'll find the update option. That will force the update.

You might need to keep coming back — the update is rolling out now, so it might take a moment for you to get the update.

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Sonos took a long time to get round to producing a pair of headphones, but the end result was worth the wait. The Sonos Ace are a fantastic pair of noise cancelling over-ear headphones that offer even more functionality if you already have other Sonos products.

And right now you can grab them at the lowest price we've ever seen over at Amazon. The retailer has slashed $120 off the price to bring them down to $329. That's even cheaper than they were during the Black Friday sales. And if you're based in the U.K., you can actually get the same 33% discount at Amazon, bringing the headphones down from £449 to a much more wallet-friendly £299.

I can't recommend the Sonos Ace enough; I've been using them as my regular pair of headphones over the last year and I even rate them over the AirPods Max. They're comfortable, they look cool and the sound quality you get from them is fantastic.

As you'd expect from a company making some of the best soundbars and best smart speakers around, the Sonos Ace had no trouble landing on our list of the best noise-canceling headphones you can buy.

One of the main issues — as it usually is with Sonos — was that the price was something of a barrier to entry when you look at rivals. This deal puts that concern to bed because with a massive $120/£150 off the price, the Sonos Ace suddenly becomes a lot more affordable.

Battery life is exceptionally solid at 30 hours and the sound you get from them is rich and detailed. The soundstage really wows when you fire these headphones up and you get this feeling of spaciousness in part thanks to the Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio format support for head tracking, but also the comfort of the pliable foam earcups.

The real party trick for the Sonos Ace comes when you use it for watching movies. As long as you have a Sonos soundbar, like the Sonos Arc Ultra, you can sync the two up and have the headphones deliver the full Dolby Atmos movie experience directly into your ears without disturbing anyone else in house. And because it's coming from the soundbar's input, you can use it with any streaming service or any games console hooked up to your TV.

That leads me to my one niggle with the Sonos Ace (well, apart from all the issues with Sonos' software experience) which is that it doesn't interplay with any other Sonos devices you may have. It would be awesome to seamlessly transition from a speaker to the headphones over Wi-Fi but, alas, it's not possible.

I also think the case, while premium, is too fiddly but for a $120/£150 discount I'm definitely happy to overlook this. What's more, there's currently a bunch of other Sonos products also discounted at Amazon right now. Which is ace.

Summer is almost here, and if you want to spend the season blasting your favorite tunes, don’t miss the awesome Sonos sale currently going on at Amazon.

The online retailer is happily slashing prices of some of the best headphones and best Bluetooth speakers around.

Right now you can get the Sonos Ace on sale for $329 at Amazon ($120 off.) It’s hard to believe this is Sonos’ first attempt at making a pair of headphones, because they sound amazing. We gushed over their awesome sound quality and active noise canceling in our Sonos Ace review.

Plus, you can get the Sonos Move 2 on sale for $336 at Amazon. This is our favorite Bluetooth speaker on the market, so you definitely don’t want to miss this 25% discount.

All my favorite Sonos deals are listed below. For more savings, see our Amazon promo codes coverage, and check out the deals I’d buy from $12 in Home Depot’s Memorial Day sale.

Quick Links

• shop all Sonos deals on Amazon
• Sonos Roam 2: was $179 now $134
• Sonos Ace: was $449 now $329
• Sonos Era 300: $449 now $359
• Sonos Move 2: was $449 now $359
• Sonos Beam: was $499 now $369
• Sonos Sub 4: was $799 now $679
• Sonos Arc Ultra: was $999 now $899

Best Sonos Deals