The one upgrade a flat television cannot argue with · review
A 90 W soundbar with three equaliser presets and published checks on your television’s ports.
The closing call Sixty dollars and the only listing here that tells you what to check before buying — including that your television needs the dedicated ARC port, not any HDMI socket. It also lists wall mounting twice out of four placements.
Two warnings, both correct, both absent from the other eleven listings on this shelf.
“Use the dedicated ARC port, not regular HDMI.” A television has three or four HDMI inputs and only one carries ARC — the Audio Return Channel, which sends sound out of the television back down the cable. It is marked “HDMI ARC” or “eARC” in small print beside the socket. Plug a soundbar into any other HDMI port and nothing happens, because ordinary inputs only receive.
“Turn off Dolby or DTS audio in both your TV settings and the streaming app.” Over ARC a television can send stereo PCM or a compressed bitstream. A bar that cannot decode the bitstream gets a stream it does not understand, and you get silence, static or dropouts.
Between them, those two paragraphs cover the great majority of soundbars that arrive and appear broken.
If Dolby and DTS must be switched off, the bar decodes neither.
Which is fine at sixty dollars, and worth knowing against the alternative. Philips’s B5109 at $77.99 — eighteen dollars more — decodes Dolby Digital Plus and DTS Virtual:X, and publishes double the power.
Standing Tabletop… Wall Mount… Flat Tabletop… Wall Mount.
Wall mounting is listed twice out of four, with two different sound descriptions and nothing said about what separates them.
The same slip is on its stablemate the KY-8000, which counts “horizontal” and “tabletop” as two of its four.
What is genuinely true underneath: a bar lying flat and a bar standing on edge do aim their drivers differently, and that honestly deserves two settings.
Ten of the twelve bars here publish a maximum or peak. This is one.
Only the Majority Sierra publishes RMS — 120 W continuous. Which means 120 W RMS is the more powerful bar than a “240 W peak” one, despite reading half as loud.
And Sony, Amazon and Bose publish no wattage at all.
No subwoofer, so nothing below roughly 100 Hz. Hisense at $119.99 includes a wireless one; Suntrok at $81.21 a wired one.
No weight, and no driver count or size — where its own stablemate the KY-8000 states four drivers, and Suntrok publishes actual diameters (two 2.5-inch plus a 5.5-inch subwoofer).
No HDMI cable stated in the box, where Amazon, Hisense, Majority and Suntrok all include one.
At the check, the American Amazon store stood at roughly $60.
These numbers are what Keepa carried on the day this page was last built. Stock and prices move without notice.
Prices quoted in this text were read on 4 October 2026. The live price is at the top of the page.
| Power | 90 W — a maximum, not an RMS figure |
|---|---|
| Equaliser | 3 one-touch presets: movie, music, news |
| Connections | Bluetooth 5.3, ARC, optical, AUX |
| Published warning | Your TV must have ARC, optical or AUX, and you must use the DEDICATED ARC port |
| Second warning | Turn Dolby and DTS off in the TV and the streaming app for stable output |
| Volume | Each press steps three levels |
| Placements claimed | 4 — but wall mounting is listed twice, see the FAQ |
| Warranty | 18 months, with 24/7 US online support |
| Documentation | Paper instructions and step-by-step videos, stated |
| Dimensions | 787 × 51 × 102 mm (31 × 2.01 × 4.02 in) |
| Subwoofer | None |
| Surround formats | None — and it asks you to switch Dolby and DTS OFF |
| Weight | Not published |
| Driver count or size | Not published, where its stablemate states four |
| Amazon reference | B0HJ5MD6FR |
| EAN | 6977741976670 |
Because it cannot decode them, and saying so is more honest than most of this shelf. The bullet reads: "Turn off Dolby or DTS audio in both your TV settings and the streaming app to ensure stable, clear audio output." Here is the mechanism. Over HDMI ARC your television can send audio either as plain stereo PCM or as a compressed bitstream — Dolby Digital, DTS. A bar that cannot decode the bitstream receives a stream it does not understand and the result is silence, static or dropouts. Setting the television’s audio output to PCM or stereo fixes it. The listing publishing this is genuinely useful: it is the single commonest reason a new soundbar appears broken. Philips’s B5109 at $77.99 is the cheapest bar here that actually decodes Dolby Digital Plus and DTS Virtual:X.
That not every HDMI socket on your television will work, and it is worth checking before the box arrives. The bullet is explicit: "1) Your TV must have ARC / OPT / AUX ports. 2) Use the dedicated ARC port, not regular HDMI." A television typically has three or four HDMI inputs and only one of them carries ARC — the Audio Return Channel, which sends sound *out* of the TV back down the cable to a soundbar. It is usually labeled "HDMI ARC" or "eARC" in small print beside the socket. Plug the bar into any other HDMI port and nothing happens, because ordinary HDMI inputs only receive. On older sets there may be no ARC port at all, in which case the optical output is the route. No other listing on this shelf mentions it.
The listing describes four and names three. Its words: "4 placing ways, 4 sound feels. Standing Tabletop: Stereo sound + Natural voice... Wall Mount: Heavy rumble for movie & game fun. Flat Tabletop: Balanced mid + Silky tone... Wall Mount: Clean bass + Sparkling treble, perfect for living room." Wall Mount appears twice, with two different descriptions of the sound, and the listing never says what distinguishes them — two orientations, two heights, nothing is stated. The same slip appears on its stablemate the KY-8000, which counts "horizontal" and "tabletop" as separate placements when they are the same position. What is real underneath: a bar lying flat and a bar standing on its edge do fire their drivers differently, and that is worth two settings.
Between home cinema devices of the same category and nearby price. Shown: what they all state. A half-filled column says nothing.
| Model | Price | Power | Dimensions | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assistrust KY2023 | $60 | 90 W — a maximum, not an RMS figure | 787 × 51 × 102 mm (31 × 2.01 × 4.02 in) | Not published |
| Assistrust KY-8000 | $50 | 80 W — a maximum, not an RMS figure | 432 × 89 × 64 mm (17 × 3.50 × 2.52 in) | 2971 g (104.8 oz) |
| Philips B4000 (TAB4000/37) | $75 | 60 W maximum | 104 × 762 × 65 mm (4.09 × 30 × 2.56 in) | 2200 g (77.6 oz) |
| Philips B5109 (TAB5109/37) | $78 | 120 W maximum — double the maker’s two 60 W bars | 91 × 766 × 67 mm (3.58 × 30.2 × 2.64 in) | 1928 g (68 oz) |
A first soundbar bought carefully — it tells you what will go wrong before you order
Amazon reports what buyers took in the month before this page was last checked: at least 500.
The figure is a floor, rounded by Amazon, and read through Keepa — it says what buyers picked, not what a maker claims.
Specifications: the manufacturer sheet for home cinema gear and the matching Amazon product page. Prices and availability: Keepa. Every figure on this page names its source.
2.0 speaker soundbar with DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Audio, dual speakers, an included HDMI cable for an eARC or ARC port, Bluetooth streaming, Fire TV Ready certification, 24 inches long and 2.5 inches high, made from 18 percent recycled materials
A 2.0 soundbar with DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Audio, 24 inches long, with the HDMI cable included.
Best for: A Fire TV household wanting a tidy 24-inch bar that works out of the box
≈ $120
2 in 1 detachable soundbar with four drivers rated 80 W, automatic loudness boost, three equaliser modes for movie, music and news, Bluetooth 5.0 with ARC, optical and AUX inputs, and an 18-month warranty with a 60-day replacement policy
A detachable 80 W soundbar with four drivers and three equaliser modes, for under fifty dollars.
Best for: Two small speakers and a soundbar in one box, for fifty dollars
≈ $50
All-in-one compact 2.0 soundbar with two angled full-range drivers and a center tweeter for vocals, built-in Dolby decoding, a remote with dialogue mode and bass boost, HDMI, optical and AUX inputs with an optical cable supplied, and expansion to the Bose Bass Module 500 or 700
A compact 2.0 soundbar with two angled drivers and a center tweeter aimed at speech clarity.
Best for: Dialogue, and only dialogue — a center tweeter nothing else here offers
≈ $280
