Soundbars/Soundbases

When is a soundbar not a soundbar? When it's JBL's Bar 9.1. On the face of it, this is a premium soundbar/subwoofer system with Dolby Atmos capability, but with its front left/right enclosures able to be removed and used as discrete surrounds/Atmos units, you get a 5.1.4 setup with minimal fuss. Which is how we like it.

It's always good to have the option of going large, whether that's upgrading your McDonald's order or watching the extended versions of all six of Peter Jackson's Tolkien movies. Now LG is playing to XL lovers with its SN11RG, which is without doubt its biggest – and best – soundbar yet.

The category has been around for more than a decade, but the Beosound Stage is the first dedicated soundbar to come from the Bang & Olufsen stable – and it arrives with a sonic maturity that makes you think B&O has been making these things for years.

Samsung's acoustic beaM technology has been squeezed into some slimmer, sleeker-looking soundbars in this year's lineup. The HW-Q70R sits in the middle of the range, with a fair bit of technology ported over from last year's HW-N850, including bringing Dolby Atmos and DTS:X decoding to the feature list. There's no doubt hope it will have big appeal to gamers as well as movie fans, as these next-gen formats gain traction in both camps.