Best Home Theater Systems For Your Budget and Room Size 2023

Sonos made quite a name for themselves with their wireless connection and streaming ecosystem that simplified setup and pioneered voice control. The Arc Sound Bar builds on that brilliant system and fantastic sound quality and adds complete Dolby Atmos capability. The elegant, curved-mesh design of the Arc and the One Surround Speakers underscores this unified concept. The Sub subwoofer has a groundbreaking design: its twin drivers fire into an opening in the center of the cabinet, providing furniture-shaking low end, no matter where you put the speaker. This Sonos system creates an extremely high-quality 3D sound experience with a surprisingly wide soundstage and extraordinary midrange clarity that facilitates clear dialogue, and when streaming Atmos content, fantastic overhead and surround placement.

Whereas most multi-speaker wireless systems use their own proprietary wireless connections, Sonos uses your existing Wi-Fi system to communicate with its components. You can also plug an Ethernet cable into the sound bar or one of the speakers, and then the system will create its own dedicated wireless network to share audio and control information. Also note: Sonos is like LEGOs  (which we wrote all about in our Sonos Buying Guide here). With superb Alexa and Google Assistant integration, the Sonos Surround Set is ready to the digital hub of your household, doing much more than stream the shows and music you love.

Also check out our in depth Sonos Arc Soundbar review. 

Over the last two decades, SVS has grown into one of the most respected brands in the industry. Initially known for their sternum-vibrating / room-shaking / award-winning subwoofers, today’s new SVS systems can compete with anyone – and the SVS Prime Satellite 5.1 home theater package is a great example. Its compact and easier to fit in a smaller room but turn it up and boom: your small room becomes the Hollywood Bowl. 

Each SVS Prime Satellite speaker is about the size of a loaf of bread and contains a 4.5-inch midrange driver and a one-inch tweeter. Small, yes, but they punch like Roberto Duran. The 12-inch driver in the already legendary, 300-watt powered SVS-1000 subwoofer will, on the other hand, have you holding on to your seat. It’s small, too, and neatly tucks into any corner. The system is wired as opposed to wireless, but for the price, the SVS Prime Satellite 5.1 Package may just be the biggest “little” 5.1 system on the market. (Want something a little bigger? Check out SVS’s “Ultra” series line of speakers. We carry those, too.)

Another big SVS advantage: gaming. A lot of our customers keep their gaming systems in small dens and spare bedrooms. And if you really want to put yourself in the middle of a Gears of War or Call of Duty battle, sans headphones – and you don’t want to spend a fortune to do it – the SVS Prime Satellite 5.1 Package is for you. SVS rocks.

Check out our full SVS Prime Wireless Speaker review.

There are a few things more harmful to household harmony than a small living room with half the floor space cluttered with audio gear. The Sonos 5.1 Home Theater Set is a brilliant choice for any apartment dwellers who crave true surround sound and Dolby Atmos compatibility. The second-generation Beam sound bar is only half as wide as many of the larger sound bars on the market yet is fully compatible with 3D audio in a variety of formats. It connects with all modern televisions with HDMI eARC, so not only can it pass through true Atmos content, but it’ll be compatible with formats coming down the pike in the future.

The Sub subwoofer with its center-facing drivers can be placed nearly anywhere you have a spot of it, yet it can still provide floor-rattling sound effects. Place the two surround speakers behind your sofa, and within a few minutes of easy setup time you’ve got a full-on 5.1 system, complete with Dolby Atmos height channels.

 Sonos has been a market leader with integrating Google Alexa, so you can stream from a variety of services and apps, configure the settings, and control additional speakers throughout your home just by using your voice. Apply AirPlay 2 makes it a snap to stream content from your Apple devices. Need to be considerate of neighbors or progeny sleeping in the next room? Just activate Night Mode to reduce the volume of the booms and thuds while raising the level of the romantic whispers, so can keep the experience while keeping the peace.

Also check out our full Sonos Beam Gen 2 Soundbar Review. 

In our “Best Sound Bars of 2023” article, the Bose Soundbar 900 won smartest sound bar for surround sound. Now here as the core component in the Bose Smart Wireless Home Theater System, Bose does it again. The Bose SB900 won because we turned it on and were promptly blown away by a sound field that A) seemed much wider than any other pre-packaged system we tested, B) made dialogue – even soft or whispered dialogue – crystal clear, and C) was equally effective no matter where we sat.

Every component in this system is part of Bose’s family of smart wireless speakers. Start with this system, and place a Bose Home Speaker 500 in the kitchen and the smaller TV Speaker in your bedroom for a multi-room audio experience throughout the house. And with Amazon Alexa built-in, you can control it all with simple voice commands.

For decades, Bowers and Wilkins has provided monitor speakers to the artists, engineers, and producers who create your favorite music and soundtracks. Audio professionals have come to rely on the accuracy and beauty of the sound of Bowers & Wilkins monitors. And now, Bowers & Wilkins has come up with a brilliant way to provide that same sound in a remarkably compact monitor speaker that’s designed to be the core of a stereo system or part of an integrated 5.1 system. When you swivel an M1 Satellite Speaker into a horizontal position, it can excel as the center channel speaker of a 5.1 system. The M1s provide extraordinarily clear and focused sound, yet they can fit easily on a bookshelf, a table, or a floor stand, or you can use the included brackets to mount them on your wall.

The ASW608 Compact Subwoofer barely takes up one square foot of floor space, yet delivers bass frequencies without distortion, even at a volume that rattles your windows. If you’ve been dreaming of adding a high-end surround system to your home theater, you couldn’t ask for a better option then the Bowers & Wilkins 5.1 Channel Satellite Speaker Package. Give our experts a call anytime to talk about options for configuring these speakers in your space, as well as choosing a receiver that’s optimized for your needs.

This affordable system gives you sound and functionality that defies comprehension when you know how inexpensive it is. The Polk Audio React system provides astonishing 5.1 surround sound, has the simplest wireless setup imaginable, gives you complete voice control, and integrates with all your home devices. At the heart of the system is the React Sound Bar, which amazed bloggers, reviewers, and even audiophiles with its excellent sound, slim profile, and comprehensive Alexa implementation. This model provides a significant upgrade to its sound and Alexa functionality (and say goodbye to that distracting light ring), while still maintaining its compact size.

Besides the React Sound Bar, the set includes the React Subwoofer and a pair of SR2 Wireless Surround Speakers. Even with its booty-shaking 7" downward-firing speaker, the subwoofer doesn’t hog floor space. The surround speakers aren’t much bigger than a video game console — they take up hardly any space when you put them on a table or shelves — but they’ll fill your room with real 5.1 sound. Once you’ve powered them up, setup requires less time than it takes to make breakfast. Just scan the QR code on the back of the sound bar, and your Alexa app handles the rest, giving you very clear instructions and confirming when everything is ready to go.

 Even by itself, the React Sound Bar is a tremendous upgrade to the sound quality of your TV’s built-in system — with DTS, it can deliver 3D sound for games and movies that is quite impressive. Once you connect the other components, the system reconfigures its EQ settings to give you an immersive sound surround experience that we find immensely satisfying.