Soundbar Buying Guide

Here's the short version, in one sentence: a soundbar worth buying for your TV in 2026 comes down to five things you can actually check before handing over your card - enough channels to separate dialogue from effects, Dolby Atmos or a convincing virtual version of it, an HDMI eARC port so your TV's remote can control everything, enough power for your room, and smart connectivity that doesn't fight with your existing setup. Get those five right and the brand becomes a matter of taste and budget. Get them wrong and even an expensive box will sound flat in a real living room. This guide walks through each one, then applies them to the Bang & Olufsen lineup sold at PrestigioPlaza, so you're not guessing which model fits your TV.

What Are Soundbars, and Why Your TV Needs One

In plain terms, they're single-enclosure speaker systems that sit under or mount above a TV and replace its built-in speakers with something built for actual sound, not a thin sliver of plastic squeezed behind a 4mm-thick screen. Modern TVs are so slim that manufacturers physically can't fit speakers large enough to move real air, which is why dialogue sounds muddy and explosions sound like a fridge switching on. A soundbar fixes that by putting proper drivers, amplification, and sometimes a subwoofer into one unit that connects to your TV over a single HDMI cable. That gap between what a flat-screen can physically produce and what a film soundtrack demands is exactly why quality sound bars have become the default upgrade for anyone who's watched a movie and had to turn on subtitles just to follow the plot.

What Separates a Great Soundbar From an Average One

Five specs decide whether a soundbar earns its price tag or just adds volume without adding clarity.

Number of channels. This is the single biggest factor in how "surrounded" you feel. A basic 2.1 setup gives you left and right speakers plus a subwoofer channel. Step up to 3.1 and you add a dedicated center channel, which is what actually makes dialogue intelligible. Go further and you get 5.1 or 7.1 configurations with real or virtual rear channels. More channels generally mean a more three-dimensional soundstage, though it also means a bigger unit and a higher price.

Dolby Atmos and height channels. Atmos is object-based audio: instead of assigning a sound to a fixed channel, the mix places it anywhere in 3D space, including above your head. Soundbars deliver this either with dedicated upward-firing drivers that bounce sound off your ceiling, or through DSP virtualization that fakes the effect. Real upward-firing drivers cost more but sound noticeably more convincing in a normal living room with a flat ceiling.

HDMI eARC. Standard HDMI ARC caps out around 1 Mbps of audio bandwidth, enough for compressed Dolby Digital but not for full lossless Atmos. eARC raises that ceiling to roughly 37 Mbps, which is what lets a soundbar receive the exact same high-resolution soundtrack your TV is decoding, controlled by one remote through HDMI-CEC. If a soundbar only lists ARC, you're leaving audio quality on the table with any 4K streaming source that supports lossless formats.

Power and drivers. Total wattage matters less than driver count and placement. A soundbar with ten individually amplified drivers spreads frequencies more precisely than one with three large drivers pushed hard, even at similar total wattage. For a 55-inch TV in an average lounge, 150-300W is typically enough; a 65-inch-plus TV in an open-plan space benefits from 500W or more.

Wireless subwoofer and smart features. A wireless subwoofer lets you place deep bass wherever it sounds best in the room, rather than cabling it to the soundbar directly. Not every soundbar needs one - some are engineered with enough driver excursion to skip it entirely - but if bass matters to you, check whether the subwoofer is wireless, included, or sold separately. On the software side, AirPlay 2, Chromecast built-in, and Spotify Connect determine how easily the soundbar fits into a home you're already streaming music around.

Soundbar Channel Configurations Explained

The number written before the decimal point tells you how many discrete speaker channels a soundbar has; the number after it tells you how many subwoofer channels; a third number, when present, is dedicated height channels for Atmos.

The Bang & Olufsen Soundbar Lineup at PrestigioPlaza

PrestigioPlaza's soundbar range in South Africa covers three Bang & Olufsen models, each aimed at a different room size and budget: Beosound Stage as the entry point, Beosound Premiere as the flagship all-in-one, and the Beosound Theatre 65 AV System as a full home-cinema package. All three ship with official warranty and free installation, and all three are visible now on PrestigioPlaza's Bang & Olufsen soundbar catalogue.

Beosound Stage is a 3.0 soundbar that comes in four finishes on the site, priced between R54,999 and R67,999. It uses Dolby Atmos virtualization rather than physical height drivers, pairs over AirPlay 2, Chromecast, and Spotify Connect, and according to Bang & Olufsen's own support documentation it was deliberately engineered so you don't need a separate subwoofer. It's the sensible starting point for a 55-inch TV in a normal-sized lounge.

Beosound Premiere is the design-forward flagship: ten individually amplified drivers, including a dedicated up-firing driver for real Dolby Atmos height, and 580 watts of total Class D power, all inside a 93cm aluminium bar with 90 responsive LEDs. It supports 7.1.4 decoding through HDMI eARC and, like Stage, doesn't need an external subwoofer to hit deep bass. At R114,999 it's aimed at buyers with a 65-inch-plus TV who want reference-level sound without adding extra boxes to the room.

Beosound Theatre 65 AV System is a different category entirely — a 7.1-channel surround processor built into a soundbar body, with 12 drivers, 12 dedicated amplifiers, and a rated 800W output confirmed on the product page, plus a 112dB signal-to-noise ratio. Three HDMI inputs plus HDMI eARC support up to 8K passthrough, and the system expands with up to 16 additional Bang & Olufsen speakers, including WISA wireless models, so a wireless subwoofer can be added later without running new cable. PrestigioPlaza bundles this model with a 65-inch LG OLED TV and a 36-month warranty, aimed squarely at buyers building a dedicated home cinema rather than upgrading an existing TV.

How to Match a Soundbar to Your TV and Room Size

Bigger screens usually mean bigger, more open rooms, which means more air for a soundbar to fill and more power required to fill it convincingly.

Open-plan living rooms and high ceilings push you toward the higher end of each range, since sound has more space to disperse before it reaches the sofa. A narrow bedroom with a low ceiling does the opposite — even a modest 3.1 setup can feel loud fast, so don't assume the biggest number on the box is automatically the right call for every space.

Buying a Premium Soundbar in South Africa: What to Expect

Shopping for a premium soundbar in South Africa at the high end looks different from a quick online order for a budget bar. Entry-level Bang & Olufsen pricing on PrestigioPlaza starts around R55,000 for Beosound Stage, climbs past R100,000 for Beosound Premiere, and the Theatre-based AV bundle sits above that depending on configuration. Every purchase includes free door-to-door delivery across South Africa, complimentary professional installation, and an official Bang & Olufsen warranty rather than a grey-import guarantee you'd have to chase overseas. For a purchase at this price point, that combination of local warranty support and in-home setup is arguably as important as the spec sheet itself.