The Sony S100F is the cheapest soundbar in Sony’s lineup and has been on the market since 2018, with no direct replacement. It’s a 2.0-channel design with two front-firing drivers and a built-in bass reflex tube that handles the low end, so you don’t need a separate subwoofer in the room. On the back, you’ll find HDMI ARC for the TV plus Bluetooth, optical, and USB inputs for music from a phone or files from a flash drive.
See at Amazon
A bombastic soundbar that sounds fantastic with every type of media
The S100F replaces your TV’s built-in speakers with a stereo soundbar that delivers full-range audio from a single cabinet. Setup involves a single HDMI cable into the ARC port, which carries the audio and lets the TV remote control the soundbar’s volume. The front-firing drivers send sound at you instead of downward, and the bass reflex tube adds enough low end that action movies don’t sound flat without a separate sub. Voice mode is the setting you’ll probably use most often, since it pushes vocals to the front of the mix and makes muddy dialogue easier to follow without cranking the overall volume.
Bluetooth turns the soundbar into a regular speaker when the TV is off, so streaming from a phone or laptop works without unplugging anything. The optical input on the back is the backup if you’re connecting to a TV that doesn’t have HDMI ARC. There’s also a USB port for audio files from a flash drive, which most cheap soundbars don’t offer. A slim Sony remote handles the rest, including sound mode presets for movies, music, sports, and news.
