Five tips for better TV sound – Dolby Atmos for beginners (2025 update guide)

Five tips for better TV sound demystifies the sales hype telling you to get a Dolby Atmos soundbar. Why? Because a soundbar can’t magically add Dolby Atmos 3D spatial sound unless you have a Dolby Atmos TV and other stars align.

Five tips for better TV sound helps you understand the current sound types and what you need.

99% of TV sound is not Dolby Atmos 3D spatial

Most over-the-air TV content is mono 1.0 or stereo 2.0. Most streaming services (Netflix et al.) can stream surround sound up to 5.1. You get a DA sound stream if you pay extra for 4K Dolby Vision (DV) content or play a 4K DV Blu-ray. A Sub-woofer adds .1 as the centre number, e.g., 2.1

Sound types	2.0	3.0	4.0	5.0	7.0	9.0	11.0
Mono (1.0) – most older TV content
Stereo Left front	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Stereo Right front	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Clear Dialogue Centre front		✓		✓	✓	✓	✓
Left front surround				✓	✓	✓	✓
Right front surround				✓	✓	✓	✓
Left rear surround			✓		✓	✓	✓
Right rear surround			✓		✓	✓	✓
Left front wide surround						✓	✓
Right front wide surround						✓	✓
Left rear wide surround							✓
Right rear wide surround							✓

Dolby Atmos adds 3D spatial height (up-firing or overhead) speakers, e.g., 5.1.2 or 7.1.4 or 11.1.4

Left front up-firing				0.0.2
Right front up-firing				0.0.2
Left rear up-firing				0.0.4
Right rear up-firing				0.0.4

Dolby Atmos (DA): A much-used and abused term

DA means adding extra up-firing or overhead speakers (usually two front and/or two rear) to add 3D height to your otherwise flat 2D horizontal sound stage.

If you don’t have a DV/DA TV, you won’t get 3D spatial sound. You need DA-encoded content (metadata), and your TV needs a licensed DA decoder to process the sound and direct it to the available speakers. Or it can pass it through to a DA soundbar for decoding there.

My TV has DV and DA, but I can’t see/hear any difference

Remember that DA is about speaker numbers and placement around the room and overhead.

A TV generally has 2.0 speakers (left and right stereo) and may have a centre dialogue speaker (3.0). Some have a sub-woofer (2.1), but low bass is physically impossible with small TV speakers. It may have a bass radiator that bounces sound off the wall behind it.

The TV decodes DA to your available speakers. At best, it can phase sound between the left and right speakers to give a faux sense of direction, but TV speakers are generally woefully underpowered (5-15W).

Adding an external soundbar, preferably a DA 5.1.2 or 4 or higher, will not only give you more volume but will have a far better amplifier system than the TV for better, clearer sound.

As for DV, it is a much-abused term too. All that means is that it can decode DV content and play it to the screen’s capability. DV on a typical edge or backlit 4K LED/LCD looks quite inferior when placed beside a 4K mini-LED or OLED TV.

Oh, and you need HDMI 2.1 eARC ports (4K@120Hz) on the TV and soundbar and HDMI 2.1 48Gbps Ultra High-Speed cables for true DV/DA.

Be aware of psychoacoustic trickery

Single soundbars (all-in-one) above 3.0 use psychoacoustic trickery to fool your ears into thinking that sound is coming from around, behind, or above you. To do this, they bounce sound off the ceiling and walls. That is fine if you have lower ceilings and close walls to bounce off – otherwise, you lessen or eliminate the effect.

There is no substitute for dedicated rear or overhead speakers – forward-firing (surround sound) and up-firing (DA).

What type of soundbar do you need?

A soundbar primarily provides better quality sound and more volume than the TV can – that is not hard! In fact, 99% of TV sound only requires a 2.0 soundbar, and maybe add a subwoofer (2.1), which is nice but not necessary.

Hearing impaired should look for ones with a clear centre dialogue channel (3.0 or above), which may help. So, any reputable brand, all-in-one, 3.0 or 3.1, is all you need to enhance TV sound.

Entry-level virtual Dolby Atmos 5.1.2

These use psychoacoustics for virtual Dolby Atmos. If you have the right room, they will deliver a front-centric DA experience.

• $449 Hisense AX5100 5.1 with rear speakers (no height channels)
• $499 JBL Bar 500 5.1 (no height channels)
• $599 TCL Q75H 5.1.2
• $699 JBL Bar 800 5.1.2
• $699 Hisense AX5140Q 5.1.4
• $799 Samsung Q800C 5.1.2
• $799 TCL Q85H 7.1.4
• $999 JBL Bar 1000 7.1.4
• LG S80TR 5.1.3

Dolby Atmos with height channels.

(Note: we consider DA to be at least 5.1.4) – All-in-one means no dedicated rear speakers

• $1499 JBL Bar 1300 11.1.4
• $1599 Samsung Q930F 9.1.4
• $2099 Samsung Q990F 11.1.4

* For the best Dolby Atmos experience under $2000

Further reading

Premium Dolby Atmos Soundbars

Both of these are the foundation of a premium and expensive system. You can add dedicated rear speakers and a sub to them.

• $1399 Bose Soundbar 900 5.0.2 but you need to add a subwoofer and rears!
• $1799 Sonos Arc Ultra 7.0.2 – ditto

Further reading

Cybershack speaker reviews