When it comes to alternatives to Sonos’ Beam and Arc soundbars, what provides the best value at lower price points depends on what you’re looking for. If you just want louder, clearer audio than your TV can provide, you’re probably not eyeing anything close to the $499 MSRP that the Beam carries, much less the Arc’s $899 MSRP. Realistically, you’re probably looking for good surround sound virtualization and at least above-average music performance. By those metrics, Polk’s Signa S4 soundbar with wireless subwoofer is probably one of the better buys available. It retails for $399, but is often on sale for $299 or less.
****
The big differentiator for the Signa S4, particularly in this price range, is that even before you get into using digital signal processing for virtual surround sound tricks, it packs in more — and more varied — speakers than a lot of its competition, including the Sonos Beam. The S4 is a 3.1.2 channel system, meaning the bar has three front-firing channels (left, right, and center) and two up-firing channels (left height and right height) buoyed by the sub for optimal bass performance.
In this price range, most soundbars lack up-firing speakers and offload the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X height effects to virtualization. The S4 has been widely reviewed by professionals and the results have been glowing with Wired, Trusted Reviews, and Digital Trends in particular all awarding it their respective recommendation badges. Its one big fault is it lacks Wi-Fi, which is odd since the lower-tier Signa S3 has it, complete with Chromecast.
****
