Streaming Audio Guide: How to Get the Best Sound from Your TV

Your television’s built-in speakers are the weakest link in your streaming setup. Even the best 4K OLED display paired with a Dolby Vision stream from Netflix or Apple TV Plus sounds flat and thin through the speakers embedded in a half-inch-thick panel. Upgrading your audio does not require a home theater installer or thousands of dollars. Here is a practical guide to getting dramatically better sound from your streaming content at every budget level.

How We Selected: We reviewed options using full-season viewing, critical analysis, and production quality assessment. Primary factors were acting performances, narrative quality, pacing consistency. We do not accept payment or free products from any brand featured here.

Why TV Speakers Are Bad

Modern televisions are designed to be thin. To achieve that slim profile, manufacturers use tiny downward-firing or side-firing speakers that cannot produce meaningful bass, struggle with dialogue clarity, and lack the physical size to create any sense of spatial audio. This is not a quality issue; it is a physics issue. Small speakers cannot move enough air to produce full-range sound.

The result is that you are watching shows mixed in Dolby Atmos on equipment that cannot reproduce it. Dialogue gets lost in action scenes. Musical scores lose their emotional impact. Sound effects that were designed to surround you come out of a single narrow point below your screen.

Budget Tier: Soundbar ($50-150)

A basic soundbar is the single biggest upgrade you can make. Models from brands like Vizio, TCL, and Hisense in the $50-100 range connect via HDMI ARC or optical cable and immediately deliver wider, clearer sound than any TV speaker. Dialogue becomes intelligible, music gains body, and action scenes have actual weight.

At the $100-150 range, soundbars from Roku, JBL, and Yamaha add wireless subwoofers that fill in the bass frequencies your TV speakers cannot produce. A show like House of the Dragon or Dune: Part Two transforms when you add even a modest subwoofer. The low-frequency rumble of a dragon’s wingbeat or an approaching sandworm is not just louder; it is physically felt.

Mid Tier: Dolby Atmos Soundbar ($200-500)

Dolby Atmos is a spatial audio format that places sounds in three-dimensional space around you, including above. Atmos-capable soundbars use upward-firing speakers to bounce sound off your ceiling, creating the illusion of overhead audio. The effect is genuinely impressive in well-mixed content.

Models from Sonos (Beam, Arc), Samsung (Q-series), and JBL (Bar series) in this range deliver convincing Atmos experiences. The Sonos Beam at around $450 is particularly popular because it integrates with the broader Sonos ecosystem and supports Apple AirPlay, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa.

To get Dolby Atmos from streaming, you need three things: a streaming plan that supports it (Netflix Premium, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus), a streaming device or smart TV that passes through Atmos (Apple TV 4K, Roku Ultra, Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max, or most 2020+ smart TVs), and an Atmos-capable soundbar connected via HDMI eARC.

Premium Tier: Surround Sound System ($500+)

A dedicated surround sound system with separate speakers creates the most immersive experience. A 5.1 setup (five speakers plus a subwoofer) fills the room from all directions, while a 7.1.4 Atmos setup adds height channels for true three-dimensional audio.

For most living rooms, a 5.1.2 setup (five speakers, one subwoofer, two height channels) hits the sweet spot between immersion and practicality. Sonos makes this easy with their wireless ecosystem: an Arc soundbar, two Era 100 rear speakers, and a Sub creates a wireless 5.1.2 Atmos system for about $2,000.

Budget-conscious buyers can build a wired 5.1 system from brands like Klipsch, Polk, or Elac paired with a Denon or Yamaha AV receiver for $600-1,000. These systems require more setup but deliver better sound per dollar than wireless alternatives.

Platform Audio Support

Not every streaming platform supports the same audio formats:

Apple TV Plus: Dolby Atmos on all originals. Best audio quality of any platform.
Netflix: Dolby Atmos on Premium plan only ($24.99/month). Available on hundreds of titles.
Disney Plus: Dolby Atmos on both ad-supported and ad-free plans.
Max: Dolby Atmos on Ultimate plan only ($21.99/month).
Amazon Prime Video: Dolby Atmos on select titles, no extra charge.
Peacock: Limited Atmos support.

Quick Setup Tips

Enable HDMI eARC on both your TV and soundbar for the best audio passthrough. Set your streaming device’s audio output to “Auto” rather than forcing a specific format, which lets the device negotiate the best available format with your audio equipment. Turn off any TV audio processing (like “virtual surround” or “voice enhance”) when using an external speaker system, as these features can interfere with the audio your soundbar is already processing.

For more on optimizing your streaming setup, check our complete streaming device comparison and our best soundbars for streaming guide.