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Tom's Guide
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
No, a $67 soundbar isn't going to perform like Sonos — but this one actually surprised me
Right off the bat, let's make one thing very clear. Many of the best soundbars cost an arm and a leg, and for good reason. To get expansive, room-filling sound powerful enough to rival your local IMAX at home, it's gonna cost you. For example, the Sonos Arc Ultra features a massive 9.1.4 channel setup with virtual Dolby Atmos surround, which is probably as close as you can get to home theater (without breaching prosumer territory). However — and that's a big however — the Sonos Arc Ultra is also one thousand big ones. Yep — $999 for a soundbar. Heck, even the semi-basic Bose Smart Soundbar I personally own is $499. Now more than ever, that just feels difficult to reach for most people. So when I found the Majority Naga 60 soundbar for $67 (not a typo, yes, just sixty-seven), I knew I had to test it out. Obviously a $67 soundbar is never going to be a Sonos or Bose rival, but I was actually pleasantly surprised. And here's why. Although it doesn't have mind-blowing sound, for $67, can you really complain? With a little EQ fiddling, the Naga 60 soundbar actually really impressed me. Its imitation-Dolby Atmos was surprisingly room-filling, and there's even a subwoofer out for building a home theater. I'll preface this by saying obviously this soundbar doesn't have Dolby Atmos. It's $67. It's a 2.1 channel soundbar. The Majority Naga 60 has no true immersive 360° audio whatsoever — neither do many of the best cheap soundbars. So why did it almost sound like it does? When I was watching 'Stranger Things' (as one does when Stranger Things's fifth and final season is due later this year), I truly felt like I was in the scene. During sections with walkie-talkies, the dialogue sounded as if it was coming from all around me. Don't get me wrong, the Naga 60 isn't perfect. It struggles with female voices and super low bass (but more on the subwoofer out in a second). However, it performs considerably better than TV speakers, so it's most definitely a worthy upgrade from a TV. If you've got a Samsung TV, though, may I point you in the direction of the Samsung HW-B650? It has a 3.1 channel setup and although it's $249, it is an utterly mesmerizing soundbar + subwoofer combo. Although this is a very cheap soundbar, it has a premium feature that some other big-name brands lack: a subwoofer out. This means you can get a third-party subwoofer (wired only) and connect it up to the Naga 60 for a bassier setup. Of course, the soundbar doesn't have extra outputs for surround speakers, so the setup would remain a 2.1 channel, but it's a very respectable start to a home theater setup. Interestingly, the $99 Sony HT-S100F soundbar doesn't have a subwoofer out, nor does the $99 Majority Elias. So if you're a TV/AV newbie and you want to dip your toe in the proverbial water, then I think the Naga 60 is a pretty decent starter soundbar. On top of having a subwoofer out, the Naga 60 is a Bluetooth soundbar. I was able to link up to my phone and Spotify app to play music, so it doubles up as a speaker in a pinch. However, if you've got a little extra $$$ to spare, then I recommend the Polk Signa S4 as the number one entry-level home theater setup. It has 3.1.2 channel setup with a wireless subwoofer, and while its MRSP is considerably higher than the super-budget Naga 60, it's utterly phenomenal. Given the extremely low price, obviously some corners have been cut — some sacrifices have been made. In the Majority Naga 60's case, these sacrifices are threefold: 1) it's got an annoying, fiddly setup, 2) its semi-ugly bulky design, and 3) its sound comes ever-so-close to Tinny City. Tinny City isn't a real place — it's just something I made up to describe cheap low-quality audio gear. You know, when poor drivers or speakers transform previously-vibrant bass and mids into flat, lifeless sound and make your eardrums rattle, like someone's shaking a tin can around inside your brain? That. Thankfully, avoiding tinniness is relatively easy on the Naga 60 — just put the soundbar on 'movie' mode and activate '3D sound'. Don't touch these settings, ever. I can assure you that any other sound mode will make you think I'm crazy for even suggesting this soundbar is good. Another issue is the frustrating setup. I couldn't get the soundbar to work upon initial unboxing, so I had to reach out to Majority itself. An engineer instructed me to fiddle with my TV settings (I discuss exactly how to do this in my Majority Naga 60 review), and ta-da! It worked. Finally, the design. I find pretty much all soundbars relatively ugly (except the Marshall Heston 120), but the Naga 60 is a little extra ugly. It's bulky and weirdly tall. However, this is a worthy tradeoff for costing literally $67.
Tom's Guide
22-05-2025
- Tom's Guide
I use the Bose Smart Soundbar every single day — and it's $100 off in Amazon's Memorial Day sale
I'm scouring the web for the best Memorial Day sales, and boy have I found a scorcher. I've found the soundbar I personally use every single day for a massive $100 off. I actually love my Bose Smart Soundbar, and I'd love it even more for just $400. Currently, you can get the Bose Smart Dolby Atmos Soundbar for $399 at Amazon. Soundbars can be super expensive. Trust me — I test enough of them! Thankfully, that also means I know which ones are good and which ones aren't. And I honestly feel like Bose soundbars don't go on sale enough. Of all the soundbars I've tested, the Bose Smart Soundbar is the one I wanted to keep. Because it's a smart product, it links perfectly to my home Wi-Fi, which means I can connect it up with my Google Nest and my Spotify account for instant playback. The second-to-none interconnectivity is why I love my Bose Smart Soundbar. Some of the best soundbars can go for up to $1,000 for just the soundbar itself. Others include a subwoofer for around $1,500. So it's an amazing deal when you can get a big-name soundbar like Bose for just $400. Although I only awarded the Bose Smart Soundbar 3.5 stars in my review, that doesn't make it a bad soundbar. Actually, it makes it a really good soundbar. Why didn't it get 4 stars, I hear you ask? Well, because it's a little pricey for what it is. But for $100 off? Definitely a 4-star product. Without a shadow of a doubt, a $399 price makes the Bose Smart Soundbar a competitive product. As I mentioned earlier, the Bose Smart Soundbar has second-to-none home integration. Not only does it link up to other Bose gear seamlessly (so if you have the open earbuds or a Bose subwoofer, for example), it links up to practically everything in my house seamlessly. I can jump from the TV, watching YouTube with the soundbar, to playing music from my phone or my Google Nest. Now let's chat about sound. So the Bose Smart Soundbar has a 3.0.2 setup, meaning it has a left, right, and center channel speaker, no subwoofer, and two height speakers. This means it is capable of near-true Dolby Atmos (you'd need a sub for true Dolby Atmos), but won't have proper thumping bass. I found this setup more than enough for everyday TV watching. Actually, when my TV is disconnected from the soundbar, I actively wince hearing the tinny, nasty TV speakers. There's one major flaw with the Bose Smart Soundbar, and it's that it's ruined me for TV speakers. I can never go back to no soundbar now. Although it's not as adept as, say, the JBL Bar 1300X — it's literally $1,000 cheaper. If you want a soundbar that integrates seamlessly with your Spotify and other smart home gear, then the Bose Smart Soundbar is a fantastic choice. I chose this one for a reason. The Bose Smart Soundbar makes my life infinitely better, and I never want to let it go.
