The Best Dolby Atmos Soundbars in Canada of 2023

Sony’s HT-A7000 is a magician of a soundbar, offering some of the best virtual surround sound we’ve ever heard from a single bar in a slick and stylish design. The soundbar offers tons of drivers, including upfiring drivers for effective Dolby Atmos, but it’s the virtual immersion that mixes with those upfiring drivers that really makes the bar sing. When paired with the right content, the A7000 offers spooky accuracy that places sound all around, and even behind you, all from its position at the front of the room.

The bar also brings tons of features to bear, including a full on-screen interface and a clear front display to go along with multiple ways to connect over Wi-Fi (including Spotify Connect and AirPlay 2), and decoding for virtually every audio format under the sun. Most notably, it includes Dolby Atmos in all its iterations, alongside DTS:X, Dolby TrueHD, and everything in between.

The bar connects to your TV via HDMI eARC which allows for versatility and simplicity, especially with HDMI eARC-ready TVs. For those without newer TVs, it can also accept up to two devices directly and passthrough video at up to 8K thanks to dual HDMI 2.1 inputs, making this among the most future-proofed soundbars we’ve tested. For Dolby Atmos, this gives you a ton of freedom in how you connect outboard devices like a [PS5 or Xbox Series X or S. It also offers Alexa and Google Assistant support (though you’ll need a separate speaker to use it), as well as automated room calibration mode.

With impressive performance, tons of features, and among the best Dolby Atmos and surround sound you can get from a singular bar, the A7000 is tough to beat. But there is a catch, of course: it’s extremely expensive for a single bar, and if you want to add a subwoofer for richer, more authoritative bass, you’ll be paying nearly as much as competing bars with a subwoofer and surround sound speakers included, such as Samsung’s HW-Q950A. If you want to add surround speakers it’s an even pricier proposition.

That said, if you want incredible sound quality, brilliant Dolby Atmos immersion, and every home theatre feature under the sun in one giant bar, the HT-A7000 is tough to beat.

Sonos’ first-ever Dolby Atmos soundbar, the Sonos Arc, is more than just a pretty (and tubular) face. This powerful hunk of well-fashioned plastic is loaded with 11 individually powered drivers, including dual speakers pointed upward to bounce off your ceiling, creating an impressively potent example of the hemispheric immersion for which Dolby’s Atmos sound format is so highly praised. While it’s not the best soundbar for Dolby Atmos content, it does an impressive job for a singular bar.

But Dolby Atmos is far from the only trick up the Arc’s sleeve. Its well-tuned drivers offer a rich and smooth sound signature that’s fantastic for anything you play, from sitcoms to streaming music. And it also comes with a host of other features that make it among the most versatile soundbars on the market.

Like all Sonos speakers, the Arc offers Wi-Fi connection through the Sonos app, along with the ability to connect with other Sonos speakers, either in a group, or as part of a surround sound setup. This allows you to add dual surround speakers and a Sonos subwoofer if you want, though the Arc offers impressive bass response even without one. Like the Sonos Beam, it also sports built-in microphones and your choice of Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa supportvirtual assistants, making it both a soundbar and a powerful smart speaker.

The price, while high, is lower than many top Dolby Atmos soundbars. One drawback, though, is that although the bar includes an HDMI eARC port for seamless connection to your TV it doesn’t offer a secondary HDMI input for outboard devices like streamers and game consoles. This could limit its usability for older TVs (those without HDMI ARC) and it won't be the right choice for those who play a lot of physical media or those who want to plug in gaming consoles to their soundbar directly.

That said, since most folks get their Dolby Atmos from streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ these issues may not matter to you. Moreover, this bar sounds fantastic with just about any content, and its many features and loaded app make it an intuitive and versatile way to step into Dolby Atmos sound. With great performance and tons of features, the Sonos Arc is a good choice for those who want minimal hassle and a great experience in a single bar that can grow into a broader system to meet your needs.

Bose’s Smart Soundbar 900 offers clear sound, stylish design, and a slice of pristine Dolby Atmos in a minimalist package. Though this single-piece soundbar is fashioned very similarly to the Sonos Arc in both features and functionality, Bose’s solution is both smaller and sleeker, with a plush glass top that makes it among the most stylish bars on the market.

It’s not just about aesthetics, though. The 900 provides premium sound, especially for dialogue and effects, alongside expansive virtualized effects thanks to its laser-sharp upfiring drivers and beam speakers. It also offers all the network features you could ask for in a modern smart bar, from built-in Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa to Wi-Fi streaming over Spotify Connect and Apple AirPlay 2 (with plenty more options in the Bose Music app).

As with rival bars from Sonos and others, the 900 makes it simple to build from a single speaker to a full surround Dolby Atmos system with a Bose wireless subwoofer and surround speakers (at a considerable cost), or you can create a whole-home sound system by linking Bose speakers through the home via the Bose Music app. The 900 also comes with some extras Sonos bars don’t include, such as a separate remote, Bluetooth streaming, and a built-in room calibration system to tailor the sound to your space (Sonos requires an iPhone).

Where the bar falls a bit short is in its overall power and bass response. Due to its small size, the 900 simply isn’t able to reproduce big and booming frequencies with much authority. Its soundstage also isn’t quite as expansive as larger Dolby Atmos bars, simply due to physical restrictions. It also offers no extra HDMI input or DTS decoding, so it won’t be the best choice for those with a large Blu-ray collection.

That said, though it’s not cheap, this bar offers impressive detail and precision for everything from your favourite Dolby Atmos TV shows to an episode of Friends. If you value clear sound and minimalist design first and foremost, the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 is a quality choice.

An iteration of the Q70 soundbar series before it, Samsung’s Q800T is a bit of an odd fit in Samsung’s lineup, but its diverse feature set and excellent sound—thanks in no small part to Samsung’s Acoustic Beam technology—make this a fun and effective way to jazz up your TV room.

The Q800T offers a powerful punch thanks to its large-and-in-charge, side-firing subwoofer, while the lean bar takes care of the upper register with clarity, poise, and impressive precision. The soundstage leans on the lighter side, but the fully perforated grill helps the smaller drivers breathe a bit, making the sound less closed and digitized than ultra-thin bars in its class like LG’s SP9YA.

The Acoustic Beam technology mentioned above helps spread the sound around nicely. The system uses multiple upfiring ports to create impressive placement of effects on both the horizontal and vertical planes, expanding the soundstage beyond the bar’s 38-inch width. This works great for content of all kinds (music included), and while the sound mostly stays at the front of the room, it's expansive and compelling for a two-piece system.

Where the soundbar has some limitations is in overhead sounds from Dolby Atmos content, as its smaller Beam drivers seem to have trouble bouncing sound off the ceiling and back down again. The result is less immersion than other pared-down Dolby Atmos setups on our list. In addition, the Q800T's Alexa integration wasn’t as polished as you’d expect for a soundbar in this price category in our testing.

That said, the Q800T has plenty of features that make it worthy of consideration, including an extra HDMI input to plug in a gaming console or Blu-ray player directly, both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support, HDR passthrough (including Dolby Vision), and both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth streaming. Also, it just sounds dang good, making for a well-rounded package.

We’ve adored the compact-but-powerful Sonos Beam since it launched, and the Gen 2 upgrade brings even more to love. With this update, Sonos kept everything we liked about the original Beam—a minimalist form factor, powerfully tuned speakers, and versatile features—and added virtualized Dolby Atmos. It’s not the best in the book by any means, but if you’re looking for light Dolby Atmos plus tons of other features in a versatile, expandable package, the Beam gen 2 is a fine choice.

Despite lacking the upfiring drivers of most Dolby Atmos soundbars we test, the Beam Gen 2 is surprisingly adept at creating an immersive soundstage. The sounds of cars screeching around corners or footfalls onto rainy pavement boast a convincing level of aural placement. The clarity that Dolby Atmos brings to just about every sound effect and musical swell is well worth the price of admission here, even if the bar struggles to create the full overhead impact you’ll get from bars with dedicated height speakers.

But the value really comes in the overall package. Like all Sonos products, you’ll get more than just a standalone speaker here: the Beam Gen 2 connects over the Sonos app for access to the full ecosystem, which integrates excellent Wi-Fi connectivity, Sonos Radio, Spotify Connect, AirPlay 2, and more. Tasks like adding additional Sonos speakers for surround sound, or syncing up multi-room audio are a snap. Admittedly, starting with the Beam Gen 2 alone and upgrading with additional Sonos products is an expensive task, but the built-in flexibility is still a big boon—especially if you’ve already got a Sonos One smart speaker or other components.

The Beam Gen 2 isn’t perfect. It lacks a spare HDMI input, meaning it’ll hog your TV’s HDMI ARC or HDMI eARC port and may introduce some format-based headaches on older TVs. But ultimately, the list of pros handily outweigh the cons, and the new Beam stands out as one of the most fetching soundbar buys in its price range. It was a real triple-play even without Dolby Atmos compatibility: with it, it’s a home run.