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"The Soundbar is becoming increasingly popular. Acting as an affordable means to boost your TV&amp;#039;s audio output, there is a huge number of them now being released to market. 2014 is no different, with a huge number of new soundbars being put on sale. The last few years have already seen some great soundbar kits released, some of which can be had for a bit of a bargain. So here is our pick of the best available today. Sonos Playbar At \u00A3600, the Sonos Playbar sits right at the top end of the soundbar price spectrum. Good thing then that it&amp;#039;s also among the best. For those not in the know, Sonos is a completely wireless home audio solution that lets you stream music from your computer, smartphone or tablet to any Sonos speaker around your house.  The Playbar is designed to be the TV-based solution for your Sonos setup. It can be used on its own, or paired with other Sonos products to create wireless surround sound. For us, the Sonos performs perfectly well while sat by itself. It puts out a hugely detailed sound that completely opens up the audio experience when watching movies. The Playbar doesn&amp;#039;t stop there though, as it&amp;#039;s very well suited to music playback, making it a good multi-purpose living room sound system. An infra-red blaster coupled with the Playbar&amp;#039;s ability to repeat remote inputs to your TV means you can pair its volume controls to your standard remote. The only let down is that sound input from your TV is optical only. Price: \u00A3599 from John Lewis Samsung HW-F551 A cheaper alternative to the Playbar is Samsung&amp;#039;s own soundbar offering. Put together using the same metallic grey as a large number of TV sets currently on sale, it should match up nicely with what you have at home. Crucially, the Samsung doesn&amp;#039;t skimp on connections, supporting Bluetooth audio playback as well as a USB input, optical and a HDMI loop-through. It also sounds great, with plenty of bass coming from the included subwoofer.  Our favourite touch actually relates to the Samsung&amp;#039;s design. It uses a set of LED lights behind the soundbar&amp;#039;s front grill to show what function of the device you are using. Price: \u00A3319 from Currys Maxell MXSB-252 Sat at the other end of the pricing spectrum is this offering from Maxell. At \u00A389, this 2.1 setup is a great way of giving a value-filled audio boost to your TV set. It includes a wide range of connections, including HDMI and optical inputs, so you should be able to get all sorts of displays connected to it. It&amp;#039;s worth noting that Bluetooth isn&amp;#039;t present here however.  Sound quality is decent and loud, which is good if you are struggling with the audio output on a smaller TV. The soundbar also looks relatively nice and isn&amp;#039;t put together badly either - a bit of a bargain. Price: \u00A382 from Amazon Bowers &amp;amp; Wilkins Panorama 2 This is the money no object choice. B&amp;amp;W have a bit of a high quality audio heritage and has applied all of its clever know-how to this, the Panorama 2. The &amp;#039;2&amp;#039; in the name gives us a hint as to the fact this is B&amp;amp;W&amp;#039;s second attempt at a high-end soundbar. The first was impressive, the second even more so. Price: \u00A31649 from John Lewis  First up, you have absolute class leading build quality. This is the sort of thing you have sat below your high-end 4K TV, ensuring that the entire living room looks swish. Then there is the audio output, which is extremely pure and crisp. Sound is particularly well suited to bringing the most out of dialogue, without the rest of a movie&amp;#039;s audio overloading things. Bose Solo TV Sound System If space is at a premium, then this is your best option. The Bose Solo TV Sound System is just 7 x 53 x 31 cm in size, which means it won&amp;#039;t fill up the bottom of your TV.  That does mean however you get a bit of a loss in the acoustic quality, with the Bose not matching a lot of the similarly priced competition for sound. However, if space is what you need, then this has the biggest bang for its size. Our weekly best new tech feature aims to grab the latest gadget highlights. Expect a brand new list every week with our tech favourites. Price: \u00A3350 from John Lewis "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/television/news/a548585/best-new-tech-the-top-soundbars-of-2014/>