Tired of pausing and rewinding to decipher dialogue? Upgrade your audio with this slim soundbar. (Amazon)
After putting time and effort into ensuring your home theater is ideal, the only thing that can ruin the vibe is horrible sound quality — and that's where a good soundbar comes in. It's a simple addition to your entertainment setup that boosts your TV's audio, bringing richness, crispness and clarity to annoyingly hard-to-hear dialogue. The popular Majority Bowfell TV Soundbar has been marked down at Amazon to just $25 — the lowest price we've ever seen it. So now's a great time to form a healthier relationship with your remote's volume button.
There's a reason for the hype surrounding the latest iteration of these top-rated earbuds — many reasons, in fact. For starters, they offer rich, crisp sound and superior noise cancellation, allowing you to enjoy music, podcasts, audiobooks and more without outside commotion getting in the way. This model lets you control the volume simply by swiping the stem, and you'll receive four pairs of silicone tips in different sizes for customized comfort.
Our tech editor, Rick Broida, named these "best wireless earbuds overall," saying, "What you get here is even better ANC, a bump in battery life, extra-small ear tips for users with smaller ears and an adaptive-audio mode that adjusts noise-cancellation and transparency modes based on the sounds around you. Meanwhile, Apple's charging case now has a speaker (for use with Find My) and a USB-C port in place of Lightning (the better to match with the USB-C iPhone 15)."
Check out his roundup of the best wireless earbuds for a full review.
Planning any road trips? This popular power station is an absolute steal at nearly $400 off. With a massive 1,070 watt-hour capacity and multiple ports, it's perfect for powering everything from your camping gear to essential appliances during a power outage, and this is the best price I've seen in marked down to months.
Ready for some Apple picking? Yes, we realize it's not fall, but you'll want to pluck this bad boy from the ol' Amazon tree and add it to your cart because it's currently down to its all-time lowest price — and this is the most recent version! As the unofficial Goldilocks of tech (less bulky than a laptop but larger than a smartphone), this tablet keeps you connected on the go or at home, and you can use it for everything from reading books to taking notes to watching videos.
Broida named this the "best overall tablet," owing to its "under-the-hood improvements, including a faster processor, more RAM (4GB instead of 3GB), Bluetooth 5.0 (up from 4.2) and a USB-C charging port."
Check out his roundup of the best tablets of 2024 for a full review.
With a 50-watt output and dual stereo speakers, this small but mighty soundbar delivers an immersive audio experience.
At just $25 this is the lowest price we've ever seen this soundbar, and it's one of the top entry-level choices out there, with a five-star rating from nearly 16,000 reviewers. Even at full price, this would be more than worth it — why spend your downtime straining to hear your favorite shows? Compare this to top-of-the line Bose, which even on sale can run over $200.
You've got the high-definition picture. Why settle for inferior sound? This soundbar, only 15 inches wide, has a small footprint but big audio. With a built-in subwoofer, it blasts out 50 watts of power. This means you'll get crystal-clear dialogue without cranking the TV's volume to eardrum-splitting levels. Sleek and understated, it's also a breeze to use and blends seamlessly into an entertainment setup.
Of course, sometimes you do really want to crank it up, and the Bowfell knows how to handle that. It has three modes: one for movies, one for dialogue and one for music. Just press a button on the included remote, and it automatically adjusts levels to the mode you pick, no tinkering needed. The Bowfell will boost music, amp up the excitement in action scenes and bring dialogue to the front for ultimate clarity.
Setting up the soundbar is easy: Just plug it into your TV's RCA or optical digital port and you're good to go. It also has a USB port and Bluetooth capabilities, so you can enjoy playlists via flash drive, phone, laptop or tablet.
See why thousands of five-star shoppers swear by this deceptively small soundbar.
Fans love the sound quality, with one saying it travels pretty far. "The sound bar works great. It has no conflicts with my TV with regard to using the remote," raved a satisfied shopper. "The sound is very rich and fills the room nicely. The bass is amazing for the size of the speaker."
This soundbar is also great news for family members with hearing issues. "This makes it very enjoyable to watch TV. I put it on my coffee table in front of me, about three to four feet away," shared a five-star reviewer. "I am 66 years old and [have] a little hearing issue now. My wife does not hear my TV downstairs anymore and I hear it great."
"Much better than the cheesy TV speakers," said a third fan. "It's not a top-of-the-line soundbar that normally costs hundreds of dollars and that you can hear what's playing around the whole house, but if you're looking for a soundbar that is perfect for a bedroom and that sounds good, this is it. I especially love how small it is. ... It was very easy to connect, no issues whatsoever."
Said another buyer: "I have a small TV in my RV, and if the air is on, you can barely hear it. If the generator is also going, forget it. I turned on the generator, plugged this in, pressed the correct mode button, and wow: The sound is beautiful. I can hear every word now, and the sound is rich and clear for movies."
One nominee for kid of the year said, "Bought this for my dad who is hard of hearing. We were blown away by the improvement in sound quality over the built-in speakers. He says it's enjoyable to watch TV again. The only downside (other than having an additional remote to keep track of) is that it doesn't remember what volume it was set at between uses."
Another user ran into some potentially irritating audio sync issues. "No complaints, except when using the Bluetooth connection, I found it impossible to sync the audio and video, and every time I changed the station, I had to start all over again."
If you have Amazon Prime, you'll get free shipping, of course. Not yet a member? No problem. You can sign up for your free 30-day trial here. (And by the way, those without Prime still get free shipping on orders of $35 or more.)
The reviews quoted above reflect the most recent versions at the time of publication.
