Adventures in AV: If you bought an OLED TV during Black Friday this Dolby Atmos soundbar deal is a great follow-up

(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

Black Friday has come and gone, and, a few notable exceptions apart (the LG B4), OLED TVs have climbed back up to their standard price.

While that may be sad for anyone yet to find the best OLED TV deal for their budget, my findings (based on a brief survey of my friendship group) reveal that it was a great year for TV makers – especially if you work at LG.

I know of at least four people in my brain-trust who took advantage of the stellar savings to be had on the LG C4, when 42- and 65-inch models got hefty Black Friday discounts knocking multiple hundreds off their RRP at the end of November.

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The bad news? When the inevitable sea of messages asking for help in setting up the new TVs came in, I noticed that none of them had invested in a separate audio system.

That would be fine if they already owned a decent 5.1 surround sound system or soundbar, but they don’t. In the world of cinephiles that alone would get you a prolonged stint on the naughty step and a stern talking to, and for good reason.

Every built-in TV speaker system we have tested this year, including the Panasonic Z95A which has a Technics speaker bar bolted on its bottom, doesn’t match the performance of a moderately capable soundbar.

This is why What Hi-Fi? always recommends investing in a separate sound system when getting a new TV, especially a premium OLED. This issue isn’t localised to LG, but is especially true of the C4 where “poor” and “easily beaten” are how we described both the small and larger models' audio.

Thankfully, if you are one of the Black Friday deal hunters who fell into this trap and got a new OLED, but completely forgot about audio, I have some good news.

There are still excellent deals on the five-star, award-winning Sonos Arc, which currently retails for £588.99 on Amazon. That’s a healthy £210 saving on its original price.

“Why go for the original Arc when the new Sonos Arc Ultra is out and better?” It's pretty simple: though the Arc is being retired to make way for the Ultra – which we know is better as we ran the two head to head while reviewing Sonos’ new flagship in November – at its current price the original is better value.

We can personally confirm that it is one of the best sounding units you will find at its current price.

For the money you’ll get an accomplished, Dolby Atmos-ready soundbar that can deliver convincing directionality, and a general dynamic, detailed and controlled sound playing both movies and music.

“Rarely does a device arrive that does so much and does it all so well," we say in the review. "Even rarer that it remains a class leader almost three years after release. Be in no doubt; the Sonos Arc is a superb bit of kit..“

If that wasn’t enough to tempt you, it is also compatible with the Sonos sub and Sonos Era 100 and Sonos Era 300 speakers. So you can still expand it into a fully functioning, multi-speaker surround sound set up in the future, if you so choose.

For all these reasons, if you want to get a new soundbar to complement your new OLED, I’d thoroughly recommend considering the original Sonos Arc while stocks last.

MORE:

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars we’ve tested

We rate the best 65-inch TVs money can buy

Our picks of the best surround sound systems

Alastair is What Hi-Fi?’s editor in chief. He has well over a decade’s experience as a journalist working in both B2C and B2B press. During this time he’s covered everything from the launch of the first Amazon Echo to government cyber security policy. Prior to joining What Hi-Fi? he served as Trusted Reviews’ editor-in-chief. Outside of tech, he has a Masters from King’s College London in Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion, is an enthusiastic, but untalented, guitar player and runs a webcomic in his spare time.