‘The sonic gap is narrowing fast’ – after pitting my TCL TV’s built-in Bang & Olufsen sound against an external soundbar, I’m starting to doubt whether every set needs an aural upgrade

During the six years I’ve been writing and editing home theater reviews, the recurring complaint I’ve seen time and again about even some flagship TVs is how awful their sound is. Thanks to their increasingly razor-thin panels, there’s less and less room to squeeze in drivers, so sound is sacrificed on the altar of style. As a result, the stock warning for buyers is: ‘You better also budget for a soundbar.’

But my faith in this particular sacred cow has begun to waver. Having recently upgraded my mid-range TV with a mid-range soundbar, I’ve experienced firsthand how the sonic gap between the two is narrowing fast. So I’ve started to wonder: is the soundbar still as essential as it once was?

This crisis of faith was first sparked when I upgraded my TV to last year’s stellar TCL QM8K. Aside from ...