Looking to upgrade your Halloween movie marathon? Here are 3 soundbars sure to give you an extra scare

Dial up the scare factor with a soundbar

Features By James Davidson published 26 October 2024

Spooky season is well and truly here and we're mere days away from Halloween, which means there's pumpkins, trick-or-treaters and costumes galore already around. With Halloween also comes a chance to break out your favorite horror for their annual re-watch.

Now, you've got one of the best horror movies lined up to watch and one of the best TVs to watch them on , but what about the sound? Horror movies are known for their sound design, with every eerie atmosphere, creaky floorboard, blood-curling scream and scratchy string-led score playing as important a role to the horror movie experience as the visuals themselves.

With the evolution of surround sound in recent years, horror movies have become an entirely new beast. Dolby Atmos, which introduces height channels and uses a dome-like shape of sound to completely immerse you during viewing, has given horror movies a bigger and more atmospheric sound. Dolby Atmos is now commonly supported on a whole range of the best soundbars, from cheap to premium, so it's easy to upgrade your TV's sound (because let's be honest it's not always the best) to add even more scare to your Halloween movie marathon.

As part of TechRadar's Halloween Week, I've included three soundbars below, which are among the best Dolby Atmos soundbars around, to suit any budget or situation that are sure to give your horror movie watch an even more bone-chilling feel.

1. Hisense AX5125H

The Hisense AX5125H is a budget Dolby Atmos soundbar solution that proves you don't need to spend big to get a big sound. Four units - a soundbar, subwoofer and two satellite speakers - combine to provide 5.1.2 channels of sound and because there's those all important height channels, you're getting an authentic Dolby Atmos sound.

Despite its budget price, the Hisense AX5125H delivers a powerful, immersive and well-controlled sound, with plenty of detail. It also has very good balance across all of its speakers, so you'll still be getting those all important creepy noises in the rear speakers as well as the clarity from the soundbar and thumping bass from the subwoofer.

The Hisense AX5125H is admittedly light on features, limited to Bluetooth for music streaming, but at roughly $299 / £349, it really does give you awesome bang for your buck and will still give your horror movies that extra layer. (For our Australian readers, the Hisense AX5120G is the closest alternative which has a bit less power but the same overall setup and price.)

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