How to enhance your soundbar quality?

Last updated on November 18th, 2025 at 10:56 am

Look, I get it. You bought a soundbar expecting it would turn your living room into a mini theater. So it was good in the store, but what about now? It’s just… fine. For the unvoiced dialogue, wimpy bass and absence of any truly impactful explosions.

I was there too, until I did a little fiddling around with the placement and settings, along with some easy room adjustments. And here’s what was actually decisive.

Placement Changed Everything for Me

The first thing I messed up in my system was one of those mistakes that’s so straightforward to fix, it becomes obviously wrong. No wonder it sounded suffocated.

I put it right under the TV at ear level, facing toward the couch at a slight angle. Within seconds, dialogue popped. I mean seriously, that one act was turning clarity up a few notches. If you are wall-mounting it, leave at least 10-15cm (give or take an inch) between the soundbar and your TV otherwise, that could block your telly’s IR sensor. I found that out the hard way when my remote quit working.

The real game-changer? I put my subwoofers through what they call the crawling test. I have epic bass music and I did what everyone else wanted to do, and that’s crawl around my room listening at different places, where does bass sound the most even? It turns out my position in the corner near the window was all wrong moving it to the opposite corner took me from boomy low frequencies to actually tight. It takes 10 minutes, but it is so worth it.

HDMI eARC Actually Matters

Here’s a thing I never thought I’d care about: cables. But switching from optical to HDMI eARC really changed what I was listening to. Instead of compressed versions of the same formats, I get uncompressed multichannel audio Dolby Atmos, DTS X and so on thanks to eARC (that’s for Enhanced Audio Return Channel) right there in HDMI 9you might also see ARC, which is the older version).

I also enabled HDMI-CEC, so my soundbar synced up with my TV’s volume. Fewer moments of struggling to find the right remote and more opportunities for actually enjoying shows. If you still are on Bluetooth, seriously? Try wired. It’s noticeable, particularly during action sequences where timing is key.

The EQ Settings I Use In Real Life

Most people don’t even lay a finger on their soundbar’s EQ settings. Nor did I, until I realized my soundbar came with a dedicated app featuring presets for movies, music and games. I tested all of them.

I left Movies at the default, but I boosted dialogue enhancement to full because half my frustration was quite literally not being able to understand what people were saying. For gaming the balanced preset was the closest thing to perfect. Music required me to dial back the bass a bit because my soundbar was being a little too aggressive.

The preset that surprised me? The one I created myself. I added a shade of treble and took out extreme bass. All of a sudden it was cleaner, but without sounding thin. Credit really doesn’t take rocket science, it just takes actually spending five minutes adjusting instead of leaving everything on factory defaults.

Room Acoustics – The Thing That Nobody Talks About

It was at this point that things got a bit weird for me. In one corner, my soundbar sounded sweet in the other, hollow. Well, it was my room, not the sound bar.

I took two acoustic panels and slapped them on the walls to my left and right first-reflection points, I was told. I even placed one behind me where I sit. They’re fabric-wrapped, so they don’t look like home theater went off the rails. The difference? Bass stops booming. Dialogue stops bouncing around. Everything seems with purpose rather than haphazard.

I didn’t go nuts you do not need a room that feels like it’s in a recording studio. Just getting those three panels in cleanly took the edge off enough of the weird reflections that my soundbar’s actual abilities were heard itself.

Firmware Updates (Yeah, Really)

I very nearly overlooked this one, as I thought firmware updates were pretty much security patches. Nope. I looked on the manufacturer’s app, and sure enough an update was waiting for me. After installing it, the soundbar was more responsive to EQ changes and I unlocked a room calibration tool that I had no idea existed.

Now I do it once every couple of months. Takes two minutes, sometimes yields slight gain.

What Actually Moved the Needle

Full disclosure, my best investment was: #1 placement then HDMI eARC and those three acoustic panels. I shelled out about $150 for the panels and nothing on the placement tweaks. My soundbar went from “why the hell did I buy this thing?” to “actually sounds pretty solid” without plopping down another grand.

Positioning the subwoofer was trial and error, but not a cost. It took 15 minutes to go through the app settings. Firmware? Just remembered to check.

Source : enhance your soundbar

The Takeaway

You don’t have to buy a new soundbar. You just have to stop treating it like a black box and start using it. Try your placement, switch to HDMI eARC if you haven’t already, play with the EQ settings and even think about a couple of acoustic panels. None of this is complicated. I did all of it on a lazy Sunday afternoon and my viewing experience improved considerably.

That’s how you improve the quality of your soundbar without losing your mind or paycheck.

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