Your TV speakers can only do so much. Even class-leading premium TVs like the LG G4 and Samsung S95D deliver rather unimpressive sound, which is why there’s such a big market for soundbars these days. Some of these audio devices can cost as much as a new QLED or OLED, but there are other models that are priced in a way most folks can wrap their heads around.
One such bar is the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar, a 2.0 system we tested back in November 2023. While our resident AV expert, Simon Cohen, wasn’t expecting much from this unit, he was happily proven wrong.
Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately: The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar is not a Fire TV OS product (it even says so right on the Amazon product page), so don’t expect this bar to give you access to streaming apps and other smart TV capabilities. What it will provide is a comprehensive audio experience that supersedes what your TV speakers are aiming for. The two-channel Fire TV Soundbar brings exceptional midrange and treble articulation to the table and a good amount of bass for such an inexpensive soundbar.
Thanks to Dolby Audio and DTS Virtual:X support, the Fire TV Soundbar is able to downmix surround sound formats for a virtualized experience. It’s not quite like having a true surround system, but the Fire TV Soundbar provides decent floor-to-ceiling immersion nonetheless.
The Fire TV Soundbar even has a dedicated Bluetooth input for streaming tunes and podcasts wirelessly via your phone or tablet and is designed to work with certain Fire TV OS televisions.
Save $30 when you purchase the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar right now, and be sure to take a look at our lists of the best soundbar deals, best Amazon deals, and best TV deals for even more discounts on home theater tech!
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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