Is it worth buying a soundbar to go with a new TV for the World Cup or is the TV speaker good enough

[ProperJobs50]

Getting a new TV for the tournament and wondering whether to add a soundbar at the same time. The TV is a 65 inch LG C5 OLED. The built-in speakers on modern OLEDs are often criticised as being too thin sounding for the kind of atmosphere you want from a football match. Budget for a soundbar would be around £150 to £300. Is it worth adding one or is the money better spent elsewhere?

[ShawnMichaels99]

Yes worth it specifically for football. The crowd atmosphere, the commentary depth and the impact of the ball being struck all benefit enormously from a soundbar with a proper bass driver. The LG C5's built-in speakers are decent for dialogue but they lack the low-end physicality that makes a stadium feel real

[DarkMatter23]

The honest budget answer: even a basic £100 Sony HT-S100F 2.0 soundbar is a meaningful upgrade over built-in TV speakers for football. The improvement is not subtle. Any dedicated speaker system with a wider physical separation than the TV's built-in units will produce a wider, more spacious sound

[Sienna74]

At £150 to £300 the Sonos Ray at around £229 is the cleanest integration with a modern smart TV and the sound quality is well ahead of anything in the built-in speaker category. It does not have a separate subwoofer at that price but the bass extension is adequate for most rooms

[Brad79]

The Samsung HW-Q600C at around £249 is worth considering if you want Dolby Atmos support and a slightly wider soundstage. The 3.1.2 configuration adds height channels that make commentary and crowd noise feel more expansive

[NeutrinoX54]

If you want genuine bass impact for that roar of the crowd feeling the Vizio V51x-J6 5.1 system at around £270 has a separate subwoofer and surround speakers. More setup involved but the improvement in atmosphere versus a single soundbar is noticeable

[WWFGareth98]

Check TopCashback and Quidco before buying a soundbar exactly as you would for the TV itself. Currys and AO both list soundbars under the same cashback terms as televisions. Buying the TV and soundbar from the same retailer in one transaction via a cashback site maximises the return on both

[FewShot]

Note that the LG C5 has very good built-in dialog clarity thanks to its tuning, so if you mostly watch cup final broadcasts for the talking heads and analysis rather than the actual matches, the stock speakers might suffice. But if you are in for the football, the lack of bass on a flat panel makes the stadium sounds feel distant. It is like listening to a live show through a thin wall; close but always somehow lacking the gut punch.

[Sequence]

Disagree with the wait-and-see approach; if you are setting up the entertainment hub now, cable management is a nightmare to do twice. Running extra HDMI cables and power adapters along the back of a 65-inch panel when you already have gaming consoles and streaming boxes is a pain. Add the bar today, keep the extra HDMI ports free, and you avoid the temptation to just rack the cables up on the wall later. Convenience wins for long viewing sessions.

[Isabella_49]

The best soundbar is the one you do not buy yet. Wait until you are three games in and properly annoyed at how quiet the crowd roars are. Many people rack up cashback on the TV, which covers the cost of a decent audio upgrade later, whereas buying both upfront at the very beginning often means you miss out on the specific portal stack. Patience pays here, both literally and experientially.