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The Best Surround Speakers to Upgrade Your Soundbar

Turn your soundbar into a true surround sound system.

collage of three pairs of speakersBose, Sonos, Sony

By Tucker Bowe

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A great way to upgrade your soundbar or home theater system is to add a pair of rear-channel speakers (also known as surround speakers). These are speakers that get placed behind you so that when you’re watching a movie or show, you get “surrounded” by sound — it’s coming from your front and back. This quickly turns a 3.1 system (which is what most soundbars are) into a 5.1 system.

The job of rear-channel speakers isn’t to play the same sounds as your soundbar or front speakers; those speakers handle the bulk of the audio and the dialogue. The rear-channel speakers mostly play background noises or music. For instance, if you’re watching a sports game, the rear-channel speakers will play a lot of the crowd noise. It creates a truly immersive surround sound experience.

You can buy a complete 5.1-channel surround sound system, which comes with rear-channel speakers, but a lot of systems are upgradable. This means that there’s a good chance you can add rear-channel speakers to the home theater system or soundbar that you already have. But you can’t just buy any rear-channel speakers. It depends on the AV receiver you have (must support a 5.1 or greater system) for a traditional home theater setup. And it depends on the wireless soundbar or system you have.

Products in the Guide

Do you Need Wired or Wireless Speakers?

We’re living in a wireless age. A lot of today’s most popular soundbars and surround sound systems are wireless, meaning they connect to your TV via a single HDMI cable and then connect wirelessly (over Wi-Fi) to rear-channel or side-channel speakers, or wireless subwoofers. It’s great because there are less wires and setup is generally more of a breeze. However, it also ties you into that company’s ecosystem because you have to connect all these speakers through a proprietary app or technology. You can only use Sonos’s rear-channel speakers with a Sonos soundbar, for example, or Bose’s rear-channel speakers with a Bose soundbar.

If you have a more traditional home theater system, meaning you have an AV receiver as the heart of your system, it affords you more flexibility to mix and match the speakers. For example, you can have a center channel by Klipsch, side-channel speakers by ELAC, and rear-channel speakers by Sony. However, these are all passive speakers and require a wired connection, which could get messy and complicated. Most experts suggest running flat-wire through your walls or behind baseboards so are hidden and not out in the open.

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Where should you place the rear-channel speakers?

If you’re sitting in the center of your couch and facing your TV, you should have your two rear-channel speakers behind, in either corner of your room and angled diagonally toward you; in an ideal world they should almost be directly opposite your left- and right-channel front speakers. Just like those front speakers, it’s best that the rear speakers are at ear height. If you’re wall mounting them, you want them angled downward so that they are delivering sound towards your ears.

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The Surround Speakers

Note: The below rear-channel speakers are all wireless, meaning they are designed to pair with a specific wireless soundbar or an ecosystem of soundbars by a specific company.

Sonos Era 300

Best paired with: Sonos Arc
Wired or wireless: wireless

Released in 2023, the Era 300 is the most immersive-sounding non-soundbar speaker that Sonos makes. It has an upward-firing driver and is optimized for playing Dolby Atmos content. If you use two Era 300s as rear-channel speakers and partner them with an Arc soundbar and two Subs, which creates an 7.1.4-channel system — it’s the most immersive home theater system you can make with a Sonos setup. 

Bose Surround Speakers 700

Best paired with: Bose Smart Soundbar 900, 700 or 500
Wired or wireless: wireless

Bose recommends pairing the Surround Speakers 700 with its flagship soundbar, the Bose Smart Soundbar 900, but it works just the same with most of the company’s other wireless soundbars. Available in black or white.

Sonos Era 100

Best paired with: Sonos Arc or Beam (Gen 2)
Wired or wireless: wireless

The Sonos Era 100 is the next evolution of Sonos’s original smart speaker, the One (which has been discontinued). It’s a little taller and can play stereo sound thanks to an extra tweeter to give it the ability to deliver a stereo sound (which the One was not able to do on its own). If you have either of Sonos’s more affordable soundbars, the Beam (2nd Gen) or entry-level Ray, getting two Era 100s are your best bet for making an immersive home theater system.

Sony SA-RS5

Best paired with: Sony HT-A7000, Sony HT-A5000, Sony HT-A3000
Wired or wireless: wireless

This is a surround sound speaker kit for Sony’s newest flagship soundbars. Each SA-RS5 speaker is unique because they have upward-firing drivers (just like the best Dolby Atmos soundbars). They also support Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping (just like its soundbars) and are able to build on an already really immersive experience. The other neat thing about these speakers is that they have a built-in battery (which lasts about 10 hours), so you can use them as powered speakers or truly wireless speakers that you can place anywhere in the room.

Sony SA-RS3S

Best paired with: Sony HT-A7000, Sony HT-A5000, Sony HT-A3000
Wired or wireless: wireless

The SA-RS3S speakers are a more affordable version of the SA-RS5 speakers (above). They work with the exact same Sony soundbars, but lack a bunch of the more advanced features, such as built-in batteries (so you can’t move them around as freely) and they lack upward-firing drivers so they don’t create as immersive of an experience.

Klipsch Surround 3

Best paired with: Klipsch Cinema 600, Klipsch Bar 48
Wired or wireless: wireless

The Klipsch Surround 3 are an easy and affordable option for anybody with one of Klipsch’s latest soundbars. Each Surround 3 is made of high-quality wood (to match the soundbars) and comes with a wireless transmitter that makes pairing with Klipsch’s soundbars a breeze.

Samsung 9500S

Best paired with: Samsung Q900A, Samsung Q800, Samsung Q700A
Wired or wireless: wireless

The 9500S speaker kit is designed to elevate its high-end Q-Series of soundbars even more. You just plug them in and they are very easy to sync with your Dolby Atmos soundbar.

(Note: This speaker kit will only work with Samsung soundbars that support Dolby Atmos, so if you have one of Samsung’s non-Atmos soundbars, like its S Series or B Series, you need to opt for one of its other surround speaker kits, like the SWA-9200S.)

Bose Surround Speakers

Best paired with: Bose Smart Soundbar 300
Wired or wireless: wireless

The simply-named Bose Surround Speakers are essentially smaller and more affordable versions of the company’s Surround Speakers 700. They work much the same way, but stand a little shorter and are front-firing speakers unlike the 700s which deliver a more omni-directional sound. Bose recommends using these as rear-channel speakers for its smaller soundbars, like the Smart Soundbar 300, but they’re compatible with its larger models as well.

Polk SR2

Best paired with: Polk React, Polk Magnifi Mini AX, Polk Magnifi 2 (and future Polk MagniFi soundbars)
Wired or wireless: wireless

The Polk SR2 is a pair of rear-channel speakers that are meant to bring either of Polk’s wireless soundbars into the true surround sound realm. Each speaker is clearly labeled as left and right and has a pairing button for simple setup.