If you live in the UK, you can finally buy a new gadget from Amazon which is designed to boost the audio output of your TV set.
This is the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar, which launched in the US last year. It's now on pre-sale in the UK for £99, ahead of its full launch on Monday, July 29 when the price will go to its full cost of £119.
A soundbar is a gadget you buy for your TV to provide better sound than a set's built-in speakers will give you. The name is very literal! They're also small enough that you can put them underneath your TV on a shelf, like in the image at the top of this article.
The benefit of soundbars is that they're nice and long, providing you something close to surround sound with audio mixed to different sides. The Fire TV Soundbar offers Dolby Audio and DTS Virtual:X, so your movies and TV shows will sound a lot better with it.
Amazon's Fire TV Soundbar is designed to work alongside another Amazon streaming device, so you'll only be able to use it if you own a Fire TV or one of the company's various streaming dongles like the Amazon Fire TV Stick.
If you have such a device, the soundbar can be controlled with the same remote that you already use for your TV or streaming stick.
The device is connected to your TV via a cable, but it also has Bluetooth connectivity. This means you can connect your phone to the Fire TV Soundbar to listen to music or other audio while you're not watching TV. Amazon would probably prefer yo stick to its own music streaming service but you could also use Spotify, Apple Music or Tidal if you'd prefer.
At £119, the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar is quite affordable for what you get. Sure, you'll be able to find countless super-cheap rivals from random companies on Amazon, but top-tier alternatives like the ones on our list of the best soundbars can cost you up to five times as much.
