Flat-screen TVs are great to look at and not much fun to listen to. Their speakers have to fit inside a panel thinner than a paperback, and they typically fire back toward the wall, so voices sound thin and explosions sound like someone dropped a pot lid. A soundbar is the easy fix, but small soundbars have usually had to fake the part of movie sound that comes from above you. The new Sonos Beam Ultra is a compact bar built to stop faking it.

Flat-screen TVs are great to look at and not much fun to listen to. Their speakers have to fit inside a panel thinner than a paperback, and they typically fire back toward the wall, so voices sound thin and explosions sound like someone dropped a pot lid. A soundbar is the easy fix, but small soundbars have usually had to fake the part of movie sound that comes from above you. The new Sonos Beam Ultra is a compact bar built to stop faking it.