The Sony S100F is the cheapest soundbar in Sony’s lineup and has been on the market since 2018, with no direct replacement. It’s a 2.0-channel design with two front-firing drivers and a built-in bass reflex tube that handles the low end, so you don’t need a separate subwoofer in the room. On the back, you’ll find HDMI ARC for the TV plus Bluetooth, optical, and USB inputs for music from a phone or files from a flash drive.
A bombastic soundbar that sounds fantastic with every type of media
The S100F replaces your TV’s built-in speakers with a stereo soundbar that delivers full-range audio from a single cabinet. Setup involves a single HDMI cable into the ARC port, which carries the audio and lets the TV remote control the soundbar’s volume. The front-firing drivers send sound at you instead of downward, and the bass reflex tube adds enough low end that action movies don’t sound flat without a separate sub. Voice mode is the setting you’ll probably use most often, since it pushes vocals to the front of the mix and makes muddy dialogue easier to follow without cranking the overall volume.
Bluetooth turns the soundbar into a regular speaker when the TV is off, so streaming from a phone or laptop works without unplugging anything. The optical input on the back is the backup if you’re connecting to a TV that doesn’t have HDMI ARC. There’s also a USB port for audio files from a flash drive, which most cheap soundbars don’t offer. A slim Sony remote handles the rest, including sound mode presets for movies, music, sports, and news.
The S100F is on the smaller end of the soundbar spectrum, at about 35 inches wide, so it slides in front of TVs from 40 to 55 inches without hanging off the edges of the stand. The cabinet’s short enough not to block the bottom of the screen too. A keyhole on the back lets you wall-mount the soundbar under a TV that’s already on the wall, though Sony doesn’t include the screws so you’ll need to grab those separately. The whole thing weighs just over 5 pounds, light enough that mounting it doesn’t require a second pair of hands.
So, the S100F is a 2.0 stereo setup, which means deep bass won’t really happen without a separate sub. Big action scenes and bass-heavy music will sound thinner here than on a soundbar that ships with a subwoofer. Sony’s own HT-S400 adds a wireless sub for under $200 if the missing low end is a deal-breaker. The S100F also doesn’t have Wi-Fi or Dolby Atmos, which means streaming from Spotify or playing Atmos audio tracks has to go through Bluetooth from your phone instead.
Most soundbars under $100 either skimp on sound quality or come with a subwoofer that takes more setup and floor space than you want to deal with. Knocking $20 off the $118 list brings the S100F down to $98, which is hard to beat for an upgrade over TV speakers.