The first thing you might be wondering when shopping for a soundbar: do I need one with a subwoofer, or will one that’s just the bar itself work for me?
Basically, it comes down to the cinematic power you want. A single bar obviously takes up much less space in the room and so might be preferable for your setup overall. You can expect a soundbar like this to add more range to the sound overall, more clarity to speech because the mid-range will stand out more from other frequencies, and better width to the sound so it feels big has a difference from left to right. Some expensive models can produce pretty impressive bass.
But adding a subwoofer will add far more bass, and this means you’ll get the impact of explosions, the hum of an ominous soundtrack, or the tone of a musical score all coming through much more like was intended for the movie.
It’s really just about what you want from a soundbar – clarity in a compact frame, or a much bigger and more cinematic sound.