Polk’s MagniFi 2 soundbar does its best Dolby Atmos impression

Soundbars are devious little badgers. Trickery is their raison d’etre. When they do their job properly, not only do they make you think your TV is much louder than it really is, they make you think the sound is coming from all around you. Polk’s new MagniFi 2 (£499) could be the sneakiest of the lot. Why? Well despite not having Dolby’s sound-bouncing Atmos tech onboard, its 3D Audio Mode creates virtual height channels to trick your ears into thinking there are noises coming from above, while a wireless subwoofer takes care of the rumbles. If you’ve got a penchant for mumbly arthouse movies its Voice Adjust feature means you can bump up the dialogue, plus it also supports 4K HDR and Chromecast Audio. Sometimes being tricked ain’t so bad.

Tom Wiggins Contributor

About

Stuff's second Tom has been writing for the magazine and website since 2006, when smartphones were only for massive nerds and you could say “Alexa” out loud without a robot answering. Over the years he’s written about everything from MP3s to NFTs, played FIFA with Trent Alexander-Arnold, and amassed a really quite impressive collection of USB sticks.

Areas of expertise

A bit of everything but definitely not cameras.