4 Costco Home Audio Items You Should Buy And 2 You Can Leave On The Shelf

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There's no denying that external home audio systems enhance the experience of using your TV, making it far more immersive and engaging to watch films or play video games. High-quality headphones are also a must for anyone who enjoys music. However, selecting the right audio product from the vast array of options available can be daunting, especially for those with limited knowledge of technical specifications and other nitty-gritty details. To help with this endeavor, we've shortlisted some Costco home audio options that warrant a purchase, as well as a couple you can safely leave on the shelf.

Our product selections were based on feedback from Costco buyers and input from expert reviewers around the web. The items we've recommended have notable highlights that customers appreciate across the board, such as support for Dolby Atmos, Sonos TruePlay technology, or any other feature that really makes them stand out (and worth the money). The ones we suggest passing over have many problems that multiple customers ended up experiencing, as noted on different platforms.

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 Soundbar brings 3D surround sound effects to any room with Dolby Atmos technology. It does come with a built-in voice assistant, but you can also use it with common smart home assistants — including Alexa and Google Assistant — to make commands on the fly. In addition, the soundbar's compact design makes it easy to set up in your space. This soundbar is currently available at Costco for $499.99 and has a high average rating of 4.5 stars.

The speaker has one center tweeter and four elliptical midwoofers to create a balanced sound experience. You can also add separate subwoofers to enjoy an even deeper, fuller sound. The speakers offer support for the highest-resolution music formats, such as Dolby Atmos Music, thanks to a chip that runs 40% faster than its predecessor.

The BGR team found the Sonos Beam Gen 2 to be one of the best TV soundbars for audiophiles. It produces a deep bass response that can output extremely present low-frequency sounds, including drums and explosions. According to CNET, this speaker is "worth the money," given its improved sound quality. RTINGS.com also found it ideal for small living spaces due to its portable design, specifically noting the clarity of its mid-range sounds.

The Sonos Era 100, available at Costco for $409.99, has a number of features that were not seen in its predecessor, the Sonos One, including Bluetooth support, stereo playback, and a USB-C line-in option. While the Era 100 does not support Google Assistant directly, Sonos' proprietary system — Sonos Voice Control — allows you to seamlessly control music playback and fetch music from Spotify, Apple Music, and more.

Sonos is widely recognized as one of the best Bluetooth speaker brands; the Era 100 is carefully designed with dual-angled tweeters that handle both left and right channels, filling the entire room with rich audio output. There's also a loudness boost setting that enhances bass and treble when playing low-volume audio. However, CNET.com recommends turning off this setting if you want softer bass and a more downtempo listening experience. 

Apart from this, the speaker also retains basic quality-of-life features: touch control, music sharing via Apple devices, and TruePlay technology. Out of hundreds of reviews, Costco buyers have given this device an impressive 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Rated a whopping 4.8 stars on Costco's website by over 100 customers, the Klipsch Reference Dolby Atmos 5.0.2 Surround System includes two floor-standing speakers, two bookshelf speakers, and one center channel speaker to create an immersive sound experience throughout the room. It's integrated with Tractrix horn technology; the horn curve design minimizes the reflection and disruption of sound to direct the waves precisely toward your ears.

One hurdle with this home theater system is that it's somewhat pricey — $1,999.99, to be exact. Nonetheless, buyers have highly positive things to say about this sound system. Many buyers mention this sound system's ability to produce crisp highs and lows, with some customers even claiming they can hear sounds that other speakers do not produce. In a YouTube video by TwoGuyzTech, the reviewer says he found the sound on these speakers to be rather detailed, based on a few listening tests. He claims the towers and center channels blended well together to produce notably high-quality vocals in movies specifically.

Priced at $329.99 on Costco's website, the Bose QuietComfort SC Noise Canceling Headphones can last a complete day on a single charge. And even if you're running low on battery in the middle of your journey, a quick 15-minute charge can tack on another 2.5 hours of performance.

With Quiet Mode, Bose offers active noise cancellation in these headphones to block out surrounding noise — in fact, they're among the best noise-cancelling headphones out there. Conversely, Aware Mode selectively lets in some sounds so you can be vigilant about what's happening around you. With Custom Mode, you can adjust noise cancellation intensity to suit various environments. The headphones garnered a solid 9 out of 10 rating on RTINGS.com for noise isolation quality, with reviewers noting the noise cancellation is particularly effective when traveling. 

Costco reviewers, who collectively gave the QuietComfort SCs an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars, praised the comfort factor of these headphones from this major smart speaker brand. Some users mention that the headphones can also comfortably accommodate a variety of head sizes. Be warned, however, that the device's protective case has received some criticism for being made of cheap material that fails to protect the headphones against impact.

The Apple HomePod (2nd Gen) didn't necessarily stand out in the eyes of buyers, particularly on the connectivity front. Although this speaker enjoys 4.3 out of 5 stars on Costco's website, there are some caveats with the device. It only works within the Apple ecosystem, it doesn't offer basic Bluetooth connectivity, and there are no additional connection ports, either. There's also no feature to directly play music from Spotify as the default streaming service. However, there is a workaround for that: Using your iPhone, you can ask Siri to play music from your Spotify account on the HomePod. BGR's testing saw that one HomePod speaker alone isn't enough to use as a TV speaker, though, and it's unable to reproduce the expected bass response for onscreen content.

Despite the speaker being designed with five horn-loaded beamforming tweeters and a high excursion woofer, one Forbes reviewer said "the HomePod didn't exactly blow me away," even though he noted that "it was a capable speaker, especially for the price." For reference, one HomePod speaker is $289.99 at Costco.

In Costco reviews, we noted some discontent with the sound quality of these Apple speakers. Multiple customers mention that speakers from other brands produced better audio than the Apple HomePod did. Moreover, some buyers — even those who left otherwise good reviews — described consistent problems with the speakers disconnecting from their phones.

At $69.99, these headphones are modestly priced. However, comfort shouldn't be compromised in any set of headphones, and the JBL Live 675NC Wireless Headphones are lacking big time when it comes to user comfort. Because these headphones are designed with a tight band and small earcups, they create extra pressure on the head and around the ears, causing pain for a multitude of users. Several Costco users complained of headaches, ear pain, or tension on the ears after wearing these headphones. Amazon reviewers have also commented on comfort problems with these headphones.

Some customers have even reported that their 675NCs came apart following minor impact. Consistent Bluetooth connectivity is another pain point; some buyers experience dropouts or slow connections with these headphones, with one user claiming the connection drops automatically after every 10 seconds. Another issue is that music is liable to randomly pause and play without any user interference — and that alone is enough to ruin the listening experience. Despite an attractive price point, these issues and more explain the product's average Costco rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars.

For this list, we primarily resorted to buyer reviews on Costco and expert reviews from other sites, including Forbes, CNET, and YouTube. When available, we also referenced the BGR's team first-hand product tests for select headphones. We then assessed whether each of these home audio devices was worth buying or not at the given price point.

All the devices we've recommended have an overall Costco rating of four stars or more, plus a generally positive reputation with product experts. The headphones we suggest skipping each had major problems noted across different review platforms. All listed prices were accurate at the time of writing and may vary for users in different locations.