Customer Ratings & Reviews

Not worth the money! It sounds nice, but the subwoofer is complete garbage!!!! It just doesnt have enough power! It's but for its performance, it should cost $200

I need the trembles and big booms when I watch a movie and this little sound system packs a punch, personally giving it 5 stars because it does the job for me but a few things that stand out are the actual sound bar is a bit bulky but also keep in mind it has two speakers on the top for added (Dolby atoms) sound and the rear speakers are wired and they're pretty thin. It's a great sound system for the price.

Dont go for VIZIO! It has serious quality issues. The first led row fades away after an year of usage(I barly used the remote. The led row very much needed for knowing the setting). Now they wont replace it though its their quality issue. In the entire year of usage the soundbar would keep crashing requiring to replug. I updated it everytime and even I changed 3 TVs during this span but its the soundbar model issue. Also the input switch hangs when at bluetooth. These quality issues might not be worth one's time. Maybe just consider Bose though a bit expensive.

Great sound for a compact design, only wish it had speaker wire inputs instead of rca..

Awesome sound for the price, would highly recommend this!

The box came in TERRIBLE shape, I understand this was an 'open item' but the box was destroyed all the way to the product. I can also see why this product was returned in the first place, it seems like there is some bug/glitch where the input has to be changed (to a different input, and back to the original) in order for the sound to come through.

Buy this on sale and it’s a solid deal. That’s all that needs to be said

Just amazed how great this Dolby Atmos soundbar system does . Bass response sounds incredible I feel the vibration and then to top it off the surround speakers just adds that extra touch

It was soo amazing to buy that price and quality it ok very comfortable

Giving it 5 stars for value. If you can catch it on sale (which I did for $349) you will not find a better 5.1.2 for the money. In fact, for the sale price THERE ARE NO 5.1.2 systems available other than this one. I really waited before I did a review on this item to thoroughly test it over a period of months. I actually had to do a warranty exchange because after a couple of months, there were some screeches coming out of the rears, and the subwoofer started cutting in and out. This was actually evident when I first installed the system. I waited a couple of months to see if it would stop, but it didn't so I contacted Vizio and got a warranty replacement. The replacement system has been flawless. No screeches from the rears, and the sub is stable with no cutouts. I have a bigger living room with carpet. The sub is strange. It kills it for rumbles in movies, but for music basslines it seems to be pretty weak, and I have the bass and sub maxed out. I mean, it's very clean sounding, and I like the look of it, downward firing 6" sub, and the rears are now very nice sounding with no screeches, but for music the bass is probably the way it should be. It sits in the pocket, but I kind of have to really pay attention and listen for the bass to hear it with the music. But for rumbles in movies, it will rattle the floor and walls. I'm coming from a bass heavy Klipsch RSB-6 so I got used to the sound of prominent bass. But it was a 2.1 system and many times the dialogue would get drowned out. Not so with this system. Dialogue is crystal clear. Atmos is evident when using an Atmos source. I have some Star Wars episodes in 4k, and I can hear things flying over my head. I also have DTS-X source material as well as Dolby 7.1 and 5.1 True HD and 5.1 and 2.1 Digital and DTS-HD 7.1 and 5.1 and 2.1, and they all decode brilliantly in full format. No mixdown compromises. You NEED to do a firmware update right out of the box. Just search for that and install it from a thumb drive. That is the only option to update the firmware. An awesome feature, and one that made me go for this one over the Samsung q700a with the 2.2 rears which I could've gotten at its lowest price for $200 more than this back in October 2021 is the info feature. The cool thing about this M-Series Atmos soundbar is that it can play every codec you throw at it in its native form. It doesn't have to mix it down or do weird things to make it sound like the format. It just plays the format natively which is great. And if you press info on the remote, it will verbally tell you what the source format is. It will tell you what it is receiving and putting out which I find an excellent feature since I am a purist, A/V collector and appreciator and want to make sure that my DVDs, Blu-rays and 4ks sound as intended. And with this 5.1.2 M-Series soundbar I never have to guess. I know exactly what audio I'm receiving. For the $ there is nothing better right now. If you think the Polk Signa S4 could be better, well that one is $399, and it is only 3.1.2 with no rears nor is it capable of adding rears or playing native DTS. So for the sale price of $349 this is superior to that, because you get full surround sound. Once you have those rears, it is hard to not have them. I don't think I could ever go back to a system without rear speakers. I have had a Samsung system in the past that was a 5.1, but those rears were horrible. Barely even audible at full volume. These Vizio rears are noticeable and make a HUGE difference in the quality of the sound. I think the reason these rears are so effective is that they are wired via RCA to the sub. You get everything in real time over a stable wired connection to the sub. Less moving parts. I think wireless bluetooth rears can be finicky and annoying. Such was the case with the aforementioned Samsung 5.1. I mean unless you want to upgrade to a Vizio Elevate ($1100) or a Klipsch Cinema 1200 ($1900) for $350 for this M-Series 5.1.2 is a huge value to get you Atmos and DTS-X with all the lesser formats for a fraction of the price of those other options which in my opinion are really the only other options. I've listened to Polk, Sony, Bose, LG, Sonos, Samsung etc, and would never even consider them to the Elevate, Cinema 1200 or this M-Series 5.1.2. They are not worth their price tag, and all have little weird idiosyncratic issues with the display, remote or other features that make them annoying and distracting to me. Oh, and the remote for this system is cool. It has a little alphanumeric display readout which is so easy to use, and so much easier than Samsung which you have to look at the soundbar to see the settings which is difficult to see when you are sitting far away. This is way better since the remote display is backlit and right there in your hand, easy to read. The look of the soundbar, sub and rears is sleek, too. The remote is very user friendly and matches up with the led lights on the left side of the soundbar. Plus, this soundbar starts right up through ARC when you turn on the TV. There is no 5 second delay like there was with my Klipsch RSB-6. There is also no annoying white noise upon startup or shutdown as there was with the Klipsch. It's like it's a part of the TV which is what you want. You just have to make sure you have the input on the bar to eARC before you turn off the TV. If you are connected via ARC and have it set to any other input, it won't turn on with the TV until you set it to eARC on the remote if you are connected to the soundbar via ARC or eARC (my 2018 Samsung QLED only has ARC). I use the HDMI In on the bar to connect my 4k player. You have to do this if you have a TV with only ARC and no eARC (like mine) in order for the soundbar to decode all the codecs in their native formats sent from the source 4K player which can decode them and send them to the soundbar to be output to you. This is important for those with TVs that don't have eARC. In other words, if you have a TV without eARC you have to connect your 4K player to the HDMI In on the soundbar and not to the HDMI In on the TV to get Atmos and DTS-X. If you connect your 4K player to the TV HDMI In, the soundbar will not play Atmos and DTS-X for TVs without eARC when your source is a 4K disc player for either hard disc media or streamed through the player if your player is a streaming player. If you don't want to worry about all this then get a TV with eARC. So all things considered, you really can't go wrong here. If money was no option, I'd get the Cinema 1200 or the Elevate. But if you want a good full surround setup for a budget price, this is the clear winner every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

I use this in a small room and it works very well. I would not recommend for large rooms. The audio quality is absolutely stunning. The rear speakers and subwoofer works perfectly without any connection issues. If set up properly it sound like I’m in a movie theater. The Dolby atmos performance is actually surprisingly good. There is a sense of height when atmos is playing. It’s important to not that in order to get atmos, your tv needs to support HDMI ARC. If your tv doesn’t have HDMI ARC then you will need to plug 1 device into the soundbar directly in order to get the Atmos codec and only that device that is plugged in directly will get atmos. If you plan on using a optical digital cable you will only get Dolby 5.1 audio. For the sound you get from a 500$ system, you would expect it to cost double the price so I say this system is a steal at its current price. And it may be one of the cheapest setup to give you Dolby atmos. Worth every penny. I was watching season 2 of the Witcher and was amazed how the sound of a snow blizzard managed to engulf me. I could hear wind above me and all around. Very immersive for a small setting.

I don’t often write reviews but I bought this sound bar after TONS of research on Black Friday 2022 and have been using it for the past 2 years. This sound bar is amazing for the sound quality, base, and ability to support Dolby Atmos with the top firing speakers. I spent considerably more money on a larger setup for my basement (9 speakers, amplifier/receiver, etc.) and I have to say that this sound bar is so good on my 65” TV up stairs that my family rarely wants to go to the basement TV room with my 77” and full Atmos setup! In full disclosure I will say this sound bar has very basic features with limited options (i.e. for changing the sound settings and making individual speaker adjustments), but for the average “joe” this is more than enough and is very easy to use. I wasn’t sure if I’d use the built in Bluetooth but I love how easy it is to connect our iPhones or iPads to the sound bar without having to turn the TV on when we just want to stream music. The base (despite the small subwoofer size) is plenty for a small to medium sized room and probably sufficient for even larger rooms (provided you aren’t a base junky like I am). Love this sound bar, can’t recommend it highly enough if you want a complete, basic, easy to use home theatre sound system for TV and occasional music listening.

Good surround performance! Even sounds great playing music. Rear channel makes me take notice and feel like I am In the scene. For the price a great value. Easy setup and discrete rear speakers with decent subwoofer support. Give it a listen. Why spend more?

it's not worth the price, don't waste your time. No built in streaming, Fake google assistance feature, sound quality is underwhelming. I returned this unit the same day. 1 of 5 I do not recommend it.

Now is a great time to invest in me, and by that I mean upping my entertainment game. My entire TV audio experience to date has been defined as whatever the speakers that come on the TV provided me. It’s amazing what you think sounds pretty cool, until you realize it’s not even close. I have a few friends who have sound bars, and I was familiar with the audio experience benefits over just standard stock TV speaker, but the Dolby Atmos aspect was really intriguing to me. I’ve spent a lot of years PC gaming online, and have found immense value in the spatial quality of sound, investing in higher end headsets that could give more dimension to sound. Much like a theater environment (and particular to playing games that rely on accurately knowing who is around you and where exactly they are), being given a full 360 degree audio environment where sound is given a very particular place that aligns with what you are visually experiencing is pretty awesome. Think about hearing footsteps coming at you from your rear left side, or seeing an airplane approaching you from the lower left corner of your horizon, travelling up high over your right shoulder. With the Dolby Atmos experience, the sound is engineered to follow the object exactly in space and time using both horizontal and vertical data with precision, and the right equipment creates that spatial experience coming to your stationary ears (or couch). The new Vizio M-Series 5.1.2 Channel Sound Bar with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X delivers on all counts, and then some. Out of the box, it is an outstanding looking setup anchored by the main bar, which is a pretty low profile sleek looking unit with a charcoal grille and understated controls up top flanked by two up-firing speakers. These are dedicated to pushing sound off the ceiling, creating the ‘height’ of the sound. There are left/right speakers as well, and a dedicated center speaker that really brings dialogue through. The back has the assortment of HDMI, USB and optical/3mm aux ports. We stream TV in lieu of cable, and are feeding an Amazon 4K firestick through the HDMI in port, and porting to the TV with the HDMI eARC – this is the best possibly sound quality connection, although I have an optical cable and tested it as well to not unsatisfying results. The 6” sub and satellite speakers are wireless to the main bar, so I went with the ‘dual stereo surround’ setup (sound bar in front on a console cabinet, satellite speakers behind on the wall & subwoofer adjacent to couch on the floor). My entertainment area where we have it in is a relatively closed room in the basement, maybe 15’x24’ with a lower hard ceiling which really allows for the sound to be the show. Once I powered up the whole thing, and teed up some various media, I finally understood how underwhelming ‘normal’ TV sound really is. Immersive is the most commonly used word with sound bars and sound engineering, and there really isn’t a better word for it….you are dropped right in the middle of it, whatever it may be. As a dedicated gamer, I had to lead off with some gaming on the Xbox and an attached PC, and even with a mix of Atmos supported titles and not (Warzone, Assassin’s Creed, Rise of the Tomb Raider), you are part of the environment fully and completely. The soundscape connects you to the action more intimately than you can imagine, and you can easily become lost in whatever campaign or adventure you are undertaking (the wife loves screaming ‘dinner is ready’ about ten times before I can hear her now). Revisiting some Atmos enabled streaming or high definition content I had watched pre-Vizio was so much different from the original viewings….watching Bird Box and Extraction again on Netflix, or Avenger’s Infinity War on Blu Ray was an entirely different experience, amping up the atmosphere immensely and adding intense (and tense) moments throughout where it just wasn’t as evident the first time around. The speakers in the Vizio M Series components are all crisp and the sound is just smooth- there was no surprise at the powerful low rumbles and thumps the sub delivered, but I was really impressed with how clear and bright the highs and mids were. The overall sound profile was well balanced and hit equally on all ranges. My room and setup didn’t really require a ton of fine-tuning, but the functions all baked into the relatively small remote control are really impressive for such a small form factor. A single LED strip up top shows all kinds of input, setup and customization information, the ability to equalize across the different channels (either with a preset mode, or by bass/treble/dialogue/center/sub/height levels left a lot of ability to customize. You can absolutely shape the sound even further out of the box based on your desire, media type or room environment. I have a home theater now where I once had a couch and a TV, but if it isn’t movie night and you have guests (fingers crossed that may be a thing again soon…), you can add a voice assistant device (Amazon Echo here) or just straight up connect to your phone via Bluetooth, and let it fly with your playlist of songs. We left the TV off and had a family game night, and between Spotify or just random call-outs for Alexa to play this song or that, you are basically in the music; it’s awesome and rich all-in sound definition. All of the various bluetooth speakers around the house just got demoted to doorstop or paperweight. The Vizio M Series gives me flexibility, functionality and forward thinking, and has me thinking this was the perfect choice for what I was missing.

For the price we paid, very poor quality and definitely not worth the money we paid for it! It seems to only wanna work when it wants to! We will never buy anything from Best Buy again. Poor return policy!

I am a soundbar skeptic, being used to full 5.1 surround sound rigs. However, the demands of growing older and family life required a more sleek, unobtrusive set-up for our family room than the ostentatious bachelor pad audio gear of my youth. Enter the Vizio 5.1.2 system, which solves my main complaint with soundbars: You just can't get truly immersive sound without some kind of rear/surround speakers. No matter how much a forward-only soundbar tries to throw sound around the room, you need that rear presence to truly feel like you are a part of the audio environment instead of just observing it. Vizio's rear speakers are minimalist in appearance but maximalist in sound. Having them wired to the subwoofer works great for our needs. The cables in the back of the room are easy to conceal, and there are no cables spanning the front-to-back length of the room. The sound is excellent, and this system punches well above its weight. Is it equivalent to the $10,000 Klipsch/Yamaha 5.1 rig I used to have? Not quite, but it gets you 95% of the way there at 1/20th of the cost. I particularly enjoy the subwoofer, which is tight and punchy, and joins seamlessly with the lower end of the audio from the other channels. You can feel it in your heart, but it is not at all muddy, and there are no annoying peaks or valleys across the frequency range. From a family perspective, where many non-audiophile people use the system, I also appreciate the simplicity of this soundbar. It just works. I use an older TV, with a regular HDMI ARC channel instead of the eARC found on the latest models. The system recognizes the audio format of whatever shows or music you are throwing at it, and it behaves accordingly. It powers on and off (including the subwoofer) with the TV, and you can adjust volume with the TV remote. The Vizio remote is fine, but it's nice that the people in the family who just want to watch shows and aren't interested in tweaking and fine-tuning the sound get perfectly satisfying sound without having to juggle remotes and deal with complicated settings. It's the best of both worlds: Simplicity for those who prefer it, but complexity available for those who want more options. I will occasionally use the Vizio remote to boost the dialog level if we get a poorly-mixed show where the sound effects are deafening but the dialog is an inaudible mumble to my old man ears. I rarely have to, though. The system is very well balanced right out of the box. All in all, a great system, and I would highly recommend.

At this price point it is difficult to get a better soundbar than this. A few points ill cover: Setting up this system is so simple and easy. For atmos wire in your device to the soundbar, and hdmi earc it to your tv. It does the rest. The settings do need some tinkering but the remote is super easy to navigate and use. Soundwise the bar is amazing. I was quite suprised at the mid range and highs it produced. As always, Vizio gives you enough bass, too much at times. However it can be dialed in quite nicely overtime. Concerning atmos, I was pleasantly suprised how well it worked. It doesnt compare to more expensive systems and soundbars, but for 500 dollars, you wont find anything comparable atm. I have a hard ceiling that is about 10 foot tall and the sound bounces amazing well from the height channels. Normal 5.1 and stereo sound great as well. Overall, if you are looking for a budget atmos system with immersive sound, you cant go wrong with this soundbar from Vizio.

I'll start this review off by saying this soundbar is truly impressive for the price! The sound quality you get from this soundbar is quite impressive when compared to much more expansive soundbars I purchased before trying this one. For context, I purchased this soundbar for my bedroom setup. If it wasn't for the inconvenient placement options of the subwoofer that Vizio forces on you by their decision on how to power the rear satellite speakers (you have to plug them into the sub) this would be the soundbar I kept! My bedroom is on the smaller side with 8' ceilings, so a perfect size for this soundbar. I also purchased the LG SP9 soundbar and the Samsung q850a soundbar to compare with. So as I mentioned already, sub location is kind of a mixed bag in my opinion. If your on a couch in a living room and you're able to place the sub behind the main listening position, I think you will be happy! However.... in my experience, I bought this system for my bedroom and therefore had to place the sub against the back wall next to my bed in order to have the rear satellite speakers placed at the rear of my room. The sub for movies did a good job of dissapearing into the soundtrack with only minimal localization. But.... for news or watching a football game, the system uses the sub to help fill in the deeper bass of voices and boy oh boy was I able to localize the bass from the sub coming from the back of the room instead of the TV in front of me. It drove me nuts! I'm probably more sensitive to that then others may be however so take my opinion for just that, an opinion. My solution was to relocate the sub to the front wall next to the dresser where my TV is placed and wow... a drastic improvement! Now bass is localized to the front soundstage rather then feeling disconnected from the soundbar. No more hearing bass coming from the back of the room instead of being anchored to the TV. The negative to this approach however is I now had to relocate the rear surround satellites to the front of the room right next to the soundbar. Luckily, the Vizio is great at giving a wide Soundstage and I was very impressed with the soundbars ability to provide a pseudo surround effect even with the surround speakers placed up front. The only other negative to this approach is the slightly less "clean look" of having the two sattelites placed up front as opposed to being placed on speaker stands in the rear corners of my room. But, the improvment in sound quality with the sub placed up front near the soundbar was worth the tradeoff for me. Although I must admit, the pseudo surround effects as good as they are weren't quite as engaging as when the rear sattelites are placed behind you. Comparisons! So I agonized over which soundbar to keep vs send back for a few days when deciding between the LG SP9, Samsung q850a, and this Vizio M512a-h6. Long story short, I kept the Samsung q850a, but boy did I really want to make the Vizio work! Sound quality is of course subjective, but in my opinion the Vizio had the best sound quality of the three. One negative of soundbars is the "tinny" sound you get as a byproduct of small speakers being stuffed into such a compact bar. The vizio to me at least, had the least "tinny" sound of all three with voices sounding full and balanced! LG SP9: The sound signature was clear and detailed with some nice surround effects for no rear surrounds. But, I never got that "full sounding" vibe from it and felt like the thin sounding vocals could get a bit fatiguing after a while. Vocals were extremely clear though and surround effects were still good! Bass was very well integrated with the bar and I had almost no subwoofer localization with the sub placed next to my dresser where my tv sits. Bass was clear and articulate. Probably my favorite sub of the three soundbars. Cons: Size! The LG bar was the biggest of the three by far and while not a problem for most, i wanted a clean minimalistic look for our bedroom where we only have a 49" Sony tv wall mounted. I was going to wall mount this soundbar as well and with it being wider then my actualy tv, I know my ocd would kick in! Surround effects: Even though the bar did great for not having any surround satellite speakers, it couldnt compare to either the Samsung q850 or Vizio M512a-h6 with the rear speakers. I'll add that even with the Vizio's rear sattelite speakers placed up front next to the soundbar itself, I still thought the Vizio did a better job with the pseudo surround effects over the LG. Samsung q850a: The Samsung was the bar that seemed to be a happy middle ground for everything I was looking for. The sound quality was extremely clear and detailed, although still a touch on the "thin sounding" side. However, being able to locate the sub at the front of the room close to the soundbar while still being able to keep the rear surround satellites at the back of the room was ultimately what won me over. I absolutley despise being able to localize where the subwoofer is located in the room, and the q850a gave me the flexibility needed to move the sub near the soundbar while still getting to keep the rear surrounds in the rear! Also a plus is the minimalist look i was going for. The bar was the smallest of the three and had the lowest profile. Not quite as important to me but still nice to have, were the smart things app that lets you control the settings of the soundbar, the on screen display that shows your volume level and other settings, and the wifi connectivity which makes updates easy and automatic. Voices are extremely clear and soundstage in "surround mode" is quite immersive. Cons: Sound is still on the thinner sounding side. Increasing the soundbars bass and treble settings seem to do little to nothing at all. Increasing the subwoofer level helps eliminate the thin sound, but you also get more boominess in exchange which I dont necessarily care for in my bedroom setting. I have found "standard" sound setting sounds best for fuller sounding vocals with the news or regualr television shows, but you lose the immersion that "Surround" setting provides you. Vizio M512a-h6: Oh so close to being the perfect fit for me! From the size, to the looks, to the sound quality, to the price, it was the perfect soundbar for my bedroom setup. If not for the limiting subwoofer placement options, this would be my pick hands down. The voices sounded full and natural without the "tinny" sound when compared to the other bars. I was very impressed at how great the sound was on this bar compared to its price! The dynamics of this bar were also on another level over the Samsung and maybe a tad bit better then the LG. When I say dynamics, I'm talking about the impact that loud explosions, or things like gunshots have on you. The vizio just popped! Voices were clear, although I will say the Samsung q850a was a bit clearer and more detailed. There was no fatigue at all listening to this Vizio with the fuller sound however. The little sub was punchy and impactful for being so small. I set the sub level to -3 or -4 and it blended perfecrly with the soundbar. I truly was impressed with this bar. The option to increase dialogue levels worked great as well for late night lower volume listening levels! When set to "movie" listening mode, the immersion and surround effects were top notch and the soundstage was huge for such a small bar. Even with the rear surrounds placed next to the soundbar, the level of immersion was really impressive in my smaller bedroom. The atmos effects were hard to discern, but they did add to the overall depth of the soundstage. The remote was a pleasure to use as well. I really wanted to keep this bar, but... the sub placement limits sadly let the samsung win out for me. Cons: Obviously having to plug the rear satellite speakers into the sub to power them limits your placment of the sub. You have to choose between placing the sub at the rear of your room allowing you to keep your surround speakers in the rear (and therebye dealing with the subwoofer localization issues) or placing the sub up front near the soundbar which forces you to place your surround speakers up front as well. If you can overcome this limitation by running the provided speaker wire under rugs or something to hide them, or you simply dont care about having speaker wire running from the front of the room to the back of the room, then absolutley go for it! The other con for this bar is the mounting brackets they give you for wall mounting the soundbar. Once wall mounted, there is absolutley no gap from the wall to the back of the soundbar which makes running your hdmi cables and power cords almost impossible to hide behide the bar. The samsung gives you about an inch or so to run the cables behind the bar to the opening in your wall allowing you to hide the unsightly cables if you're going for that clean look such as myself. The work around which I was going to do, would be to order some universal soundbar wall mount brackets which would allow me to leave a small gap behind the soundbar to run the cables. Not ideal, but very workable still. All in all, I hope Vizio will adopt the same approach that samsung uses and implements a wireless transmitter to plug the rear surrounds into. If that happens, my next soundbar will almost certainly be a vizio like this.

I really like this system. It may be just a bit small for the room its in but not bad, nonetheless. I really like the ability to set levels, especially the surround and dialog levels. We can now hear dialog in movies and in shows that we had trouble with before. All I can say is since we set it up about a month ago neither of us has said "What did they say?" The bar itself it delivers good sound and the satelites are small and unobtrusive. Same for the subwoofer. Set up was really easy and the remote is we easy to use. The dolby atmos works well but I think this is where room size makes a difference. We have a high sloped ceiling in the tv room. In a more conventional room I believ the sound would rock. Overall though it is definitely worth the price.