Customer Ratings & Reviews

I'm going to preface this with that I got this provided free for a review on my blog (gadget site I'm not spamming,) so you'll probably distrust what follows. I'd advise you not to completely distrust and go and listen to it and make up your own mind. It's a really solid sound system. I've listened to more than I can count at CES the past few years and this really stood out. Here's my experience with it over the past 44 days connected to a VIZIO display (also tried on a TCL, no noticeable difference). Setup consisted of plugging things in. ARC was detected on the HDMI and it worked right off the bat. Had a couple of strange issues involving Chromecast audio and the bar disappearing that were solved by turning off the ECO mode. The issues may have just been amazing timing as they were unreproducible. So yeah, turn off ECO mode if weirdness happens, it all disappeared after that. As nothing on my display actually delivered Atmos I relied on USB and an XBox One S to push most of it. I didn't have a Shield so most of my media that had Atmos ended up getting copied and moved. Delivery is a little bit of a pain but that's not really the sound bar's fault. I had to tweak some settings in the VIZIO app in order to make things sound right. It was really good out of the box but the effect was a bit off. Probably due to trying it in a smaller room. Side note, the smaller room sounded about the width of a theater with this. Your standard Atmos media tests sound incredible.The height however doesn't feel quite right. I think at this point that's the only feeling I have that's not gushing with joy, and is probably due to the ceiling height where I'm using it not being ideal. I'll see, planning on moving this to a different room shortly. I got this about a month before release and had some time to go listen to several consumer Atmos setups for comparison. I was expecting the price range to be about 700-900 and was, well, wowwed would be overselling it, but I was a bit impressed at the starting price range. Sort of wowwed. Like low scale wowwed. It's ridiculously reasonable. It's not the best Atmos setup you'll find, and it's not the least expensive sound bar out there, but I think it's the best consumer level Atmos sound bar out there with the close competition being more than double the price. It does what I want and does it in a good profile for my media room and it sounds incredible. That said, once again I got this for free, my setup and room size are most likely different than yours.

Purchased in August of 2020. Abruptly stopped working (no audio output) after just over a year. Very light use; no evident reason why it would suddenly stop functioning. Tech support said as it is no longer under warranty, cost of service repair would likely not be worth it; suggested buying a replacement. IMO, takes the Vizio brand reputation down considerably when a core quality issue like this comes up. Waste of money.

Bought this for my small home theater in 2019. Still works like a champ for its age

Highlights: Sounds like it costs twice as much. Atmos puts you inside the movie Easy set up Multiroom casting is awesome Deep Base Great for games, movies, and music When I first saw Atmos technology being demoed I thought “That’s awesome, but probably too pricey for me”. When I saw VIZIO was introducing an Atmos soundbar I knew I had to take a look. I already had a VIZIO 5.1 Soundbar that I was really happy with, so I thought that if they took the same quality sound bar and added Atmos, I would be satisfied. Well they accomplished that and more. The sound is a clear upgrade from my previous VIZIO soundbar, and Atmos gives you a sense that you are “in” the movie (or game). I was able to move my old 5.1 soundbar to my basement and utilize the multiroom casting feature to play music to both soundbars at once. I love the ability to play music to my entire house. I use it way more than I thought I would. Overall I am really happy I made the jump. The Atmos landscape is still fairly pricey, but VIZIO was able to deliver the Atmos experience I wanted at a price that you would pay for a basic soundbar from most other brands.

I loved the sound of this sound bar, but it died almost like 3 years to the day from when I bought it. Not sure if this is normal for soundbars, when I went to Best Buy to inquire about fixing it, they said since it was out of warranty they could not fix it or send it out for service. When I told a salesperson that my sound bar just died, he said he had bought a Samsung soundbar and it died as well like after a year or two, don't remember which, but since he had a warranty on it, Best Buy took care of it. This system had amazing bass and subwoofer, can really shake the walls if that is your thing. Treble was very good as was the surround once you tweak the settings. The bad thing about this system is that the remote control has a tiny little screen that you need to adjust with the lights on because it is self illuminating but the background lighting is very low so it is real difficult to see without the lights on. I was expecting more life out of this soundbar and almost cried the day it died.

Looking for great surround sound to go with my large screened Vizio television and opted for this one after seeing reviews and ability to price match for a discounted amount. Anywho, I really like it. The sound is perfect but, I'a still trying to figure out how to adjust and work the subwoofer to control the bass which is why i removed 1 star from my review. The other perks is that it's bluetooth and wireless which is ideal and able to connect to all my other bluetooth devices. Its definately worth the price and has great sound.

I really like this sound bar when it works properly. As many others have reported It loses signal upon starting and you need to unplug the sound bar and plug it back in. I would give it 5 stars if not for this annoying problem. I did not have this issue with my older Vizio 4051 sound bar but this sound bars sounds so much better I am going to keep it and deal with the issue.

I gave this a 5 stars because the sound quality is actually quite good. It's plenty loud with good bass. This is a very small system compare to the Samsung Q60 system that I returned. I end up getting this system because the Elevate system was sold out everywhere. Even though my order went through and the website states that they were preparing for the item for me to pick up. But after a day of waiting, only to get an email saying the system was sold out. But back to this system... Sound quality is good with some adjustments and tweaks, but that's just it. Everything else is just blah!!! Materials feels very cheap. The app is just horrible. The remote control somehow is also controlling my LED strip lights. I use this system with their OLed TV with the eARC/ARC hdmi connection but it's not detecting any Dolby Atmos contents. I read somewhere that this was probably the issue with the TV. Hopefully the next firmware will fix. I would recommend this product but might have to return it if I end up getting the Elevate system.

Great system for a medium sized theater set up. I found this system to have more of a movie quality sound than some other soundbars. Each speaker also has independent volume control so you can customize the sound to fit your use. In addition the satellite speakers are included adding about a $100 value. The only fault I've found is that it recommends a wifi connection which will vary depending on the users bandwidth.

Atmos is hit or miss with connectivity. What bothers me the most is I cant even cast Spotify or Pandora anymore after the first day. It appears in my lists but just says "Connecting" and doesn't even play! Will be contacting Vizio to fix this or probably get my money back on this. For $300 and with some good reviews, I'm shocked that this unit is subpar.

Like another reviewer stated, it's hit or miss if it catches the Dolby Atmos signal. When it works, it sounds pretty great, but that's only when it works. I also have this hooked up to the P65-F1 Vizio TV & have had nothing but problems. The sound bar has turned itself off multiple times, then when it comes back on, it will turn my screen black & sometimes even shut my TV off. How two Vizio products have trouble working with each other is beyond me. I have talked to Vizio customer service about it multiple times, it seems nothing helps though. I have about 8ft ceilings & the height speakers really don't help much, I spent 3 days straight comparing this to the Onkyo HT-S3900, and there isn't enough of a difference to keep this soundbar. Also, the Onkyo has 4 HDMI ports & this Vizio only has ONE. It would've been awesome if it worked properly, Dolby Atmos for only $350 is a nice thought, but right now it doesn't enough of a difference over the $250 Onkyo system.

I used this soundbar for maybe six months, and couldn't live with it anymore. There is a native 20-odd milisecond delay when it is getting sound input from a non-Visio device. I have a friend with the same soundbar and he has no problems. I was running sound directly from consoles and TVs, and then later through the TV (at the recommendation of Visio). I could never get rid of the delay and they ultimately gave me my money back. That said, this soundbar can crank out some decibles and the subwoofer is very good. So if you don't care about minor delays, lip flap, or needing your explosions to actually sync with what you see on screen, then this is a great budget purchase for a smaller TV viewing space.

Amazing sounds quality! Had to do a little tweaking with the sound settings but all in all it paid off. It sounds like sitting in a theater. I would highly recommend this sound system to anyone.

I’m super glad I took a gamble on this soundbar. It’s essentially a 5.1 surround sound system when Dolby Atmos is not in use. I have no complaints with that. Only real compliant is that the satellite speaker cables are paper thin. I have a cat that that thinks cables are play toys and had to already replace one

I have to say the sound on this is amazing, BUT it seems to have real issues with connecting to our LG OLED tv. Almost every time we turn the tv on, the sound bar won’t work and we have to get up, go unplug for about 15 seconds and plug it back in and then it’ll work. I’m to the point where, I’m fixing to have to cough up the money to buy a different one and we’ve only had this one, since November 2019. Also, the volume on the speaker, will just randomly turn up or down at random times and we have no idea why, kinda weird. Idk if maybe one of the connectors needs to be replaced or what, but this is just very frustrating.

I was really excited when I was looking into this system. I was looking for a Atmos capable 5.1 system during black Friday. This vizio system looked perfect. It had everything I wanted, even decent reviews, all for $299. So I bought it, got it 2 days later. I installed it the day it got delivered. Install was easy, set up was iffy. I got it all hooked up and it connected to the TV. It was working fine for 10 minuets, I even got the app to work. After everything was set, it went into standby mode. It never woke up out of it again. i got it to power back on but it would not play sound. I went through the forums to figure it out, eventually i caved and called vizio tech support. They were really responsive and helped me out, but ultimately they decided to use the warranty...they offered to replace my system in 8-12 WEEKS! I declined and have returned the system, i purchased a JBL system in its place. Unfortunate I cannot recommend this system as it was a waste of 5 hours of my life.

Do not read book instructions for Vizio SB36512-F6, HDMI-ARC’ they are wrong. The foot notes on the Vizio tv P65 are incorrect also. Even though the tech support are excellent, took me three tries to find one who had to consult some one else. Set Speakers to off. Set CEC to ENABLED. The other instructions are correct. Use their supplied cable. Set all your other devices to Dolby, also. Set Analog Audio Out to Fixed.

This thing is junk, it wont connect despite just being connected. I wish I never bought this.

We love this soundbar! It has great depth and automation features and works perfectly with our television.

Awesome soround sound feels like the movie theater.