Customer Ratings & Reviews

As of this writing, December 5, 2022, this sound bar is dead. I was using it yesterday, and it randomly cut off and will not come back on. I bought this on November 4, 2020. The sound was phenomenal for what I paid (got it on sale for $129.9). The Atmos rarely worked properly, so the best I ever managed to get out of it was Dolby Digital+ but even that sounded outstanding in my bedroom. I love movies and gaming, so that's what I was using it for primarily. I'd give this set up a much higher rating if it lasted more than 2 years. I got literally 2 years, 1 month, and 1 day of use out of something I paid $129.99+tax for. I am incredibly disappointed, but I can't say I'm mad. It was all I could afford at the time.

Best surround sound system I've ever owned. The sound quality is amazing.

THIS SOUND SYSTEM STARTED OUT FANTASTIC WHEN I FIRST HOOKED IT UP, BUT NOW IT CUTS IN AND OUT, I TURNED THE ECO SETTING OFF, BUT WHEN I PAUSE A SHOW, OR SWITCH TO ANOTHER SHOW, THE SOUND SYSTEM DISCONNECTS ITSELF AND I AM BACK IN THE TELEVISION SOUND SYSTEM MODE. I HAVE READ A LOT OF BAD REVIEWS ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR VIZIO SOUND SYSTEM. I JUST READ THEM TOO LATE! MY BAD! I HAD AN OLDER MODEL VIZIO SOUND SYSTEM THAT WORKED GREAT! I JUST WANTED TO UPGRADE TO DOLBY ATMOS! WELL THIS PARTICULAR BRAND AND MODEL IS NOT THE ONE TO BUY! IT IS NOT WORTH BUYING! IT IS A LEMON!!

The sound is fine, but the rear speakers are not wireless, I have to put at front. And they didn't create a software option to configure like that.

I got this soundbar for atmos support, hooked it up to my Apple TV 4K and my Vizio P65-F1 tv, using hdmi arc. It has been a nightmare. The soundbar randomly restarts, randomly causes the TV to restart, causes the TV to display a message “HDMI has been renamed” and the message doesn’t go away until you press OK on TV remote. Soundbar will also randomly say “update complete” even though no update was installed. I had vizio replace the TV, and replace the soundbar twice, but no luck. The only way I resolved the problems was a completely different soundbar. There are many other folks with my same issues on the official vizio Reddit page.

Vizio seems to be aware of this problem but refuses to address the issue. The sound bar does passthrough 4k SDR but only at 30Hz. you won't be able to get 4k HDR at 60hz to passthrough or you will get a picture like the one I provided. this is so dissapointed because this sounder actual does sound great but it doesn't work for my set up. since Vizio chooses to not provide any firmware updates I have no choice to take this back before my return window expires. Vizio wants to blame it on my TV even though clearly other reviews on this site are experiencing the same issue c'mon vizio lets not point fingers to tv manufactures this is all on you.

I won’t bury the lead here in this review. This system is AWESOME! I’ll be honest; I wasn’t expecting the quality from this soundbar because of my only other experience with a Vizio soundbar at one of my best friend’s house a few years ago. He has a soundbar with a wireless sub to it as well but it sounded flat with no sound definition to it at all. After reading reviews on this system, however, I decided to take a chance. I’m so glad I did! First off, if you have a newer TV with ARC, this system will work perfectly for you. I have a 2018 55” Vizio 4K HDR E series TV, so I knew I wasn’t going to have any problems with my setup. I purchased some Sanus speaker stands to go along with my setup and unboxed everything. If you’re mildly knowledgeable in tech, you don’t even really need to read the manual to set up the system. The system is pretty self-explanatory. I elected on hardwiring the soundbar to my cable modem as to alleviate any potential loss of wireless signal, plugged the suppled HDMI cable to the top HDMI input on the soundbar (mine isn’t labeled as ARC, but the instruction manual points out that the top input is the ARC connection), then the other end into my ARC HDMI input into my TV. The satellite speakers have color coded inputs of blue and gray to help indicate which speaker is which so that all you have to do is plug one end of the RCAs into that and the corresponding colored input into the wireless subwoofer. Speaking of that, it’s already factory paired with your soundbar, so there’s literally nothing that you have to do in order to get it going aside from plugging the power cord into it, and plugging the satellite speakers and you’re good to go. Now, I don’t know about other reviewers I’ve read about and seen videos about when it comes to their speaker placements, but my sub is on the right of my TV, about 1.5 feet away from the wall, my soundbar is centered to the TV, and my surround speakers are approximately 2 feet away from my couch positioned at roughly 90° inwards towards the center (as Dolby, and various other companies/people suggest you set your speakers up). I should mention that the RCA cables are pretty lengthy (as I thought this would be a problem for me too because of my living room setup. No worries, they are about 28 feet long or longer.) The sound out of this thing is amazing! I don’t know what other reviewers are talking about with the muddled low tones out of the subwoofer because mine puts out perfect low tones. I already have the smartcast app on my phone with my TV and after just a bit of trial and error (probably on my end with my setup and everything), I was able to set up my soundbar by renaming it on my app and I was able to take control of calibrating it there too. I set my TV audio to auto detect the signal coming from the soundbar (that way it will properly decode it) and set my soundbar to “direct” so that way the sound will be distributed to each channel properly. Also, in case you’re wondering, I have my surround speakers, bass, and subwoofer levels all at 2 and everything else is at 0. It’s perfect! I don’t really mess with the different meanings of the LED indicator lights with the exception of the one that tells you what sound is coming out. Auburn indicated DTS, white indicated Dolby, and green indicated Dolby Atmos. Just as a side note, Sony PlayStation 4 DOES NOT put out Dolby Atmos sound, sadly. Some people on various threads claim they have gotten it to work, but I think that was on previous firmware versions because I decided to buy a brand new Rocketfish 4K HDMI cable that supports HDR (on the picture side of things), Dolby Atmos, and DTS:X on the audio side, and I plugged that into my PS4. My TV recognizes the CEC connection, and I have my sound setting on my system as “Bitstream (Dolby)”, and have even gone into making sure that the sound setting is “bitstream” on the options while playing Blu-Ray discs that have Atmos sound (I tried it on a few discs, Star Trek Beyond, Labyrinth, and Blade Runner 2049) and the sound that comes out is only Dolby Digital. Even though it is coming out as Dolby Digital, the soundbar upconverts the sound into Dolby Atmos and you still get the Atmos effect without having the true Atmos decoded. Same goes for DTS and DTS:X. I have a large library of titles in DTS sound and the one that I really took for a test drive was an old Buddy Rich DVD that I have, “The Channel One Suite”. This disc has two options, 4.0 Dolby Digital or 4.0 DTS Digital. I started off with the DTS sound and I was blown away. The way the sound is distributed, you are pretty much standing in front of Buddy as he’s playing his kit. His cymbals are to your left and right, and the band is playing from the left, center, and right channels and it just blends in so perfectly. It feels like you’re right in the middle of the room! Just for kicks, I switched the soundtracks during one of the songs to see the difference and Dolby Digital just sounded flat as a crepe and everything was coming out of the soundbar. Sometimes it works that way where things are just better in DTS rather than Dolby. This was one of them. I’ve also Chromecasted music from my Google Play Music library directly onto the soundbar and having the sound setting being defaulted to “music” instead of “direct” also blew my mind away. I’m in a band and we professionally recorded a live album a year and a half ago. Well, with that said, hearing back the music on this thing was incredible. The vocals were coming out of the center speakers, the crowd noise was coming out of the surround speakers as were some of my drums (actually it was the same feeling as the Buddy Rich DTS mix, with the feeling as if the band was set up in a circle and I was standing right in front of my own drumkit and my other self. LOL), and the bass and guitar were evenly distributed as well. The bass coming out of the subwoofer was PERFECT. Vizio really knocked it out of the park making a great music mix decoder! Just for kicks, I did check the sound coming out of “direct” and it was flat as it’s only really 2.0 stereo, so having the system decode and distribute the sound itself makes a world of difference. As far as true Dolby Atmos sound, I played the UHD version of Ready Player One I have on VUDU. It’s presented in HDR10 4K and Dolby Atmos sound. Without spoilers, the first 17 minutes of the film are the true test of just what this system can do. It sounds incredible! The true bubble of sound that washes all around you is just what anybody would want or expect from a thousand dollar or more system and if you get it on sale like I did, I paid less than half of that! I’m a Bose guy, personally, as I have a companion 5 set for my laptop, IE2’s for earbuds, and a Sounddock for my OG 30-pin iPod touch, but after this I’m quickly becoming a Vizio guy too. I mean, heck, I’m now on my 2nd Vizio TV and now with this Soundbar, I think I’m set for life. The only thing I’ll need now is for Sony to bust out a firmware update so that it decodes Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, or I’ll just go on and get a 4K Blu-Ray player that does decode those sound modes and go from there. Long story short, if you’re on the fence about buying this, jump off of it and BUY IT! It’s worth every penny! Keep up the awesome work, Vizio! You got a customer for life in me!

I wanted to save a few bucks so I bought the open box "excellent condition" version of this soundbar. Everything looks fine except for a huge pink crayon streak on the top of the subwoofer. I think me and Best Buy have different meanings of the word "excellent". Be warned to everyone who is thinking about buying the open box version. I am very disappointed.

After several attempts in making this bar work, I’m about ready to take it back. 4K pass through is non existent, I’ve read about this issue tonight and has not been fixed in over a year?! Comon, I can’t watch any 4K/UHD content or play any games...what’s the sense of having sound if I can’t see anything but a pile of color garbage!!!

I got this soundbar at a great sale price and I could not pass this up. As of this writing I believe that this is the cheapest Dolby Atmos capable sound bar available. It was a simple plug and play set up with my LG OLED TV into the ARC HDMI output and all the speakers synced together well. Understanding the settings took me a while, but I was able to figure it out eventually. Its not super clear what each setting does or controls even from reading the included user's manual but after some fiddling and online research I was able to figure it out. Having the included remote to adjust settings is great, but it is much easier to do so with the Vizio Smartcast app. I also love that it has Google chromecast built in so that I can control it with my Google home setup. I really like that the subwoofer works wirelessly with the soundbar so that I don't have to worry about running any cables. The surround speakers do require wires that plug into the subwoofer, but I was able to hide them behind my couch for my living room setup. I'm not an audiophile by any means and this is my first experience with Dolby Atmos, but I think the sound quality on this system is well above average. I have a small to medium sized living room and this 5.1.2 soundbar system fills the room quite well. I don't really notice the height channels all too much, but that could be because I have the soundbar tucked into my TV stand instead of on top because the TV sits pretty low and the soundbar would block some of the picture. I think that the main soundbar sounds pretty excellent with a very crisp sound that handles dialogue and other sound effects really well. It even sounds really good for playing back music via a streaming service. The surround speakers are okay, but nothing that would blow you away. Also, I'm not sure that they can handle louder volumes too well as I think they have some distortion at higher levels. The subwoofer produces some incredible bass for its size. I think it uses a 6" driver and I definitely did not expect the bass response that I get from it. I have it tucked right against my center couch and it causes an awesome rumble vibration that shakes you a bit given a loud explosion from a movie or something similar. There are definitely better bass producing subwoofers out there, but for the size and price of this one I was amazed. I didn't want to break the bank on a sound system and this one checked all the boxes in terms of features and support for my living room setup. I was hesitant to purchase this at its full retail price, but when it went on sale I had to get it. I believe that the next model up from this one with a 5.1.4 channel 46" soundbar is twice the price at MSRP and that is just too steep a price for my taste. So, this one was the obvious choice for me.

Background: I'm a 22-year-old non-audiophile, non-expert looking for the best sound bar I could get for less than $400. I purchased this because the idea of a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos capable surround sound set-up for $300 sticker price was too tempting to pass in lieu of a pseudo-surround sound bar/subwoofer combo. Sound: Wonderful. I tested the audio with films I am familiar with to be well-acquainted for the source material. I hear details I never heard before that add to the depth of the experience. Surround sound is adequate: my parents have a surround system which seems to blur direction more organically than this system, but it is still engrossing and adequate for my ears. Rear channel quality was a concern, and while they could be more robust to deliver richer sound, for $300 investment you couldn't assemble a stronger system without at least a couple hundred more dollars. Bass is heavy, but with adjustment via the app I have the EQ tuned to my preferences. Options for adjusting balance and audio are plentiful in the phone app and allow for the system to be tailored to my room's acoustics. I am extremely happy with all aspects of the sound from movies, YouTube streaming, and music from my phone, all of which sound clear, warm, and vastly improved from built-in TV speakers. Voices are clear and easy to understand without any needed adjustment. Appearance: Nothing spectacular. While alternative options may look more sleek or modern, I didn't buy the system for its appearance. That said, it certainly isn't ugly either: the silver plastic could be mistaken for aluminum to a casual viewer, and the all-black cloth wrap is tight and even. I have the 36" bar beneath my 65" Samsung Q80T 4K HDR TV, both wall mounted. I don't feel that it looks small for the television or suffers from a reduced surround effect, but others may feel differently. I followed the recommended mounting procedure placing the bar lower than the television enough to allow the Atmos speakers on the top room to fire to my ceiling; keep this in mind when assessing your set-up location, as my fireplace allowed only an inch to spare to keep the bar in the recommended alignment (these measurements are explained on a scale with the mounting tool in the box, and are easy to understand). I hid the cords easily with stick-on cord hiding sheaths, and I'm over the moon with how clean everything looks. Set-up: A little complicated due to the phone app on iOS (Apple iPhone) but the hardware itself is simple. Everything is straightforward, but the updates and system set-up on the phone app was a minor headache: long load times left me wondering (still to this day) if I had a glitch with my system or if it genuinely takes so long to update and fire up the system. Sliding scales to adjust EQ will usually add one unit to any adjustment I made, so I used the wheel versions to adjust my EQ instead which were more accurate to my touch and did not self-adjust after use. Overall, the app needs a little optimization, but has proved itself to be reliable for adjustments with relative ease so long as sliding scales are avoided in favor of wheel-numerical adjustments. I connected the system to my TV via eARC HDMI, and my original television remote controls both the sound system power and volume seamlessly without delays from remote control input or from actors speaking on-screen to heard-audio. On the whole, set-up including wall mounting with the included hardware (but not included dry-wall anchors) was easy enough for me to handle by myself. Concerns: The most concerning was one instance where all other audio was clear, but actors voices were completely silent. The device was responsive to all audio input commands I provided, and I corrected the issue by turning off the system and turning it on again. One instance the audio was completely silent despite the system being on and responding to increases in volume. My connections at all point were secure, including my eARC TV HDMI connection. I once again resolved the problem by cycling the power on and off. These isolated two instances have not occurred again, but I am not entirely confident that they will not return at least once at a later date. The simple resolution does not make me question the integrity of the system, but would be a little annoying if the issue begins again. There is also a delay between when the television is powered on by eARC and when the audio begins. The TV and sound system power turn on at exactly the same time, but the sound system will sit for a few beats to collect itself before beginning to transmit audio. I have no issue with this, as I use my TV for streaming, gaming, and music, so the system is operational by the time I open the app I need and long before I have selected what I intend to watch. On Netflix, every time the titles are cycled a small but audible buzz or beep is heard as the system, I presume, determines if the audio is standard, Dolby, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, etc. and changes to accommodate the new format. This is a minor annoyance when scrolling through many titles deciding what to watch, but it is quiet and easily muted. The remote control included has a dim display of the mode of the system, but this is easily resolved by using the phone app when possible or turning on a light if you need to make input changes in the dark. Summary: This is in all likelihood the best sounding system I could purchase for $300. Comparable surround systems are more expensive, and sound bars with pseudo-surround sound and a subwoofer often cost more for less features. While I have a few very minor issues with reliability to start and work every time I turn it on, the resolutions to the issues are simple ones and I have not experienced the issues since my first few initial uses. I emphasize that my reliability concerns are minimal, given the context. Sound is phenomenal for music, movies, and gaming. Surround sound is adequate, but for $300 having surround sound via a 5.1.2 system is unheard of by my amateur research. I would buy this system again given the chance to go back to do it all again, and I would recommend it to my friends. The value is remarkable. The only reason I do not rate 5 stars is because of the few reliability concerns I have and because I know that more capable sound systems exist, although certainly not within this price range or for this level of value. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the sound system hunt!

Pleasantly surprised at how good these speakers sound. 5.1 sounds great, almost as good as my dedicated media room speakers (didn't really feel the atmos effect). The bass is shockingly good, as is the sound clarity. Couple of issues that were annoying are: the sound bar sometimes doesn't connect automatically. I have to turn it off and on and then it connects fine. This happens every other day or so. It could be something in my settings but i have not bothered to check. The other thing was getting it connected thru wifi. It was very hard for some odd reason. Kept disconnecting in the middle of the install. Again, it could be my phone or something on my router. Finally, don't think you can do any better for sound bar for under $300.

Awesome sound bar for the price! Great surround sound quality and the subwoofer really gives that ideal home theater feel without being too over bearing. A few cons which are: 1. The app is horrendous and generally confusing; 2. The HDMI-Arc feature with Samsung TV’s is a pain sometimes as it randomly won’t work when switching inputs or apps. Takes some getting used to but still a (minor) pain nevertheless; and 3. I wish the rear speakers were a bit louder to help balance the sound and provide more of an immersive experience. That being said, watching Dolby-enabled movies has been incredible!

Good value for the money. Not top level sound of course, but if you aren't a super picky sound aficionado, you probably won't care. When playing blue tooth music on it, the surround speakers sound a bit echoy and I have to turn the surround down a bit. And if you are going to be gaming on it, there is a bit of delay that I couldn't get away from without turning down the sound quality on my Xbox. But for typical TV/movie watching it sounds good. The subwoofer can certainly put out some base and it sounds good, and this system can go pretty loud. It can be a bit finicky when connecting up though. Wasn't the easiest to get connected and working consistently, but I think some patches have made it better.

The sound quality of these is excellent and the price is great for such an impressive system. The sub is a decent size and it does a great job of filling the space and maintaining clarity. Unfortunately, the app is very buggy and slow. The system occasionally doesn't respond to the volume options on the remote and there has been some general frustration with the user experience. I would still recommend it for the quality and relatively low price, but it requires some patience.

So let me start by saying i was very skeptical of this soundbar or any soundbar and the reason being is well because from 2008 to 20010 i owned a Onkyo 7.2 surround system with receiver so I've always been very skeptical of any soundbar. Anyways I've been looking into these soundbars for a while now cause i just couldn't handle the TV speakers anymore and i like 2 watch lots of movies and i saw Vizio had this 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos soundbar plus i was on a tight budget. So i went and watched a bunch of reviews not only the Dolby Atmos soundbar but a lot of their soundbars and everyone always loves them. So i saw the 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos soundbar on sale here at Best Buy for only 399.99 at the time witch was right in my budget so i went and picked up right away. Like i was saying i wasn't expecting from the soundbar at all i especially wasn't expecting much from the Dolby Atmos. I get the soundbar home witch was packaged very nicely another thing that i like right off the bat was all the accessories Vizio includes even came with a HDMI cable.So i get it all hooked up expecting to be disappointed and get ready 2 take it back. I used the ARC and hooked up my 4k blu ray player and the first movie i tested on it was Saving Private Ryan on 4k blu ray. The first scene i wanted to watch and hear was that amazing opening scene on Normandy beach and right i was like are you series that sound is coming from the soundbar lol. Immediately i was blown away not only by the sound but by the bass coming out of that little 6 and a half inch subwoffer it just filled the room with really good quality bass. The next thing i started listening 4 was the Dolby Atmos again i was just blown away buy how well this soundbar was working not only does the Dolby Atmos work but it works extremely well. I could hear bullets flying by my ears all around me and even above me so the up firing speakers work really well. I even brought my mother and father in the room 2 get their reaction and right away they had a big smile on their face and asked me how is it making the sound above their heads lol so i had 2 explain what Dolby Atmos was to them lol. So the next thing i wanted to hear were just basic sounds that were not real loud like gunfire and such so the next movie i put on was the Matrix on 4k blu ray yea i know but hear me out. On the Matrix there is a scene where Trinity goes to pick up Neo for the first time in a black car and in that scene there is lots of raining and thundering. Now I'm sitting waiting for the scene to start and the rain begins and right away i look up and start laughing i was like you cant be series lol i could actually hear every rain drop like i was standing in the rain and it was landing on my head from above. Next came the thunder and lighting and i could not believe what i was hearing you could hear the thunder,lightning strikes and rain right above your head. Not only does this soundbar work and sound amazing but it sounds better than my 7.2 Onkyo system seriously. Now i will say the one thing my Onkyo did better was the bass but that's because the thing had 2 10 inch subwoffers and the Vizio has 1 but that's all the Onkyo did better. So the next scene i wanted to hear on the Matrix was the scene where Neo goes and saves Morpheus. In that scene there is a helicopter with Trinity piloting it and i could hear the helicopter blades over my head and all around my room and when she wrecks it literally sounded like it was gonna land on my head lol. If you guys are looking for an amazing system whether your on a budget or not do yourself a favor and go and pick this up i promise you will not be disappointed. They even have a larger one that is a 5.1.4 where you have to Atmos speakers in the rear satellite speakers as well i can only imagine how that would sound. I hope that 1 day Vizio will make it so you can buy just those satellite speakers with the upfireing speakers in it if that way you can upgrade your soundbar without having to buy another soundbar because if i can ever afford the 5.1.4 soundbar I'm for sure going to get it but i would rather just be able 2 upgrade the rear speakers. Or even make a bigger subwoffer available in case we wanna get a bigger subwoffer one day witch i don't think ill need cause the one it comes with is awesome. Vizio make the rear speakers with Atmos available so we can upgrade lol i know they would sell really good. Anyways sorry for the long review i just wanted to be as detailed as i could be so if your thinking about it just stop thinking and get this soundbar i mean this is coming from a guy that had a home theater with 2 subwoffers and this 1 is better i truly love it. Also if you want an amazing TV as well go get a Vizio P Series i also own a P55-f1 and its an amazing 4k tv with incredible picture quality the HDR and Dolby Vision are just stunning. Thanks for reading this review and thank you Vizio for putting out some amazing products that we can actually afford.

This vizio sound bar was actually the only one we were able to test at the store and actually hear. The salesman couldn’t get any of the many other brands to work. Vizio sounded good and it was cheaper so since it was the one we could test that’s the one we bought. I did notice after our purchase if we bought a Sony brand we could have bundled it saved a few hundred and would have been the same. Except we couldn’t hear the Sony first. Anyway, they installed everything. The geek agents had issues getting my xfi remote to work with the vizio. It worked for the tv just wouldn’t change the volume. Then he finally did something and it worked. But... if you’re married you might understand.... my husband likes his own remote to flip stations on me esp during fantasy football time. His didn’t work for sound. I spent days many hours with xfi on the phone and on chat they said it wouldn’t work. I knew they were wrong because I had one remote the geek squad got working. So I eventually contacted them got ahold of the man that was at my house and in 30 seconds he told me what to do and it worked. I did google it prior and saw that others with vizio and xfi had the same problem. Mine works great now but I cannot lose those instructions and code!! So if you do get the vizio and have xfi you may have issues but don’t let xfi tell you it doesn’t work. It does.

Great sound - but jankey. App slow. Bass was strong, Atmos height effects were nice and strong. Got fried during a lightning storm and replaced with lg s90qy that just operates more smoothly (e-arc seems to work as intended vs the arc on the Vizio)

This unit is a great for a small-medium sized living space. Rear speakers are good but wish there were a little bigger. Sounds is great. Dolby Atmos soundtrack on Apple tv is very good. Setup is easy and works well with my Samsung 4k 2015.

5 stars for the "Value for Money" tag considering it has all the latest tech like Google Voice assitant, cast compatible, HDMI ARC and above all Dolby Atmos. 5 stars for the simplicity in design and setup. Should be an easy setup for any room. 5 stars for Dolby Atmos sound for this price. Again at the time of writing this review; I haven't seen any comparable Atmos speakers in this price range. 5 stars for the high base. 4 stars for sound clarity. The clarity is good when you lower the base else the subwoofer rumbling can become a bit loud at times making it difficult to follow dialogues. But again; further tunning could negate this problem.