VIZIO - 5.1.4-Channel Elevate Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer and Rotating Speakers for Dolby Atmos/DTS:X - Charcoal Gray

PROS: - Great sound quality - Auto Rotating Atmos Speakers for Atmos sources - Ability to play Atmos, DTS:X, and most other formats - Unique LED display system - Backlit display remote - 2 HDMI inputs and 1 eARC HDMI - eARC (not just ARC) - Voice assistant input (AUX). Use the VA you prefer, not only something built in - Includes rear speakers WITH upfiring Atmos speakers (wired to subwoofer) - Decent amount of adjustment controls and customization for a soundbar - Night mode, auto level adjustment, and dialogue level adjustment - Well packaged and organized in box CONS: - Slight learning curve with LED lights “display” on front - lack of mids out of box but with some minor adjustments you can get a good sound - rear speakers are wired. This should help quality and avoid wireless interference but still means you have to run wires to the sub (which connects wireless to bar) Overall Thoughts (TL:DR): Bottom line is, for the retail price of $999 (and sale prices even lower) you can’t find a better value in a sound bar. Vizio prides themselves on bringing high end quality without high end price and even at a steep $999, this sound bar is still a great value, competing with bars in the $1500 or more class. The Vizio Elevate made waves at CES and won the Red Dot design award proving that Vizio has really outdone themselves with this sound bar. But how does it sound in real world testing? Well for me, very well. After a minor bit of tweaking and adjustments, I was able to produce a solid, clean sound with full range, crystal clear highs and floor shaking bass. It’s still no match for my full size floor speakers and AVR but when that’s not possible, this sound bar is a fantastic alternative. The packaging is really well done including a nice “briefcase” box of cables and a soft cover over the subwoofer. That said, I have seen other reviews saying they had damage to their box that showed on the subwoofer, but it was only cosmetic. Unfortunately, I think that’s a common issue with the standard for soundbar packaging. Until that terrible tetris piece design changes, we’ll see damage reports. I tested multiple audio/video files once I had the device hooked up and was able to get Atmos signals, DTS:X, and Dolby Digital+ among others. When I successfully got an Atmos signal, the Atmos speakers did indeed rotate up automatically and when the playback ended, they rotated back down. The “bounce technique” is just as good as any atmos bouncing speakers, that is to say, just ok. And that’s testing inside a standard square room with a flat ceiling. (if you have a vaulted ceiling you won’t have a lot of luck bouncing audio.) But it is a noticeable difference from having the speakers facing directly out. Overall, I am enjoying this soundbar more than others I’ve had and if you pair it with a newer Vizio TV, you’ll have a seamless experience including a quick snap-on mounting to certain Vizio TV stands making it easy to get your soundbar mounted below your Vizio TV. Sound quality is fantastic for those looking for a decent surround sound and Atmos experience without buying an AVR or expensive speaker systems. DETAILED REVIEW: UNBOXING/SETUP: There’s not too much to say about the unboxing and setup. The packaging was really well done (for a sound bar) and instead of having wires in bags scattered all over, Vizio chose to put a briefcase style box inside that includes all the cables and accessories. One note, personally, I did not receive the velcro wire ties that the box said was included which is a bummer because I actually use those, but possibly they fell through a crack during shipping. Everything else was included as described. Once I unboxed the bar, I started the setup process. This was fairly easy and as expected and if you are unsure what to do, Vizio does include help in the manual and online to make sure you’re set. I was replacing an existing soundbar, so for me all I had to do was run a new power cord and use my existing HDMI from the TV’s arc and I was setup. The subwoofer should auto connect once you plug it in and the soundbar will audibly confirm that it is connected as well. The rear speakers have color coded cables that easily plug in and connect to the subwoofer. Even though they are wired, the subwoofer is still wireless, so you could put your sub behind or in the back of your room and pretty easily connect the rears, hiding cables under or behind your couch. This is what I did and found it to work quite well. SOUND QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE: I have had the Vizio Elevate for about a week and have tested music, movies, streaming, and gaming and have found the quality to be outstanding in almost all categories. There have been a few learning curves as far as operation and I have had a few hiccups in playback, but overall it’s a pretty user friendly system that may take a little bit of fine tuning early but eventually will work without much needed from you. One thing to remember about Atmos, at least currently, it is a great audio option that’s unfortunately a little difficult to actually get to play back. This is no fault of the soundbar, but usually something else along the chain. For example, yes, netflix or disney+ will say Atmos supported but you must make sure your TV can pass it to the soundbar over your specific TV’s ARC channel, and that you have the proper HDMI cable to handle this, and that you have a strong enough internet connection if you are streaming, etc etc etc. There is a lot of info online about this and I won’t bother with it here, but suffice it to say, if you know what you are doing with your A/V gear and you are confident in operating your devices properly, then you will have no problem getting good, clean audio in any format you choose from this soundbar. OTHER THOUGHTS: The remote is really nice for a soundbar remote. I really like the backlit screen at top, and combined with Vizios LED light display on the front of the soundbar, you can make adjustments on the fly without annoying pop-ups on screen or bright lights flashing on the bar, distracting other viewers. It takes a bit to get used to, but once you do you’ll enjoy the ease of changing settings and adjustments with this remote. I have not put it fully to the test yet, but the little testing I did this week, I also thought it was worth noting the night mode and auto volume adjustments. I had the auto volume on most of the time I was testing this bar and it did a decent job for the most part. Movies and action is still so dynamic these days (on purpose) that it’s difficult to have a good compression tool built in, but at lower volumes, I found the soundbar was able to keep things relatively level. The night mode is similar but also adjusts the bass levels to not be so boomy at night. I thought this was cool and worked pretty good as well and I really enjoyed that night mode will reset to OFF when you power down the bar. Meaning the next day when someone else uses the TV to watch some action movie, they won’t be wondering why everything is quiet and no bass. The subwoofer is the last thing I’ll mention. Usually I find soundbars subwoofers are just ok and lack any real punch. This sub is definitely the better of the group of soundbar subs I’ve heard. It still doesn’t have a crossover setting option which is a bummer but it is a down firing sub and really packs a good solid thud. I’ve actually had to set the level down around 30% for everyday viewing and late night because it’s so powerful. But even with the sub turned down, I’m not losing out on any low mids that I was concerned may be caught in a crossover, meaning the soundbar itself is still covering a lot of those low-mid range sounds. Overall I really am enjoying this Vizio bar and have always had good luck with Vizio products. They pride themselves on their value and price and this Elevate soundbar is no different. I’m not surprised it won so many awards!

============================ >>>>> Bottom Line Up front: <<<<< ============================ The VIZIO Elevate 5.1.4 Home Theater Sound Bar delivers a quality theatre style surround sound experience at home - without the traditionally high price tag that normally accompanies it. The Elevate 5.1.4 packs in state of art Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support that really helps make your cinema experience significantly more immersive when watching supported titles at home. The Elevate 5.1.4 sports a nice sleek industrial look that effortlessly hides all the 18 speaks in your living room. Auxiliary input for Voice Assistant support, Chromecast Built-In and Bluetooth support is simply icing on the cake. Unfortunately, in my time with the Elevate 5.1.4, I was consistently let down by poor Vizo SmartCast Mobile App setup integration, and even had a couple of odd instances where the eARC channel failing to output audio, even though it was setup and worked fine for several days between each issue. Regardless, Vizo delivered a solid surround system that is everything you’d expect in a top-notch Surround system. ============================================== >>>>> Detailed Observations after a regular usage: <<<<< ============================================== I have always associated Vizio with delivering products that meet or exceed the traditional “bang for your buck” quotient that is ever so popular these days. Having owned previous Vizio flat panel televisions over the years, I can attest to their long-term durability and the value they offer compared to a lot of their competition in a particular segment. One of the areas I felt Vizio traditionally saved on “cost” while still being able to deliver the feature department – often was felt/seen in the physical housing/exterior styling department of their products. The Elevate 5.1.4 is big “step up” in opinion, particularly from my pre-conceived expectations and prior experiences with their products. Packaging/Unboxing: ================== Unboxing the Elevate 5.1.4 Soundbar system was a breeze, and I appreciated the little “open here” markings on the exterior of the box so I did not end up taking it out upside down or anything like that. It was interesting to see all the “awards” the Elevate had accumulated, so I was already preparing myself mentally for a mind-blowing theater experience. Inside the box, there was your traditional foam blocks, foam pieces and protective wrappings. The Elevate arrived to me without a scratch, so no issues there. Speaking of packaging, I HAVE TO take a moment to give some serious “kudos” to the engineer/product manager that decided to neatly organize, label, and package ALL of the included cables/connections/wires into a single, easily identifiable box. For starters, it is nice that VIZIO includes ALL of the cables you would need to get connected. Everything from an HDMI cable, digital audio cable, 3.5mm audio auxiliary and everything in between to get sounds flowing from the soundbar. It has always been my experience that most manufactures rarely include this many “extras” in the box, as they expect you to purchase your own right out the box. Styling/Setup: ============ As I previously mentioned, I really appreciated the industrial “brushed metal” appearance of the soundbar itself and I thought the metal speaker housing and plastic unit cover blended well. The grey color is pretty “neutral” by home theatre component standards, so the Elevate 5.1.4 should go well with just about any color scheme you most likely have at home. Needless to say, this is a pretty subjective category, so make sure you take the time to look at the pictures your self if this is a big area of concern. Interestingly, the rear pair of speakers are “wired” to the subwoofer, which in turn (the subwoofer) is wirelessly connected to the main soundbar unit. I think for most people (myself included) this shouldn’t be an issue, as its pretty easy to set up the rear par and subwoofer to “hide” the cables, but for some I could see this being a deal breaker since at this price point it is not that out of line to want “wireless” speakers all around. On the bright side, wired connections means less signal degradation and troubleshooting issues…. which bring me to the main unit setup…. Trying to setup the main soundbar proved to be more difficult that I anticipated. Maybe, I just had bad luck, maybe it wasn’t my day … but I have setup more than my fair share of electronic devices ranging from tablets, to building computer systems and writing computer code (I have a degree in Computer Science) Needless to say, I know my way around a “mobile app”. The well laid out, and easy to follow instructions suggested I download the Vizio SmartCast Mobile App to complete setup – so I did just that. Unfortunately, the first warning sign was made apparent when the Google Play App store had the SmartCast Mobile App app rated at about 3.1 stars (out of 5 stars at the time of this review). I hope Vizio takes the time to read over some of those reviews and feedback, because knowingly reading and seeing them for myself first hand, I can see where some of the user’s frustrations where coming into play. Upon completing physical setup and double checking my connections, I attempted to pair the SmartCast Mobile App to my phone several times. The app kept “hanging” during the setup either while trying to find the soundbar device itself, or trying to connect to my home wi-fi network. If I attempted to “skip” any of the “hanging steps” I would not be able to “save” my changes to the soundbar device itself. Throughout this process, the soundbar would default to naming itself a “default” Vizio name (such as VIzio 4563 for example) and would not disappear from the “devices” inside of the SmartCast Mobile App – even though it was not properly setup. As confusing and frustrating as this sounds, it was more so when trying to make it work in person. I ultimately had to power cycle the soundbar main unit several times to get it to “disappear” from the know devices in the SmartCast Mobile App, each time hoping it would not hang on one of the steps….I then made the bold attempt to “update” the system firmware/software…and that turned out to be a mistake. The SmartCast Mobile App hung for about 30 mins saying it was updating/downloading the update and that is could take up to “10 mins” to complete. At about the 30 min mark AFTER the 10 mins had passed….I decided to power cycle the main unit again – only to discover it erased all my previous efforts in pairing the device to the SmartCast Mobile App . I had to repeat everything I listed above several times over… again. The good news is – 2 hours later, I am good to go! – Where there is a will, there is a way! Sound Quality/Movie Experience: ============================= After the rough setup process – I was ready to sit back and stream/watch a nice Star Wars Marathon session in full Dolby Atmos glory on Disney+ (from a streaming device). Compared to my PCM/5.1 surround system I had previously used – it was night and day. As gimmicky as the “rotating” Dolby Atmos speaks may sound – I really felt that they added another level of immersion on the soundstage that I simply wasn’t getting out of my previous system. The spatial and positional audio effects were notably sharper and on point. The Elevate 5.1.4 didn’t jut “get louder” It pin pointed blaster fire or a daftly dropped lightsaber hilt on the ground – syncing perfectly as pictured on screen. Switching my input sources to my HTPC (Home Theater PC) – the Elevate 5.1.4 produced equally pleasing audio results across Video and Music playback from movies, web pages, and PC games. Bluetooth audio streaming was also on point. It my humble opinion, the “default” audio eq profile is more focused on pronounced dialogue and speech/vocal tones. I think it tends to run a little on the high side of the treble range when it comes to music playback – but fortunately there is the option of fine tuning the EQ to better reflect the sound profile your looking for. On an interesting note, I actually lost audio output on 3 separate occasions while passing audio through the eARC input on the soundbar. Despite my best efforts to trouble shoot the settings in the SmartCast Mobile App and the provided VIzio remote control unit – I ended up having to power cycle the main unit a few times to get the audio back on the eARC input. I have attempted to replace the HDMI 2.0 cable on each subsequent power cycle – but I can’t say for certain that cabling was the issue. I can’t rule out the my TV itself, because I didn’t have an extra 60 inch home theater grade TV lying about. ========================= >>>>> Closing thoughts: <<<<< ========================= Make sure you understand that you need to have a TV or device that supports eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel), or at least ARC (classic “older” Audio Return Channel) in order to truly get the most out of the Dolby Atmos/Dolby Digital+ features. As confusing as that may sound not all TVs that have the older “non-enhanced” ARC standard – may not play nice with Dolby Atmos, even though they have the bandwidth and speed to support Dobly Digital+ playback. Vizio does it again – they produced a top-notch Soundbar surround system that brings a lot of top shelf tech into a more affordable price bracket. Their build aesthetic quality is noticeably improved in my opinion, but I can’t help but wonder if some of the internal networking components and/or SmartCast Mobile Application development were the areas that they decided to not invest heavily into for this product. Even with the issues I had, I am very happy with the performance and appearance of the Elevate 5.1.4 Soundbar surround system. I hope VIzio takes the time to continue to address the deficiencies sin their SmartCast Mobile App and make the setup process more user friendly in the future.

WOW x 100!!! These have exceeded expectations. I feel like I've not truly watch some of my favorite movies without these. I'm re-watching everything since getting these: COMPLETELY different experience! Music is insanely better/more enjoyable. I'm crazy impressed! I definitely recommend these to all! The app is great and allows you to customize so much.

Just what I was looking for, I’ve attachment so the speaker hung under the TV system sounds great takes up less space than traditional AV unit. It was on sale turned out to be a good buy! Hooked up easily to my Vizio TV.

2nd Vizio soundbar purchase. Original still working fine, but wanted 4K pass through to fully utilize experience. Elevate system works well until you switch inputs or exit SmartCast app and try to open again. System completely freezes, and only thing you can do is unplug and wait. Using new 2021 TCL TV with earc hdmi to Vizio Elevate Earc and still not functioning correctly. Very disappointing in $1k system.

Wow is all I can say about the quality and sheer power this has. I’ve bought and returned so many soundbars in my day and this one definitely ain’t getting returned. Yeah, the app configuration is a little rough to sync with but once you do, it syncs up nearly every time. You want to go in there and turn on virtual DTS:X so you get that 3D sound. As for the rear speakers and subwoofer, I am floored at how loud it gets. I went into the effects menu from the remote and set the surround speakers to dual and I had to turn down the volume cause it was so loud. The subwoofer is set to -1 cause anything higher than that I got wifey nagging at me cause the house is rumbling. The clarity of the Soundbar is superb. Turn the dialogue and center channel to high and you won’t miss out on anyone talking. As for the price, it may seem steep but when you compare it to the Sonos ARC, it’s a great deal. The ARC is $799 for the bar and another $179 each of the One SL’s and throw in another $700 for the subwoofer and you’re more than doubling the price of the Elevate system. You are getting a high end system on the cheap. If you can find it on sale and you’ve been debating about this system, do yourself a favor and at least try it out. You can always return it but I promise you that you won’t want to after hearing it. Of course a dedicated audio system with a receiver is going to give you the overall best sound and experience, but I’m not about all the wires and the hassle with the setup of a true surround system. The Elevate is dang close to a dedicated system and way more simple to configure and manage. This a winner through and through.

Got it discounted over Cyber Monday. Amazing value, great design, good sound, easy to hook up to the TV. The Vizio iOS app is very buggy, keeps disconnected form the soundbar. Based on online reviews, I know that I'm not the only one having issue with this app. And when I pick it up at BestBuy, the box is pretty banged up. The agent claimed it is brand new, she didn't know what happened. Such a disappointing respond, especially with a My Best Buy Elite Plus member. The only good thing that nothing seems damaged.

After using the sound bar for almost a year, it's that sound is real good after lowering the outrageously over the top subwoofer level! Playing music I notice the tweeter seem to be overdriven. The Vizio Smartcast app is the worst ever! Once you reduce the subwoofer to a realistic level not too bad.