Review on 🔊 Immersive 5.1 Surround Sound System: VIZIO Sound Bar for TV with Wireless Subwoofer and Bluetooth by Angel Riley

For the price I should have known this was not a quality product. As an electrical engineer, my focus is on device functionality, sound and build quality. Vizio are really trying here, but I feel like they just missed it. Background: Looking for a decent sounding, easy to use 5.1 sound system for my new Samsung TV. The top 3 included Vizio SB3651-F6, Polk Magnifi Max SR, and Samsung HW-N550 + SWA-8500S. Space is a big constraint as I'm in an apartment. First impression: Bass is LOUD. Too loud. This Vizio system is poorly tuned by default - too much bass and treble. I imagine most would be impressed by the initial loud bass hit, but in an apartment this can be a problem. The build quality seems okay. The remote control is weak. The battery cover barely holds. I had to tape it to keep it from slipping. A bad sign of quality and attention to detail. The soundbar itself, subwoofer and rear speakers seem well put together. They appear to be solidly built. I don't like the LED indicators for volume, input, etc. Judging by the instructions, there are dozens of combinations for lighting, it's not that easy to interpret. Sound quality: As mentioned above, the sound quality did not convince me. I had to fiddle with the settings for about an hour before I was satisfied. The subwoofer needs to be VERY muted and then boost the bass, rear speakers and treble. The music sounds good. I think for music or general purposes this would be a decent system for the price. What bothered me the most was the dialogue in movies and on TV. The center channel sounds fuzzy and not very clear. I had to keep turning the volume up because I couldn't understand the words, but then the bass was too loud again (even after adjusting). I've also noticed that in very quiet scenes (with only dialogue) the subwoofer turns on and off every time someone speaks, as if trying to miss a faint note in the voices. It's very annoying when I'm trying to focus on a movie. By the end of my ownership of this system I seem to have gotten more used to the way things sounded. I could probably live with that if I had to once all the settings are dialed in. Here are my last settings that sounded the best: Bass: +12 Treble: +7 Mid: +11 T: +10 Subwoofer: -4 Control Application: This is terrible. It reacts very sluggishly to any settings, does not work in half the cases. Remote control: The thing looks very shaky. I had to put tape on the back because it peels off very easily. There's a small LCD screen that displays inputs, settings, and so on. It's beautiful, but difficult to read, and it doesn't have a backlight. I love that you can adjust all settings from the remote without a control app, but the menu navigation can be confusing. Other problems: - This device cannot activate Bluetooth. You can't connect to a soundbar when it's off and expect it to turn on and start playing music. You have to manually enable it and then change the input to Bluetooth. Terrible! My 5 year old Samsung Soundbar had this feature. - From time to time the audio will be randomly interrupted. This happened while playing (PS4) and watching some shows. I also had to force the unit on twice because the subwoofer was accidentally out of sync. The optical input does not turn the soundbar on and off automatically. You must use HDMI ARC, which uses the connector on your TV. Again, my old soundbar had this feature. Depending on the input signal, the volume steps are too large. In some applications, the volume was already quite high at the lowest level. - There are sometimes noises/clicks coming from the speakers when powering on/off. This can be annoying and is a sure sign of poor electronic design. Summary: I ended up sending this sound system back. I had it for a total of 2 weeks and tested it as best I could. I really wanted to like it, especially for the price. Unfortunately, all the little quibbles added up, I knew I wouldn't be happy with the system in the long run. Sometimes muting the sound didn't help either. Instead I went with the Samsung HW-N550 which still sounds great and has all the features I would expect from a quality system. some properties. then this Vizio could be for you. If you care about sound quality, pay attention to design details and want something durable that will last you for years, look elsewhere.