Review on 🎵 VIZIO SB46514-F6 46-Inch 5.1.4 Premium Dolby Atmos Home Theater Sound System with Wireless Subwoofer, Rear Surround Speakers by Malik Munns

This soundbar was a real adventure. From receiving a huge and heavy box, to some glitches in the smartcast app, to tuning and listening. I've been using mine for a few months now so here are my impressions. The first thing that strikes you (once you carry the box through the door) is the size of the subwoofer. It's huge. The soundbar is longer than most, but you'd hardly notice it in a box tucked beneath the subwoofer and rear speakers. The rear satellites are pretty tiny - although they're a decent heft, they still feel almost like toys once a subwoofer has been fitted. Installation is pretty easy - connect the soundbar to your TV and a power outlet; Connect the subwoofer to a power source and connect the rear satellites to the subwoofer using the cables provided. All cables are neatly packaged - thanks to Vizio for including almost every cable you need (RCA, 3.5mm, optical, HDMI). The rear satellite cables are well made with dual RCA ends and are color coded. The only downside I've noticed is that it can be difficult for you to hide the cables because they're so well made (I have a couple of speaker stands that run speaker cable through, but can't use the Vizio cables will do so because the ends are permanently attached). .) I had some trouble pairing the device with the Smartcast app - I got duplicates from Google Home, and the Vizio app kept forgetting and asking me to pair the speakers again. I ended up solving the problem by factory resetting the soundbar, uninstalling the Google Home app, and uninstalling and reinstalling the Smartcast app on my phone. So far, so good. I even managed to reinstall the Google Home app with no duplicates or issues. For some reason the Vizio app also requires "high precision" location permissions - seems unnecessary as most other apps can find things on WiFi using only basic location services. If it weren't for these issues, I would have given five stars for ease of installation. After everything was connected and set up, I decided to watch/listen for a bit. One of the first things I noticed was how "booming" the subwoofer was - I love my bass but I feel like it cuts in and stands out in some shows or movies - anything with uninterrupted bass is fine ( action scenes, etc.), but shows with dialogue or sporadic atmospheres that get quiet enough to turn on the subwoofer can make the crossover stand out. I got around this by using the volume controls to only reduce the subwoofer volume by -2 to -3. This seems to help reduce the "hoarseness" of transitions, and the subwoofer still has enough power to bring out any low-frequency sound effects. (For what it's worth - I thought my brother's Vizio 5.1 system had the same booming subwoofer issue - so if you're into other Vizio soundbars you'll probably be fine.) Beep comes from the rear height speakers - it comes and goes, but as far as I can tell it's caused by the device being in cinema mode. Changing to a straight profile seems to get rid of the beep and just leave a faint static noise. I also noticed the noise of the power adapter in the main soundbar - again very faint (should be a few feet from the soundbar) and to be honest it's most noticeable when the unit is off. The feed seems to go into some sort of hiccup mode that creates additional noise. Even though it's connected to my Vizio P65-F1 TV, when the TV says the audio system volume is set to 39, the TV audio system volume display shows the soundbar at maximum volume. And at low level it can be a little jittery - we usually have it around 8 or 9 but at night when we're trying to be calm it can drop to 5 or 6 and the difference between 4.5 or 6 can be quite be noticeable. I wish Vizio could tweak the TV or soundbar firmware to help with that volume control. The biggest problem, however, is that the soundbar turns off randomly. From time to time (perhaps once every few days) the soundbar will simply turn itself off in the middle of a show or movie. I don't think it's a CEC issue (the soundbar is connected to a Vizio TV, even if it is, it's still a Vizio issue). I can turn the soundbar back on and everything continues, but it's still a bit annoying having to pick up the remote in the middle of a movie after realizing the sound has just disappeared. And it's not like there's anyone on the remote - today I was in the kitchen, there was no one in the house, and I thought my movie was off because the sound had just stopped. , I contacted Vizio support and they sent me a replacement device. I've had it for a few days and it behaves just like the first one. Morse code movie mode, thumping subwoofer, hissing soundbar power supply, low volume scaling and just today another random power outage. But it sounds great when you turn up the volume. I really, really want to like this system. It sounds great on TV and movies (I haven't made a lot of music, but a few sessions with the cast on Pandora sounded good to me), and a few ATMOS demos make it sound great considering how little tweaking it has are. . I'm sitting here debating whether to leave it or not, hoping that Vizio will find some kind of firmware fix for the power outage issue, or wondering if I can manage this issue from time to time. I hope these aren't systemic issues because if you can get this thing at a decent discount off list price I think it's great value for money.