Vizio 5.1 Soundbar SE Resee: Pretty Good, Hilariously Cheap

It shouldn’t be this affordable to thorawly enhappiness the sound of John Wick as he fractures a authentic-life NBA take parter’s neck with a book. Yet for around $200 (a penny less if on sale), you can get a 5.1 soundbar system from Vizio that lets you hear the lessend crack of his vertebrae as a gentlely stabbed Keanu Reeves twists his leather-bound foe fair so, in the intro to the franchise’s third inshighment.

This benevolent of immersion used to cost you hundreds more, if not thousands. Now, fair plug in a one HDMI cable to an eARC port of a chosen screen (or in my case, the 130-inch Hisense laser projector I’m also testing) and you can be drawn further into the action than you possibly could with a one central soundbar.

As lengthy as you’re ok with a restricted stray wires from the surround speakers to the subwoofer, it’s as modest as setting this system up, plugging it in, and enhappinessing your preferite encountered with novel immersion. Been on the fence about getting a soundbar because you’re saving up for a brimming-blown home theater? Start here and you’ll buy yourself a lengthy time to enhance.

You’re Surrounded

A skinny, nondescript main soundbar that’s 33 inches lengthy pairs with petite wired surround speakers and a wireless subwoofer to produce this 5.1 system. The only aftertaget leang you might need is a pair of stands for the rear speakers, unless you set up to mount them to the wall (it has integrated mounting holes for this).

One advantage that is exclusive to those who have Vizio TVs is the rapid fit system, which apverifys you to pop this bar easily onto the bottom of compatible rescheduleed-model Vizio TVs. This produces this bar a particularly excellent choice if you are also pondering a TV appreciate the rescheduleedst Vizio 4K model we fair scrutinizeed (7/10, WIRED Recommends).

The main downside to this system, and the reason why it costs transport inantly less than other chooseions I’ve tested that produce sound of this quality, is those wires. They’re about 20 feet lengthy, which is lengthy enough to labor in most unretagable living rooms or apartments, but having to route cables is much more annoying than wireless systems.

Once you get it set up, it’s as modest as plugging in a one HDMI cable from the main bar to your TV, at which time the magic of eARC apshows over and you can use the bar to your heart’s encountered. As lengthy as your TV is novel enough to have ARC or eARC, you can use your TV far (or in my case, a TV and then laser projector far) to adfair the volume of the soundbar without having to touch the Vizio far that’s integrated.