High-powered soundbars loaded with features are getting more common, especially now that we can build great sounding equipment into thin and compact devices. But it's not all about boutique speaker companies and names like Sonos; in fact, Vizio makes a huge array of soundbars to match perfectly with their television sets, some of which are even competitive with full-fledged component audio systems.

For this review, Vizio gave us one of their 46-inch Dolby Atmos-enabled 5.1.4 soundbars to see just how good surround sound can be without a big clunky receiver and wires everywhere. Let's check it out.

Signature Vizio design

Vizio's Atmos soundbar, awkwardly titled SB46514-F6, is pretty simple, but still manages to retain some Vizio design language. You'll get that Vizio logo on the sides of the soundbar and the satellite speakers, plus the subwoofer.

All of the speakers sport a metallic finish on the sides with visible screws holding things together. Black mesh surrounds everything else, giving the speakers a very modern, industrial look.

Personally, I'm a huge fan. Soundbars and speakers in general don't always have much room for creative design, but I think these look really good with just enough flair to stand out. With that being said, if you're looking for something plain and black to hide away under your TV and around the room, that silver might draw a little more attention than you want.

Each of these boxes holds a ton of speakers underneath the black mesh. The front soundbar alone has eight speakers total, with a center channel plus two stereo channels, but Vizio also bakes in two upward-firing Dolby Atmos speakers in the package. There's a lot to this thing, which is why it comes in at 46-inches, but Vizio maximized the space they're working with.

The satellite speakers do the same thing. They connect to the subwoofer so you don't need to run cables and wires all over the place to try and get them plugged up to the base soundbar, but each satellite houses two speakers. There's your standard, single surround channel, but each one gets another upward-firing Atmos speaker. That gives you a total of four height channels in this setup, which is something Vizio had to work with Dobly on to make sure it would provide a good experience. Dolby said yes and gave them a pass, so clearly they did something right.

And lastly, Vizio includes a wireless 10-inch sub, which is easier to hide than some larger, standalone subwoofers, but can still deliver some thump to your music and movies. The overall package here seems really slick and well thought out, which is pretty rare in the soundbar world. Get what you pay for, I suppose.

Big performance without the wires

If you're big into sound quality, you're probably a little skeptical about rear speakers being wireless, and soundbars just not always sounding great. I get it. But we've seen some smaller soundbars for half this price do a pretty okay job of holding their own next to full home theater systems, so I had pretty high hopes for Vizio pulling off something big here.

I'm not going to say that Vizio's solution can beat out top-tier component systems where a single speaker costs more than this entire soundbar setup, but man, it gets close.

Wireless is normally my biggest concern, because transmitting any audio wirelessly causes bad compression and degradation and just isn't worth it. I've got speaker wire run all over the place just for my surround speakers for that reason. But Vizio's rear speakers never sound wireless and compressed.

The front speakers manage to deliver crisp, detailed audio, whether you're listening to music, watching Game of Thrones, or checking out the latest blockbusters full of explosions and car chases. The channel separation is great, and the ported center channel helps to keep dialog and voices distinct and clear. There are passive radiators on the sides of the soundbar to help add a little more thump to the low-end without totally relying on the sub, too. Total you're getting eight active drivers in the front soundbar, which is crazy for something that's not a full component audio system.

Rear audio sounds just a bit thinner, obviously because they're in a much smaller package, but that's not what they're here for. The rear speakers add detail and immersion, and they don't struggle at all with that task, doing a killer job of enveloping you in audio.

If you're extra picky about being accurate with your surround tracks, you'll probably notice that Vizio's soundbar puts a little more emphasis on the rear speakers than what you'd normally get from a standard 5.1 track. Even music seems like it's mixed very heavily emphasizing the surround channels, which isn't necessarily a true reproduction of stereo music. Audiophiles might not love that, but it's easily adjustable, and personally, I like it. Music and movies are about having fun, and having some of that extra detail played up a little bit to show it off absolutely makes the experience more fun.

The subwoofer, as I mentioned earlier, comes in on the small side next to some other home theater setups, but if you're comparing it to only other soundbar subs, it's a monster. It can back it up, too, especially in cinematic content. You'll get plenty of thumping and rumbling, and Vizio has done a pretty great job of matching the sub with the rest of the speakers so you're never relying on the subwoofer for frequencies that are just a little too high for it. Likewise, the soundbar seems to hand off low effects in just the right places for an excellent effect.

Bringing up Game of Thrones again, the soundbar absolutely nails the dynamics of HBO's hit show. Watching through some episodes on Blu-Ray for the full Atmos experience is a treat, whether fire and chaos is rumbling through the subwoofer, the wilderness is chirping away in your surround speakers, or long stretches of dialog are cutting through on those center channels. And since this soundbar supports an extremely complex Atmos setup, you're getting that extra layer of immersion on top of the standard surround tracks. This is especially evident in battles, with arrows and weapons flying around overhead and around you. All of Vizio's speakers here work perfectly together to create a 3D soundscape where you can easily tell just where each object is coming from. My regular component system only has two Atmos speakers, and I can absolutely tell that Vizio's implementation of the extra two speakers helps a ton for building that height effect.

If the soundbar has a weakness, it's probably in music. It still sounds great, don't get me wrong, and anything heavy on the bass like rock music benefits a ton from that relatively potent subwoofer. But music does show that much of the soundbar's strengths lie in tying together a ton of speakers together for a big experience, and using just a few of those speakers on their own takes away their ability to hide weaknesses as well. Again, it does well, but just can't shake that boxy, soundbar vibe that you don't get from full audio setups, and that's especially true for music that doesn't have a ton of bass, because then the subwoofer doesn't have a way to help out much.

Tons of features

Once you use this soundbar, it gets pretty apparent that most of the budget for the SB46514-F6 went into sound quality. It sounds great, but the remote that Vizio includes is a black mark on an otherwise killing sounding system.

It's an incredibly basic remote, which is fine, but the input switching on the soundbar isn't automatic, so you have to use it. If the soundbar could handle that switching on its own after you've set everything up, it'd be fine, but keeping up with this tiny remote to jump back and forth between ARC and the single HDMI input isn't pleasant. To top that off, there's no easy way to jump to a single input. The Input button on the remote cycles through what's available, going in this order: HDMI IN > HDMI ARC > Bluetooth > USB > Aux > Digital > Optical. So if you're using the soundbar to Bluetooth some tunes and you want to watch your smart TV, you'll have to hit the Input button six times, or hit Input then remember which direction you need to go with the arrow keys. Yikes. Definitely take advantage of HDMI ARC and let that TV handle as much input switching as possible to eliminate that pain point.

Navigating the menu is also a pain, because it's all done on the small, ticker-like tiny screen on top of the remote. Tapping Menu will navigate you through things like EQ mode (direct, movies, music) as well as adjusting the levels of certain channels. You can't adjust the height channels from the IR remote, though, which might be a stipulation from Dolby but still seems a little odd. Vizio only allows height channels via the SmartCast app, so keep your phone handy, especially if you don't have a normal sized room for proper Atmos setup. You can make small adjustments like upping and lowering the treble and bass, plus changing up your center channel to put more emphasis on dialog.

Fortunately, the actual volume part of the remote is quick and easily accessible, but if you're using ARC or something you'll probably be using your TV remote or letting your smart box, like the NVIDIA Shield, handle volume control, anyway.

As far as audio decoding goes, this soundbar can handle almost anything you throw at it. All of Dolby's stuff is fine, and it can do DTS, but DTS:X, the Dolby Atmos equivalent, isn't possible. If you are listening to the rare DTS or DTS-HD track these days, you can jump over to the Movie EQ mode and the soundbar will do some upmixing to try and create height sound. It's never perfect, but it's better than nothing, and DTS content is much less common than Dolby at this point.

On the back of the soundbar you'll find an optical port and 3.5mm port next to where the power plugs in, and on the other side of the bar is where the HDMI ARC, single HDMI port, ethernet port, and USB port sit. HDMI ARC really saves this thing, since it's strange for such a high-end soundbar to only include one HDMI input. You can always run splitters in the chain but I don't particularly love that, so I think it's easier to use your TV's inputs for most things and run your important media device into the input, which is fully capable of passing through Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision.

Vizio does fully utilize Google's Cast protocol though, which is neat. You can easily sling your music from any Cast-enabled app to the soundbar, and it'll integrate into your Google Home setups for multi-room audio, too. That's where I think this thing really shines.

For whole home audio, you've got a few feasible solutions. Using Google Cast/Google Assistant is my favorite, but Alexa speakers and Sonos also work. Sonos is probably considered the “best” as far as sound quality goes, but if you're looking at a Playbar plus a couple surrounds and a sub, you're way over the price of Vizio's system, and you don't get any Dolby Atmos. For anyone looking at a high-end solution for a home theater that can also double as the center of audio around your house, Vizio's got something special on their hands.

Worth it?

If you're looking for the most comprehensive Dolby Atmos experience in a compact package, yes. Vizio's cooked up something that I think is going to be really hard to beat. There are other Dolby Atmos soundbars, sure, but you're either getting an inferior system without surrounds to save some money, or you're going to spend a lot more. Vizio managed to land this thing in a very sweet spot.

It's not all perfect, though, since the remote is pretty mediocre and we still don't love that you can't adjust the height channels without using an app, but it's pretty close.

If you want to take the next big step for your home theater, especially if you're a cinema-holic, Vizio's soundbar should be at the top of your list.

Buy it now: Amazon