In a perfect world everyone's home theater or living room sound system would sound great, be easy to set up and not cost too much. But getting the right equipment for your space and screen size along with other considerations such as room size, acoustics and number of devices connected may make this a more difficult task than one might think. So what's a poor music and movie lover to do?
You already know your TV speakers sound terrible, but what are the options? Sound bars typically only give you sound in the front of your room while full-fledged 5.1 or 7.1 channel systems can be expensive, complicated to set up and operate, with wires all over the place. What if you could marry the simplicity and affordability of a sound bar with the virtues of a truly discrete 5.1-channel surround sound system, but without all the wires? Enter the 5.1 Sound Bars.
What's a 5.1 Sound bar?
When I'm talking about 5.1 soundbars, I mean real 5.1 surround sound, with speakers behind your head, not some psychoacoustic trickery that tries to fool your brain into thinking there are sounds behind or beside you, but the real deal. There aren't really that many sound bars that do this today. The SONOS Playbar has an option to add a wireless subwoofer and rear speakers, but all in, you'd be spending $1,800 on that system. Philips made a cool little system called the Fidelio HTL7180/F7 - a sound bar with detachable rechargeable rear speakers - but even though it was only released last year, it has already been discontinued. So what else is out there? The VIZIO S5451w-C2 Sound Bar with Rear Speakers.
Size Matters
The VIZIO S5451w-C2 soundbar is made with big screens in mind. Its 54-inch width makes it an ideal size for 55-inch to 65-inch flat panels. The extra width over its smaller brothers gives you better left/right separation as well, for a more expansive front soundfield. The bar comes with a wireless subwoofer module which also contains a built-in amplifier for the included rear speakers. You'll probably want to place this toward the back of your room so it will be easier to hide the rear speaker wires along your back wall. The other option for wireless rear speakers would have meant building amplifiers into each rear speaker, but then they would have needed their own power cords (and plugs) so this is a fairly elegant solution. Low bass is mostly non-directional so you won't notice the subwoofer's exact location for most content.
What's in the box?
The Specs
The soundbar module has three separate internal speakers - each a 3-inch full range driver - for front left, center and right channels. There are also two 3" x 6" passive radiators to supplement the low end. The bar itself weighs 9.3 lbs. and is a little over four inches in height and three inches deep. It can be wall-mounted or set on a stand in front of your TV.
The bar includes on-board decoding for Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound as well as aptX Bluetooth support for wireless connection of a tablet or smart phone. Sound can be enhanced via DTS TruVolume and VIZIO surround matrix. Indicator lights on the front of the soundbar display volume and surround mode settings.
The rear surround speakers measure in at about eight and a half inches by four inches by three inches and can be wall-mounted or sit on a shelf. Each includes a single 3-inch full-range driver. The powered subwoofer uses an 8-inch high excursion driver. The Soundbar connects wirelessly to the subwoofer on the 2.4 GHz band with a range of up to 60 feet depending on room barriers. The wireless subwoofer module also houses an amplifier for the rear channel speakers.
We're All Connected
Connections on the VIZIO S5451w-C2 are fairly plentiful with one HDMI input and one HDMI output to your display, digital optical in (Toslink), coaxial digital audio in, analog audio in (3.5mm), RCA analog input and a USB port for select digital music file playback. The HDMI output supports ARC (Audio Return Channel) so theoretically you can connect multiple devices to your TV's HDMI ports and the sound from the active source will automatically be sent out to the soundbar over that HDMI cable. There is Bluetooth with aptX in case you want to stream music directly from your smart phone or tablet.
The remote control offers an LCD display which is nicer than squinting at a soundbar across the room, but it's too dark to view in a darkened room and there's no on-board backlighting. To VIZIO's credit the remote is much more substantial than the slim credit card affairs you get with most soundbars and it functions pretty well.
The Set-Up
Upon opening the box I placed the speakers around the room in roughly the places I intend to install them. I connected the HDMI in from the cable box HDMI output and the HDMI out (ARC) from the soundbar to the Television. I use the included speaker wires to connect the rear speakers to the wireless subwoofer module. Then I attached the power cords, powered everything up and that was pretty much it. The subwoofer connected automatically to the Soundbar, but if it somehow loses its sync, it's easy enough to re-pair it. I selected the HDMI input on the remote, the screen went dark for a few seconds and then the picture came back with sound to all channels. Success!
The soundbar starts on default settings, but you can adjust things from the remote. I adjusted the bass, treble, center level, and surround channel levels to fit my room and my tastes. There is DTS TruVolume which helps level off the jacked up sound in commercials and a night mode which compresses the dynamic range so that the loud parts and the quiet parts are not too far off from each other. This can be useful for apartment dwellers. If you like surround sound from all sources (even stereo ones), you can adjust that from the remote too with the on-board VIZIO surround matric feature. There's also an AV Delay which you can use if the picture and sound are not quite in sync.
Ready, Aim, Fire
The first thing I noticed is the front sound has a nice wide spread, with discrete sounds coming from the left, center and right of the screen. Now you say, well Ken, that's what it's supposed to sound like, but I haven't always had that experience with soundbars. Not that other systems are necessarily bad-sounding, but the experience from the VIZIO was more like listening to separate speakers.
When I turned on the Yankee game I really noticed how crisp and clear the sound and separation were. It was like being in Yankee stadium, but without the over-priced beer and hot dogs. I even heard fans yelling from the rear speakers (it's been a rough year for the Yanks). But equally important, the commentary from the center channel was clearly audible, not drowned out by the other speakers. This was a pleasant surprise as a normally I have to fiddle with the speaker level settings repeatedly in order to get good center channel audibility.
I re-watched "Gravity" on Blu-Ray because I had originally seen it at the Dolby Atmos screening room (at Dolby's NY Headquarters) and I wanted to hear the difference. Of course there was a difference (notedly, the lack of any height information), but still the VIZIO didn't disappoint with excellent clarity, bass response and nice separation. Then I put on some music, first an oldie, Arthur Lee and Love (LP) and then Fitz and the Tantrums (CD). Again, the sound was clear and balanced. The full range drivers may not articulate the finest high frequency details, but nor are they screechy and grating like some other inexpensive soundbars can sound. Personally, I preferred the stereo settings for music, the VIZIO surround processing sounded a bit overwhelming and unnatural. But if you like your sound to come from everywhere all the time, feel free to experiment.
For Bluetooth I streamed Pandora from my Moto phone the sound was totally acceptable, particularly considering the low bandwidth Pandora stream. Overall, the sound was impressive and belied the system's fairly modest price.
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Final Thoughts
Not your run-of-the-mill soundbar, the VIZIO S5451w-C2 offers a nicely balanced sound for both music and movies. Its sins are more of omission than commission, with some lack of high frequency detail across the board but no overtly annoying sonic attributes. Its $499 price tag is a bit high for its category, but the fact that it can do discrete 5.1 surround sound with wireless rear speakers is a huge plus for movie lovers. The installation is simple and the larger size makes it a good match for today's larger TVs. Also, the flexible remote-based adjustment (with LCD screen on the remote) allow you to tweak the sound to your liking without having to squint to see the soundbar display across the room. Overall, it's a nice upgrade over any TV's sound at a price that doesn't break the bank.
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