This mystical processing wizardry works quite well. Rather than going for muddy (but more rumbly overall) tuning, you can tell that Vizio’s engineers really worked hard to make it sound as clean as possible throughout the audio spectrum. You still hear plenty of detail, and the smaller subwoofer really balances well into the mix. The sound is more mid-range heavy than you’ll find on more expensive options from Vizio, like its flagship Elevate soundbar, but at this price, it’s not shocking the drivers aren’t quite as high-quality. The rear channels really center you in each mix from the back, rather than sounding like an afterthought. While many other soundbar makers are shifting to all-in-one Atmos setups that bounce the surround sound off your walls and ceiling, physical drivers always sound better in my experience. There’s clear separation between voices, sound effects, and background music that you really only get with rear speakers. To me, that’s the perfect level of immersion. While watching the Monaco Grand Prix, they noted how great the cars sounded when zooming behind their head, but it took them a second to realize it was happening. My friends and I are all recent Formula 1 converts, thanks to Netflix’s Drive to Survive. The smaller subwoofer was a perfect match, and the surround speakers were in balance. The overall balance and setup worked very well in my 400-square-foot room. It’s still sitting, sans batteries, in the box. The eARC connection let me use the TV’s remote to adjust volume and mute the bar, and otherwise I just used the bar's buttons. But if I’m being honest, I never touched the thing. Here is where I'd normally start talking about how to set up the remote or adjust it. It has two HDMI inputs, though just one eARC port to connect to your TV. The top of the bar has five raised buttons that let you turn the thing on, change inputs, pair to Bluetooth, and adjust volume. You can hear Atmos content when it’s available, but it’s not the centerpiece of the setup's design. Because the height channels come from the front, the rear surrounds can be lighter and smaller, which makes them easier to place. The main bar has the traditional center, right, and left channels, but Vizio has packed in a couple of up-firing speakers when Atmos content is playing. Instead, most surround sound comes in 5.1 format, which is why a compact Atmos 5.1.2 setup is ideal for the vast majority of us. Except for house-produced shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime, very little content is mixed using the height channels available to stream on most Atmos systems, which extend the listening plane from the horizontal to the vertical for sound effects like rain or wind. But finding shows mixed in Atmos or DTS:X is harder than you might think. Don't get me wrong: I love Dolby's immersive, object-based audio technology as much as the next audio nerd.
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