VIZIO M-Series 5.1.2 Immersive Sound Bar with Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Bluetooth, Wireless Subwoofer, Voice Assistant Compatible, Includes Remote Control - M512a-H6

After doing a lot of product hunting, I was really excited about this soundbar. I almost jumped the gun on a few others, but I'm glad I waited for this one. If you're looking for an entry soundbar to go in your family room and don't know what Dolby Atmos is, then I'll be honest: this is not the home theater setup for you. There are plenty of other systems that perform well for hundreds of $ cheaper, including the Vizio V series line of speakers, which you can also get in 5.1.If you have heard of Atmos or want the newest middle-ground speaker, then this is it. Before you click the "Buy Now" button, make sure you are ready to take advantage of Atmos, though. You'll want to make sure your TV supports it (if it has eARC label on an HDMI port, then you're good), the content you're watching supports it, the device you are using supports it, and that all of your settings are correct across the board (for example some TVs disable ARC by default and this should be enabled). If you have all of those things, then this tops it off. The included HDMI cable is ARC so you can use that to connect the soundbar. Make sure you use the port labeled eARC on the soundbar and the TV. HDMI is the best method, you don't want to have to use optical if you don't have to.For my full review:Pros:*All-around sound is great. I've watched only a few hours of various types of shows and it does a good job of handling lots of dialogue, or a sporting event, or a highly dramatic scene. You won't be absolutely blown away, but depending on what you were using before this could be a major game-changer. At the end of the day, it sucks me into the content and that's all I need.*Left and right speakers have PLENTY of cord length. I didn't look into it, but I would guess somewhere between 20 to 25 feet of cable for each side speaker and they connect to the sub which is wireless but obviously needs power. One end of each side cable has an L-shaped plug while the other is straight. Make sure you know which one you want to feed through the tube of a speaker stand before setting up so you know where your cable is going to go. Only the straight plug will fit through most stands. Read the manual for setup, but in case you miss it, the blue plug is the left speaker and the gray plug is the right speaker. The speakers themselves have color-coding on the inside of the ports as well to help.*Soundbar itself is kind of big compared to others but has a pretty low profile which makes it great for fitting right in front of the TV and not being in the way.*Upfiring speakers are much better at providing Atmos sound compared to the digital/"fake" up-firing speakers that I have heard in some other soundbars.*Remote is a nice upgrade with the digital display that makes it easy to change inputs.Cons:*Depending on what content you're watching and if it's in surround sound, I noticed that it can take the speaker about 5-10s for it to start playing a sound while the TV is already playing video. It was also out of sync (ahead) by about half a second, but I corrected this in TV settings by adding delay.*Bluetooth was slow to connect, even slower to start playing music compared to the video as mentioned in the bullet above. Not terrible, but there shouldn't be such a long delay between pressing play and it actually playing music. That's why I give it 4 stars on Bluetooth. Everything else about BT is fine.*EQ and level settings on the remote are... bleh. What's strange is you can go through the levels, like Bass for example, and change it to either + or -. Only once in each direction. And when you hit something like "+" you now have to pick between + or - because there is no way to return it back to neutral for that setting. I wish there were more levels to the levels. I would definitely recommend turning Bass and Height Speakers to +, possibly also turning the side speakers to +. For the weird EQ settings on the remote, I gave it 4 stars on remote.I am personally pairing these speakers with an LG 65NANO85 2021 TV, a Chromecast with Google TV, and tried it with Netflix (Sophie documentary was a dolby atmos title, according to Netflix). If you are using Netflix, you need to be on the premier plan to get Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, by the way. I had only planned to watch about 10 minutes at first, but once I sat there, the visuals and the speakers absolutely drew me in and I couldn't stop. Not only did it sound crisp and clear, but I felt like I was in the room. I couldn't really notice the Atmos effect while watching, but it made me feel surrounded and it felt very natural. It was one of the closest feelings I've had to being in a movie theater sound system at home that wasn't some audiophile's home setup.For $500 (It will likely fall to $450 on sales, maybe even a $400 price tag sometime??), I truly believe it is a good value. This is practically the cheapest way to get into true Atmos entertainment right now and I'm definitely happy I did. Since this is a pretty new product at the time of review, I'm hoping others get in on what a great system this is. You're not going to be getting perfect audio and this isn't the top-of-the-line stuff, but I really think this will check a lot of boxes and be a very convenient solution for a lot of people that want to enjoy their shows and movies immersively.

I know this system is a bit dated now but it is a very, very good surround system. Dialogue for tv and movies is super clear. And watching movies is crazy, the sub woofer, bar, and surround speakers work fantastic. I upgraded from a 5.1 Onkyo system and this Vizio cleaner and is much better. Even watching sports, the surround speakers pick up the audience/fans! Watching movies, I often ask, 'is that coming from outside?' 😀The only issue is the surround speakers are not wireless. But for where I put it, the included wires (I think they are 20' each) are plenty long.

I bought this sound bar to upgrade from my previous sound bar that was a no name brand, 2.1 ch 190w Dolby Digital sound bar, that I got for $100 it sounded really good for the price but eventually died. This sound bar was supposed to be a huge upgrade from the other one, but after using it for a couple days, I’m a little disappointed, it’s definitely better than my previous sound bar for movie experience, but for music that’s a debate. The sound quality is pretty good at low to medium volume, at high volume it struggles a little with certain music and movies with a lot of bass, and at max volume you can sometimes hear crackling coming from the sound bar and subwoofer, the crackling distracts me from the movie I’m watching, and the subwoofer, struggling to output bass at max volume when I’m listening to music, throws me off. The up firing speakers suck, I recommend for some movies and music to turn them off, the rear speakers sound all right, and I haven’t had any issues with them, the surround sound you get out of having the extra speakers is pretty decent, now here’s where the problem lies with this sound bar, it’s meant to be for a living room, I bought it for my bedroom, but even in a more confined space it sounds ok, I was expecting it to sound better since a bedroom is not as open as a living room, where the sound spreads out more in a living room, making it less immersive, a smaller area should theoretically make it more immersive since the sound is in a confined space, considering how it sounds OK, in a bedroom when it’s meant to be for a living room with more open space is a little disappointing especially for a sound bar priced at $500. Who knows maybe I’m wrong and putting it in the living room is when the sound bar sounds really good, would I recommend this sound bar, for a Dolby Atmos experience, the answer is no, the disappointing truth is that it’s not powerful enough to really produce that sound for Dolby atmos, maybe if the speakers and subwoofer were bigger, and didn’t suffer from crackling at high volumes, then it would be a great sound bar for the price, it’s decent for movies and surround sound, but for Dolby atmos no, honestly with how it sounds it should be priced around $300 especially with how bad those up firing speakers are, Vizio makes great sound bars as a whole for a good price, honestly for a Dolby Atmos soundbar, you should get either a JBL, Lg, or the Vizio, elevate sound bar, if you have a little extra money to spend, I heard that sound bar is pretty good.