With its wi-fi {surround} audio system and subwoofer, and 4 up-firing drivers for peak results, the $700 Vizio SB36514-G6 Home Theater Sound System delivers wealthy, detailed, and punchy audio, full with 3D object-based Dolby Atmos help. The soundbar’s simple setup is a serious plus, together with a beneficiant assortment of included cables and mounting equipment.
That mentioned, I had bother connecting the Vizio SB36514-G6 to Wi-Fi utilizing my iPhone working iOS 13, and the Chromecast audio-enabled soundbar additionally had issues (in my Brooklyn house, not less than) sustaining a strong Chromecast connection. Vizio says a firmware repair for the iOS 13 points is incoming, and hopefully it’ll easy out the Chromecast kinks, too.
Configuration
As you may discern from its title, the Vizio SB36514-G6 is a 5.1.4 system, which suggests it gives 5 normal {surround} channels (left, middle, proper, left {surround}, and proper {surround}), low-frequency results for deep bass, and 4 peak channels (left, proper, left {surround}, and proper {surround}).
The left, middle, proper, and left and proper peak channels are powered by three front-firing and two up-firing drivers within the soundbar cupboard, whereas a six-inch driver within the wi-fi subwoofer handles the low-frequency results. Last however not least, every of the 2 {surround} audio system has one front-firing driver and one up-firing driver.
Those 4 up-firing drivers are essential if you wish to hear the peak results of Dolby Atmos, a 3D object-based audio format that makes Atmos-encoded film and TV soundtracks sound like they’re coming from all instructions, together with over your head. The up-firing drivers in Dolby Atmos-enabled soundbars, together with the SB36514-G6, are designed to ship audio peak cues by bouncing hold forth your ceiling. (If you will have a Dolby Atmos A/V receiver and discrete loudspeakers, you would possibly bodily mount a few of them in your ceiling). For the most effective outcomes with this speaker, you’ll need a flat ceiling that’s between 7.5 and 12 toes excessive; vaulted ceilings gained’t minimize it, sadly. If you don’t have the right ceiling for Dolby Atmos, Vizio has an alternative choice for you, which we’ll cowl in a second.
Measuring 36 x 2.5 x 3.2 inches, the soundbar can sit immediately in entrance of your TV, whereas the 11.5 x 11.5 x 7-inch subwoofer can go just about wherever within the room. For my testing, I positioned it subsequent to the couch that’s going through my 55-inch LG C9 OLED TV, which made it simpler to attach the 2 flanking {surround} audio system.
Inputs and outputs
The Vizio SB36514-G6 comes with a typical array of ports for a soundbar: An HDMI enter sits in a rear cavity on the left facet, together with an HDMI-ARC (Audio Return Channel, for sending audio out of your TV to the soundbar), ethernet, and a USB Type-A port that helps WAV and MP3 playback (no video codecs, sadly).
Ben Patterson/IDGThe Vizio SB36514-G6 connectivity choices embrace HDMI-ARC, an HDMI enter, +ethernet, and a USB port that helps WAV and MP3 audio information.
The cavity on the right-hand facet of the soundbar has a Toslink optical port for digital audio, a 3.5mm jack for analog audio, and the ability port.
Setup and set up
The bodily setup for the Vizio SB36514-G6 was simple. First of all, kudos to Vizio for supplying nearly each cable, screw, and mount you’ll want within the field, together with an HDMI cable, an optical cable, a stereo RCA-to-3.5mm cable, a 3.5mm-to-3.5mm cable, mounting screws and brackets, and even 4 cable ties. That’s a welcome break from the skimpy cable choices of some soundbar producers, who generally don’t even trouble to incorporate an HDMI cable.
Ben Patterson/IDGThe Vizio SB36514-G6 soundbar comes with loads of cables and mounting equipment, together with an HDMI cable, a Toslink cable, mounting screws and 4 cable ties.
For my explicit setup, I linked the SB36514-G6 (which helps 4K and HDR10/Dolby Vision passthrough) to my 55-inch LG C9 OLED TV through the HDMI ARC port, after which linked my 4K Apple TV on to the soundbar’s HDMI enter. If you will have a number of video sources and also you don’t wish to swap HDMI cables to modify between them, you may as well join your video sources to your TV’s HDMI inputs after which ship audio to the soundbar through the HDMI ARC or Toslink ports.
The downside with utilizing HDMI ARC or Toslink for audio, nevertheless, is that they don’t help lossless audio codecs like Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio; as a substitute, you’ll should accept lossy Dolby or DTS audio. Dolby Atmos will nonetheless work through HDMI ARC, offered you’re OK with lossy Dolby Digital Plus audio. While the brand new eARC (or “extended” ARC) normal does permit for lossless downstream audio over HDMI, the SB36514-G6 doesn’t help it (the identical goes for many of the Vizio’s rivals, not less than for now).
Once you will have the soundbar attached, it’s time for the subwoofer and surrounds, and fortuitously they’re simple to put in. While the {surround} audio system aren’t wi-fi, you may join them to the wi-fi subwoofer through a pair of included cables (every of that are a beneficiant 25 toes lengthy). Because the subwoofer and the soundbar are pre-paired, they need to wirelessly join to one another the second they’re powered on, and certainly, they did for me. If the subwoofer doesn’t robotically connect with the soundbar for some purpose, you may pair them manually by urgent and holding a pairing button on the again of the speaker after which urgent and holding the soundbar’s energy button.
To join the soundbar to Wi-Fi, which you’ll have to do if you wish to solid audio to the soundbar through its built-in Chromecast help or management the soundbar along with your telephone, you’ll want to make use of the Vizio SmartCast Mobile app. Once you will have put in the app in your iOS or Android system, it ought to rapidly discover the soundbar through Bluetooth, then step you thru the method of connecting it to your Wi-Fi community.
As of this writing, nevertheless, the Vizio SB36514-G6 gave the impression to be having compatibility points with iOS 13; certainly, strive although I’d, my iPhone XS working iOS 13 had a horrible time connecting to the soundbar through Bluetooth, and it by no means managed to attach the soundbar to my Wi-Fi community. (A latest SmartCast Mobile replace with iOS 13 fixes didn’t assist.) That mentioned, I efficiently linked the soundbar to Wi-Fi utilizing an older iPhone that was nonetheless working on iOS 12, and as soon as that was completed, my iOS 13-powered iPhone XS might connect with the soundbar through the SmartCast Mobile app. A Vizio rep instructed me {that a} pending firmware replace ought to repair the soundbar’s iOS 13 woes. I’m additionally instructed that the Android model of the SmartCast app, which I wasn’t capable of check, isn’t having any points.
Controls, distant, and indicators
On the highest of the soundbar, you’ll discover buttons for energy, Bluetooth, quantity up/down, and enter. The included distant solely has a couple of buttons, together with a five-way navigational pad, plus buttons for energy, quantity, mute, and enter. To entry extra capabilities and settings, you’ll have to navigate the Vizio’s menus on the distant’s monochrome, one-line LCD show. As neither the buttons nor the show are backlit, discovering your method across the SB36514-G6’s numerous settings is hard at the hours of darkness, and scrolling by means of the 20-odd menu choices is usually a tedious course of below any circumstances.
Ben Patterson/IDGThe one-line LCD show on the Vizio SB36514-G6’s distant isn’t backlit, and clicking by means of all of the menu objects is usually a ache.
You may tweak all the soundbar’s settings utilizing the Vizio SmartCast cellular app, which helps you to alter the sound ranges for every channel, swap between the three EQ settings (Movie, Music, and Direct), toggle the Eco power-saving setting, check the audio system, and extra. The SmartCast app additionally helps you to browse 1000’s of streaming TV reveals and films; however alas, you may solely solid these movies to a Vizio TV, not a soundbar.
Ben Patterson/IDGOnce linked, the SmartCast Mobile app helps you to management all the Vizio SB36514-G6’s numerous settings.
The indicator lights on the Vizio SB36514-G6 are informative with out being obtrusive. Dialing the quantity up or down, for example, makes the lights on a column of 10 LEDs on the left-hand facet of the soundbar rise and fall, whereas altering the relative quantity ranges of the sound channels makes a pair of the LEDs transfer up and down accordingly.
An LED close to the underside of the primary indicator column will briefly glow inexperienced when the soundbar detects a Dolby Atmos sign, and it’ll glow blue when the soundbar connects to Wi-Fi. A number of seconds after you’re completed fidgeting with settings, the LED column goes darkish apart from a single LED on the backside, which glows dimly sufficient that it’s seen however not distracting.
Chromecast and Bluetooth
Speaking of casting, the Vizio SB36514-G6 options built-in Chromecast Audio, which suggests you may solid audio to the soundbar through Chrome, Spotify, and different Chromecast-friendly apps and units. Frustratingly, nevertheless, the soundbar incessantly dropped its Chromecast connection, each once I was casting from my iPhone XS and in addition from the Spotify desktop app on my Windows PC. To be truthful, my Brooklyn house is swimming in close by Wi-Fi networks, which might make it powerful for the Vizio to keep up a gentle wi-fi connection. Then once more, I bumped into the identical points utilizing the soundbar’s ethernet port.
Ben Patterson/IDGThe Vizio SB36514-G6 options your normal management buttons alongside the highest of its housing, together with a Bluetooth pairing button.
I had higher luck with Bluetooth. Pressing and holding the Vizio SB36514-G6’s Bluetooth button to place it in pairing mode, my Windows 10 laptop computer had no downside discovering and pairing with the soundbar, and the connection remained steady throughout prolonged listening periods.
Operation and efficiency
While some soundbars provide a dizzying array of surround-sound modes, the Vizio SB36514-G6 has simply three: Movies, Music, and Direct. While those that prefer to tinker with a wide range of {surround} selections could be disillusioned, I appreciated the narrower vary of choices.
Of course, it actually helps that each one three of the Visio’s sound modes are spectacular, with the Movies mode simply as efficient for aggressively blended motion epics because it was for dialog-heavy TV reveals. Indeed, whereas the SB36514-G6 lacks a setting that reinforces the sound of dialog, I by no means felt that it wanted one, even after a binge session with the chatty attorneys on Suits. The one sonic adjustment I did make was to dial down the overly boomy subwoofer by a couple of notches.
Dolby Atmos
For my Dolby Atmos exams, I first queued up the well-known opening credit of 1978’s Superman, a film that has been remastered for each Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. As Marlon Brando’s credit score swooshed up and over the display, I might sense a palpable peak presence from the Visio’s 4 up-firing drivers, and ditto for the next scene during which General Zod and his lieutenants are flung into the spinning Phantom Zone, which flies up and thru the rear-right peak channel after capturing the three villains. Nice.
Next, I attempted a scene from X-Men: Apocalypse that makes for a nifty Dolby Atmos demo: the second (it’s at in regards to the 10:08 mark) when a younger Cyclops blasts a rest room stall and the ceiling with the power beams that shoot uncontrollably out of his eyes. What we’re listening for right here isn’t a lot the booms and explosions; as a substitute, we wish to hear the bathe of particles falling on our heads. The Vizio SB36514-G6’s 4 peak channels don’t disappoint, with the tiny bits of plaster clattering convincingly from above.
I additionally streamed a Dolby Atmos demo trailer, referred to as “Leaf,” from the official Dolby web site, and I used to be impressed by the deep, but delicate sounds of the rustling timber, the crisp snap of a leaf because it breaks off a department, after which the light however distinct 360-degree flutter because the leaf swirls within the air, floating up, round, behind, and again once more.
When you’re watching a film or TV reveals with no Dolby Atmos soundtrack, the soundbar’s Dolby Audio circuitry robotically upmixes the sound for the peak channels, delivering a noticeable peak presence that (naturally) isn’t practically as exact as native Dolby Atmos encoding. Watching the iTunes model of Avatar with a normal 5.1 soundtrack, I might hear bullets and arrows whizzing throughout me in the course of the massive aerial battle within the ultimate act—once more, nothing as exact as what you would possibly hear in a local Dolby Atmos combine, however actually extra immersive than in a 2D Dolby Digital or DTS soundstage.