Vizio V Series V51x-J6 Soundbar Review

The Vizio V Series 5.1 Soundbar is a simple soundbar. It's mostly plastic, with a thin fabric fitted around the front and the sides. Like the Vizio V Series V51-H6, the control buttons are on top of the bar.

The sub is mostly melamine and sits on four plastic pegs with rubber grips. There's a port on the back, and the speaker is underneath.

The satellites have a similar design to those of the Vizio V Series V51-H6. They're mostly plastic, and there's fabric on the front and the sides. They don't have a power cable, so you only need to wire them to the sub to get them to work.

This soundbar is a touch wide, so it doesn't fit between the legs of most 55-inch TV stands. That said, it's not very tall, so it shouldn't block your screen unless your TV sits flush on your table.

The sub is a bit smaller than the sub for the Vizio V Series V51-H6. It's shorter in height than the average desktop PC, so you should have lots of flexibility when placing it in your setup.

The satellites aren't very big. That said, you need to wire them to the subwoofer to get them to work, which may limit where you place them in your setup.

This setup has a decent build quality. The bar and the satellites are mostly matte-textured plastic, while the subwoofer is made of melamine. Overall, the materials feel solid and durable. However, the fabric covering the front and sides of the bar and satellites seems like it could rip or get dirty easily, so you should take caution when handling them.

• User manuals
• Wall mount template
• Wall mount brackets with screws
• Optical cable (3.9 ft / 1.2m)
• HDMI cable (6.2 ft / 1.9m)
• 2x surround speaker audio cables (26 ft / 8.0m)
• Power cable for sub (8.5 ft / 2.6m)
• Power cable for bar (5.2 ft / 1.5m)
• Remote with batteries (2x AAA)

This soundbar has a good stereo frequency response. Overall, it has a pretty even response, especially in the mids, which is where most voices and lead instruments are reproduced. The bar is suitable for listening to most types of audio content as a result. Plus, there's a little extra punch and thump in the high-bass range to help bring genres like EDM and hip-hop to life. However, compared to last year's Vizio V Series V51-H6, there's a little less low-bass in the mix, so you feel less rumble with certain tracks.

With its bass set to '-3', this soundbar offers a more neutral, balanced sound profile suitable for lots of different types of audio content without overwhelming listeners who don't like a lot of extra punch in the bass range.

This soundbar has a decent stereo soundstage performance. The soundstage is perceived to be a little bit wider than the bar itself, though it doesn't have any tricks to make it seem wider than that. Also, its focus is decent. Sound objects like voices and instruments seem to come from a pinpoint location most of the time, though they may jump to a more general area sometimes.

The bar gets loud without a lot of compression at max volume, so you can crank up the volume to fill large spaces and crowded parties without distorting your audio.

This soundbar has a decent stereo THD performance. At normal listening volumes, distortion falls mostly within good limits, so audio reproduction is largely clean and pure. There's a small jump in distortion at max volume, especially in the bass range. However, distortion is really hard to hear with real-life content, so you're unlikely to have an issue unless you're a really astute audiophile.

This 5.1 setup has a discrete center channel, which is designed to improve the quality of vocal reproduction in your audio. This channel's frequency response is really even, too, especially in the mids where voices are reproduced. As a result, dialogue is clear and accurate in the mix.

The Vizio V Series 5.1 Soundbar has a fair surrounds performance. It comes with two discrete satellite speakers, so surround objects like voices are clearly and accurately represented in the sound image. Audio seems like it's coming from all around you, rather than just from speakers placed in front of you. That said, the frequency response is quite bass-heavy, so your audio content may be boomy or muddy. If you want a soundbar with a better surrounds performance, check out the Vizio M Series M51ax-J6.

The Vizio V Series 5.1 Soundbar has a decent selection of sound enhancement features. Unlike more premium setups on the market, it doesn't have a room correction tool, so it sounds a bit different depending on the acoustics of your space. That said, you can make up for it a bit with its bass and treble adjustments. There are also some EQ presets to customize its sound: 'Direct', 'Game', 'Movie', and 'Music'. You can also set its 'Surround' feature to 'On', 'Off', 'Front', and 'Dual' for a more immersive sound.

The Vizio V Series 5.1 Soundbar comes with some physical inputs. There's an AUX port, which is handy if you want to wire older devices to the bar to playback audio. However, it lacks a Full HDMI In port, so you can't use it as a hub between different devices. We don't consider it to have a true HDMI Out port since it lacks a Full HDMI In, and you can't plug in two HDMI devices at the same time.

The Vizio V Series 5.1 Soundbar has good audio format support via ARC. It supports Dolby Digital content, which is the most common surround sound format for streaming platforms and Blu-rays. However, it doesn't support lossless or object-based formats like Dolby Atmos.

The Vizio V Series 5.1 Soundbar supports both Dolby Digital and DTS content via Optical. You can often find these formats on streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs.

The Vizio V Series 5.1 Soundbar has a great latency performance. It has fairly low latency via ARC and Optical, so the audio you hear should mostly be in sync with the video you see. As a result, it's suitable for watching videos and movies over this connection. However, some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may vary.

The Vizio V Series 5.1 Soundbar lacks a Full HDMI In port, so it doesn't support high-quality passthrough.

You can wirelessly stream audio from mobile devices like your phone to the bar via Bluetooth.

This soundbar doesn't have a display, though it does have a series of vertical lights on the left side that flash depending on the settings you adjust. Also, when you select one of the EQ presets, there's some audio feedback.

On top of the bar, there are physical controls that let you power the bar on/off, change the input, activate Bluetooth pairing mode, and adjust the volume.

The remote is fairly simple and lets you control the bar's settings. However, it isn't a universal remote, so you can't use it to control your TV.

The Vizio V Series 5.1 Soundbar doesn't have built-in voice assistant support. However, there's an AUX In port on the bar that lets you plug in a voice assistant device like an Amazon Echo. We don't consider this built-in support since you need to purchase a third-party device to get it to work.