We've currently tested 21 Vizio soundbars. The brand makes a wide variety of soundbars with a good price-to-performance ratio. Their products often don't look or feel as premium as models from competing brands; however, you still usually get a good amount of features, like sound customization options, different wireless playback options, and even Atmos support. While their soundbars tend to sound well-balanced, some models handle stereo dynamics better than others. That said, they still tend to provide good value for the price.
The best Vizio sound bar we've tested is the Vizio Elevate. This premium 5.1.4 setup is great for listening to everything from movies to music to TV shows. Its two discrete satellites beam sound effects all around your living room for an immersive sound right in the comfort of your own home. Unlike other bars from the manufacturer, its sides automatically rotate upwards when you watch Dolby Atmos or DTS:X content. As a result, audio stretches around you when you watch your favorite movies, creating a wide soundstage that makes it feel like you're sitting in the middle of the action.
Thanks to its discrete central channel, this soundbar reproduces dialogue with great clarity. It even has a dedicated subwoofer to bring all the thump and rumble in action-packed movie scenes. There are some sound enhancement features to help you adjust its sound to your liking, though it lacks room correction like some of the more premium bars on the market. As a result, its sound can vary from room to room, but you can always use its bass and treble adjustments to get the best possible sound.
If you want a more affordable alternative, check out the Vizio M Series M512a-H6. It's a versatile 5.1.2 soundbar, making it a great choice for everything from music to movies to TV shows. It's also one of the only bars in its price range that offers discrete rear speakers, improving its surround sound performance by bringing a more clear and real feel to your favorite movies. Like the Vizio Elevate, it supports many audio formats commonly found on streaming platforms, including Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital. The resulting sound is quite immersive, with a wide and expansive soundstage that brings the action to your living room—though it lacks rotating sides and doesn't have up-firing drivers on its satellites, so it's not quite as great as the Elevate.
Still, for its price, it's a solid option. Music and TV shows are accurately reproduced, too. Its dedicated subwoofer reproduces the thump and rumble in the bass range with accuracy and detail, and vocals and lead instruments are clear and present in the mix. You'll find a similar selection of sound enhancement features as the Elevate, with bass and treble adjustments that let you control the bar's sound. It's a great mid-range pick that can please lots of different listeners.
If you're on an even tighter budget, consider the Vizio V Series V51-H6. This 5.1 setup is a more affordable alternative to the Vizio M Series M512a-H6, and it's still a great choice for listening to everything from music to movies. Thanks to its dedicated subwoofer, you enjoy a deep and rumbling low-bass that brings action-packed scenes in your favorite shows to life while dialogue remains clear and present in the mix. The two satellites included with the purchase spread sound effects throughout your room, giving you an immersive feel with surround sound content.
Compared to the M Series, however, this soundbar doesn't support Dolby Atmos content, which is more and more common on streaming platforms and Blu-rays alike. However, this bar may be a better value if you don't watch much Atmos content. After all, it has many of the same sound enhancement features as the M Series models, like bass and treble adjustments to customize its sound. It gets loud, too, so it can fill larger, more open rooms in your home with sound. For the price, it's a solid pick.
If you don't have space in your living room for satellite speakers, check out the Vizio V Series V21-H8 instead. It's a simple, budget-friendly pick that fits easily into your space. Given its 2.1 setup, it's ideal for listening to stereo content, which includes most music and TV shows. Its dedicated subwoofer adds lots of thump and punch to your audio, so you get a bass-heavy sound out-of-the-box. Still, you don't have any trouble following the dialogue in your favorite shows, and the instruments in music are clear and present in the mix. If you prefer a more neutral sound, its bass and treble adjustments let you customize its performance.
This bar also supports 5.1 surround sound formats like Dolby Digital and DTS, commonly found on many streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs. Since it's a 2.1 setup, it has to downmix this content into stereo to play it. That means it doesn't sound as clear or real as our top picks. Sound effects seem like they're coming from a speaker placed in front of you, and the action doesn't expand around you. If you want a better surround sound performance, it's worth upgrading to a setup with rear speakers like the Vizio V Series V51-H6, but if you want a simple bar to enhance vocal-centric TV shows, the V21-H8 remains a good choice.
You can find budget-friendly and more premium soundbar models from both Samsung and Vizio. Samsung's offerings shine in the premium category, and generally, their products offer more sound enhancement features like graphic EQs so you can customize their sound. Meanwhile, some of the best Vizio soundbars are available in the budget category, as their cheaper models have impressive low-frequency extensions to bring more bass to the mix.
LG is another popular soundbar brand with a wide array of soundbars available at both budget-friendly and premium price points. Compared to Vizio, LG bars tend to be better built, even at wallet-friendly price points, with more wireless connectivity options and integrated voice assistant support. However, their budget models generally don't reproduce as much low-bass as Vizio's.
Vizio makes a ton of different soundbars at various price points. In general, they provide pretty good value for the price, especially if you find an older model on sale. Other popular brands like LG or Samsung follow a tight yearly release schedule, discontinuing prior years' models not long after the new ones come out.
However, Vizio is a bit more like Sony because their soundbars tend to stay on the market longer. It's not uncommon to see two- or three-year-old models still available for purchase. It makes it possible to find some really good deals, especially on models that are soon to be discontinued. While their products look and feel cheaper than competing models from other brands, it's a minor sacrifice for the solid performance you generally get in exchange.
Vizio's naming strategy hasn't changed much since they launched their first soundbar, the VSB210WS, in 2009. They use a combination of letters and numbers to designate the soundbar's size and the number of channels. They also add a letter at the end to indicate the release year, starting with the letter 'A' in 2012. 'B' covers both 2013 and 2014, while 'C' is used for 2015, 'D' for 2016, and so forth up to 'K' for 2022.
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Jun 27, 2023: No new products tested. Minor text updates for clarity.
Feb 28, 2023: Confirmed the accuracy of picks. Minor updates to the text for clarity.
Nov 04, 2022: No changes in product picks after verifying their accuracy and availability.
Jul 08, 2022: No changes in product picks after verifying their accuracy and availability.
Mar 10, 2022: No changes in picks after verifying their accuracy and availability. Minor updates to the text for clarity.
Vizio is best known for their competitively-priced TVs, and their soundbar division follows suit. They have a wide range of soundbar models at various price points to satisfy all kinds of users. Most of their products provide very good value for the price, and their soundbars are no exception. It's possible to find surprisingly fully-featured models at a relatively low price point, especially when there's a sale. However, their products usually don't look or feel very high-end. If you're not picky about build quality, Vizio soundbars are worth considering.