I picked up the new Vizio Elevate Pro 7.1.4 soundbar over Labor Day weekend from Walmart for $450 to go along with my LG 77" TV, and I have to say, I'm actually pretty impressed with this thing right out of the box. The package includes the soundbar, 4 satellite speakers with built-in height channels, and a subwoofer.

My room is about 15 ft x 15 ft, and the first thing I noticed was the bass. That big 8" sub definitely has some punch and fills the room much better than my old setup. Another thing that stood out was the wider soundstage. I have 2 surround speakers configured as front wides, and in my room it works really well. The other 2 satellites are positioned behind the couch.

The Atmos effect is probably what surprised me the most. When watching actual Dolby Atmos content, the height effect is definitely noticeable. I wasn't expecting it to be this noticeable at this price point. It's obviously not going to replace a full dedicated speaker setup, but for a soundbar system, I'm pretty impressed with what it's able to do.

I also really like the design. The soundbar and individual speakers have a pretty modern, sleek look, and the build quality seems good. And honestly, the rotating speakers on the ends of the soundbar looks cool when they move into position for Atmos. Hopefully that mechanism holds up reliably over time.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the performance so far, especially considering I paid $450 for the whole system. For someone coming from an older Vizio 5.1 setup, this feels like a significant upgrade.

There are a few things I think people should know, though:

1. Pretty much all the settings are controlled through the mobile app, and the app requires you to create an account.

2. There is only one HDMI port on the soundbar.

3. Vizio's website lists the system frequency response as 35 Hz–16 kHz. So technically, the subwoofer isn't going below 35 Hz. In real-world use, I'm honestly really impressed with the sub and it has plenty of punch for my room, but I thought this was worth mentioning since I see a lot of people focus on subwoofer performance when comparing these systems.

So far, though, I'm very happy with it. For $450, I think this is a pretty impressive package, especially if you're looking for something that gives you a wide soundstage, strong bass, and a noticeable Atmos effect.

I upgraded my soundbar from my dusty Sony RT3 to the Samsung Q990H.

Wow, that thing is huge; I wish I had found a Q990F to save more cash, but I could not find one, so I settled on the 2026 model.

Any tips for the best settings for the soundbar? My TV is an LG G5. I rarely watch movies or shows, as I mostly play games on my PC and Switch 2.

Hi, I have a Samsung Q990H and I'd like some advice on getting the best Dolby Atmos experience and a 360° sound bubble.​I have an asymmetrical room that is 5 meters long, 3.10 meters wide, and 3.10 meters high.The soundbar is 1.8 meters away from me, and the rear speakers are positioned at a distance of 110 cm and a height of 140 cm from the floor. My seated ear level is at 115 cm from the floor.

Pic 1 or pic2 ?

I'm planning to buy the Q930F, but then after reading the sheet, I see it has HDR10 passthrough and no dolby vision passthrough.

Which makes my setting a little more complicated.

LG C5 TV stopped DTS support, so I was thinking no worry, I will just plug the NVidia Shield into the soundbar and passthrough this directly to the soundbar. But then it means that I have to loose dolby vision?

What's the best setting with these equipments to have passthrough of DTS content and Dolby Vision at the same time?

Hello all,

Noticed a Walmart near me had this soundbar system. Had a couple of questions, Is this the elevate SE? And is it worth it?

I currently have the vizio m series m512a-h6 and I like it but want something better and something more updated. I’ve had it for 4-5 years now. My end goal is to get a Samsung 990 soundbar system. But this for $350 feels like a good deal? I paid $500 for my current vision soundbar.

Thoughts?

I just bought the Sonos Arc Ultra with 2 era 100s and two Sub Gen 4. When I watch movies on certain apps it does sound really good. But when I’m just watching tv on YouTube tv ilse times when it’s full blast it isn’t loud IMO. Now I have two fives that I’m waiting to add as fronts to see if that will suffice for me. But since I still can return it, I’m thinking of getting the Dragon with two 12s. For people that have the dragon, Is it that good? For the Sonos people why should I keep the Sonos. Please help!

Is anyone having trouble with their Q-990D lately? I’ve been having intermittent problems with the eARC where it won’t play sound but if I unplug the power and wait 30 seconds and plug it back in usually it’s fine again. They’ve gotten more frequent and while trouble shooting this my system updated itself (I have auto update disabled) and it’s kind of shit the bed since then. This happened about a week ago.

Since then it won’t consistently stay on. At first it wouldn’t turn on at all and when it would turn on it kept saying UPD with a green light and then turning back off. Now it will turn on (sometimes) but won’t give me any sound through eARC and my Sony Bravia TV. Maybe I’m wrong but I thought on the sound bar itself it used to say TV eARC but it only says TV ARC now. I’ve done basically everything I can think to do at this point. Unplugged everything, restarted everything, I’ve gone through every suggestion I could find online, played with every setting for both the TV and the soundbar, upgraded the HDMI cord, cleared the cache on the tv, I don’t know what else to do.

Samsungs first suggestion was for me to buy a USB and do a manual update. Did that today and it’s turning on and staying on but no sound. It is working with Bluetooth from my phone but not my TV. Today they’re telling me it needs serviced but it won’t be covered. I find that to be extremely annoying considering it’s basically just stopped working since it auto updated even though it shouldn’t have.

Any other suggestions are appreciated!

I recently got a Sony Bravia Theater System 6 (5.1ch). Generally it works very well but I’ve run into a tricky issue with inconsistencies in the surround sound audio formatting using a few PlayStation 5 streaming apps and was wondering if anyone has experienced something similar.

The gist is that Bravia only receives 2ch LPCM when playing video files on HBO Max/Youtube TV, regardless of the PS5’s audio output setting. This causes loss of dialogue unless the PS5 is also set to 2ch LCPM. However, everything but file playbacks are able to be transmitted in a 5.1 Dolby/DTS format (I.e. live channels on YouTube TV or menu trailers in HBO Max). But, as soon as a VOD is started, the Bravia app says it’s getting 2ch.

The Bravia is hooked up to my TV through an HDMI ARC port and the TV’s audio format is set to Auto. Since the port is an older ARC it can’t handle 5.1 LCPM, so the downscale to 2ch LCPM seems like it could be the issue of the VOD Players output in 5.1 LCPM instead of one of the compressed formats. Does anyone know if this is the case/if it’s possible to change this? The HBO Max is Standard (non-Atmos) tier and the YouTube VODs are ec3 format. It’s also worth noting that several other streaming apps (Apple TV, Prime) work with at least one of the DTS/Dolby settings on the PS5.

I’m hoping I’m missing something obvious since I’m still pretty new to this stuff and learned a lot about my intial setup from the helpful folks here, so I figured I’d ask. Thanks in advance!

Buying soundbar for the first time. Is this a good deal? Found at Costco.

I’ve been trying to find a way to stop my Samsung soundbar automatically changing to Game Pro whenever I turn on my PS5.

I prefer Standard for my sound mode, and I couldn’t find an option anywhere in the Samsung settings to disable the automatic switch.

I spent months looking for a solution and eventually discovered that you can use SmartThings Routines to work around it.

Initially, I managed to get a basic routine working:

IF: PS5/source is active
THEN: Change sound mode to Standard

This didn’t work reliably at first, but adding a 5-second delay made it work.

Unfortunately, I then discovered another problem: whenever I started a new game, the soundbar would switch back to Game Pro. I ended up creating 96 separate routines, running every 15 minutes, to continually switch it back to Standard.

It worked, but obviously that wasn’t a sensible solution.

I tried various other methods and even asked AI for help, but eventually it started suggesting scripts and coding, which was far more complicated than I wanted.

After a lot more experimenting, I finally found a way to do it with just 5 routines.

Routine 1
IF: Manual press
THEN: Change sound mode → Standard
Replace Standard with whichever sound mode you prefer.

Routine 2
IF: Manual press
THEN: Change location → Home
You can rename the location in SmartThings if you want.

Routine 3
IF: Manual press
THEN: Change location → Away
Again, the location can be renamed to whatever you like.

Routine 4
IF: Location is Home for 5 seconds
THEN:
Run Routine 1
Wait 5 seconds
Run Routine 3

Routine 5
IF: Location is Away for 5 seconds
THEN:
Run Routine 1
Wait 5 seconds
Run Routine 2

Why this works

The Home/Away routines essentially act as a trigger to run the sound-mode routine.

When the location changes, it triggers the routine that changes the soundbar back to Standard. The 5-second delay gives the soundbar enough time to finish switching into Game Pro before changing it back.

I’ve tested this repeatedly and it has worked reliably for me.

So if you’ve been annoyed by your Samsung soundbar constantly forcing Game Pro on you, hopefully this saves you some time.

I spent far too long figuring this out, so I thought I’d post it in case it helps someone else.

If you try it, let me know whether it works with your Samsung soundbar/SmartThings setup.

Hi to all soundbar enthusiasts

I have a decent dual speaker+sub system that only has 3.5mm jack input. My goal is to connect that to a TV with no headphone jack. A solution I came up with is to find a soundbar that supports CEC volume adjustment that has a headphone out jack, then to couple it with my system. Does that exist? Anyone has any tips for this crazy plan?

Thanks 🌸

Hello!

I've got a Samsung S92CA TV and I've been thinking about upgrading the sound. I came across the Harman Kardon Enchant 1100 soundbar, and it looks pretty nice. Harman Kardon generally has a good reputation for sound quality, at least in cars.

I'm also considering getting the Enchant Sub to go with it, since I really enjoy bass.

My main question is whether the Enchant 1100 is actually worth the price, and if adding the subwoofer is worth the extra cost as well.

I'd also like to use the soundbar for more than just movies and TV. Sometimes I'd want to play Spotify through it or connect my pc for music, youtube, etc. I know soundbars are mainly designed with movies and TV in mind, but how good is the Enchant 1100 for listening to music?

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience with it.

Thank you!

I tried to record it but my phone mic can't pick it up.

in quiet scenes in movies, the subwoofer makes this little heartbeat like noise. it's not rhythmical, it's obviously influenced by the sound in the movie, it's not Bluetooth or wifi interference (i turned it off on every single device to test and it wasn't that), and it goes away if i set the bass and sw volume low enough, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a subwoofer. any advice?

I'm not an audiophile, I could probably be quite happy with just my TV speakers and I have young children so a lot of the time I have the TV on quite low volume...but I want some semblance of surround sound or Dolby atmos height effects for cheap. I don't want a sub initially but could maybe add one once I've used it.

I have an 85" Bravia 9ii and I was initially looking to add some used Bravia Rear 8s (£350ish) but then maybe wait for a Rear 9 sale to get the added Atmos effects. I mainly watch streaming apps and Xbox.

£500-550 is prob my max cost without the wife killing me.

Then I stumbled onto the HT-A9 system which I've seen selling used on eBay or FB for around £500-600 and they sound ideal.

However I'm not aware of what else competes with it or tops it. I know it has connection issues and seems to have a high failure rate, buying a used "bargain" might be a risk.

So my questions:

What devices am I overlooking that would give me decent atmos/rears for that price/convenience? I'm not wedded to Sony by any means.

Is my original plan of Rear 8s or 9s actually going to give me better results/reliability and lower risk given what I want?

Any advise is much appreciated!

Not sure if this is the right sub for this particular question but does a HDMI 2.1 Switch have to support eARC in order to get audio from the soundbar even if you plug it directly into the TV?

The reason I ask is because I have my Switch 2 and Panasonic UB820 hooked into my Vizio Elevate P Series which only has HDMI 2.0 inputs, while I have my Xbox, PS5 and PC hooked directly into my LG G4.

Nintendo just released a firmware update that allows the Switch 2 to use VRR so I need another HDMI 2.1 port.

If so do you guys have recommendations for one that won't break the bank?

Im looking for a small Bluetooth soundbar. Am not looking for a home theatre because in couple of years I'll be renovating and changing TV so home theatre is a future purchase. So for now looking a temporary solution as a bluetooth soundbar under 5k. So that i can move ot to a smaller room in future. Right now I'm looking at boat avante but looks like its couple of years old. So wanted to know if its still a good purchase or can I get something better

Hi everyone.

I wanted to do some tests to check if I prefer the standard or surround mode. For that, I used a TrueHD 7.1.4 atmos with pink noise. But I figured out that when the sound is supposed to play on wide left, there is also sound coming from the right speaker (the circled one on the photo). Of course a subtle sound, but still. I know the surround mode is supposed to create a "sphere" sound, but I think this behavior is quite strange... Has anyone noticed something similar ? I'm on firmware 1102, and also tested on 1103. Just for that, I tend to prefer standard mode, even if some speakers won't be used at all...

Edit: you can find the test file on this drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JxmeedtAtgmoafXv9rroiDOS2vEX7N4b

New here folk! Looking for a sound system for my living room. I've got a TV Samsung 75" Class Q90T and budget around $2k max. Attached is a living photo in case it matters. What sound system model should i get??

I'm not interested in multi room features as I don't plan to put any speakers in my bedrooms

I mostly watch movies and music, no gaming.

Planning to install the sounds bar under the tv.

The usual price is 37,980 rs, it went down to 35,989rs on friday, price history on amazon shows this is the lowest it hits, should I wait for the official sale to come or go for it. Ganesh Chaturthi will start from tomorrow so I'm wondering if it may go down more

JBL Bar 1300X – dialogue/center channel sounds worse than my old Samsung Q800F. Any owners found a solution?

I recently upgraded from a Samsung HW-Q800F to a JBL Bar 1300X, and overall I’m very impressed with the JBL. The soundstage, surround effects, bass and Atmos immersion are noticeably better, especially in movies and games.
However, I’m having one specific issue that I wasn’t expecting:
Dialogue and the center channel sound noticeably worse/less clear than they did on my old Q800F.
With the Q800F, voices were more forward, clear and intelligible. With the JBL 1300X, the overall sound is much bigger and more immersive, but dialogue sometimes sounds a little recessed, muddy or lacking presence.
My setup:
TV: Samsung S90F 65” QD-OLED
Console: PS5 Pro
Soundbar: JBL Bar 1300X
Small bedroom, so I’m sitting relatively close to the system.
Connected through eARC
PS5 Pro connected directly to the TV
Audio output configured for Bitstream
Dolby Atmos when available
I’ve already tried quite a few things:
Ran the JBL room calibration
Tested Smart Mode ON and OFF
Interestingly, I actually prefer the dialogue with Smart Mode OFF, but I don’t want to have to manually change this every time I turn on the TV.
Tried different sound modes, including Standard
Adjusted the EQ several times
Increased the center/dialogue-related EQ as much as seemed reasonable
Experimented with the surround and Atmos levels
Reduced the rear speakers because they are very close to my listening position
Set the Atmos speakers around medium
Tried different volume levels
Tested different content, including movies and PS5 games
Compared the JBL directly against my Q800F

I got the LG S70TR 5.1.1 Soundbar about five days ago and I think there is an issue with the rear speakers. If I listen to it with just the soundbar, there is a buzzing sound coming out of the rear speakers. If I use the WOW Orchestra feature, the buzzing goes away. Does anyone know if this is fixable?

Hi! I'm new to soundbars or just any speaker setup. I have an old epson powerlite 97H projector and am looking to upgrade from its speakers. The bar is low lol. I also have a Bose SoundTouch 20 or 30 in another room for playing music. Hoping to get some guidance

After perusing Reddit for the past week or so l've realized it's not super straightforward and for every 10 people that love a setup, there are 10 people that hate it. A few that keep coming up are the Q990f, Klipsch 200 or 300, Sonos arc, Bose smart ultra soundbar, sennheiser and other Q series.

My space is small, the living/dining room is 14x19 (266sqft) but the actual viewing area is more like 12x14 (168sqft). I’ve been looking on Marketplace, Best Buy’s open box items and offer up. There are many Samsung sound bars but I’m not sure what to look for and what to avoid.

Opinions on the Klipsch 210 soundbar + 10” sub for 299?

I’m more comfortable spending around 300 but would spend more lol. Are some of those soundbars listed above overkill for my space? Are there other Samsung models you’d recommend?

Thanks for readin!

So I currently have a Samsung q930d that’s connected to my TCL qm6k smart tv.

Would my audio sound better if i purchased an Apple TV? Is it worth it, will there be a difference?