Gadgetory

hey I'm Matthew Muscovy ak from CNET and we're gonna take a look at the Vizio s 42:51 W this is Vizio 's 5.1 sound bar system which includes a sound bar a wireless subwoofer and two rear channel speakers for a straight price of around three hundred and thirty dollars the rear speakers are really what separates the Vizio from every other sound bar on the market the design is actually really smart the speakers connect to the wireless subwoofer which you can place in the back of your living room so you don't have to run wires from the front to the back of your living room that means you have a lot less clutter and you still get to enjoy the benefits of true rear speakers the sound bar itself has a really nice understated design it's pretty much all speaker grille from the front except for a small row of LED lights that give you some visual feedback so you know how loud the volume is set it's not a particularly thin sound bar at 3.15 inches but it gives the system a substantial feel that's missing from a lot of budget sound bars the only issue with Vizio s design is that it might block your TV's remote sensor if you place it in front of your TV that means you'll be angling your TV's remote over the sound bar every time you need to change your TV's inputs now it won't be a problem on every TV but it was an issue on the TV in CNET's lab and the Vizio doesn't have a remote signal pass-through feature like some competing sound bars such as the Sony HTC T 260 the remote that controls the vizio is pretty cool it has a great minimalist design plus there's a built-in display so you don't have to squint across the room to look at the sound bars menus it's a neat design and it's miles better than the remotes that come with other sound bars inputs on the back of basic there's optical coaxial mini Jack and analog and that's going to be plenty of inputs if you connect all your devices directly to the TV they connect your TV's audio output to the sound bar which is what the manual suggests the vizio also has built-in bluetooth which is pretty much a must-have feature for sound bars this year bluetooth is the easiest way to wirelessly stream music from the vast majority of smartphones and tablets and it works with any app so you can load up Pandora on your phone and stream it right to your sound bar for sound quality the Vizio is able to deliver a home theater experience that other budget sound bars just aren't capable of the rear channels really make a huge difference especially on movies coming closer to the sound of an AV receiver in 5.1 channel speaker system than any other sound bar we've tested overall it sounded better than the competing Sony HTC t2 60 and it was neck-and-neck with the much larger sharp htsb 60 it's the most convincing home theater sound we've heard from a soundbar at this price the one catch is that in most setups you're not going to quite get the full effect of that surround sound that's because a majority of TVs downconvert incoming audio signals to stereo so if you use your TV to switch between devices the Vizio won't get a true Dolby Digital or DTS signal now the Vizio still creates a fake surround mix from any stereo signal and in most cases it sounds pretty good but if you're a stickler for a true surround mix you may feel a little let down by the Vizio but overall that's a minor flaw and what's an overall excellent sound bar system it's not gonna work in every living room environment but if you really want to get that true surround sound experience from a sound bar the Vizio s 42 51 W is an excellent performer with the solid feature set and it's hard to complain with a $330 price