Gadgetory

hey I'm Matthew moscovia Katzie net and we're taking a look at the Vizio SB 40 21 ma-1 this is a budget sound bar that came out at the end of 2012 and it's currently selling for two hundred and seventy dollars if you've seen a vizio sound bar over the last year or so you're gonna be pretty familiar with this design it's a relatively slick look with the glossy black finish with silver accents and angled feet at the bottom it's not quite as slim as some other sound bars I've seen but it's still gonna fit comfortably on a TV stand there's a front panel display which is handy so you can see what level the volume is at plus some basic controls on the top of the sound bar for when the remote goes missing the included subwoofer is Wireless which is nice because you can place it almost anywhere in your living room although you'll get the best sound quality if you keep it within 8 feet of the sound bar it also does need to be powered so you'll want to keep it close to some kind of power outlet the included remote is a cut above the typical sound bar remote it's got a nice sizable design plus the button layout is very straightforward it doesn't have the neat slide-out panel that videos older VHT 215 had but it's still overall a good clicker there's an optical coaxial and mini-jack input on the back which should be enough for all your devices as long as you use your TV as a switcher there's also a USB port which can be used to play mp3s although it's a clunky solution since you need to navigate your music using the small front panel display the big missing feature is built-in bluetooth which is still relatively uncommon on sound bars but will be much more prevalent in 2013 based on what we saw at CES built-in bluetooth is quickly becoming a must-have feature for sound bars since it works with nearly any smartphone or tablet for wireless audio streaming and it's not an easy feature to add to a sound bar with an adapter sound quality is good for the price and the Vizio lets you adjust bass and treble to dial in the sound exactly how you like movies are a strong suit and they can get plenty loud without distorting even on dynamic action sequences as you'd expect it's not as good with music and heavy roxeanne really reveal its limitations the videos big weakness is that the blend between the subwoofer and the sound bar isn't perfect and when we compared it to our reference higher SPE v40 slim the higher really shined in that regard however that higher sound bar is currently discontinued which puts the physios performance in a better light since it's one of the better performing options that's still available on the market and that's really the main story with the vizio if you need a sound bar right now this is a solid all-around choice with a good blend of design features and sound quality but if you can wait a few more months you'll have a lot more options and most of them will include built-in Bluetooth so it's worth the wait if you can I'm Matthew moscovia and this is the Vizio SB 40 21 M a - wha