Vizio M21D-H8 soundbar review: Huge sound, no subwoofer required

In my testimonials, soundbars that incorporate subwoofers normally audio far better than standalone soundbars with no subs, for one particular evident purpose: much more bass. The subwoofer adds plenty of lower-conclusion effects and produces a fuller audio, but all those major bass packing containers acquire up plenty of room. What if you want a speaker that generates a major soundfield and great bass, but only uses the place in entrance of your Tv set? The Vizio M21D-H8 helps make a terrific situation for the one speaker method — it appears massive nonetheless stays reasonably compact. 

The Vizio’s audio quality is a massive move previously mentioned a television’s, which you’d count on, and established my toes tapping. It appears great with most movies and music and is reasonably straightforward to established up. In contrast to pretty much any other one bar near this selling price the Vizio M21 contains two HDMI ports, which seriously boosts its versatility. And there’s Bluetooth streaming your music as effectively.

At $150 the M21 is reasonably affordable, even though it would not deliver the visceral bass of as subwoofer-outfitted units around this selling price, this kind of as the Creative Phase V2 or Vizio’s individual V21. If you happen to be seeking to ditch the subwoofer, even so, there’s nothing in this selling price range that can problem the Vizio M21 for compact sizing, fantastic functions and total audio. 

Likely to a one bar

Soundbars usually are not commonly recognised for their sleekness but I discovered the Vizio M21D-H8’s trapezoidal design and style very putting. Call it a Toblerone if you like, I definitely do, but Vizio evidently would not care. Though it appears very similar to the SB362An-F6 it replaces, the design and style has been simplified — the minor triangles on one particular aspect are now changed by a one Vizio symbol, for example. On the other conclusion are buttons for quantity, resource range and Bluetooth.

This audio bar is 36 inches very long and is developed to sit in entrance of your Tv set — provided you have plenty of clearance for its two-inch top — or it can be mounted on the wall (with two keyhole ports) to issue outward into your room. It contains six motorists comprising of two woofers, twin tweeters and a pair of three-inch onboard “subwoofers.” There is no subwoofer output, even so, so you won’t be able to insert a independent sub later on.

The entrance of the cloth-included cabinet contains a coloured LED to denote the input as effectively as a sequence of white LEDs for quantity. It’s a large amount far better than the previous method, which was pretty much incomprehensible, but continue to not as very clear as an real alphanumeric display, for example.

The rear has a scooped-out segment for the inputs along with two keyholes for wall-mounting. The largest up grade on the primary, and perhaps the purpose powering the $30 selling price bump, is the addition of two HDMI ports: HDMI in and HDMI ARC. Though some individuals use their TVs as a switch, the added HDMI is handy if, say, you use your good Tv set for streaming and want to insert a next machine, like a gaming console. The soundbar also contains optical audio for hooking up your Tv set, two three.5mm analog ports with one particular for a voice assistant like the Amazon Echo Dot, and a USB port for playing MP3s and WAVs from a thumb generate. 

The Vizio has both of those Dolby and DTS decoding, which is spectacular for a audio bar at any selling price, in addition it has DTS Digital:X, which is developed to simulate audio coming from around and previously mentioned you, and that performs particularly effectively.

The distant features powerful concentrations of regulate for a inexpensive soundbar, with quantity in addition two bands of EQ and an input selector. The again of the distant helpfully contains a coloration code chart of the inputs.

How does it audio?

The M21’s audio quality was quite great general, even though is absence of bass compared to subwoofer-outfitted units came by means of in my comparisons. 

As I have discovered with past soundbars featuring DTS Digital:X, this technological know-how seriously can help fill a room with lifelike audio. Head to head from a soundbar that would not have it, like the Creative Phase V2, the discrepancies are evident. The Vizio was straightforward to get rid of bodily though watching blockbuster movies, though the Creative’s audio normally appeared like it was coming from the cabinet.

The Vizio’s expansive soundstage was quickly evident for the duration of the lobby scene in The Matrix. Following Neo (Keanu Reeves) trips the steel detector and decorates the marble-walled room with garlands of guide, a one soldier shouts “Freeze” (1.forty two:09)  The shout and its gradual decay loaded the room in a way the Creative could not. Nevertheless the Creative was equipped to articulate the explosions and bass-led soundtrack that the subwoofer-much less Vizio skipped.

In contrast from the Vizio V21, another device with a subwoofer, the M21’s openness and relative absence of bass ended up the moment all over again obvious. The M21 sounded much more vibrant for the duration of the lobby scene, even if it could not match the V21 for effects. That deep bassline popped up now and all over again on the one bar when there was not anything else occurring, but I listened to it total throttle with the V21. 

One issue you really don’t normally get from a budget soundbar, even one particular with Bluetooth, is affinity with music, nonetheless the Vizio held its individual with a range of various genres. It was equipped to current vocals with convincing articulation, and make the instrumentation coalesce as one particular device. 

With the chill anthem Lebanese Blonde by Thievery Company, for example, the Vizio sounded clean by means of the bass and midrange even if it lacked the oomph other soundbars get with a independent sub. On the Creative Phase V2 music was limited and a little bit much more thrilling, even though it shown one particular of the opportunity weaknesses of these sort of techniques — the reduced mids appeared to be lacking. As a consequence the track came across as a minor thin sounding.

Need to you purchase it?

The Vizio M21 is an fantastic one-bar method with loads of connectivity and a refined, refined design and style. I know of no other one bar that costs much less than $two hundred that features as substantially. 

That claimed, it is really cannibalized by the existence of the firm’s individual M21: at $150 the V21 is comparatively too substantially. Though it is really consistently on sale for $one hundred twenty, and is $116.22 at Amazon right now, a large amount of destinations provide it for total selling price. For the exact $150 you can purchase the V21, and it will come with a wireless subwoofer, so if it is really a choice in between the two get the V21 as a substitute. Similarly the $109 Creative Phase V2 features a independent sub which also lifts its general performance, and discount hunters seeking to extract the increase general performance for the littlest quantity of income ought to get (the) Creative.