Table of Contents
Advantages
- Huge soundstage
- Exciting, detailed sound for music and movies
- Affordable
Cons
- No analog or optical
- App required to change settings
- No height effects
Four years ago, in the early days of the pandemic, I reviewed a speaker that became a mainstay in CNET’s Audio Lab: Vizio’s V21. While the soundbar wasn’t without its flaws (namely, one-note bass), nothing else could match its performance for the money. Today, I can say that the V21’s worthy successor has arrived — and, remarkably, it’s even better, and still affordable.
The Vizio 2.1 Soundbar (SV210M) is a great soundbar, especially for the price. You don’t even need a Vizio TV to enjoy it. The speaker is compact and the wireless subwoofer is small enough that you can easily find a spot for it. For music and movies, the Vizio 2.1 Soundbar is all most people need.
I listen to a lot of audio components in a year, but when a soundbar does what this model does, and for this kind of money, it truly makes my year. The Vizio 2.1 Soundbar is now the best new soundbar under $200
Design and features
The rounded sides give it a more modern look than the older ‘bars’.
The Vizio 2.1 Soundbar is, at its core, a Dolby Atmos speaker, but I’ll explain why in a moment. This model features a stereo soundbar paired with a wireless subwoofer.
The design of the 2024 models has undergone a significant upgrade since I last reviewed a Vizio model , and this 2.1 model has the best looks of all the other bars except the Elevate. The look is modern with its rounded edges, and it’s also quite compact at 30 inches wide by 2.3 inches high by 3.2 inches deep. The wireless subwoofer that comes with it uses a 5-inch driver, and it’s about the size and shape of a top hat, so of course I used it to pay tribute to guitarist Slash.
Just a normal day. Making a Slash shrine with a subwoofer and a slipmat photo.twitter.com/28lpMHPsrZ
— Ty Pendlebury (@TYPendlebury) July 23, 2024
When it comes to spatial audio, the SV210M is on par with similarly sticker-laden budget soundbars in that it can read Dolby Atmos (as well as DTS:X), though I found that it can’t “speak” it. This is strictly two woofers and a separate sub — 2.1 channels. Sadly, you can’t throw some Duolingo (Dolby-lingo?) at it to make it better at Atmos playback, but it does employ some signal processing to make the soundstage feel wider than its cabinet size would normally allow.
Unlike the $1,000 Sony Bravia Theater 8, the Vizio has the two modes most people will want: Music and Movies. It’s worth noting that the previous “Clear Dialog” feature is no longer a mode of its own, but now an adjustable slider in the companion app. This means you can adjust the dialogue whenever you want without sacrificing sound quality.
The sub is compact.
The Vizio’s connections include a single HDMI, Bluetooth 5.2, and a USB-A port. Are you walking around with a USB drive full of WAV files and despairing because you can’t play them? Vizio has you covered. It’s also important to note that if you have a much older TV—one without an HDMI port—you’ll need to buy a different soundbar, as this model has neither analog nor optical ports.
The Vizio Mobile app allows users to change settings on the soundbar
Another notable omission is any sort of remote control. While most people use their TV remotes anyway, the addition of a sound bar remote allows for quick changes when needed – switching from music to movies, for example. The company is now moving all of these setting changes to the Vizio Mobile app. The app is friendly enough, but does require you to connect to Bluetooth first.
To test
When it comes to bargain soundbars, there are three main brands in play: Yamaha, Polk, and Vizio. While the first two have increasingly moved into more expensive single bars, such as the Polk React and Yamaha True X Bar 40A, there are still a few models that rival the Vizio 2.1 Soundbar. I chose the Yamaha CR-30A for comparison, which for sale for $190 as I write this.
Since the Vizio 2.1 Soundbar has Dolby Atmos, I started my comparisons with the opening scene of Mad Max: Fury Road. It was immediately apparent that this soundbar had no height dimension. The voices that normally appear in every corner of the room were flat, even after I cranked the height control all the way up. But that’s okay, because for the money and a 2.1 setup, that’s not what you’d expect.
While soundbars like the Sonos Beam can accurately simulate height, they’re also 2.5x better than this Vizio. What I did What I liked most was the Vizio’s room-filling sound; it didn’t act like a small speaker at all. I was sitting right in front of it, but if I closed my eyes, I couldn’t tell where the speaker was, which is quite an achievement for a budget model. Mad Max’s (Tom Hardy) voice lacked chestiness, and the sound quality of the speech was downright hissy. The sub may be small, but it can still hurt when it needs to, whether it’s from explosions in the engine or the car itself.
It wasn’t until I swapped the Vizio for the Yamaha gear that the differences between the two bars became apparent. The Yamaha sounded considerably smaller than the Vizio, and less cinematic. What it made up for was in the subwoofer’s performance. Every slam, every beat, every explosion sounded raw, untamed (in a good way, not uncontrolled). While switching the Vizio between movie and music modes can help — since you can configure the subwoofer volume separately — it does require using the app.
Since the soundbar has Bluetooth connectivity, I was curious to see how well the Vizio would play music. It turned out to be quite good. However, I found that the powerful sound that was appropriate for movies was too much to handle when playing music again. I turned the sub back a bit and the result was Life by The Beta Band sounding natural and fun, and the soundbar was able to hit all the notes in the deep bass-outro riff. I enjoyed listening to the song so much that I started listening to it again at the beginning of the record it’s on: Hot Shots II. I should also reiterate here that the soundbar does not have a Direct mode: the soundbar will bounce sound off your walls, even when it’s in Music mode. However, it sounds so good that this isn’t a problem at all. In comparison, the Yamaha sounded small and a bit reserved when listening to the same song.
Should you buy it?
While there’s been a lot of code spilled on even flashier home theater gear like the Sennheiser Ambeo, there’s always a place in my heart for the bargain hunters. Whether it’s an ELAC B6 speaker or a Vizio soundbar, products like this show that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get great sound. With the Vizio 2.1 Soundbar, the company continues to push the boundaries, and that’s great news for everyone. This speaker is a surefire winner.
