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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2021
Most important thing to do is the firmware upgrade before connecting the bar to your tv/components.
My unit came with a USB drive with files already on it however they were not the most recent files available on the website. Just download the firmware zip file from their support page and replace the files on the flash drive and follow the instruction page.
I chose to wall-mount this bar because my old vizio bar was also mounted up on the wall. I got lucky and was able to line up the brackets to allow the cables to bend and come thru the access hole I have in the wall while keeping everything well hidden, see pictures. Look at how the plugs are setup on the bar and compare that to how many components you want to have directly attached to the bar vs. what you want going to your TV.
I have a nvidia shield going into hdmi-4 port right next to the ARC port that way both cables can go straight into the wall. the power adaptor plug cable has to go all the way over to the opposite side of the bar so some people might want to drill a separate hole in the wall just to hide this wire... I have mine tucked floating behind the bar and run it through the same cut out for the hdmi cables.
CEC power and volume control works great regardless of whether I'm using the TV remote control or my shield's remote.
mounting the rear speakers is a chore because they technically should have both mounting plates used to hold them to the wall, at the moment I'm only using one because of trial and error for placement.
my couch sits right up against the wall in a section recessed against windows so the speakers are literally a foot away from our ears. manual recommends mounting these AT head level for best sound however I might end up mounting these higher and either angled down at us or up for ceiling reflection effect because even at the lowest volume level they are still a little too loud for my listening pleasure at times.
finally keep in mind that the sub and rear speakers talk to the sound bar wirelessly over a 5ghz channel which has the potential to interfere with a WiFi router and cause audio drop out at times. this sound bar has a setting to enable a direct frequency (DF) to help alleviate this issue. because routers are also equally complicated to configure the average home user may get frustrated to not end trying to fix this, just contact their tech support. I have a google router which doesn't allow you to change the channel because it auto senses interference from competing channels. their help page will walk you thru difference solutions for this type of setup. you can use the wifiman app by ubiquiti which shows lots of detailed info about your home network and networks around you.
so far this sound bar has recognized all formats I've thrown at it both from my sony bravia's built in apps over the ARC and from the nvidia shield pro running kodi. each time new content starts the bar will display which codec it is playing and you can hit the info button for verification. this is awesome for me because other sound bars will simply either not tell you this information or flat out refuse to decode it leaving you in silence.
good news is despite the settings being a little on the complex side, it does allow you to save your preferences to memory.
I've only had this sound bar a day and have mixed feelings about this. Here's the short story... it is a complicated device that requires lots of fiddling with to get the sound you want. Fortunately the company provides half decent documentation that explains how to access and change the settings though ends just short of telling how the changes affect the way the system performance changes. They give recommended settings for configuration except don't tell why I should use them other than it gives the best performance. My old vizio unit was full configuration through the app which allowed me to change from 2 presets (movie/music) and surround/no surround. I could also change the bass/treble of the bar while also separately changing the sub level and also the rear speaker level to compensate for how close they sit to my head near the couch. this shockwafe unit lets you do all the same things except through a complicated remote design pushing buttons while watching the bar closely to make sure you have to right options set and then confirm the change. some changes cause the sound to drop out for 3 to 5 seconds while they take effect which is annoying but reminds me of my old onkyo receiver. I've found the best settings so far for myself is to use NATIVE mode which allows the system to decode all formats directly without any special upmixing of the content. I really encourage anyone to go through all the different settings with multiple sources to find the one you like best. I might end up changing my settings later on. Also DSP I disable which are the preset EQ configs like music/movie/game/clear voice. I find these to cause the audio to sound un-natural and less clear/crisp.
Most important thing to do is the firmware upgrade before connecting the bar to your tv/components.
My unit came with a USB drive with files already on it however they were not the most recent files available on the website. Just download the firmware zip file from their support page and replace the files on the flash drive and follow the instruction page.
I chose to wall-mount this bar because my old vizio bar was also mounted up on the wall. I got lucky and was able to line up the brackets to allow the cables to bend and come thru the access hole I have in the wall while keeping everything well hidden, see pictures. Look at how the plugs are setup on the bar and compare that to how many components you want to have directly attached to the bar vs. what you want going to your TV.
I have a nvidia shield going into hdmi-4 port right next to the ARC port that way both cables can go straight into the wall. the power adaptor plug cable has to go all the way over to the opposite side of the bar so some people might want to drill a separate hole in the wall just to hide this wire... I have mine tucked floating behind the bar and run it through the same cut out for the hdmi cables.
CEC power and volume control works great regardless of whether I'm using the TV remote control or my shield's remote.
mounting the rear speakers is a chore because they technically should have both mounting plates used to hold them to the wall, at the moment I'm only using one because of trial and error for placement.
my couch sits right up against the wall in a section recessed against windows so the speakers are literally a foot away from our ears. manual recommends mounting these AT head level for best sound however I might end up mounting these higher and either angled down at us or up for ceiling reflection effect because even at the lowest volume level they are still a little too loud for my listening pleasure at times.
finally keep in mind that the sub and rear speakers talk to the sound bar wirelessly over a 5ghz channel which has the potential to interfere with a WiFi router and cause audio drop out at times. this sound bar has a setting to enable a direct frequency (DF) to help alleviate this issue. because routers are also equally complicated to configure the average home user may get frustrated to not end trying to fix this, just contact their tech support. I have a google router which doesn't allow you to change the channel because it auto senses interference from competing channels. their help page will walk you thru difference solutions for this type of setup. you can use the wifiman app by ubiquiti which shows lots of detailed info about your home network and networks around you.
so far this sound bar has recognized all formats I've thrown at it both from my sony bravia's built in apps over the ARC and from the nvidia shield pro running kodi. each time new content starts the bar will display which codec it is playing and you can hit the info button for verification. this is awesome for me because other sound bars will simply either not tell you this information or flat out refuse to decode it leaving you in silence.
good news is despite the settings being a little on the complex side, it does allow you to save your preferences to memory.
Most important thing to do is the firmware upgrade before connecting the bar to your tv/components.
My unit came with a USB drive with files already on it however they were not the most recent files available on the website. Just download the firmware zip file from their support page and replace the files on the flash drive and follow the instruction page.
I chose to wall-mount this bar because my old vizio bar was also mounted up on the wall. I got lucky and was able to line up the brackets to allow the cables to bend and come thru the access hole I have in the wall while keeping everything well hidden, see pictures. Look at how the plugs are setup on the bar and compare that to how many components you want to have directly attached to the bar vs. what you want going to your TV.
I have a nvidia shield going into hdmi-4 port right next to the ARC port that way both cables can go straight into the wall. the power adaptor plug cable has to go all the way over to the opposite side of the bar so some people might want to drill a separate hole in the wall just to hide this wire... I have mine tucked floating behind the bar and run it through the same cut out for the hdmi cables.
CEC power and volume control works great regardless of whether I'm using the TV remote control or my shield's remote.
mounting the rear speakers is a chore because they technically should have both mounting plates used to hold them to the wall, at the moment I'm only using one because of trial and error for placement.
my couch sits right up against the wall in a section recessed against windows so the speakers are literally a foot away from our ears. manual recommends mounting these AT head level for best sound however I might end up mounting these higher and either angled down at us or up for ceiling reflection effect because even at the lowest volume level they are still a little too loud for my listening pleasure at times.
finally keep in mind that the sub and rear speakers talk to the sound bar wirelessly over a 5ghz channel which has the potential to interfere with a WiFi router and cause audio drop out at times. this sound bar has a setting to enable a direct frequency (DF) to help alleviate this issue. because routers are also equally complicated to configure the average home user may get frustrated to not end trying to fix this, just contact their tech support. I have a google router which doesn't allow you to change the channel because it auto senses interference from competing channels. their help page will walk you thru difference solutions for this type of setup. you can use the wifiman app by ubiquiti which shows lots of detailed info about your home network and networks around you.
so far this sound bar has recognized all formats I've thrown at it both from my sony bravia's built in apps over the ARC and from the nvidia shield pro running kodi. each time new content starts the bar will display which codec it is playing and you can hit the info button for verification. this is awesome for me because other sound bars will simply either not tell you this information or flat out refuse to decode it leaving you in silence.
good news is despite the settings being a little on the complex side, it does allow you to save your preferences to memory.
great sound but trial and error setup through complicated settings and options menu
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2021
I've only had this sound bar a day and have mixed feelings about this. Here's the short story... it is a complicated device that requires lots of fiddling with to get the sound you want. Fortunately the company provides half decent documentation that explains how to access and change the settings though ends just short of telling how the changes affect the way the system performance changes. They give recommended settings for configuration except don't tell why I should use them other than it gives the best performance. My old vizio unit was full configuration through the app which allowed me to change from 2 presets (movie/music) and surround/no surround. I could also change the bass/treble of the bar while also separately changing the sub level and also the rear speaker level to compensate for how close they sit to my head near the couch. this shockwafe unit lets you do all the same things except through a complicated remote design pushing buttons while watching the bar closely to make sure you have to right options set and then confirm the change. some changes cause the sound to drop out for 3 to 5 seconds while they take effect which is annoying but reminds me of my old onkyo receiver. I've found the best settings so far for myself is to use NATIVE mode which allows the system to decode all formats directly without any special upmixing of the content. I really encourage anyone to go through all the different settings with multiple sources to find the one you like best. I might end up changing my settings later on. Also DSP I disable which are the preset EQ configs like music/movie/game/clear voice. I find these to cause the audio to sound un-natural and less clear/crisp.Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2021
Most important thing to do is the firmware upgrade before connecting the bar to your tv/components.
My unit came with a USB drive with files already on it however they were not the most recent files available on the website. Just download the firmware zip file from their support page and replace the files on the flash drive and follow the instruction page.
I chose to wall-mount this bar because my old vizio bar was also mounted up on the wall. I got lucky and was able to line up the brackets to allow the cables to bend and come thru the access hole I have in the wall while keeping everything well hidden, see pictures. Look at how the plugs are setup on the bar and compare that to how many components you want to have directly attached to the bar vs. what you want going to your TV.
I have a nvidia shield going into hdmi-4 port right next to the ARC port that way both cables can go straight into the wall. the power adaptor plug cable has to go all the way over to the opposite side of the bar so some people might want to drill a separate hole in the wall just to hide this wire... I have mine tucked floating behind the bar and run it through the same cut out for the hdmi cables.
CEC power and volume control works great regardless of whether I'm using the TV remote control or my shield's remote.
mounting the rear speakers is a chore because they technically should have both mounting plates used to hold them to the wall, at the moment I'm only using one because of trial and error for placement.
my couch sits right up against the wall in a section recessed against windows so the speakers are literally a foot away from our ears. manual recommends mounting these AT head level for best sound however I might end up mounting these higher and either angled down at us or up for ceiling reflection effect because even at the lowest volume level they are still a little too loud for my listening pleasure at times.
finally keep in mind that the sub and rear speakers talk to the sound bar wirelessly over a 5ghz channel which has the potential to interfere with a WiFi router and cause audio drop out at times. this sound bar has a setting to enable a direct frequency (DF) to help alleviate this issue. because routers are also equally complicated to configure the average home user may get frustrated to not end trying to fix this, just contact their tech support. I have a google router which doesn't allow you to change the channel because it auto senses interference from competing channels. their help page will walk you thru difference solutions for this type of setup. you can use the wifiman app by ubiquiti which shows lots of detailed info about your home network and networks around you.
so far this sound bar has recognized all formats I've thrown at it both from my sony bravia's built in apps over the ARC and from the nvidia shield pro running kodi. each time new content starts the bar will display which codec it is playing and you can hit the info button for verification. this is awesome for me because other sound bars will simply either not tell you this information or flat out refuse to decode it leaving you in silence.
good news is despite the settings being a little on the complex side, it does allow you to save your preferences to memory.
Images in this review
