[Sean Zherdev]

Lmao wow, the day i buy it, it drops 300 dollars. And even still at 700 I wouldn’t consider it over the arc.

This price drops reaffirms my feelings.

 

[Chingu808]

Some people got open box units for under $500.

 

[harveybirdman15]

Lmao wow, the day i buy it, it drops 300 dollars. And even still at 700 I wouldn’t consider it over the arc.

This price drops reaffirms my feelings.

Yeah that sounds like a more reasonable price. $500-700. I heard the Arc yesterday and wasn’t impressed with that either unfortunately. Especially not for $1500 or whatever. It wasn’t bad but it still had that narrow soundbar soundstage to my ear. Granted, it was placed in a giant room but my living room isn’t exactly small either. I still think the whole sound beam tech only works well in smaller rooms with equidistant walls.

 

[Sean Zherdev]

Yeah that sounds like a more reasonable price. $500-700. I heard the Arc yesterday and wasn’t impressed with that either unfortunately. Especially not for $1500 or whatever. It wasn’t bad but it still had that narrow soundbar soundstage to my ear. Granted, it was placed in a giant room but my living room isn’t exactly small either. I still think the whole sound beam tech only works well in smaller rooms with equidistant walls.

If you have a big living room you might not be happy with any sound bar.

I live in an apartment and Sonos arc sounds incredible. I get a ridiculous amount of directional audio it’s incredibly impressive. A lot of that may have to do with the true play tuning I’ve done that would cater the sound to my room specifically.

i personally believe the arc needs to be tested in the environment it’s going to be used in not a showroom environment.

 

[Bluto]

Just ordered the elevate for $599 with the OLED TV (best buy bundle offering). Hopefully it's worth it at that price.

 

[Beenjammin17]

For those of you like myself that purchased at 999.99 form best buy. they were kind enough to refund me $300 plus tax. I am becoming more and more happy with Best Buy. The long return windows and were able top price adjust and refund over the phone. I was happy enough at 999, but 699 its great. The SB36512 I took back for it was right at 500 open box ( I see its 299 now...) I have to say even without turning the unit on, the anodized Al construction was much nicer then any of their other units. It does have moving parts which I hope are durable and these moving speakers are not just a gimmick in the future.

 

[WES2006AG]

I decided to take advantage of the sale today as well and I am liking it so far. Setup was pretty easy and it looks great sitting under my VIZIO OLED.

I seem to be getting Atmos content from my Apple TV which is activating the upward firing speakers and the green LED flashes on the Elevate. However on my TV the info says stereo. I am using eARC and am thinking this is just a bug on the TVs end but don’t know.

 

[harveybirdman15]

If you have a big living room you might not be happy with any sound bar.

I live in an apartment and Sonos arc sounds incredible. I get a ridiculous amount of directional audio it’s incredibly impressive. A lot of that may have to do with the true play tuning I’ve done that would cater the sound to my room specifically.

i personally believe the arc needs to be tested in the environment it’s going to be used in not a showroom environment.

Yeah I think you’re right. I have another soundbar in a small spare bedroom and it sounds pretty amazing even without surrounds. But one of the walls in my living room is 25 feet from the TV so yeah. Receiver it is.

 

[ranova]

Posted this in the Vizio sub reddit, but my thoughts of the Elevate after a day:

My quick thoughts after using the Elevate for a few hours watching the latest Mandalorian episode and a few movies off Disney+ and Netflix.

• Soundstage is pretty damn good due to its length and the option to rotate down the side speakers
• Sound quality is MUCH better than my previous sound bars (Sonos Beam + 2x Symfonisk + sub hack, Vizio SB4551-D5, and Vizio S4251w-B4. I've owned a Denon receiver and tower speakers in the past as well)
• The issue of not hearing dialog well are long gone with my previous soundbars. Dialog is crystal clear
• Atmos phantom height effect is apparent but nothing "amazing." I do hear heightened sound effects but definitely not as good as dedicated speakers in the ceiling, as expected.
• Rotating speakers are pretty cool to see and the wider soundstage on non-atmos content is nice
• I wish Vizio had ANY walkthrough for setup on speaker placement and atmos effect testing. I also wish they would let you choose how much the speakers rotated to potentially solve issues with different seating arrangements.
• Out of the box, the sub is WAY too bass heavy. I literally have to turn it down to -8 or turn on night mode. Really another reason why we don't get a full blown receiver and sound system, we would never utilize its full power potential.
• Movie EQ mode (I believe is default) made dialog VERY apparent in the front channels but the voices sounded "tinny." Selecting direct solved the tinny dialog but some dialog then leaked to the surround speakers. Hopefully this is fixed

Is this worth $1k? I dont believe so. For $700 or less (on sale now at Best Buy), I think it more fits the bill especially over a Sonos Arc at $800 for ONLY the bar. I have hope in Vizio - they seem to fix problems quickly, especially on their flagship products.

I was able to grab a Best Buy open box (excellent condition) for $480 yesterday and it was definitely a return. Very small scuff mark on the bar and the cables were in a zip lock bag but everything looks good and works well. For $480, its definitely a steal and I will be keeping it. I'm just a little po'ed that LG removed DTS from the CX OLED series so when Vizio fixes Dolby vision passthrough on the Elevate, I'll be plugging my shield directly into it.

Curious how reviewers rate it and compare with other Atmos sound bars.

I decided against the sonos arc (even though I have a sonos speaker in every room) because:

• Crazy expensive at $800 for just the bar
• Sonos still doesnt do DTS
• Does not support LPCM still, even though its promised in an update
• Need another ~1k for a full 5.1 setup (sub and 2 rears)
• No HDMI input, requires you to have a TV with eArc (I do now, but not having inputs is crazy nowadays)

 

[Dizzy714]

Yeah I think you’re right. I have another soundbar in a small spare bedroom and it sounds pretty amazing even without surrounds. But one of the walls in my living room is 25 feet from the TV so yeah. Receiver it is.

What setup are you thinking about going with? I’ve tried so hard to stay away from a receiver setup for years now just because that’s an added animal in and of itself. I hear people with constant compatibility issues, lip sync issues, etc. Soundbar setups are just plug n play dumbproof no hassle units. Not having to have another remote is nice as well. I’m surprised that an optional separate L/R speaker setup hasn’t been an option with soundbars yet.

 

[harveybirdman15]

What setup are you thinking about going with? I’ve tried so hard to stay away from a receiver setup for years now just because that’s an added animal in and of itself. I hear people with constant compatibility issues, lip sync issues, etc. Soundbar setups are just plug n play dumbproof no hassle units. Not having to have another remote is nice as well. I’m surprised that an optional separate L/R speaker setup hasn’t been an option with soundbars yet.

Hmmm well I’m not worried about any lip sync issues. Pretty sure every receiver has an audio sync adjustment. My soundbar does and prior to tweaking it the audio delay feature on it.

Compatibility is a slight concern. I have a Sony TV so I’m thinking of getting a highly rated Sony receiver. I won’t be using the receiver for music really and I only have 2 devices so I’m pretty optimistic about not having handshake issues. I’m already using a universal remote so having an extra remote isn’t really a concern either.

Finally, BestBuy and Amazon are allowing you to make returns as late as January so if I buy now I’ll have a couple of months to test it all out. Many Klipsch speakers are half off today too.

Speaking of Klipsch, if there is one soundbar that still interests me it’s the Klipsch Cinema 1200 due to its width. Unfortunately it’s not going to be out until early December.

 

[WES2006AG]

Been playing around with my Elevate this weekend and so far it has been great. I wish there was some more information in the manual about the EQ settings. Looks like there are only 4 EQ presets Music, Direct, Game, and Movie. Direct seems to turn off the rear speakers and Movie seems to give the richest sound.

 

[ranova]

Been playing around with my Elevate this weekend and so far it has been great. I wish there was some more information in the manual about the EQ settings. Looks like there are only 4 EQ presets Music, Direct, Game, and Movie. Direct seems to turn off the rear speakers and Movie seems to give the richest sound.

Direct is how the source intended the sound to sound like. So you should use it on 5.1 or atmos sources. Movie can be used on any non-5.1/atmos source, however I found that it actually made some 5.1 sources sound much better (primarily TV sources). Movie makes dialog the focus on the front channels and ambient sounds/music on the rears

 

[WES2006AG]

Direct is how the source intended the sound to sound like. So you should use it on 5.1 or atmos sources. Movie can be used on any non-5.1/atmos source, however I found that it actually made some 5.1 sources sound much better (primarily TV sources). Movie makes dialog the focus on the front channels and ambient sounds/music on the rears

Thanks for the heads up. I just assumed I should be watching Atmos content in the Movie EQ. Will have to give some Atmos content on Direct.

 

[phyl0x]

Been playing around with my Elevate this weekend and so far it has been great. I wish there was some more information in the manual about the EQ settings. Looks like there are only 4 EQ presets Music, Direct, Game, and Movie. Direct seems to turn off the rear speakers and Movie seems to give the richest sound.

I also wish there was a bit more explanation of these modes. but there seems to be a bit in the manual at least in regard to how it handles stereo content in Music, Movie, and Direct mode (nothing at all about game mode). These seem to pair with the surround sound setting.

EFFECT > Surnd > ... When enabled (On), Dolby and DTS Surround content will produce full 5.1 sound. With stereo content, EQ Music will produce DTS Virtual:X enhanced sound and EQ Movie will produce realistic 5.1 effect sound. When disabled (Off), the surround speakers will be disabled and the sound bar will only produce DTS Virtual sound effect.

With stereo content, if EQ mode is set to Direct and Surround is set to Off, the sound bar will output 2.1 audio without center or surround.

But from reading around it seems like Movie should be the go to for any tv/movies unless it has Atmos, which direct is better. Unclear at all what game mode does.

 

[ChazzMatt]

Finally some YouTube reviews! 14:25.

 

[Sean Zherdev]

One of the first Youtube reviews, and he states in the comments he absolutely thinks the Sonos is a better system. Good to know I am not the only one lol

 

[ChazzMatt]

One of the first Youtube reviews, and he states in the comments he absolutely thinks the Sonos is a better system. Good to know I am not the only one lol

But I'll never buy a Sonos Arc for many reasons. However, I will buy this, because it has so many other advantages.

I examined the Sonos Arc in detail, read the reviews, tried to like it -- and decided it's not for me. In no particular order:

1) no DTS
2) no extra HDMI inputs
3) subwoofer (necessary!) sold as VERY expensive accessory
4) iOS-only calibration app

I've read three different buyer reviews from people who returned Sonos for this, and loved it. Unless it's the same person posting in three different forums...

I've looked at Sonos, Samsung, Klipsch, LG, JBL and this Vizio Elevate. It seems to have the most positive attributes with the least cons. Klipsch Cinema 1200 would have been perfect (close second), but no DTS or LPCM.

 

[ranova]

One of the first Youtube reviews, and he states in the comments he absolutely thinks the Sonos is a better system. Good to know I am not the only one lol

At double the cost (or triple if you were able to snag an open box elevate for $480 or less) for a 5.1.2 system, I would hope it is better. But as I mentioned above, even though I currently have Sonos in every room, the Arc just wasn't worth it to me.

I moved my Sonos Beam to my bedroom and will keep the 2xSymfonisk + sub hack in the living room so I still have whole house sonos.

 

[phyl0x]

Does anyone have the Elevate and have working multichannel LPCM via earc? I have a LG C9 (newest firmware that passes LPCM), and it setup correctly (confirmed with c9 earc thread), and i cannot get surround sound to work, the Nintendo "test" only plays 2 channels. plugging directly into the soundbar does get full surround.