Customer Reviews

VIZIO VSB200 Universal HD Sound Bar

5 star:		(101)
4 star:		(96)
3 star:		(36)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

We recently purchased a new Vizio LCD TV for the bedroom. The TV is fantastic, but the sound quality is thin as is the case with almost all LCD TVs. When I found out the price of this Vizio soundbar and saw the reviews, I came to the conclusion that this is a no brainer.

It produces surprisingly broad sound without a sub-woofer (a sub-woofer in a bedroom seems like overkill anyway). It fills the space wonderfully.

A few pointers:

The is an enclosed set of speakers with an amplifier. The soundbar does not provide any treble/bass/equalizer control over the sound. Thus, it simply broadcasts the sound based on the input source. Modern TV's tend to have very good audio controls for treble and bass. This is where you will control the breadth of the sound. The soundbar does however enable you to turn on or off SRS Surround. From trying it on and off, I found that 'on' sounds much better. I read one professional audio review of this sound bar that said half-jokingly, 'just turn on the SRS Surround then break the switch'. I would have to agree.

If your ordering the soundbar from Amazon you might consider ordering the toslink digital audio optical cable at the same time. They currently cost $2.77 w/ free shipping. At that cost for the improved sound quality it's an incredible bargain.

The soundbar has one weakness, as has been described many times from other reviewers. Out of the box the remote has a limited range. The problem is not the remote, it's the IR receiver on the soundbar hasn't got a clear line of sight to the remote from all directions. Vizio commmitted an engineering blunder here, but as mentioned by a previous reviewer this is easily solved:
- Carefully remove the speaker grill. It's connected with rubber plugs that hold it in. Start from one end, it'll come right off.
- On the bottom right side you'll see the LED lights and to the left of the lights, you'll see the little black IR signal receptor.
- The back side of the grill is a plastic honeycomb. Just cut a square out of the honeycomb to make room for the IR signal being careful to avoid cutting the speaker grill cloth at the same time. I used a pair of wire cutters.
Once I did this simple manuevuer I had an excellent signal from the remote from all directions.

If you're on a budget and want big sound at a reasonable price for your living room TV, I think this is an excellent choice. I would buy this without a sub-woofer. Once you hear it you can judge whether to spend extra on a sub-woofer.

If you have one of these...you need to remove the speaker grille. Look on the lower right side and you'll notice an opening for the LED indicators, but they failed to create one in the framing to accommodate the IR receiver. A few snips with some sidecutters and you can solve the problem. My remote now works flawlessly from all angles at a considerable distance.

I have no room or need for a subwoofer in this application and this sound bar was perfect, at the price I could not pass it up.

I got this for $99. refurbished; no tax, free shipping. read all the reviews (here & elsewhere), and seemed like a great deal.

easy setup. i bought an optical audio cable in advance, so could hook that up to my samsung tv. hooked an airport express up to the analog inputs (wireless itunes from my macbook). at first, thought the unit was dead; no audio. turns out the remote did not work. replaced the battery and...still nothing. emailed the retailer. but...bent the battery contacts carefully with a small screwdriver, and now it's working. should not have had to do this.

the unit sounds great. i usually do NOT use the surround gimmick (but it sounds great on "big" movies, ie "the fifth element", etc). remote works ok, it HAS to be pointed in the right place.

what i don't like: when i first took it out of the box, it could sit right up against my tv; but, with the cables (in the back center), it has to stick out a bit. shame the cables weren't on the back to one side. and the silver plate with "vizio" is a mistake; my eye is drawn to it periodically; the unit would be better all black (like a lot of soundbars); i want to watch the tv, not the soundbar. the remote not working, and now, working (but finicky).

still, overall, a great deal (even new at $150). the remote could be better, would be nice to have some eq settings options (even presets like "movie" "stadium" etc), but a great deal overall and worlds better than the internal speakers in most tvs.

3 1/2 stars really (docked a 1/2 for the remote).

EDIT: bumped up 1/2 star. vizio (quickly) sent me a new remote; i also removed the faceplate (and replaced the default 'legs' with small black rubber ones...
and am happy(er)...

EDIT 2: 2 days later, and the new remote stopped working. had to bend the battery clips inside this one as well... so 3 1/2 stars after all...!

A word of caution: I purchased this Vizio sound bar from Amazon a week ago to be coupled with a LG flat screen, model42LD520, which has only an optical sound output. This LG TV outputs an optical signal that is not compatible with the sound bar S/PDIF input. This Vizio sound bar requires a PCM optical signal which is not available on this TV. Thus one can not run an optical sound signal via the TV from external components to the bar. The optical link works fine from a HD Direct-TV receiver. I call the LG Customer Service and was told that there was no way to change the TV output to PCM. The agent had heard of this problem before and it seems to be related to this Vizio sound bar not necessarily others brands. I find this sound bar to be a good value except for what is mentioned and it does have two R/L analog inputs.

I love watching movies, and sound can be a big enhancement but with neighbors and roommates couldnt really do a whole stereo set up, this works great for a small space where you want enhanced stereo sound for TV/Movies. I have it hooked up opticly to my tv, and rcad to my ruku, and dvd player, works as expected, it also has an output for a sub. Remote is a little flimsy but the unit is perfect for my needs. I just noticed the other review here for this, I have it connected to a Panasonic VIERA C12 Series TC-L32C12 and it works fine for me with this set.

I purchased this sound bar to give my TV better sound quality and have somewhat of a home theater feel to my bedroom. Out of the box, the sound bar worked and sounded nice. It produced virtual home theater quality sound quite nicely. The highs and lows were very nice and the bass wasn't that powerful on the bar itself, but perfect enough to enjoy. You can add a powered sub woofer if you want more bass to your system if you wanted, which I did and i worked lovely. I had connected my system to both analog and digital optical connections and it worked nice. Almost had a hard time distinguishing the quality but of course digital optical is the better.

Now here is the big downfall as to why I didn't give this bar a 5 star rating. This bar, although it says its universal, didn't work properly with my TV (Panasonic TH-46PZ85U). When connecting it to through digital optical port, it would make crackling sounds when there is silence (ex: playing movie but silent moment, it crackles). This applied to EVERYTHING I watched or played. The only way to solve it was to connect through the analog port (which I didn't want). As far as I know, this only happens on my TV. I tested this bar on other TVs in he household and they worked fine. I contacted customer service for both Panasonic and Vizio and both came to the conclusion that the bar is simply not compatible with the TV, digital optical connection-wise. In the end, I returned it.

So unless you have the same model TV I have or even a Panasonic, just beware that it may not be compatible with the digital optical port connection. Otherwise, this bar sounds perfect for any small home theater system in a bedroom or small living room. Heck, it almost sounds as good as Sony's HT-CT100 sound bar system.

This is a pretty good quality sound bar for the price.. I got a refurbished unit for $87.99 plus $10 shipping vs $149.99 new... Works great right out of the box... I have a Samsung 8000 series LED TV and even with the great picture the TV's speakers are on the back of the TV and the Samsung wall-mount for this TV (and it's thing design) the TV is flush against the wall meaning the speakers are pointed right at the wall. out of 100 I typically had to have the TV sound pushed up to 50 - 60 and on some blu-ray or DVD movies the sound had to push 80 - 90 and some times 100 to be able to make out the dialog. At first I purchased a Samsung surround sound system for close to $800 with the wireless rear speakers since I have a fairly large living room and didn't want to run wires all over the place or the added expense of running the wires through the walls of the house. The wireless rear speakers worked in and out and I later found out wireless speakers can be messed up with a Wi-Fi network in your home... Which in today's world even when I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment I had a Wi-Fi network... Now I have a large house with Wi-Fi and 3 computers connected via the Wi-Fi... Not sure if that wast he problem with the wireless subwoofer and rear speakers but even though the sound was probably better using just the front 3 speakers (Right/Left/Center) vs the Vizio sound bar cost wise $100 vs $800 the Vizio sound bar is hands down the much better deal. I don't even use the Samsung TV speakers any more. I have the volume turned to ZERO and have just the sound bar running and even on those select Blu-Ray/DVD's were I had to turn the volume up to almost the max on the TV sound great at about 1/2 volume on the sound bar (The wife will tell me to turn it down now from upstairs and around the corner) I use the virtual surround sound and to my ears it's not a whole lot different on or off. it's slightly louder in virtual HD surround but I do NOT get the feeling that I have surround sound. a 2.1 system is just that a 2.1 system which is perfectly fine for my use.

As for the negative. The input plugs on the rear could have been better positioned. I am using an optical audio cable from the TV to the sound bar.. My TV is wall mounted and the bar has the option but right now it's on top of my entertainment cabinet 2 feet below the TV and since my cabinet is black and the bar is black it bends in great. Because of the placement of the plugs on the rear it's going to be a tight fit wall mounted. They really went all out on the remote (There should be a sarcasm font) it's a piece but luckily my universal remote can be programmed to operate the sound bar. The only other negative is the "POP" sound you get when switching between devices... If you switch from the Cable Box to the Blu-Ray or Wii or back you get a nice annoying POP sound as your switching but that sound does not occur while watching TV only when switching between devices and even at 1/2 volume it's a pretty loud POP for my taste...

But again for the money.............. Darn good sound bar.... If only Samsung had better speakers on their TV's to go with the awesome picture... On a side note I have an older Samsung LCD TV with the speakers front mounted on the side of the panel and the speakers on it are just fine. These new LED's are just so thin they had to rear mount the speakers which is weird since your sitting in FRONT of the TV and the speakers are facing the wall...

This is the tale of the VSB-200 and me. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

First off I got this item because it was pretty much the only thing I could find that accepted digital audio and was in my price range. Now that I have it I like it a lot and it was a good choice.

The sound is nice, loud, and clear.

How to make it work (without losing your mind and time like I did.)

I received my first one on Monday. It comes pre-assembled so that on the bottom are the "feet" (It can be wall mounted with a quick change to the feet.) so that the cloth covered speakers are facing you and on top is nice shiny black plastic that has the power button, volume buttons and input button.

The directions in the manual say that when you turn it on you'll see lights on the right side. And here is where the nightmare begins...

I plugged it in and pressed the On button. The button looks like it should light up when you press it. I didn't see it light up. I also did not see any lights on the right side. I had the audio cable plugged in but nothing. So I tried the remote and I'm sitting in front of the bar. Nothing. I stand over it to see if the On button lights up. Nope. There is a light on the power converter so I know it is getting power.

As a typical guy I play with it for about an hour pressing the same buttons over and over expecting that now they'll work. Zip.

Box it up, get my return receipt from Amazon, and ask for a new one. No biggie. Wednesday get my new one.

Plug it in and the On button no lighty. No sound (from the bar), no blinking lights, some yelling and cussing. Get ready to return it to Amazon but then think, OK, maybe I'm doing something wrong. I call Vizio tech support. Wait a few minutes and they answer. I tell the guy that there is no power to the bar. When I press the On button it does not light up. He asks if I see any blinking lights. I'm standing over it and see nothing on the shiny black plastic right side. I say no. There is no power. He asks if it is plugged in. I tell him there is the light on the converter but no light on the On button. Did I try a different plug? Yes. Did I press the On button for a few seconds? Yes. Can I hold on for a second? Yes. Are you wearing socks? No. (Just kidding.)

He decides that he cannot help me. I tell him I'll have to return it then. We go our separate ways.

I fill out the return form on Amazon and decide to try one more. Before I box it I remember reading some stuff on the reviews here. So I go back and reread them. One review says you cannot actually tell if the bar is on because the On button doesn't light up. A couple of other reviews tell you that you have to cut a hole in the cloth covered screen to get the remote to work. One says it is easy to get the cover off.

So I easily pull the cover off (It is easy to put back on.) and see the speakers and the IR receiver. I press the On button. The lights that they talk about being on the right side are on the right side but actually behind the cloth cover not on top. They are not visible when the cover is on. But they are visible with the cover off and they are flashing every time I press something. The flashing lights do not actually tell you anything such as if the first light blinks you are on input 1 or that the lights blink some kind of Morse code message you can look up on Google. They just flash when you press a button. (I like pretty lights...)

So, now that I know it is working (or at least has power) I use the menu feature on my TV to turn off the internal TV speakers. Then I press the input button on the remote. Lights start blinking. No sound. I try the mute button. Lights blink. No sound. I press the Input button again. Repeat previous two steps. Press Input again. Repeat. Press Input again. Repeat. El no soundo. (Japanese for no sound.)

I then turn back on the internal TV speakers and THE SOUND COMES BLARING OUT FROM THE SOUND BAR!!!!!!

I turn down the volume on the TV all the way to zero so no sound comes out of the internal TV speakers. The sound bar is now working fine.

If I had not had the input picked correctly on the sound bar when I turned back on the internal TV speakers I still would not have known what to do to get it to work.

Flaws of this sound bar.

1. No indication that there is power.
2. Lights and IR are hidden behind fabric speaker cover.
3. No indication what input option you have it set to.
4. Turning off the internal TV speakers mutes the sound bar.
5. Manual not clear enough.
6. Tech support should have known when I kept saying there was no light displayed on the On button that there is no light.
7. Tech support should know to tell me that the blinking lights are under the fabric and I have to remove it to see them.
8. If my tech support call is being monitored why didn't that person know what to do?
9. My local Chinese restaurant doesn't open until 11AM.

Like I said at the beginning. I like this bar now that I have it working. Works well, not a lot of wires, fits comfortably in front of the TV without blocking screen and looks pretty good. I haven't put back on the cover yet as I figure I'll need to cut a hole so the IR works.

If you follow some of the steps I did you shouldn't have any aggravation when setting yours up. I figured I'd put all of the items I found from the other reviews and my solutions all in one post.

I'm a big fan of surround sound and a bit of an audiophile, but my 5.1 receiver/DVD combo unit was getting pretty old. The input channels were limited, one of the speakers kept going out despite my best rewiring efforts, it had some other quirky limitations, and on top of that my wife kept nagging me as she tripped over the rear speaker stands and wires. So I decided to replace it with this single piece.

Overall, I'm happy with this unit. It was under $100. It's just one piece so it's simple to configure. The sound quality is pretty good. And using the "Virtual surround-sound" mode along with a subwoofer is a fairly decent substitute for enjoying movies in 5.1, at least to my ears. I do have a few complaints, which I'll get to at the end.

First, here's what you'll find on the back of the unit:

1) A digital audio input jack, otherwise known as S/PDIF. Most of the other soundbar units you find on the market do NOT have this! I can understand why; soundbars are largely marketed to people who are far from being audiophiles and just want something that's simple to use. So most other soundbars will just have input jacks for RCA audio (red/white, "analog") cables. I plug my DVD player directly into this channel. I don't have a Blu-Ray player yet, but once I get one, it will replace my DVD player this is where the audio will plug in. Note that you might have to change your DVD player settings so that "PCM (Digital Audio Out)" is enabled. I couldn't hear anything until I tried this, but again it's no fault of the soundbar and it does work.

2) A pair of RCA audio input jacks. Again, these aren't as pristine as S/PDIF, but they're universal. Hook up whatever you like here: a CD player, an iPod dock, a VCR, a turntable, whatever.

3) An additional pair of RCA audio input jacks. So in total, you can hook up to three different audio sources into this soundbar: one in digital, one in the first RCA input, and a another one in the second RCA.

4) Subwoofer output jack. I HIGHLY recommend adding a subwoofer. And you don't necessarily need Vizio's subwoofer, even though you can optionally buy this soundbar and their subwoofer in one package. The output jack is a single RCA style, so if you have a powered subwoofer you bought separately or one that came with some other surround-sound system, chances are you can simply plug it directly into here. This is precisely what I did with my old subwoofer, and it works great with this unit.

The buttons on the top of the unit are also founded in the included remote (which takes a flat CR205 wristwatch battery, included). They're pretty straightforward:

- Power on/off
- Volume up, Volume down, Mute
- Input. Press this to toggle through inputs #1, #2 and #3
- "TruVolume" button. Press this, and it goes into "TruVolume" mode which compresses the sound. For example, have you ever been watching TV and find yourself turning it up loud to hear the dialogue, but then a commercial comes on and it's excruciatingly loud? This mode keeps everything on the same level. To turn it off, just press it again. Honestly though, I've never used it.
- "TruSurround HD(tm) virtual surround" button. Press this to turn the virtual surround-sound mode on or off. Great for movies.

There are still a few reasons why I don't give this product 5 stars.

First and foremost, the LED lights are confusing. They're behind the speaker grill on the front right, so they're hard to see. Also, they only light up when you're changing something. So if you just look at the unit itself, you can't tell whether its on or off. It would have been nice to just have a simple little light on the power button to indicate the on/off status.

As many have pointed out, the remote is picky about what angle you have to hold it at. Though one reviewer suggested cutting out the screen in front of the LED panel and said this made it work great. I'll have to give this a try!

Also, there's no HDMI input. Some other soundbars come with this, but they normally cost two or three times as much as this unit, probably because it means having to route video signals as well as audio signals. But again, at least you have the option here of S/PDIF.

Overall: if you're looking for something that's better than your built-in TV speakers but don't want the complications of a full 6+ speaker surround-sound system, then this is a cheap and reasonable alternative.

This sound bar was designed to connect directly to your television, with or without a subwoofer, to replace the built-in sound output, but it is not meant to be a center channel to a home theater system, although read on if you want to use it this way. It comes with RCA connectors (not the optional optical cable -- buy that separately) and a small remote control. Hooking up to a TV is easy, provided that you have a newer set with the appropriate connections. Compared to the speakers on my Sony TV, the Vizio offered some sound improvement, although not as much as I had expected. The biggest difference was the simulated surround sound, which gave the (slight) impression of depth without a full speaker system. Although I tested this sound bar as it was meant to be used, I bought it to add to an existing system, complete with surround sound speakers and subwoofer, as a replacement for an inadequate center channel speaker. If you are interested it this way, read the next paragraph; otherwise, skip to the third paragraph.

Out of the box, the Vizio sound bar could not connect with my Onkyo receiver because of the RCA connectors; it is meant to connect to a television only. To use as a center channel speaker (note: this is NOT the intended purpose), you can attach an RCA cable to the sound bar and then use wire-stripped ends to connect to the center channel terminals on the receiver. The sound then coming out is center channel only -- and it works a lot better than the smaller speaker I previously used. Voices are clear and easy to hear without sounding overly amplified.

The sound bar is powered through an outlet, so make sure you have enough outlets available to add this. Unfortunately, it turns itself off every time you turn off the whole system, whether that system is television- or receiver-based. To use it, you need to turn it on, either by the small remote control (I had no issues with the remote working, unlike some others) or manually on the top of bar. The sound is clear, with no obvious (to me) distortion.

Purchasing this sound bar or the sound bar/subwoofer set (they have the same bars) is a good option if you want to improve the sound quality coming from your TV speakers; however, true surround sound, with satellite speakers and amplified through a good receiver, is much superior to using this sound bar alone with input from the television. I consider this a relatively low-budget alternative to a higher end speaker system. For value alone, it gets five stars. But don't expect it to contend with more powerful and more expensive options.