VIZIO Elevate SE 5.1.2 Soundbar, Wireless Subwoofer, Surround Sound w/Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Bluetooth Speaker – SL512X-0806 (New, 2024 Model)

Insanely good!
I “upgraded” to this 185w surround system from a 600w Samsung 2.1 soundbar from a couple years ago…
I was skeptical, but the Atmos intrigued me and let me tell you… ZERO regrets in purchasing this 5.1.2 system.
It sounded amazing out of the box and minimal fuss with settings thanks to modern eARC and CEC. I mean, wow…
No physical remote, but I highly suggest getting the app (which IS the remote and visual EQ) to toggle between music and video mode – the difference is very noteworthy. Otherwise you just use the ARC or CEC of your TV/streamer to control the volume, power, mute.
It came with everything need in the box as well, from rated HDMI cable to Velcro cable ties – which is quite nice.
We tested with Spotify playing some tracks from the musical Wicked, I appreciated the isolated violins and cellos in the rear speakers. And watched Oppenheimer in HDR10+ with 7.1 Dolby Atmos (which processed to 5.1.2 for the Vizio.
Considering that TV has become a regular recreation for my wife and I, the money is well spent and the device will see daily use. For a dollar a day… It’s paid for itself by the end of the year!

Excellent
Bought this to replace a 1990s Sony Dolby 5.1 rack stereo. The room is about 20×15. Excellent sound quality and surround given its smaller form factor. More than powerful enough for the space. I even had to turn down the sub-woofer some as it was overpowering at the default. The surround quality is so much better which was expected given the age of what it replaced. Very good value. I really like that the satellites are off the powered sub making cabling easier to hide.

warning: no more HDMI in
i moved (or tried to move) from a (2023) vizio 2.1 soundbar to this, and discovered, after spending the entire afternoon setting everything up, that an HDMI IN connection is no longer available on 2024 vizio soundbars. as i have no other way to hook things up, am returning this.
it’s probably great, but not here, nor for anyone who needs that input. very disappointing.

WALMART has purchased Vizio since “news sources” don’t give out “news” any longer
Yeah, I was super surprised, too! I thought Walmart has ruined the “onn” brand with Walmart being the only retailer of the box, when I found out post purchase that Walmart has purchased Vizio, I was certain I’d made a mistake. HUGE MISTAKE!
The “folks” at Vizio? Don’t know what’s going on. Typical corporate mess that is plaguing the employees, is now trickling down to customers.
In essence, you’ll get a number of incorrect replies from Vizio “tech support who read off cue cards”. AND THEY DON’T SOLVE YOUR ISSUES, EITHER.
AS OF JANUARY 3, 2025, I’VE SPOKEN TO “VIZIO CORPORATE RESOLUTION” WHICH DIDN’T “RESOLVE ANYTHING BUT WASTING MY TIME”.
THIS MAKES THE 4TH PERSON WHO TOLD ME THEY WOULD “RESOLVE MY SITUATION” AND DIDN’T.
Bought the new M-Series Elevate (link) with model number M512E-K6. Updated the software to 1.1.0.6, the latest at the current time, and then set it up. I’m going to list a few issues below that I’ve quickly noticed with it, so that others can corroborate their own. By the way, the TV that I’m using this soundbar on is an LG C9, but I confirmed that it has identical issues by connecting it to a Samsung Frame that I have in a different room. I have eARC turned on, and my sound output setting set to Pass-Through. I also bought, tested, and returned a second M-Series Elevate from Amazon to confirm that these issues are ubiquitous across the product, and not just a result of mine being a faulty unit.
The most shocking characteristic of these issues is that they aren’t edge-cases. They’re issues with common use. They suggest that Vizio didn’t even test this product in a real-world setting before putting it on the market, otherwise they would have seen these issues immediately.
Codec Identification Lag — if the soundbar receives anything other than stereo input (such as 2 channel PCM), it takes about 5 seconds +/- a few seconds to identify the codec (Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital/Plus, DTS/X, etc.) and does not play any audio in that time despite the video continuing. This is extremely annoying, and issue 2 below makes it 10x worse.
Codec Abandonment after Audio Gap — Anytime the soundbar doesn’t receive any audio input for even a split second, it loses knowledge of what audio codec it’s currently processing. Pair this with the fact that re-identifying the codec takes 5 or more seconds, and you have a non-starter for this soundbar being a viable product. Pausing, rewinding, fast-forwarding, switching apps, backing out to a menu, etc — all of these cause the soundbar to immediately forget what codec it was just processing (even if the codec hasn’t actually changed), and causes it to spend another 5-10 seconds in dead silence once the input resumes.
Motorized Drivers Retract on Codec Loss — This soundbar has motorized rotating drivers on the ends, and you have 3 settings for them: [Auto] Extend and rotate up on detection of Dolby Atmos input, [Up] Upmix input to 5.1.2 (attempts to add height channels where they don’t exist), and [Wide] Leave the motorized drivers retracted (rotated forward) and ignore any height channels even when they exist in the input (meaning no Atmos). The default setting, and the one I wish I could use, is Auto — extend and rotate the drivers upwards as the height channels when they exist in the audio input, but leave them retracted and facing forward when height channels don’t exist in the audio input. Problem is, because of the way the soundbar forgets what codec it’s processing anytime the audio stops momentarily, the motorized drivers will retract if they’re extended. That means that even if you pause or rewind/FF a video with Atmos for even a split second, you’ll watch as the motors hum and retract the drivers and then immediately extend them again once the audio finally resumes. I’m honestly afraid of burning out the motors over time, just through frequent pausing or rewinding Netflix videos. You can set the setting to Up or Wide to prevent this from occurring, but the tradeoffs are obvious.
Examples of real-world impacts of these issues:
Open any smartapp and resume a show you had already started — get ready to watch a few seconds without sound, then have to rewind to even earlier to catch what you missed, because you need to account for 5 or more seconds of no audio when you hit resume again.
Netflix app opens or a Netflix show begins, and the intro (N flying at you) makes no sound because the soundbar hasn’t identified the codec yet.
My LG C9 has Alexa built in, and typically, when I would hit the mic button on the remote to say something to Alexa, I’d get a distinct two beeps to indicate she’s listening. No more. The sound is too brief for the soundbar to catch it and identify the codec before it finishes.
Rewind any Dolby Atmos encoded show on Netflix for a single frame, and get ready to listen to nothing but the hum of your height drivers retracting and then extending again for the next 5-10 seconds.
Another very annoying but perhaps less impactful note — Vizio has their own rear/surround speakers reversed (left/right) in their setup notes, after pointing out the importance of positioning them correctly. Pages 9 and 13 of their setup manual (link) show how they want you to set up their rear speakers. In page 9, you see “Match the color-coded speaker cable to the matching speaker port color. Blue for left surround and grey is for right surround.” However, if you were to orient the speakers exactly as shown in the image (upright, and with the wire ports closer to the sub), you’ll find that you end up with the blue on the right and grey on the left. From there, you might say “well it doesn’t matter if the wire port is closer or further from the sub”, and while that may be true, one side of each speaker has a vent/air port. If you look at page 13, you’ll see that the vent/air port is positioned facing toward the walls of the room rather than the center. In order to match that orientation, you’d again need blue to be on the right, and grey to be on the left, in direct contradiction to what the manual states through its text. Lastly, if you look at the color coding on the back of the sub, it matches the text — blue for left, grey for right. At the end of the day, you’re left scratching your head on which you should trust — the images showing the “correct” orientation in the room, or the text which correlates color with side. Maybe the vent/air port direction also doesn’t matter, but I’m very confused about how a company that produces speakers could mix up left and right like that.
One more minor one that could be more annoying to other people — Eco Power mode will cause the soundbar to turn off if the TV is paused for too long (and doesn’t turn back on when you resume). I don’t think that pausing a video should be considered lack of audio input — goes back to the codec getting lost when you pause, and the soundbar having to reidentify it. Eco Power mode never worked like that on my old Vizio soundbar — it was only when the TV turned off that the timer would start on it not getting audio input. I don’t use Eco Power mode anymore, since my LG TV has a smart remote that turns on and off the soundbar with the TV, but for others who might want to use Eco Power mode, I could see this being really annoying.
So — I’ll give it to the end of my return window to see what Vizio does as far as firmware updates, but I’m not hopeful. This thing might be going back. I just can’t believe how obvious these issues are. Was it tested at all before being put on the market?