VIZIO Elevate Sound Bar for TV, Home Theater Surround Sound System for TV with Subwoofer and Bluetooth, P514a-H6 5.1.4

Had a lower end J6 model of a Vizio Home Theater in my family room and always liked the sound better than my much more expensive Samsung soundbar setup I had in the basement. Recently purchased a higher end Samsung 83 inch television and decided to upgrade the sound system as well. First choice was another Samsung since I felt it would mesh well with my new television and add extra quality to the audio by the use of the so called Q Symphony which allows newer Samsung televisions and soundbars audio outputs to work to together and create a wider and more dynamic soundstage. Also Vizio soundbars had always disappointed me by their clunky software which made firmware updates and Bluetooth connectivity a nightmare to do easily. Went with the newer Samsung HW-Q910D although it was hundreds of dollars more expensive than the Vizio top of the line Elevate soundbar. Wow what a disappointment. Surround speakers audio and Subwoofer bass were very anemic in that I felt that I was mostly listening to an isolated soundbar instead of a 9.1.2 home theater setup. That being said the software and app for the Samsung were top rate and I was easily hooked up to my cell phone in no time and without downloading headaches. Firmware update was also a fast and easy process. Tried hard to convince myself that I had a good system but the lack of any real surround effect and base was a constant source of irritation. After three weeks decided to return it and purchased instead this Vizio model. Wow, what a tremendous difference. Soundstage was wide, surround sound was very impressive and the bass put out by the system was head and shoulders above what I had been getting out of my Samsung Q910. Indeed the Subwoofer inself was so large and powerful that I decided to turn it down below the suggested 'neutral' setting of 0. Didn't need to put my ear next to the upfiring surround sound rear speakers to hear and appreciate the ATMOS effects in movies I had selected to test the system. Amazingly it 'only' took me a half hour to finally get my VizioCast mobile app to pair with my cellphone and make a soundbar firmware update. While Vizio's app can give you lots of headaches due to its connectivity issues the included versatile Vizio remote gives you tons of ways to adjust the different speaker channels, massive subwoofer output and volume levels so that just about anyone would be able to find a combination that sounds great in just about any room. Knew already however that even if I never got their mobile app to work properly that I would keep this system simply based on the vast difference in audio quality. Definately a keeper and couldn't be more pleased with its performance. If you can get beyond Vizio's well known app and connectivity issues you can't go wrong with this impressive home theater.

The Vizio P514A-H6 is my third Vizio soundbar setup, following the SB3612 and the V51-J6. My V51-J6 served me well for nearly six years, having replaced my first system after it unfortunately died playing "Bombs Over Baghdad" by Outkast. What stood out most about the V51 was its exceptional bass performance for such a small, affordable subwoofer, achieving lows around 30Hz—a feat not often prioritized by soundbar manufacturers. However, the system wasn't without flaws. The rear speakers were underwhelming, and dialogue clarity often suffered, leading me to rely on closed captions for certain content. This year, I decided to upgrade and tested several alternatives, including the Hisense AX512H, the LG S80TR 9.1.3, and the Vizio M512A-H6. Here’s why they didn’t make the cut: The Hisense AX512H promised a unique feature to use both TV and soundbar speakers simultaneously with a compatible Hisense TV. Unfortunately, this functionality—though advertised in some regions—was not available in the U.S., with no ETA for implementation. The Vizio M512A-H6, as the successor to my V51-J6, seemed like a safe bet for maintaining the bass I loved. While it performed decently, it didn’t quite meet my expectations. The LG S80TR was the only soundbar I could test in-store, but despite its impressive clarity and height speakers, it lacked the deep bass I couldn’t sacrifice. When I saw the Vizio P514A-H6 on sale for $549, I decided to give it a try—and I’m glad I did. It outperformed my V51-J6 in nearly every way, particularly in bass response. It was a clear winner, and I quickly returned the other systems. Performance and Features The Vizio P514A-H6 delivers amazing bass, thanks to its powerful subwoofer. This was the standout feature for me, offering rumbling lows that bring action scenes to life. The system’s 18 speakers improve overall clarity, and the rear speakers, while still not perfect, show noticeable improvement over previous models. However, there are some drawbacks: Dialogue Clarity and Balance: While improved, dialogue still lacks midrange punch in certain scenes, occasionally sounding flat. Rotating Height Speakers: The rotating height speakers for Dolby Atmos content are innovative, but they’re noisy when they adjust and don’t always activate reliably. I’ve resorted to leaving them in the "up" position permanently. Rear Speaker Performance: During intense action scenes, the sound is immersive and booming, but in quieter dialogue-heavy moments, the rear speakers don’t contribute much, making the sound feel overly centered. The transition from dialogue to action can be jarring. Connectivity and App Issues: Setting up the system requires registering the product online to connect with the app—a detail not mentioned in the instructions but discovered through Andrew Robinson's YouTube review. Once connected, the app works well. Lag and Signal Issues: The system takes an unusually long time (up to a minute) to produce sound after being muted or rewinding a scene. Switching inputs, especially back to HDMI eARC, can result in a frustrating delay before audio resumes. Adding to this, the soundbar uses an outdated and overly robotic voice for status updates. Final Thoughts Despite its quirks, I’m thrilled with the Vizio P514A-H6. Its bass performance is exceptional, delivering the deep, rumbling lows I loved about the V51-J6, but with added power and immersion. Feeling the impact of explosions and action scenes through my couch, even at half volume (with bass and subwoofer settings maxed), makes it well worth the investment for me. While there’s room for improvement in dialogue clarity and rear speaker performance, the overall experience is impressive for its price point. For those prioritizing bass and cinematic immersion over absolute perfection, the Vizio P514A-H6 is a solid choice.

This remarkable soundbar includes more features and better sound quality than anything selling for close to the price. Problems connecting the phone app to the device were solved (make sure the phone and the soundbar are on the same wifi network & perform the initial connection only via wifi, rather than bluetooth; it's admittedly tricky but not insurmountable). Customizable sound settings allow excellent fine-tuning to maximize performance for Dolby Atmos as well as for dialing in exceptional quality when listening to music. The incredibly annoying voice assistance "feature" can be disabled using the Vizio phone app (which is called "Vizio WatchFree+" in the app store), or via the incuded remote control - be advisesd that for some reason one must also disable the power indicator light as well, in order to get rid of the voice assistant, which remains an amazingly bad function to include with this otherwise mostly superb & very well thought-out, high performing sound system. Complaints about excessive bass emphasis out of the box are probably due to default settings & can easily be adjusted. I prefer tight bass when listening to music and the Elevate is entirely capable of this sort of solid bass response with proper adjustment, providing accurate low-end perfomance with clear mid-range & highs for rock/classical music. During playback of Dolby Atmos enabled movies & shows the system produces truly thunderous bass, providing the kind of powerful theatrical sonic experience we all hope for when putting these Atmos systems together. For example in "Avengers Endgame" I'm getting the kind of deep, powerful, room-shaking low-end performance I heard & felt while first seeing the film in my local Dolby Atmos theater, so the Elevate does not in any way disappoint. At the discount price I paid there is nothing on the market that comes close. Construction quality is superb. The app is a bit confusing & more redundant & convoluted than it could be, but overall the few quirks & issues I've encountered have been minor in nature & were quickly overcome with a modicum of common sense, research & adjustment. After learning the equipment & making the necessary adjustments, experimenting with various modes and fine tuning. the system is performing brilliantly. No major issues; highly recommended.

[Update 2: Mar 2023] the soundbar was behaving oddly. Atmos inputs were no longer causing the speakers to rotate up suggesting that the bar was not detecting it as such. A complete bar reset and everything works including the iOS app] [Update 1: Jan 2023] the latest iOS app update renders app completely useless. It won’t connect to the bar any more. Not sure how to fix. ===== Overall, very happy with this unit, but primarily from a sound stage perspective. The unit has non-audio issues that you should be aware of before purchase. Pros: - Good sound overall. The Atmos effects are very impressive. While the number of streaming services providing Atmos is low, Prime Video has some very interesting shows with this format - Jack Ryan, Rings of Power. And even on a very low volume setting, the Atmos effects from this soundbar-system is just awesome. The rotating speakers on the soundbar unit, may be gimmicky but they are very effective. My room is medium large with a large exit and no door, but still this soundbar manages to fill the room with sound when in Atmos mode. - Surround speakers and woofer work beautifully. Woofer could be punchy, but I am not a fan of vibrating the room for effect, so I don't have it turned ON beyond default and i still love it. - Depending on the source audio, the surround speakers have sounds coming through them that I had totally missed before owning this soundbar. - I had a Denon AVR + 4 Polk speakers, before I returned them all and replaced them with this Elevate and for the price of the elevate, it is sounds better than the AVR+passive speakers combo. - (not a pro per se) Music plays fine - I am not an audiophile, so can't say it is great or not. - The competing products are far more expensive (maybe double) - Sonos, Samsung HW-Q series. Irritating: - The iOS app to setup the soundbar is super finicky. I had to use the Wifi setup via the elevate remote to set up the soundbar - no other method worked, after an hour of trying. - the iOS app fails to connect to the soundbar when started after a few hours even. No way to force a connection, restarting app, restarting soundbar, nothing works. After some time of the app running, it just randomly connects to the soundbar to allow control via app. - Equalizer on this is very minimal, BUT it has a few options that perform wonders - the pre-set EQ - Movie, Music, Direct, etc. are sufficiently well tuned to be useful out of the box - but you can't control too much. When NOT in Direct mode, there are other sliders that you can control. The three I appreciated being able to control is "Surround Speakers Volume", "Dialogue volume", "Volume Leveler". - I have this soundbar connected to an older Vizio E55-E1 and the two have a love-hate relationship with each other - the TV sometimes doesn't connect to the soundbar, so both need a soft reset. Putting the TV's CEC on ARC mode keeps it much more stable - but that means no CEC to turn ON other devices OR be turned ON by other devices. Bad: - The soundbar creates an open wifi, that anyone within range can connect to. Ideally the system should close the connection after some time - this could be a huge security risk. - I have the Xbox X as the media device. If I do passthrough, letting the soundbar decode any audio from the playing media, then there is a delay in the audio played by 2 seconds - if you start a new video or pause/replay a video, then the 2 second delay persists. If I let XBox do the decoding of the audio, then no delay. This suggests that the decoder on the Elevate is low quality. IF you rely on the Elevate to decode, I don't have any way to work around this delay. - While it does come with mounts, mounting it straight is not an easy task and this system is super long and even a half a degree off and you can see the bar lean.

Vizio. Fix your damn software. A sound bar that needs to be power cycled almost every time you use it is USELESS. I WILL MAKE IT MY LIFES MISSION TO MAKE SURE NO ONE BUYS A SINGLE PRODUCT OF YOURS UNTIL YOU FIX THIS This is easily the worst sound bar I have ever owned. Does it sound good? Yes. Great, even. But here is the problem. It CONSTANTLY just... Refuses to play sound until you unplug it and plug it back in. Contact Vizio customer service? They tell me it's normal behavior. Lazy company. Crap product. Update: Still the world's biggest pile of crap sound bar. Just to let everyone know. Do not buy this POS unless you're ready to power cycle it every time you want to, you know, hear something 2/12/23: Another power cycle 2/13/23: another power cycle 2/14/23 another power cycle 2/15/23: imagine that, no power cycle today, woohoo! 🎉 2/16/23: another power cycle 2/17/23: no power cycle.. lmao jk of course there was 2/18/23: 2 power cycles because after a power cycle it couldn't detect Atmos content. Real winner of a product Vizio has here. 3/6/23: went out of town for a while there but rest assured, I had to power cycle it when I got back. Final update: I gave up and bought a CHEAPER Atmos sound bar that is so far working very well. Sounds about as good, though the subwoofer isn't AS good, I was already turning the sub down on the elevate anyway. Do NOT waste your time, money and mental health on this worthless POS developed by people that have apparently never even tried using their products for more than 5 minutes. Vizio support is worthless, you will spend hours on the phone talking in circles because they don't know anything about audio products (I mean that literally, they have ZERO knowledge on the product) but they also don't know English. They tried to charge me to return a defective unit (blown speakers out of the box) the cost to return it was going to be $150 IIRC and they will temporarily charge you the full cost of the unit which will not be reversed for about 60 days after sending the product back to them. List of problems: - if wall mounting, the side speakers sag and look terrible - Poor QA - The app you can use to control and update firmware is the most frustrating POS app you will ever use - the sound bar needs to be rebooted just about every time you turn your TV on - Lack of fine EQ controls

So I set this up it took me about 30 minutes to 45 minutes to set it up the way I wanted to. Now I wanna go ahead and say that I bought my wife a cheap Vizio sound bar with subwoofer for the sunroom. Now, when you think of Vizio, you don’t usually think of high-quality and super amazing but you do think that well it’s gonna be pretty decent for the money. Well, her cheap $180 sound bar blew me away. And I started looking into doing a full surroundsound system in the living room. Now I wanted the best of the best I didn’t want to spend $1000 but I wanted something really good that could do Dolby Atmos. The sound bar I got on Amazon prime day so I paid about 500 bucks-ish for it. It is absolutely insane. How good the sound is and how correct the sound is. I have vaulted ceilings that are about 16 foot high in my home. In elevation mode, you can actually turn the height of the sound up to maximum where it delays the sound going up at the ceiling even more, which helps if you have tall ceilings. It absolutely create a 3-D effect that is absolutely incredible. For the money, you have every single control at the fingertips and it’s extremely high-quality and easy to set up. It feels high-quality it feels heavy and well-made. The automatic rotating speakers on the sound bar absolutely cool. Even for movies on Netflix that don’t have Dolby Atmos sound the sound bar and its system is smart enough to create a 3-D effect perfectly. I want to be clear that all because the movie you’re watching or the YouTube video you’re watching doesn’t have Atmos doesn’t mean it won’t do 3-D audio because it does. Obviously, a movie with Atmos sound will sound better, but that is debatable because the sound is incredible across the entire board, hands-down. Would I buy it again? You bet you’re A$& i would. I have no regrets. And the sound from the subwoofer is extremely thunderous. It literally vibrates the entire home and FYI I have a 2200 square-foot home.. I have to turn the subwoofer down because it shakes the windows in the house. If you’re thinking about buying a sound bar by the sound bar, you don’t need to spend $1200 or even $3000 for klispe system. You’re not cheating out and you’re also not spinning too much money. This is absolutely perfect answer for all of your home theater questions. Trust me. I’m a real a-hole about my Technology in my sound. I have a B&o in Soundsystem in my Audi so im spoiled with what a true 3d sound is supposed to be. This Vizio sound bar did the job.

If you have experience setting up a soundbar and you have time to fiddle around with and fine-tune one, this is an amazing sounding system, especially if you can get it on sale for $550 or less! If you have limited or no experience with soundbars and want an easy to set up system that fine tunes itself, you will probably want to look elsewhere. I bought this soundbar because I specifically wanted a 5.1.4 system for use when watching 4K UHD and Blu-ray movies with a Dolby Atmos or DTSX soundtrack and it was within my budget. Say what you will about Vizio, but they do make good soundbars that are much more affordable than anything else in their class. Seriously, try finding another 5.1.4 soundbar for $550. That said, I would not pay full retail price for this; if you can't get it on sale I recommend waiting or considering other options. I have two other Vizio soundbars and both can be a little quirky at times necessating a power-cycle reset, however I have experienced no similar issues with this soundbar. I have read that Vizio's app can be frustrating to use but since I have no need of it I've never tried it myself and have no feedback to offer on it, but know that it is entirely optional to use; you do not need to use the app as the remote control offers full functionality. One of my other soundbars is Vizio's M-series 5.1.2 soundbar with Dolby Atmos and DTSX support and, while it is also a solid soundbar, the sound difference between the two couldn't be more different; the Elevate blows the M-series out of the water in almost every conceivable way, not to mention that the Elevate has twice the power and can easily fill my large livingroom with sound whereas the M-series struggled. I have since relocated my M-series to my bedroom and it really shines in that setting. Pros: -amazing sound quality once it is fine-tuned for the room you'll be using it in -ridiculously overpowered 8-inch subwoofer; it will rattle your house quite effectively! -build quality is solid with aluminum grills on sound bar and satellite speakers, quality is equally good on the sub -can barely hear the motors for the rotating speakers on the soundbar -two HDMI inputs on soundbar -info screen on remote is backlit -comes with everything you need to set up the system Cons: -ridiculously overpowered 8-inch subwoofer; seriously, I have it on its lowest setting and it still pounds hard! -corded satellite speakers; in 2024? Really? This will be the last soundbar I ever buy with corded speakers. Additionally, the cords have plugs specifically designed to fit these speakers, so if you need an extension you have to order it directly from Vizio and they are $20 per cord; I ordered extra cords and was pleased to have them in just a few days.

This is the top of the line Vizio P-Series and wow does the sound impress! Buy it on sale ($699) and it's a steal! I used to be skeptical of Vizio, thought they were cheap and quality not as good as the big boys but ended up buying a couple SB3251N-E0 few years back and they both sounded great, lasted 4yrs + and still going. Time to upgrade and was deciding between this Vizio and the Sonos Beam Gen2 or Arc. The Sonos sounds great, no doubt, but having to buy a sub and 2 surround speakers really increases the price ($2400 total for the Arc + sub, surrounds) and I couldn't justify it for my small home theater room with 85" Sony X90H TV. However, once the Vizio went on sale, I couldn't resist, had to try it out. I did A LOT of research and some sites (rtings, CNET, some YT videos and others) all said this Vizio Elevate sounded better than the Arc. Not sure about that but reassuring to hear at least. Pulled the trigger, hooked it up, demoed it for a week now and could not be happier. The soundbar itself is very clean looking and sound crisp and clear. As others have mentioned, this system out the box is a little bass heavy (even for me, and I love bass!) so fine tuning in the settings to your liking and reduce the bass down. The sub is HUGE too btw. Surrounds also crisp and clear. The rotating side speakers on the soundbar when ATMOS is detected is really cool and practical also. Definitely looks, feels and sounds very high end. Runs circles around my previous best 5yr old Samsung 5.1 Theater in a box system. I also like the remote which has plenty of adjustments to fine tune and screen lights up which is great when in a dark room (The Sonos does not include a remote either) . One caution is this is second soundbar I've ordered off Amazon and both boxes arrived pretty beat up. The delivery drivers really should take a little more care with electronics, especially when it's printed on the outside of the box what it is. To me, this is a steal below $700. Even at $999 it's a good deal. The value prop here is insane and the sound is LOUD, clear and extremely good! IMO, Why pay $1k -$1500 more for Sonos, Samsung or Sony top of the line for similar sound quality?