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

Totally impressed with this one. I initially had the normal vizio sound bar, wanted to try dolby Atmos feature and got this. I must say, it's outstanding. Minimalistic design, punchy bass, great surround, fantastic Atmos effect, lots of customization options in the remote. Easy set up....

Incredible sound quality

Great sound worth the money

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.

For a 60+ year old with limited electronic skills (and patience!), this was by far and away the best sound upgrade I have done in my house. I finally got around to replacing the 20 year old Bose Lifestyle surround system (it served it's purpose well for what it was at the time) with something that absolutely blows it and me out of the water. The Physical Installation - Since none of the existing wires in the walls for the old Bose system were compatible with the new Vizio system, I had to pull all the new wires through the walls to place the rear speakers in approx the same place. Not difficult but I'm no longer Gumby so it could be a bit challenging at times. Nonetheless it went off without a hitch. Set-up - Couldn't be easier. Once all the components were in place it literally connected itself. Also having a Vizio TV may have helped that but there was nothing else to do. The TV's speakers were already off so really the only thing to do was to bluetooth connect the sound bar to the rear subwoofer/speakers...and of course that did it itself. Connected my iPhone via bluetooth to the sound bar and everything was complete. No complicated instructions, no iPhone app needed for set up (I'm sure Vizio's way of wanting to put their app on your phone which quite frankly I don't need) and that was it. The Sound Quality - Takes a while to play with the settings but that's what bourbon is for, right? Grab a glassful and start fine tuning your sound preferences. Bass, treble, mid's, sub-woofer, balance, preset EQ settings all easily accessible from the remote. The sub-woofer is absolutely ground shaking if you turn it up to 11. Criticism (if any) - the system doesn't seem to have the power to drive the sub-woofer at louder/loudest volumes (if that's your thing) so you do notice a drop off compared to when the system is at lower volumes and then at those lower volumes you notice an overcompensation of sub-woofer bass that at times and depending on what you are watching or listening to can be too "boomy". I found myself turning up the sub-woofer on louder music and turning it down at lower volumes so it wouldn't drone so much. Not all the time/every time, just on certain channels or certain music. I haven't figured out a pattern here yet. Overall an excellent product I am very happy with.

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.

[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.