Monoprice SB-600 Soundbar Review

The Monoprice SB-600's bar has a fairly simple design, with a metal grille covering the top and front. The sides and the bottom of the bar are made of solid plastic.

The sub is mostly made of medium-density fiberboard and plastic. It has a down-firing driver located underneath the sub, and it sits on four plastic pegs.

The satellites have a similar style to the bar. The front of each satellite has a metal grille, and the rest is made of solid plastic. They both sit on rubber feet.

The bar is fairly wide, so it probably won't fit between the legs of a 55" TV. It's not too tall, so it likely won't block the bottom of your screen unless the TV sits flush on the table.

The subwoofer is a bit larger than the average desktop PC, so it might be somewhat difficult to store. Fortunately, it's not too deep.

The satellites are fairly small. Although they can connect to the soundbar wirelessly, they have to be wired to each other.

The back of the bar has openings for the inputs and the power cord. To mount the bar, you have to remove the screws and use the mounting plates that come with it. It has proprietary mounting holes, and the required screws and plates are included.

The back of the sub has the port near the top. The power cable connects in the middle, but it doesn't stick out too much.

The Monoprice SB-600’s satellites have a plain back. They each have a port for the cable that connects them, as well as a hole for wall-mounting them. They have proprietary mounting holes, and they come with the required screws and plates.

The Monoprice SB-600 has a good build quality. The bar and satellites have a very similar style, mostly made of hard plastic with a metal grille at the front. The sub is made of medium-density fiberboard and plastic and sits on four plastic pegs. While the bar and satellites feel well-made, the sub doesn't have a very premium feel.

• Manual
• HDMI cable
• Remote and 2x AA batteries
• 2x Power cables
• AC power cable for satellites
• 3.5mm to 3.5mm AUX cable
• Surround speaker cable
• Wall-mounting plates
• Wall-mounting screws

The Monoprice SB-600 has a good stereo frequency response. It has a warm sound profile with some extra punch in the bass range, so you can feel the deep thump and rumble in bass-heavy audio content. However, audio can sound boomy and boxy, which may be overwhelming for some users. Its mid-range is well-balanced, so dialogue and lead instruments are reproduced clearly, but the treble range is underemphasized, so the higher frequencies of these same instruments might sound dull. Thankfully, it comes with EQ presets, as well as bass and treble adjustments, letting you tweak the sound profile to your liking.

With preliminary calibration, the Monoprice SB-600 has a very good stereo frequency response. With the bass set to -5 and the treble set to +5, it has a fairly neutral sound profile that's suitable for a variety of audio content. The mid and treble ranges are well-balanced, so vocals and lead instruments are reproduced clearly and accurately.

This soundbar has a good soundstage performance. The sound feels slightly wider than the bar itself, but it doesn't have any features to widen the soundstage even further. Thankfully, the sound is very focused, so sound objects like voices and footsteps seem to come from an accurate pinpoint location.

The Monoprice SB-600's dynamics are decent. It can get pretty loud, making it suitable for use in large and crowded rooms. However, there's some compression present at max volume, so audio may not sound clean and pure.

The Monoprice SB-600 has great THD performance. At a normal listening volume, there's very little distortion, so audio sounds pure and clean. Although there's a bit more distortion when using the bar at max volume, it likely won't be noticeable with real-life content.

The Monoprice SB-600 is a 5.1.2 setup that has a very good center performance. It has a dedicated center channel with a well-balanced mid-range, so dialogue is reproduced clearly and accurately. However, its treble range is underemphasized, so sibilants like S and T sounds may be perceived as dull or veiled. Thankfully, it can get fairly loud.

The Monoprice SB-600 has a decent surrounds performance. It has dedicated surround speakers, which help to more clearly and accurately represent surround objects in the soundstage. The sound profile is somewhat boomy, and it has an underemphasized treble range, so higher frequencies may sound dull.

The Monoprice SB-600 has a poor Atmos performance. The bar has two up-firing speakers that bounce sound off the ceiling and back down towards you, which creates the illusion of height. However, this doesn't sound as accurate as the discrete localization that down-firing speakers in a home theater setup provide. Also, the Atmos sound is somewhat quieter than the audio coming from the other speakers, so the height effect may not be perceived as easily. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a height level adjustment.

The Monoprice SB-600 has poor sound enhancement features. It has EQ presets, including 'Voice', 'Music', 'Movie', and 'Sport', as well as bass and treble adjustments, but it lacks a full graphic EQ. There's also a surround level adjustment and a dialogue enhancement feature, which helps make dialogue sound more clear. Unfortunately, there's no height level adjustment or room correction feature, so audio may sound different depending on the room that the soundbar is in.

Update 09/27/2021: We previously reported that this soundbar comes with an RCA In port. However, after reviewing the bar, we concluded that its Coaxial port isn't the same as an RCA In port.

The Monoprice SB-600 has quite a few physical inputs. You can connect a device via the Full HDMI In ports to use the soundbar as a hub between different devices. Also, you can use the AUX port to connect your smartphone. While it has a USB port for transferring files, there's no Ethernet port.

The Monoprice SB-600 has great sound format support over ARC. It supports Dolby Digital, which is a common format found on streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs. However, it doesn't support DTS or DTS-HD MA content. This soundbar is advertised to support 5.1 PCM, and while it plays all the sound, the left and right surround sound comes from the bar and not the satellites, so it's not a true 5.1 PCM.

The Monoprice SB-600 has amazing sound format support through the Full HDMI In port. You can playback most surround sound and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos, but it doesn't support DTS or DTS-HD MA content, which are usually found in streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs.

The Optical Audio has mediocre audio format support. While it supports Dolby Digital, a common format found on streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs, it doesn't support the DTS format, which is usually found as a fallback of DTS-HD MA on recent Blu-rays.

The Monoprice SB-600 has a fantastic latency performance. It has low latency via its ARC, Optical, and Full HDMI In ports, making it suitable for watching videos. However, some apps and some TVs compensate for latency differently, so your results may vary.

The wireless playback on the Monoprice SB-600 is unremarkable. You can wirelessly connect your phone or tablet over Bluetooth to play audio via the bar. However, this soundbar doesn't support Wi-Fi or Apple AirPlay, and it doesn't have Chromecast built-in.

The Monoprice SB-600 can passthrough the highest bandwidth signals. This means the text will look clear on your TV when it's connected to your PC through the soundbar.

The Monoprice SB-600’s subwoofer connects wirelessly to the bar, which gives you more options when choosing where to put it.

The satellites connect to the bar wirelessly, but they're wired together.

The interface consists of a small display at the front of the bar that shows the feature you're adjusting using small lights.

The Monoprice SB-600 has several physical buttons on the top. They let you adjust basic functions, like on/off, volume control, and input.

The remote that comes with the soundbar has quite a few controls, allowing you to adjust some of the bar's functions. Unfortunately, it's not a universal remote, so you can't use it to control other devices.

The Monoprice SB-600 has a standby feature, which it enters after some time of inactivity. However, the only way to fully turn off the bar is to unplug it from the wall, which will return all the settings to default. Thanks to its HDMI CEC support, you can control some of the bar's basic functions using your TV's remote.