Roku Streambar Soundbar Review

The Roku Streambar is a 2.0 soundbar from this manufacturer's 2020 lineup. Just like the Roku Smart Soundbar, it offers access to several streaming platforms in one place, thanks to Roku's streaming media player. You can also purchase wireless satellite speakers and a subwoofer separately to upgrade your setup. There's a mic built into its remote, so you can control some features using your voice. However, it doesn't come 'Roku TV Ready,' so you can't connect it to a Roku TV to use that TV's remote to control the bar. Its main competitors are the Sony HT-S100F, the LG SK1, and the Bose Solo 5.

The Roku Streambar is a very small soundbar with angled edges. Its front and sides are wrapped in tight fabric that almost feels like it's stuck to the soundbar's body, while the top and rear of the bar are made from hard plastic.

The Roku Streambar doesn't come with a subwoofer, but you can purchase a Roku Wireless Subwoofer separately.

The Roku Streambar doesn't have any satellites, but you can buy Roku Wireless Speakers separately.

This soundbar is small and can easily fit between the legs of most 55 inch TVs. It's not very tall, so it shouldn't block your TV unless it sits flush to the table.

The back of this soundbar has one opening for its inputs and power cord. There are also universal holes on its underside so that you can wall-mount it, but the mounting parts are sold separately.

The Roku Streambar has a great build quality. Its top and rear sides are made of dense hard plastic, while the front and sides of the bar are wrapped in a tight fabric, so it doesn't feel like it can easily rip. That said, dust and dirt may still collect on the fabric. There's rubber underneath the soundbar, which is a nice touch.

• Remote
• Batteries (2x AAA)
• Quick Start guide
• Optical cable
• HDMI cable
• Power cable
• Power adapter

The Roku Streambar has a mediocre stereo frequency response. It's ideal for listening to vocal-centric content like podcasts and TV shows, as its balanced mid-range can reproduce dialogue clearly and accurately. That said, voices can also be a bit veiled due to the underemphasized treble. It struggles to reproduce the thumpy and rumbling low-bass felt in bass-heavy music and action-packed movies.

While the Roku Streambar comes with a few EQ presets, unfortunately, it lacks bass and treble adjustments to customize its sound. This can be disappointing for users who want to calibrate their soundbar.

The Roku Streambar's stereo soundstage is decent. The soundstage is a bit wider than the bar, which is quite impressive for such a small bar, but it doesn't do any tricks to make it sound larger. The soundstage's focus is okay, but sounds seem to accelerate towards the far sides of the bar. That said, the focus is much more consistent towards the center, so objects are perceived as coming from accurate, pinpoint locations.

The Roku Streambar has okay stereo dynamics. It doesn't get as loud as many other soundbars we've tested and won't be loud enough for a large or crowded room, but that's to be expected of its small size. Fortunately, there isn't a lot of compression when you push it to max volume, so sound quality isn't degraded.

The Roku Streambar has a decent THD performance. There isn't a lot of distortion at normal listening levels, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction. However, if you push the bar to its max volume, there's a jump in THD. That said, this may not be noticeable with real-life content.

The Roku Streambar has an okay center channel performance. This 2.0 setup uses its left and right channels to simulate a phantom center. Unfortunately, a phantom localization doesn't anchor voices to a pinpoint location like a soundbar with a discrete center. Its frequency response is also neutral, especially in the mid-range, where most voices are reproduced. While there isn't a lot of low-bass on this channel, it shouldn't be too noticeable since dialogue isn't usually bass-heavy.

The Roku Streambar has a poor surrounds performance. It has to downmix this content into stereo to play it, which doesn't sound as immersive as a setup with dedicated satellite speakers. Audio seems like it's coming from in front of you rather than from speakers placed all around you. Also, its bass-heavy frequency response can muddy voices and dialogue.

This soundbar has a poor selection of sound enhancement features. It offers four EQ presets: 'Normal', 'Reduce Bass', 'Bass Off', and 'Bass Boost'. There's also a Volume Mode feature to quiet loud commercials, which you can set to 'Off', 'Leveling', or 'Night Mode'. There's also an adjustable Speech Clarity feature to make voices more crisp, and you can choose between 'Off', 'Low', and 'High'. Unfortunately, it lacks a lot of other features, such as an EQ for sound customization.

Update 12/01/2020: Thanks to user feedback, we updated the HDMI Out to 1 (shared). Even though this soundbar doesn't have a Full HDMI In port, it has a Roku source built-in, so you don't need to have an ARC port on your TV to use the streaming features.

This soundbar has a couple of inputs. It doesn't have an HDMI In port, so you won't be able to use this bar as a hub between your TV and devices like a Blu-ray player. If you have an external hard drive or a flash drive, you can play audio from these devices using its USB port.

Update 01/13/2021: We re-evaluated our methodology for ARC support and concluded that DTS and Dolby Digital+ support should be reported the same over an ARC connection as over an HDMI IN and Optical connection, so we updated our results from "Yes" to "No". Some TVs, like the one we initially used for testing, may convert this content, but other TV brands may not. Ultimately, your experience may vary depending on your TV.

The Roku Streambar has mediocre audio support via its ARC port. It supports Dolby Digital content, which is commonly found on Blu-ray discs as well as streaming platforms. However, depending on the TV you use, it may not support DTS or Dolby Digital Plus.

The Roku Streambar has mediocre audio format support via its Optical In port. It can only support Dolby Digital content, which is commonly found on Blu-ray discs or streaming platforms. That said, it lacks DTS support.

The Roku Streambar has an okay latency performance. It has fairly high latency, so you may notice that the audio you hear is out of sync with the visuals you see on your screen, especially if you're watching dialogue-heavy content like a TV show. That said, some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience can vary.

This soundbar has incredible wireless playback options. You can wirelessly stream your favorite audio from your mobile device via Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay 2, or Wi-Fi. However, you can't connect to the bar using Chromecast built-in.

This soundbar doesn't have an HDMI In port, so it doesn't support 4k passthrough.

The Roku Streambar doesn't have a display. Just like the Roku Smart Soundbar, it has a light in the center of the bar. It turns solid red when you've plugged it in and turns green when it's ready. The light also slowly pulses when you're on mute, and it turns white for a moment to indicate that you've made a command. Unfortunately, there's no way of knowing its volume level if the TV is off.

This bar doesn't have any standard controls. It only has a reset button on the rear of the bar.

The Roku Streambar comes with a small and simple remote. You can control almost all of the bar's features. However, its companion app gives you access to Private Listening mode so that you can listen to your TV's audio using headphones connected to your mobile device. The manufacturer also advertises voice control, although we don't currently test for this.

The Roku Streambar has its own voice assistant built into the remote. You can press the microphone button on the remote or use the app to activate it.

The Roku app controls all of the Roku Streambar's settings. You can turn the bar on/off, adjust volume levels, access channels, cast device files, change EQ presets, and adjust the auto-volume and dialogue enhancement features. There's also a unique feature called Private Listening mode, which lets you listen to your TV's audio from headphones that are connected to your phone or tablet.

This soundbar doesn't really turn off, and even when powering the bar off, it mainly turns the TV off. When connected via ARC, your TV remote can also power the bar on/off and adjust volume.