Roku Streambar Soundbar Review

This small bar is mostly made of plastic. However, the front and the sides are wrapped in fabric.

You can purchase a Roku Wireless Subwoofer separately.

You can buy Roku Wireless Speakers separately.

Given its small size, the bar fits easily into most existing setups and fits between the legs of a 55-inch TV stand. It's not very tall, so it doesn't obscure your TV screen.

The bar has good 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 (5.9 ft / 1.8m)
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Power cable (5.9 ft / 1.8m)
• Power adapter (5.9 ft / 1.8m)

This 2.0 setup is ideal for listening to stereo content, which includes most music and vocal-heavy TV shows. Its frequency response is quite balanced, especially in the mids, where most voices and instruments reproduce, so you get a clear and accurate representation of these sounds. However, there's a slight dip in the treble, so higher-pitched instruments are a bit veiled in the mix. As with most standalone bars, you don't get a lot of rumble in the low-bass, either, but you can always add a separate sub to improve its bass reproduction.

If you update the bar to firmware version 11.0.0 or later, you get access to bass and treble adjustments to help you customize its sound to your liking. With its bass set to '8', you get a more balanced sound, with a bit more thump in the bass range to bring bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop to life. The mids remain quite balanced, so voices and lead instruments are still clear and detailed in the mix.

The Roku Streambar's stereo soundstage is fair. The soundstage is a bit wider than the bar, which is 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 toward the far sides of the bar. That said, the focus is much more consistent towards the center, so objects like instruments are perceived as coming from accurate, pinpoint locations.

This soundbar 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 normal with its small size. Fortunately, it's still suitable for listening in an average-sized living room. Also, there isn't a lot of compression when you push it to max volume, so sound quality isn't degraded as you crank up the volume.

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. As with most bars, if you push the bar to its max volume, there's a jump in THD, though this isn't very noticeable with real-life content unless you're a very astute audiophile.

Its center channel performance is okay. This 2.0 setup uses its left and right channels to simulate a phantom center. The frequency response is quite balanced, especially in the mids, so voices reproduce with clarity. However, the phantom localization doesn't anchor voices to a pinpoint location like a soundbar with a discrete center, which takes away from the immersive feel a bit.

The Roku Streambar has 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. You can always add on separate satellites if you want to improve its surround sound.

This soundbar has a few sound enhancement features. It offers four EQ presets: 'Standard', 'Dialogue', 'Movie', 'Music', and 'Night'. 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'. If you update it to firmware version 11.0.0 or higher, you get bass and treble adjustments to customize its sound.

You can connect the bar to your TV via Optical. Also, if your TV has HDMI ARC, you can connect it over an HDMI cable. Most TVs come with this technology built-in; however, older TVs may not have it. In that case, you can connect it over Optical and HDMI to get it to play.

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, since it's a 2.0 bar, it has to downmix it into stereo to play it.

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 fairly low latency, so you don't notice much delay between the audio you hear and the video you see. 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 high-quality passthrough.

The bar 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.

It comes with a small and simple remote. You can control almost all of the bar's features. However, unlike the Roku Streambar Pro, you can't connect headphones to the remote itself for private listening—you have to do that through the Roku Streambar app instead. The app also acts as a remote, so if you'd rather control the bar from your smartphone, you're able to do that there.

The bar 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. Also, you can use a third-party Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and/or compatible Apple Homekit for voice assistant support. You just need to set them up in the Google Home, Amazon Alexa, or Apple Home apps, respectively, to stream them on the bar.