TCL Alto 8i Soundbar Review

The TCL Alto 8i is a 2.1 soundbar from TCL's 2020 lineup. Like other 2020 TCL soundbars like the TCL Alto 6, it's advertised as "Roku TV Ready", so you should be able to easily connect it to your Roku TV. While it supports Dolby Atmos and Bluetooth streaming, it has dual internal subwoofers instead of a dedicated sub. Its main competitors are the TCL Alto 8+, the Sony HT-X8500, and the TCL Alto 7+.

The TCL Alto 8i is a simple, sleek soundbar with an all-black design. It's mostly made of plastic. There's a tight fabric wrapped around the bar, which could collect dust and get dirty. The subwoofer is also built into the bar.

This setup doesn't have a dedicated subwoofer. Instead, there are two subs built into the bar.

The TCL Alto 8i 2.1 isn't very wide, so it should fit between the legs of most 55" TV stands. It also isn't very tall, so it shouldn't block your TV screen unless the TV sits flush on the table.

On the back of the bar, there's an opening for the inputs and the power cable. Also, there are universal holes for wall-mounting on the bottom of the bar.

The TCL Alto 8i 2.1 has a decent build quality. It's mostly made of plastic, which feels quite solid. However, the fabric wrapping around the bar could easily collect dust. For a better built soundbar, see the Hisense HS218.

• Manuals
• Mounting template
• AC power cord
• Optical cable
• HDMI cable
• Remote with batteries (2x AAA)
• 2x wall-mounting sleeves
• 2x wall anchors
• 2x wall-mounting brackets
• 2x wall-mounting screws

The TCL Alto 8i has a decent stereo frequency response. It has a somewhat dark and boomy sound profile due to the extra bass and the recessed treble range. Vocals and lead instruments are reproduced pretty clearly, but there's a little extra warmth in the bass range. Higher-pitched vocals can also sound a bit veiled due to the recessed treble. That said, it struggles to reproduce an extended low-bass, so you don't feel the thump and rumble in bass-heavy audio. There are some bass and treble adjustments to help you customize its sound, though.

With calibration, this setup has a satisfactory stereo frequency response. You can set its bass to '-2' and its treble to '3', resulting in a pretty neutral, balanced sound profile that's suitable for lots of different types of audio content. It still struggles to reproduce a very extended low-bass, though, so you don't feel the deep rumble in action-packed movies.

The stereo soundstage is decent. It sounds wider than our testing table, which is wider than the bar itself. While it sounds a bit overprocessed, it's still pleasing to the ear. However, the focus of the soundstage doesn't make it seem like objects are coming from a more accurate pinpoint location. Instead, sound seems to move in chunks, and it's scattered towards the far edges of the soundstage.

The TCL Alto 8i has satisfactory stereo dynamics. The bar can get loud enough to use in large, crowded parties, but there are some pumping and compression artifacts present when you play it at max volume.

The TCL Alto 8i has a decent stereo total harmonic distortion performance. At normal listening volumes, you get a clean and pure sound reproduction. However, there's a small jump in THD across the range when you play it at max volume. This may be difficult to hear with real-life content.

This soundbar has a passable center performance. Due to its 2.1 configuration, it doesn't have a dedicated center speaker, so it uses the left and right speakers to create a sound in the center. Unfortunately, this can sound more diffused and less clear than a discrete center channel.

This soundbar has a poor surrounds performance. It uses its left and right speakers to downmix this content into stereo, which doesn't result in accurate and clear localization of surround objects in the soundstage. It doesn't get very loud, and its sound profile is quite muddy and boomy.

The TCL Alto 8i has a disappointing height performance. It uses front-firing speakers on the bar to bounce audio off the ceiling and back down to the listener to simulate down-firing speakers, but this doesn't sound as immersive. Also, its sound profile is quite boomy and muddy, which may be overwhelming for some listeners.

The TCL Alto 8i has a poor selection of sound enhancement features. It comes with three EQ presets: Music, Movie, and TV, as well as bass and treble adjustments so you can customize its sound profile. There's also a Dolby Virtual Surround mode to enhance your movie-watching experience. However, there isn't a room correction feature, so it may sound a bit different depending on the acoustic characteristics of your room.

The TCL Alto 8i has a lot of physical inputs. Thanks to its HDMI ports, you can use it as a hub between your devices, like your TV and PC. There's also a 3.5mm AUX port for connecting to your phone over a wired connection.

The TCL Alto 8i supports some of the more common audio formats over its ARC port. It supports Dolby Digital and DTS content, which are commonly found on Blu-ray discs and streaming platforms. It also supports Dolby Atmos content.

The TCL Alto 8i supports Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos content via its Full HDMI In port, which are commonly found on Blu-ray discs and streaming platforms.

We expected this bar to play Dolby TrueHD content. While audio played from the bar, we couldn't confirm it was playing the TrueHD file, as the bar displayed Dolby 5.1. We can't confirm if the audio was downmixed.

Via its Optical port, the TCL Alto 8i can decode Dolby Digital surround sound, though it has to downmix it to stereo to play it. However, it doesn't support DTS content, which is usually the fallback for the higher quality DTS-HD MA found on many Blu-ray discs but isn't commonly found on its own.

The TCL Alto 8i has a disappointing latency performance. It has high latency, so you may notice a delay between the audio you hear and the video you see. When watching YouTube videos via ARC and Optical, there's a small inaudible pause that's quite noticeable, especially when watching dialogue-heavy content without a lot of background noise like speeches. As a result, it may not be suitable for watching movies and videos over these connections. That said, some TVs and apps compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may vary.

The TCL Alto 8i only supports Bluetooth. While you can connect your phone or tablet wirelessly to the bar over this connection, it doesn't support Wi-Fi, Chromecast, or Apple AirPlay.

This soundbar can passthrough the highest bandwidth signals. Text looks clear and crisp if you plug the soundbar between your PC and TV.

The bar has a simple, 5-character LED display. It shows the volume level, EQ, input, and bass and treble adjustments. It also displays the audio format that's detected. Also, there's a solid white dot on the display when the bar is in STANDBY mode. The white dot flashes when the bar is in SLEEP mode.

On top of the bar, there are physical control buttons. You can use the power button to enter SLEEP mode (short press) or STANDBY mode (long press). Also, you can switch between the bar's input, enter Bluetooth pairing mode, and adjust the volume.

The TCL Alto 8i comes with a simple remote that lets you control all of the bar's functions. You can change the EQ preset and the input or adjust the bass and treble. The Night button sets the dim setting on the bar's display, and when you long-press it, it activates the Night Mode sound setting that balances the volume across different programs.

The TCL Alto 8i doesn't automatically turn off. You can manually set it to STANDBY when you long-press power on the remote, and you can set it to SLEEP when you short-press the power button. On the upside, it supports HDMI CEC, meaning you can control some of the bar's functions using your TV remote.