The TCL Alto 8i is a 2.1 setup that's advertised as Roku TV Ready, so it should be easy to pair it with your Roku TV. You can use it to play Dolby Atmos content, and it gets pretty loud, although there are some compression artifacts present at max volume. While it has dual subwoofers integrated into the bar, it lacks low-bass, which can be disappointing for fans of bass-heavy music genres. Fortunately, it offers a few sound customization features, including three EQ presets and bass/treble adjustments.
The TCL Alto 8i 2.1 is acceptable for mixed usage. Its uneven sound profile may not be ideal for fans of a more neutral sound. It also lacks low-bass, so you don't feel the deep thump and rumble in action-packed movies or bass-heavy music. It supports Dolby Atmos and surrounds content, but it doesn't provide a very immersive listening experience. Fortunately, its balanced mid-range is suitable for vocal-centric content, and there are some sound customization features.
The TCL Alto 8i 2.1 is middling for dialogue and TV shows. Its sound profile is boomy, punchy, and somewhat bright, but its balanced mid-range can reproduce dialogue clearly. While it doesn't have a dialogue enhancement feature, the night mode feature can help balance the volume across different programs and commercials. You can stream podcasts and audiobooks from your phone to the bar via Bluetooth, but it doesn't support other wireless playback options.
The TCL Alto 8i 2.1 is alright for music. Its boomy, punchy sound profile also sounds a bit bright, and it lacks low-bass, which can be disappointing for fans of bass-heavy music genres. It gets loud, but there are some compression artifacts present when you play it at max volume. It doesn't have a full EQ, but there are some presets and bass and treble adjustments to help you customize its sound.
The TCL Alto 8i 2.1 is passable for movies. Its boomy, punchy sound profile has a balanced mid-range that can reproduce vocals and dialogue clearly. However, it lacks low-bass, so you don't feel the deep rumble in action-packed scenes. It supports Dolby Atmos and surrounds content, though it doesn't provide the most immersive listening experience. While it gets pretty loud, there are some compression artifacts present when you play it at max volume.
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+.
This setup doesn't have a dedicated subwoofer. Instead, there are two subs built into the bar.
This setup doesn't have a dedicated subwoofer.
This setup has no satellites.
The TCL Alto 8i has a passable stereo frequency response. With its Music EQ, it has a punchy, boomy sound, but it also sounds a bit bright. It's lacking low-bass, so you don't feel the deep thump and rumble in bass-heavy genres like EDM. That said, its balanced mid-range is suitable for dialogue-centric content like podcasts. It comes with three EQ presets so you can customize its sound: Music, Movie, and TV.
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 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 middling 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 terrible 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 poor 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 your 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 that 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 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 your TV.
The TCL Alto 8i has two subwoofers built into the bar.
The TCL Alto 8i doesn't have any satellites.
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.
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.
This soundbar doesn't have a companion app.
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, so you can control some of the bar's functions using your TV remote.
The TCL Alto 8i 2.1 comes in 'Black', and you can see the label for the model we tested here.
If you come across another variant, let us know in the discussions so we can update our review.
The TCL Alto 8i is a 2.1 soundbar with dual built-in subwoofers. Unlike many other 2.1 setups, it supports Dolby Atmos content, though its performance is poor. It's advertised as Roku TV Ready, so you should be able to easily connect it to your Roku TV. However, it lacks a lot of low-bass, and its uneven sound profile may not be suitable for all listeners. See also our recommendations for the best soundbars, the best soundbars under $200, and the best budget soundbars.
The TCL Alto 9+ is a better soundbar than the TCL Alto 8i. The 9+ is a 3.1 setup that comes with a dedicated subwoofer, and its default sound profile is better-balanced. It also has more wireless playback options and a better center channel performance. However, the 2.1 8i has a better soundstage.
The TCL Alto 8+ and the TCL Alto 8i have similar overall performances, and depending on your listening habits, you may prefer one over the other. The 8+ is better for dialogue-centric content because it has a dialogue enhancement feature. It also offers built-in access to Amazon Fire TV player. However, the 8i is better-built, and it's better for movies because it supports Dolby Atmos content. The 8i also supports 4k passthrough.
The Sony HT-X8500 and the TCL Alto 8i are both 2.1 soundbars that support Dolby Atmos, but the Sony has a better performance. The Sony has a more balanced sound profile and its center, surrounds, and height channels perform better. It also comes with a dialogue enhancement feature and supports DTS content, unlike the TCL. However, the TCL has a better soundstage performance.
The Samsung HW-Q70T is a better soundbar than the TCL Alto 8i. The Samsung is a 3.1.2 setup, unlike the 2.1 TCL, and it comes with a dedicated subwoofer. The Samsung is better-built, and it has a more balanced default sound profile. It's also more customizable thanks to its graphic EQ.
The TCL Alto 7+ and the TCL Alto 8i are very similar-performing 2.1 soundbars, so depending on your listening habits, you may prefer one over the other. The 7+ is better-built and comes with a dedicated subwoofer. Its sound profile is more neutral, though it also lacks low-bass. However, the 8i has a better soundstage. It also supports Dolby Atmos content and supports 4k passthrough thanks to its Full HDMI In port.
The Vizio M-Series M21d-H8R is a better soundbar than the TCL Alto 8i. The Vizio is better-built, and it has a more neutral, balanced sound profile as well as a dialogue enhancement feature. However, the TCL has a lot less compression when you play it at max volume, and it also supports Dolby Atmos content.
The TCL Alto 8i is a better soundbar than the TCL Alto 5+. The 8i has a better soundstage, and it supports Dolby Atmos content. Also, it has more physical inputs, including a Full HDMI In port that supports 4k passthrough. However, the 5+ comes with a dedicated sub, and it's better built.
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Black Alto 8i |
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