Vizio M Series Elevate M512E-K6  Soundbar Review

The Vizio M Series Elevate has a unique design with rounded edges. It's mostly made of plastic and is tightly wrapped in fabric. On the side of the bar, you see a circle with a Vizio logo. This piece extends from the bar when you listen to height content to create a more immersive sound, which you can see in action here. You can turn this feature off or turn it on with other types of content, too. There's even an LED light inside, which you can customize with different colors.

The Vizio M Series Elevate M512E-K6's sub features rounded edges that match the style of the soundbar. It's mostly plastic, with a port in the rear and a speaker underneath. It sits on four feet to help keep it in place.

The Vizio M Series Elevate M512E-K6's satellites have a similar design to the bar. They're made of plastic, with a fabric wrapping. They sit on four rubber pads to keep them in place.

The Vizio M Series Elevate is rather wide, so it can't fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand. It isn't very tall, so it doesn't block your TV screen, which is nice.

The sub is fairly compact and doesn't take up a lot of room in your space. Overall, it has a similar footprint to a desktop PC, but it's shorter.

The satellites have a small footprint and aren't very tall, either. You have to wire them to the sub to get them to work. It adds some extra cables into your setup and, depending on your setup, may not be ideal.

The Vizio M Series Elevate has great build quality. The sub is made of plastic, which feels quite solid and durable. The bar and the satellites have a similar plastic build, and they're wrapped in fabric. Since the fabric is tight and taut, it doesn't seem like it could rip easily. That said, it may collect dust over time.

• Manuals
• Wall mount with 4x cable ties
• 2x wall mount brackets (for soundbar)
• 4x wall mount screws
• 2x wall mount brackets (for surrounds)
• Remote with batteries (2x AAA)
• HDMI cable (5.9 ft / 1.8m)
• 2x power cable (8.5 ft / 2.6m and 4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• 2x surround audio cables (26 ft / 8m)

The Vizio M Series Elevate has a decent stereo frequency response. Its default sound is neutral and mostly balanced in the mids, but it pushes the low frequencies more than the highs. It means that voices and lead instruments in your favorite music genres are clearly and accurately reproduced in the mix, and you don't have any trouble following the dialogue in TV shows. There's a little extra emphasis in the bass, which adds some boom and weight to the mix. However, compared to other Vizio models, like the Vizio Elevate, its low-frequency extension isn't as impressive, meaning you notice less rumble with bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop. That said, treble is somewhat veiled compared to the low-mids and bass, but it doesn't have major peaks or dips, so frequencies don't jump out in the mix. The frequency response on the Direct preset hasn't changed much after updating the bar to firmware version 1.520.00.4.

Initially, we tested the soundbar with the subwoofer placed next to the couch. However, for Test Bench 1.3, we opted to adhere to the manufacturer's suggestion, which, in this case, is to place the sub beside the TV. In our space, we found that when positioned beside the couch instead of the TV, the stereo frequency response had a more neutral slope, so we encourage you to experiment in your room with what sounds best.

Thanks to its bass and treble adjustments, you can customize the Vizio M Series Elevate's sound to suit your preferences. If you prefer a more balanced sound, we recommend setting the bass to '-8' and the treble to '2'. The resulting sound profile isn't as weighty or boomy in the bass, which leaves more room for the rest of the mid-range and a much clearer treble to cut through the mix. However, you still notice the lack of rumble in the low-bass, as bass adjustment tools can't really make up for that.

The Vizio M Series Elevate has a good stereo soundstage. Its focus is good, meaning that sound effects seem to come from accurate, pinpoint locations in the soundstage. For example, dialogue seems like it's coming from the same side of the screen that a character is standing on. The width of the stereo soundstage isn't much more than the bar itself.

The Vizio M Series Elevate has great stereo dynamics. The bar gets loud, so you have no trouble filling even the largest and most open living rooms with sound. Even at max volume, the bar delivers your audio with scarcely any compression, so the quiet and loud sections are retained during playback.

The Vizio M Series Elevate is a 5.1.2 soundbar, so it comes with a discrete center channel. It works to improve vocal clarity and place dialogue in a more accurate location within the soundstage. Given the balanced frequency response on this channel, voices are reproduced accurately and with detail, too. You don't have any issues following the dialogue on screen.

The Vizio M Series Elevate has a good surrounds performance. There are two discrete satellites included in the box, which you can turn on with either the Surround or DUAL settings. If you turn either Surround or DUAL off, audio won't play from the satellites. These satellites improve the bar's ability to provide a clear and real representation of sound effects in the space around you, especially compared to bars without discrete setups. Its frequency response is pretty balanced, too, so sound effects are accurately reproduced, although with a little extra thump and punch in the bass.

The Vizio M Series Elevate supports Dolby Atmos content, often found on streaming platforms. Atmos is a more advanced object-based technology that makes it seem like audio stretches into the space above and behind you. The bar uses two up-firing drivers built into the bar itself to simulate this 'height.' Its unique design rotates the sides of the bar for a more immersive sound when height content is played.

Subjectively, the Vizio M Series Elevate provides an enjoyable listening experience with height content. It replicates height and depth, and details on the screen seem like they're coming from all around you. Drones and helicopters seem to fly overhead, and cars race past you during chase scenes. Overall, it's an immersive performance that makes you feel as if you're seated right in the middle of the action.

This bar lets you set the sides to UP, WIDE, or AUTO. The WIDE setting disables the two height drivers and downmixes to the base layer. Since this would negatively impact the bar's performance with Atmos content, we didn't turn it on for these tests. However, the WIDE feature has a small difference when you update the bar to firmware version 1.520.00.4. This firmware update sends height content to the surround speakers and the front mains, whereas the previous version only sends sound to the surround speakers. Meanwhile, with the sides set to UP, there's not much difference in the bar's sound before and after this firmware update.

The Vizio M Series Elevate offers the same selection of sound enhancement features as the original Vizio Elevate. There's no room correction feature, so it sounds a bit different depending on the acoustics of your space. That said, you have bass and treble adjustments on hand to compensate, as well as some EQ presets to switch up its sound, including Movie, Music, Direct, and Game. The Virtual:X feature acts as a virtual surround mode, too.

Also, the bar's unique design can be adjusted based on your preferences. You can set the sides of the bar to UP, WIDE, or AUTO. AUTO automatically rotates the sides upwards when you watch Atmos or DTS:X content, while the other settings let you control the rotation manually.

The Vizio M Series Elevate offers the same selection of sound enhancement features as the original Vizio Elevate. There's no room correction feature, so it sounds a bit different depending on the acoustics of your space. That said, you have bass and treble adjustments on hand to compensate, as well as some EQ presets to switch up its sound, including Movie, Music, Direct, and Game. The Virtual:X feature acts as a virtual surround mode.

Also, you can adjust the bar's unique design based on your preferences. You can set the sides of the bar to UP, WIDE, or AUTO. AUTO automatically rotates the sides upwards when you watch Atmos or DTS:X content, while the other settings let you control the rotation manually.

The Vizio M Series Elevate connects to your TV over HDMI or Optical connections. There's an HDMI cable included in the box, which most newer TVs support. However, if you have an older TV with an Optical connection, you'll need to buy a separate cable. There's also an AUX VA input to connect third-party voice assistant devices to the bar.

The Vizio M Series Elevate has fantastic audio format support over ARC. It's great if you watch a lot of content over streaming platforms, where you're likely to run into both Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos content. Blu-ray fans will be pleased, as there's support for DTS and DTS:X formats.

The Vizio M Series Elevate supports many different audio formats via HDMI In. You can enjoy both 5.1 surround sound formats, like Dolby Digital, as well as object-based formats, like Dolby Atmos.

The Vizio M Series Elevate supports both Dolby Digital and DTS content via Optical. Dolby Digital is the most common surround sound format, and it's often found on streaming platforms. DTS, meanwhile, is more common with Blu-ray discs.

The latency via eARC is passable. With most audio formats, the soundbar has a degree of latency, which can affect how tightly your visuals match the sound. Since the soundbar doesn't have an app, you can use your TV's settings to adjust the A/V sync if you find it distracting.

The Vizio M Series Elevate has an adequate latency performance via HDMI In. Its latency is somewhat elevated, but depending on the audio format, it might be more or less obvious in how well lips synchronize with voices. You may notice some discrepancies, as some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently. If it's an issue, you'll want to adjust the A/V settings on your TV.

The audio latency via the Optical port is alright. Depending on the audio format, you may experience slight delays. That said, latency can be compensated for in your TV's A/V settings.

The Vizio M Series Elevate can passthrough some of the highest-quality bandwidth signals, including Dolby Vision Passthrough. You can connect the bar between different devices, like a PC and a TV, to get clear and crisp text on the screen. It can passthrough 4k @ 120 Hz @ 8-bit, but since it lacks HDMI 2.1 support, it can't passthrough 4k @ 120 Hz @ 10-bit for smoother color and no banding with your favorite games.

The Vizio M Series Elevate lets you wirelessly stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar via Bluetooth.

The Vizio M Series Elevate lacks a display; however, you can use the vertical lights on the left side of the bar to monitor the settings as you adjust them. These lights change patterns as you adjust certain features, and you can see the list in the manual for reference. There's also some audio feedback when you switch settings, which is handy.

The top of the bar has a few buttons. You can power the bar on/off, adjust the input, activate Bluetooth pairing, and control the volume. However, you need the remote to access its additional features.

The remote matches the style of other Vizio remotes. It's simple and sleek, with a display screen on the top to show the settings as you adjust them.

The Vizio M Series Elevate doesn't have built-in voice assistant capabilities. If you own a third-party voice assistant device with Amazon or Google support, you can plug it into the bar to control it with your voice.