Hisense HS214 Soundbar Review

The Hisense HS214 is a small standalone soundbar with a similar design to other budget models like the Sony HT-S200F. It has a rectangular shape with openings on each side, one of which is for the bass port.

The subwoofer is integrated into the bar. You'll find it on the underside of the bar.

The bar is small and easily fits underneath a 65" TV stand. It isn't very tall, either, so it doesn't block the bottom of your TV screen.

You can mount the soundbar to your wall. While it's advertised to come with screws, none were included with our model.

This bar has a good build quality, which is impressive for the price. It's mostly made of plastic, and the plastic on top of the bar is made to look and feel like leather, at least from afar. Up close, though, it has a cheaper look. The metal grille in front of the bar helps to protect the drivers inside. Plus, there are rubber feet on the bottom to hold the bar in place. There isn't a grille covering the integrated subwoofer, but it's not much of an issue since it's located at the bottom of the bar.

• Manual and Quick Start Guide
• Remote with 2x AAA batteries
• Power cord (length: 4.9 ft / 1.5 m)
• Optical cable (length: 4.9 ft / 1.5 m)
• HDMI cable (length: 4.9 ft / 1.5 m)

The Hisense HS214 has a middling stereo frequency response. Like most standalone bars, it really struggles to bring the deep thump and rumble in the low bass. The mid-to-high bass range is also underemphasized, resulting in a lack of warmth in the mix. Still, thanks to its balanced mids, voices and other instruments are reproduced with clarity and accuracy. It's worth looking at this bar's 2.1 sibling, the Hisense HS2100, if you want a similarly-featured soundbar with a dedicated sub for a warmer sound. Subjectively, the Music and Movie EQ presets perform about the same. We tested this soundbar with its virtual surround feature turned off since this subjectively offers a better sound. When it's turned on, voices are veiled, and additional sound artifacts are introduced to the mix, which severely impacts the enjoyability of your listening experience.

If you prefer a more neutral sound with stereo content, set the bass to 4. You notice more warmth and punch in the mid-to-high bass range, especially with more bass-heavy songs. Voices and other instruments remain clearly reproduced.

The Hisense HS214 is a smaller soundbar, and its stereo soundstage is perceived to be only about as wide as the bar itself. You can widen it a bit using the virtual surround mode, but as we mentioned in the boxes above, this comes at the expense of the overall sound quality. Focus is good, though, which is nice, as it's easy to pinpoint sound effects and instruments to accurate locations in the space in front of you.

This soundbar gets loud enough to fill most living rooms with sound. Compression falls within good limits, too, even when you push it to max volume.

Since the Hisense HS214 is a 2.1 soundbar, it lacks a discrete center channel to improve vocal reproduction. Instead, it uses its left and right stereo channels to create a phantom sound in the center. It reproduces voices clearly, but they're more diffused in the mix as a result.

This is a 2.1 soundbar, meaning it has to downmix surround sound formats like Dolby Digital into stereo to play them back. The resulting sound isn't quite as clear or life-like as what you get with dedicated surround channels. Sound seems like it's coming from a speaker placed in front of you rather than from speakers placed all around you.

You're not going to find a lot of sound enhancement features with soundbars at this price point, and the Hisense HS214 is no exception. You're limited to a few EQ presets, including Movie, Music, and News. News doubles as a dialogue enhancement tool, lowering the bass and raising the mid-treble to make voices clearer in the mix. This soundbar also has a virtual surround mode designed to create a more immersive sound. Subjectively, it doesn't provide a very good listening experience, though. It widens the soundstage a little but at the expense of the overall sound quality. Voices are veiled with it on, and strange sound artifacts are introduced to the mix. We recommend keeping it off for the best possible listening experience.

You can connect this soundbar to your TV over an HDMI or Optical connection. Plus, if you have an older TV with a Coaxial output, you can connect it to the bar's Coaxial input.

Like most budget-friendly bars, there isn't a lot of support for multichannel audio formats. Still, you can playback Dolby Digital content, which is one of the most common surround sound formats on both Blu-rays and streamers.

The bar can playback Dolby Digital content over an Optical connection. Of course, since it's a 2.1 bar, it has to downmix it into stereo to play it back.

Thanks to its lower audio latency, this soundbar is suitable for watching videos and movies over an ARC connection. You aren't likely to notice any lip-synching errors, though it's worth noting that some apps and TVs will compensate for this differently.

Audio latency is decent over an Optical connection. You're more likely to notice a delay between the audio you hear and the visuals on screen when you watch Dolby Digital content. Some apps and TVs compensate for this differently, though.

Without a Full HDMI In port, this soundbar isn't suitable for video passthrough to your TV.

Streaming content wirelessly from your mobile devices is easy, thanks to Bluetooth support.

While this bar doesn't have a display, there's a singular LED on the front to give you information on the bar's status. For example, it changes colors to show which source you're using. It's a bit confusing, though, especially when it comes to using the bass adjustment tool since there's no way to see what level you're on.

A few simple controls on top of the bar let you easily power the bar on/off, change the input, and adjust the volume.

You use the remote to control all the bar's features, like the volume and bass adjustment. Like most budget-friendly models, you won't find a companion app, so this is the only way to adjust its settings.