The TCL Alto 5+ is a sub-par performing soundbar that has a very bass-heavy and dark sound profile. It doesn’t get as loud as other models but should be fine for casual listening sessions at a normal volume. This 2.1 configuration has a very small wireless sub and the bar is quite small, too, which results in a small soundstage. On the upside, its frequency response is decent and fans of bass might like its overall sound signature.
Our Verdict
Sub-par for mixed usage. The TCL Alto 5+ has a very bass-heavy and dark sounding audio reproduction. This won’t be ideal for dialogue-oriented content and most music genres. However, it can be a decent option for bass-heavy music and for action movies with lots of bass. The bar is well-built, but its overall performance is lackluster. It doesn’t get as loud as some other bars but should be fine for most casual listening sessions. This bar won’t be a good option for having a surround experience as it's a 2.1 setup, lacks height channels and doesn’t support Atmos.
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Good build quality.
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Small and fits between legs of TV stands.
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No DTS support.
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Doesn't get very loud.
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Bass-heavy sound profile.
Sub-par for Dialogue and TV shows. The TCL Alto 5+ has an okay stereo frequency response, which is bass-heavy, resulting in a slightly muddy sound. On the upside, the mid-range, responsible for speech is accurate and fairly well-balanced. There’s also a dialogue enhancement feature to help make dialogue a bit clearer and more understandable, even at lower volumes. You’ll also be able to stream content like audiobooks and podcasts via Bluetooth on this soundbar.
Okay for music. The TCL Alto 5+ has a very bass-heavy sound profile, so it might not be ideal for a wide variety of genres. On the upside, it will get decently loud for a casual listening session or for a slightly crowded room. Also, it performs quite well at max volume and you should get a clean sound reproduction. Unfortunately, there’s no way of EQ’ing the soundbar sound to your liking and its stereo soundstage is pretty narrow.
Sub-par for movies. The TCL Alto 5+ sounds very dark and bass-heavy, which can be good for action movies with many explosions. However, it's a 2.1 soundbar setup, meaning that it will downmix 5.1 content and it doesn’t support Atmos for a very immersive experience. It also doesn’t have any virtual surround feature. The soundstage isn’t very wide and objects will feel like coming from in front of you.
- Mixed Usage
- Dialogue/TV Shows
- Music
- Movies
- Updated Apr 09, 2021: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Sep 27, 2019: Review published.
Compared To Other Soundbars
The TCL Alto 5+ is a very small and compact soundbar that comes with a small subwoofer. It sounds noticeably darker than similar soundbars, but bass fans may prefer this. Due to its size, it doesn't get very loud when compared to other models, but it's still an okay option if you're looking for a soundbar to listen to bass-heavy music. See our recommendations for the best small soundbars, the best budget soundbars, and the best soundbars with subwoofer.
The Yamaha YAS-207 is better than the TCL Alto 5+ in pretty much every test. It sounds better, gets louder, and has better overall performance with center and surround contents. It also has more inputs thanks to HDMI ARC and Full HDMI In ports and supports DTS. However, the TCL is slightly better-built but the difference in performance is too big, making the Yamaha an obviously better choice.
The Yamaha YAS-408 is a better option than the TCL Alto 5+. It has a very neutral audio reproduction which is great with stereo content. Although it's a 2.1 system, it still has a great center performance even without a dedicated channel, making voices and dialog clear and easy to understand. It also has more connectivity options and supports DTS, which the TCL doesn't do. Overall, the Yamaha is simply an obvious choice over the TCL.
The Samsung HW-R550 is a better 2.1 soundbar than the TCL Alto 5+. It sounds better, has more sound enhancement features that let you slightly customize the way it sounds to your preference, has more inputs, and supports DTS. If you're looking for a budget soundbar, the price difference between these two won't be high enough to make the TCL a better option; the Samsung is a better overall soundbar.
The TCL Alto 7+ is a better soundbar than the TCL Alto 5+. They're quite similar in design, although the 7+ is a bit bigger. Even if the Alto 5+ has a smaller sub, it gives you a lot of bass, resulting in a more dark sound profile than the 7+. The 7+ also gets louder, but compresses a lot at max volume, which the 5+ doesn't do. The Alto 7+ has an HDMI ARC port, which the 5+ lacks.
While the TCL Alto 5+ is also a budget soundbar, it performs slightly better than the AmazonBasics 2.1 Channel Bluetooth. Overall, the TCL has a bass-heavy but more neutral sound profile than the uneven, bass-tilted AmazonBasics. Although the TCL's center channel performance isn't great, the AmazonBasics can't decode surround signals at all. Both soundbars can get loud but at max volume, the TCL has fewer artifacts.
The TCL Alto 5 and the TCL Alto 5+ are pretty much the same soundbar, but the 5+ comes with a powerful wireless subwoofer. Therefore, it has a much more present bass, although it's overdone a bit and the overall sound profile is very boomy and cluttered. If you listen to a lot of bass-heavy content, go with the Alto 5+, but if you're on a tighter budget and mainly want to upgrade your TV speakers for stereo TV shows or the news, the Alto 5 is a better option.
The TCL Alto 8+ is a better overall soundbar than the TCL Alto 5+. Both are 2.1 soundbars that don't support Dolby Atmos or DTS content. The 5+ has a muddy sound profile compared to the 8+, so its sound isn't as neutral or well-balanced. The 8+ also has more features, including an integrated Amazon Fire TV 4k streaming platform, an auto volume feature, and an HDMI ARC port. That being said, the 5+ feels slightly better-built than the 8+.
The TCL Alto 9+ is a better soundbar than the TCL Alto 5+. The 9+ supports Atmos content, unlike the 5+, and it has more physical inputs and wireless playback options. As a result, the 3.1 setup 9+ can be used for 4k passthrough. However, the 2.1 setup 5+ is better-built, has a better soundstage, and gets louder.
The TCL Alto 8i is a better soundbar than the TCL Alto 5+. The 8i has a better soundstage and 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 is better built.
Test Results
This bar is fairly plain. It has a metal grill that covers the front and the two sides, while the top is covered with a glossy plastic that can easily attract fingerprint marks. The back, the underside, and the side edges are made of solid plastic.
The sub is made of wood, aside from the plastic port, which is on the front face. The speaker is in the back along with the power jack.
The TCL Alto 5+ 's bar is fairly small and will fit between the legs of the stand of most 55 inch TVs. It also isn't very tall and won't obstruct the view of the screen unless your TV sits flush on the table, like the Sony A9G.
This is a small sub. It resembles a small desktop PC and you can place it almost anywhere in your room since it connects wirelessly to the bar. All you need is a power plug.
The back of the bar has one opening for the inputs. If you want to wall-mount it, you have to remove the two screws on the back and use the included adapters. When wall-mounted, it won't sit flush to the wall.
The subwoofer's back contains the speaker, the pairing button, and the power cable. Although the power cable doesn't connect close to the bottom side, you'll still be able to hide the cable easily as the sub isn't very tall.
The TCL Alto 5+ has a good build quality. It has a metal grill that protects the speakers and makes it look more premium than it really is. The subwoofer is small and made of wood, but unfortunately, the bar's top side, which is made of glossy plastic, can easily collect fingerprint marks, which won't look nice.
- Manuals
- Optical cable
- Remote with batteries
- Silicone pads
- Power cable (x2)
- 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable
- IR passthrough cable
- Wall anchors
- Wall-mounting brackets
- Wall-mounting screws
The TCL Alto 5+ has a passable stereo frequency response. It has a well-extended low-frequency extension, but its bass is overly done, resulting in a very muddy sound profile. On the upside, the mid-range is pretty well-balanced, resulting in an accurate reproduction of vocals.
When listening to the TCL Alto 5+, the soundstage is just okay. The bar isn’t the largest and doesn’t do any tricks to widen its soundstage performance. On the upside, the focus of the soundstage and the separation are good, which makes objects seem to be coming from a more accurate pinpoint location rather than from a general area.
The TCL Alto 5+ has a good stereo dynamics performance. It doesn’t get very loud as some other soundbars. It should still be good enough for most uses. On the upside, it doesn’t compress a lot. You might get a bit of thumping and compression artifacts in the bass range, but this will be barely audible to most.
The TCL Alto 5+ Plus' THD performance is decent. At a normal listening volume, this soundbar has a bit of harmonic distortion, mainly in the bass range. Also, when pushing the bar to its max volume, there’s a jump in THD in the bass range. The bar might have trouble reproducing a clean and pure sound at a high volume.
This soundbar's center channel performance is sub-par. It's a 2.1 setup, meaning that it doesn’t have a discrete center speaker. It uses the left and right speakers to create a sound in the center, which will sound more diffused and less clear compared to a discrete one. The graph shows a pretty dark-sounding profile, but since there’s hardly any bass on the center channel, this shouldn’t affect the performance too much. Voices will still sound fairly clear and accurate.
The TCL Alto 5+'s performance with surrounds content is poor. This is a 2.1 setup, so it'll downmix surround content, and it sounds very dark and bass-heavy. This soundbar can only use its left and right speakers, which won’t result in an accurate and clear localization of surround objects in the soundstage. This means the result isn't very immersive and the objects are perceived to come from the front instead of to your sides or behind you.
The TCL Alto 5+ doesn’t have height channels and doesn’t support Atmos. If you want a soundbar with height channels, check out the TCL Alto 9+.
The TCL Alto 5+ has very few sound enhancement features, which is bad. It only has a Dialogue Enhancement to help make voices a bit clearer, which is great for movies. It has a few sound modes for News, Movies, and Music, but that’s about it. This soundbar doesn’t have room correction, so it might sound differently depending on your room, and there’s no way of customizing its sound profile to your liking, or to control the amount of bass coming from the sub.
The TCL Alto 5+'s physical inputs are very limited. You can't use it as a hub between your TV and external devices due to the lack of HDMI ports. On the upside, you can connect older devices with limited connectivity options, using their audio out jack to the bar's Analog Audio In, and you can also playback music stored on a USB key.
There's no HDMI port on this bar so you won't be able to play any of the higher-end sound formats. If you're looking for a 2.1 soundbar with an HDMI ARC port, check out the TCL Alto 8+.
There's no HDMI port on this bar, so you won't be able to play any of the higher-end sound formats.
Over its Optical port, this bar can decode Dolby Digital surround sound but will downmix it to 2.1. Dolby Digital is very common in streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs. The (not supported) DTS format is usually the fallback for the higher quality DTS-HD MA found on many Blu-ray discs, but it isn't commonly available on its own.
You can connect modern devices to the bar using its Bluetooth connection. In the absence of that, the lack of Wi-Fi, Chromecast built-in, and Apple AirPlay might be limiting to some users.
Due to the lack of HDMI ports, you can't use the bar as a hub.
The subwoofer connects wirelessly to the bar and all you have is the power plug.
The interface is rather plain. There are a few LEDs that light up in different color according to the input, and a white one that flashes when you change the volume.
The buttons that control the bar's functions are pretty straightforward. You can select the input, change the volume, pair with a Bluetooth device, and power on/off the unit.
The remote is very small and can easily get lost between the pillows of your couch. It controls the bar's main functions and has some preset listening modes to enhance your sound experience.
There's no app that pairs with this bar.
The TCL Alto 5+ has a standby mode, but due to the lack of an HDMI port, there's no option to control any of the bar's functions using the TV remote. There's some compatibility with TCL TV remotes but that's not due to the bar.