TCL Alto 6 Soundbar Review

The TCL Alto 6 2.0 is a simple standalone bar. It's mostly made of plastic with rounded edges, and fabric covers the front of the bar.

If you're looking for a similar bar with a subwoofer, check out the TCL Alto 6+.

It's a fairly small bar and can fit between the legs of a 65" TV stand. Since it isn't very tall, it doesn't obscure your TV screen, either.

You can mount the bar to your wall using the included brackets.

The TCL TS6100 has a decent build quality, which is normal for a budget-friendly bar. The bar is mostly made of plastic, which is textured to give the appearance of leather. It feels sturdy, though the plastic is on the cheaper side. The front of the bar is covered in mesh fabric. It seems like it could rip or collect dust over time, so you'll want to be cautious when touching it.

• Manuals
• Wall mounting template
• 2x wall mounting brackets, with 2x screws and 2x anchors
• 2x AAA batteries
• Remote
• Power cable (length: 4.9 ft / 1.5 m)
• HDMI cable (length: 4.9 ft / 1.5 m)
• Optical cable (length: 4.9 ft / 1.5 m)

The TCL Alto 6 2.0 has an alright stereo frequency response. The bar's sound profile is fairly even, especially in the mids, where most voices and lead instruments are reproduced. Given that it's a standalone bar, it struggles to reproduce the deep thump and rumble in the low-bass, and as a result, most songs sound flat. You can check out the TCL Alto 6+ for a similar bar with a subwoofer to improve bass reproduction.

It's worth noting that the bar makes a hissing sound. It's more noticeable with some content than others: for example, you're more likely to notice it in songs with stops or breaks as opposed to movies with constant sound. We aren't sure if this is unique to our unit, so let us know in the forums if you experience any similar issues.

This soundbar has no bass and treble adjustments to calibrate its sound. You can only switch between different EQ presets. We recommend using the default Music preset for a more neutral sound with stereo content.

The TCL Alto 6 2.0 has a fair stereo soundstage performance. The soundstage is perceived to be a little bit wider than the bar itself, but it doesn't have any tricks to stretch it past your table. Focus is only decent, and sound effects seem to come from a more general area rather than a pinpoint location in the soundstage around you.

This bar gets loud enough to fill an average-sized living room with sound. There isn't too much compression when you push it to max volume.

While distortion mostly falls within good limits, a peak in the bass range is noticeable at times, especially when you're listening to music at loud volumes.

The TCL TS6100 is a 2.0 soundbar, meaning it lacks a discrete center channel. Instead, it simulates a 'phantom' center using its left and right stereo channels. The resulting sound is more diffused than what you get with a soundbar with a discrete center channel, so voices come from a more general area rather than an accurate location in the soundstage.

This 2.0 soundbar has to downmix 5.1 surround sound formats like Dolby Digital into stereo to play them back. The resulting sound isn't quite as clear or real, as you don't get the sense of sound effects stretching into the space around your couch. Instead, the action seems like it's coming from in front of you.

The TCL TS6100 has a limited amount of sound enhancement features, which is normal for such a budget-friendly bar. You can choose between three EQ presets: Movie, Music, and TV. The TV preset doubles as a dialogue enhancement tool, as it's designed to help with vocal clarity. Without bass and treble adjustments, though, you don't have much control over the bar's sound, even compared to other budget models like the Hisense HS214.

You can connect this soundbar to your TV via HDMI or Optical. It doesn't have a Full HDMI In port, so you can't use it for video passthrough between devices like a console and a TV.

Like the TCL Alto 6+, this soundbar supports Dolby Digital content via ARC. You'll commonly find this 5.1 surround sound format on streaming platforms, and the bar downmixes it into stereo to play it back. However, you don't get support for lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos, which are also more and more common on streaming services.

Over Optical, this soundbar supports Dolby Digital content, which is the most common surround sound format on various streaming platforms. Since it's a 2.0 bar, it has to downmix this content into stereo to play it back.

Latency is middling. It's on the higher end, which means you're more likely to notice lip-synching issues with movies and videos. Of course, different apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, so your experience can vary. Unfortunately, you don't get any A/V Sync tools to manually make up for any delay.

You can stream audio to the bar wirelessly via Bluetooth.

While the bar lacks a display, it uses five LED lights on the front of the bar to show some information. You can tell which input you're on, the current EQ preset, and the volume level as you change it. Each color represents a different source, and there are different patterns to distinguish between the EQ presets. You can see all of this in the bar's manual.

A few buttons on top of the bar let you control its most basic settings. You can power the bar on/off, change the input, activate Bluetooth, and adjust the volume. Other settings are accessible through the remote.

The remote is simple and lets you control all the bar's settings. It doesn't have a companion app, so you'll need to keep track of the remote if you want to adjust its features.