The TCL S45H is a 2024 standalone soundbar model with a simple 2.0 configuration. It's very similar to the TCL S55H, which includes a bass module. Aimed as an affordable upgrade to your TV's speakers, it offers a few welcomed features like room calibration (called AI-Sonic Adaptation) and support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, albeit with a necessary downmixing. Let's see what the budget tier offers these days and answer if this soundbar is worth getting above some of our best sounding TVs.
Our Verdict
The TCL S45H is okay for mixed usage. As a stereo soundbar, it compromises the fidelity and immersiveness of surround sound and object-based audio formats like Dolby Atmos by downmixing them. Like many all-in-one soundbars, it can't fully reproduce bass frequencies, even if you max out the bass adjustment, so music and low-pitched sound effects lack rumble. Dialogue and vocals sound forward in the mix, though somewhat uneven, and the soundstage is about as wide as the bar itself. You get a solid number of sound enhancements like room correction, EQ presets, bass and treble adjustments, and different listening modes. It also gets louder and compresses less than most built-in TV speakers.
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Several enhancement tools to tailor the sound.
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Great dynamics and compression performance.
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Lacks deep bass due to its all-in-one design.
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Poor height and surround sound performance.
The TCL S45H is alright for dialogue and TV Shows. It's a stereo soundbar that supports many common formats like Dolby Digital and DTS with eARC and Optical ports at fairly low latencies. Mids and treble are emphasized, albeit a bit unevenly, for clear dialogue. The lack of full bass extension robs soundtracks and action flicks of sounding balanced, though. However, there's a room calibration tool, and you can use EQ presets, bass and treble sliders, and a Dialogue mode to tweak the sound. It also gets louder and compresses less than most TV speakers.
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Several enhancement tools to tailor the sound.
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Great dynamics and compression performance.
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Lacks deep bass due to its all-in-one design.
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Poor height and surround sound performance.
The TCL S45H is okay for music. It produces lead instruments and vocals reasonably clearly in the mix, and there's a bit of boom on kick drums, but it's not very balanced. Due to the absence of a subwoofer, it can't reproduce bass frequencies with great depth, so heavier music sounds thin. It's a stereo soundbar, as is most music, but concerts in 5.1 and Dolby Atmos are downmixed to stereo. The stereo soundstage is alright, but not notably spacious and wide. That said, it gets loud enough to fill a room with minimal compression, and you get a handful of tools to adjust the sound to taste. It also offers several ways to connect your music.
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Several enhancement tools to tailor the sound.
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Great dynamics and compression performance.
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Lacks deep bass due to its all-in-one design.
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Poor height and surround sound performance.
The TCL S45H is unremarkable for movies. It gets louder with less compression than most built-in TV speakers and is an upgrade to the average TV speaker, though not a considerable one. It's still a stereo soundbar that downmixes Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround audio, so it's not very immersive and lacks much height. It also can't reproduce bass frequencies with ample rumble, which weakens the reproduction of soundtracks and sound effects. That said, dialogue is mostly clear in scenes without many competing sounds. There's support for DTS and Dolby formats. Plus, you get room calibration, EQ presets, and bass and treble adjustments to carve out the sound somewhat.
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Several enhancement tools to tailor the sound.
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Great dynamics and compression performance.
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Lacks deep bass due to its all-in-one design.
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Poor height and surround sound performance.
- 6.6 Mixed Usage
- 6.8 Dialogue/TV Shows
- 6.8 Music
- 6.3 Movies
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Updated Dec 02, 2024:
The Best Buy-exclusive variant, the TCL S4BH, was added to the Differences Between Variants box.
- Updated Nov 13, 2024: Review published.
- Updated Nov 05, 2024: Early access published.
- Updated Oct 25, 2024: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Oct 11, 2024: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Sep 12, 2024: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The TCL S45H comes in one color, 'Black' (check out the label for our unit), though a press release shows it in other colors like green and navy, which may subsequently become available. It's also known as the TCL S4XH in some regions. The TCL S4BH is also the same soundbar, but sold through Best Buy. It's very similar to the TCL S55H but performs a bit differently because it has an integrated bass port, while the TCL S55H has a dedicated subwoofer instead.
If you come across another variant, please let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Soundbars
In the budget range, the TCL S45H bumps up against the likes of the Vizio M Series M213ad-K8, which also supports Dolby Atmos, but importantly, the Vizio's stereo response sounds more balanced out of the box with better low-end than the TCL. That said, if you're setting it against previous affordable models like the TCL Alto 8i, the S45H includes more user-friendly features like room correction but lacks an HDMI In port and as much bass.
Still, if you're looking at the affordable options on the market, check out the best budget soundbars, the best soundbars under $200, and if you simply just don't want a subwoofer, consider the best all-in-one soundbars.
For most people, the Hisense HS2100 is better than the TCL S45H. The Hisense sounds much more balanced throughout the range, including a greater bass extension due to the outboard subwoofer. It's also low latency across various audio formats and connections. However, the TCL offers an app with more tuning options, like EQ presets, listening modes, and a room correction tool. Its dynamics are better, too. The TCL also supports Dolby Atmos, but it downmixes it to stereo. It's mainly impeded by its weak bass response.
The TCL S45H is better than the Sony HT-S100F. Both budget all-in-one 2.0 soundbars lack a full-sounding bass, but the TCL offers greater audio format compatibility and lower latency, in addition to room correction. It's more consistent sounding across stereo, surround, and object-based formats than the Sony, which is limited to EQ presets and doesn't support DTS or Dolby Atmos.
Whether the TCL S55H or TCL S45H is better depends more on whether you have room for a subwoofer more than on their performances. Their performances and capabilities are nearly identical, except that, unsurprisingly, the TCL S55H, with its dedicated subwoofer, sounds better with a fuller bass response.
The Roku Streambar is better for small spaces than the TCL S45H, and if you don't need much in the way of support for formats like DTS and Dolby Atmos but plan on listening to wireless music. The Roku also comes ready for streaming on the Roku platform, which may be a determining factor for some folks. On the other hand, the TCL gets much louder and is capable of filling out a larger space while retaining dynamics better at max volume. It also supports far more formats, though it downmixes them to stereo.
Test Results
The TCL S45H has an unobtrusive modern design in tonal black. The top and sides are seamless with rounded corners and made of plastic with a horizontal texture that's reminiscent of a brushed metal finish. The metal grille at the front of the bar is a darker shade of black. Its touch controls and LED light strip are completely flush with the bar.
The soundbar doesn't include a subwoofer, but if you want one, check out the TCL S55H, which is a similar soundbar, just with a bass module.
This soundbar is low enough that it won't block your TV screen and will fit between the legs of most larger TVs. It's not exactly compact, but it's hardly a large soundbar.
If you have the room, check out the TCL S55H, a similar soundbar with a subwoofer.
You get brackets and screws included with the soundbar. They're pretty simple, and as you can see, they slide into place on the soundbar.
This soundbar is decently built. It's lightweight but feels solid, with a metal grille. Interestingly, it's advertised as fingerprint-resistant, and the textured finish delivers on this promise well, but popcorn butter on your fingers will still show up.
- Remote with batteries (2x AA)
- Wall-mounting kit
- Wall-mounting template
- HDMI cable (59-inch / 1.5 m)
- Power cable (59-inch / 1.5 m)
- Quick-start guide
- User manual
The stereo frequency response is mediocre. Tested using standard EQ and the AI-Sonic Adaptation (which is a room correction), it's fairly uneven across the mids and treble, and the bass is lacking body and rumble. Speech sounds clear and present but isn't totally accurate due to the peaks and dips in the response, and singers can sound a bit dull due to the de-emphasis in the treble. There's not much oomph in the bass range either, so you'll notice a lack of fullness in music like rock and EDM genres.
The soundbar includes a bass and treble adjustment that spans a range of +/- 6 increments from neutral ('0'). You can fill out the bass a bit by maxing out the bass to '6' and leaving the treble at '0' with the standard EQ preset and AI-Sonic Adaptation room correction enabled. This calibration doesn't resolve the dip in the treble or the uneven mid-range, but it helps add more high-bass boom to the sound of kick drums.
The soundbar's stereo soundstage performance is okay. Its soundstage is about as wide as the bar. Unless it's a busy action scene, it can track movement well. However, focus and tracking get messier when many sounds occur simultaneously in a complicated song or a fast-paced scene.
The soundbar has impressive stereo dynamics. It gets as loud as (or louder than) many TV speakers with less compression at max volume than most built-in speakers in TVs. Most of the compression is in low-bass, which the soundbar doesn't output much of to begin with, so you won't notice much impact on the audio's fidelity when you max out the volume.
The TCL S45H soundbar's center performance is fair. It's a 2.0 soundbar, so the center channel is produced by both drivers rather than by a discrete driver in the center of the bar. It sounds bright and reproduces speech and vocals with harshness or dullness, depending on the pitch. Deeper voices lack natural weight. This response sounds a bit thin without a full low-end, but it pushes forward the fundamentals of speech in dramatic scenes with dialogue. It's only an issue when sounds like overwhelming cinematic music or explosions get muddled and compete with speech.
The soundbar's surround performance is poor. Because it's a 2.0 configuration, surround sound is downmixed to stereo, so it doesn't play back the audio around you. Basically, it sounds the same in surround as the stereo frequency response—rather bright with the mids pushed up in the mix, yielding clear, though uneven, voices and a lack of low-end.
While this soundbar is capable of handling Dolby Atmos, it does a poor job of creating the impression of height. It's limited by the 2.0 configuration that necessarily downmixes Atmos to stereo without dedicated up-firing drivers for the dimension of height. As a result, tracking the vertical movement of elements on screen is difficult and muddled, getting lost in the rest of the mix. Because it's a stereo soundbar, sounds that shift from side to side are easier to follow, and the bright tuning ensures clarity. However, busy scenes lack a clear separation that you can locate in space, and you don't feel immersed when an action scene with deep bass comes across as weak and without punch or depth.
Interestingly, if you have a compatible TCL TV with up-firing drivers, you can use the 'Tutti Choral' feature to turn the soundbar from a 2.0 configuration to 2.0.2.
The TCL S45H has an alright selection of sound enhancements. There are EQ presets: 'Music,' 'Movie,' 'Voice,' 'Sports,' 'Game,' and 'Standard', which is the one we used for calibration. In addition to the presets, you can manually adjust the bass and treble by +/- 6 increments above or below the default, but keep in mind that a bass adjustment won't meaningfully add bass frequencies that exceed the design limitations of the drivers, so it's no substitute for a subwoofer. Its AI-Sonic Adaptation is an automatic room calibration tool that can help tune the sound to suit your space's acoustics.
In addition, there are listening mode options like 'Night,' 'Surround Enhance,' 'Dialogue Enhance,' and 'DTS Virtual:X.' In testing, we found that 'Surround Enhance' and 'DTS Virtual:X' don't improve the sound or the surround effect, though. Those who own a compatible TCL TV can use the 'Tutti Choral' feature to utilize the TV speakers alongside the soundbar. If your TCL TV has up-firing speakers, this can turn the setup from 2.0 to 2.0.2 for dedicated Dolby Atmos speakers.
The soundbar comes with an eARC HDMI port and an Optical in port, so you can connect to a variety of new and old devices and TVs. There's even an AUX input in case you want to connect to an analog audio device. A USB-A port lets you hook up a thumb drive if you wish to listen to MP3, WMA, or FLAC audio files. It lacks an HDMI In port though, so it won't do video passthrough.
The soundbar's eARC port supports Dolby formats like Atmos, Dolby Digital, and unlike the TCL S55H, Dolby Digital Plus. It also supports DTS, but not DTS:X. Keep in mind that it's a stereo soundbar, so surround sound formats are mixed down.
The soundbar supports all the common formats over Optical: DTS, Dolby Digital, and 2.0 PCM audio.
Depending on the audio format, the eARC latency is either very low (as with 2.0 PCM) for virtually lag-free viewing that tightly matches what's on-screen, or latency is elevated for a bit of possible lip-sync mismatch with Dolby Digital formats. Sadly, the soundbar has no method for mitigating any visible audio/visual delay, so you'll need to rely on your TV's audio settings if you experience obvious lag.
The Optical port has some latency present, which you may not notice because it's not especially high. This is great for a obtaining a reasonably tight audio/visual match. Unfortunately, if you encounter more obvious lipsync mismatch, the soundbar lacks a manual adjustment, so you'll need to rely on your TV's audio settings to compensate.
You can wirelessly connect the soundbar to Bluetooth audio sources only.
The soundbar has five touch controls on the top and a thin LED strip that lights up in colors you can memorize and is associated with different actions. However, the LED's utility is limited because you can't see it if you're seated.
The five controls on the top of the bar are power on/off, cycle through input sources, Bluetooth pairing, and volume adjustments.
The remote handles most of the necessary functions without needing to use the app, which is handy if you find your phone can distract you mid-movie. The main feature you need to use the TCL Home app for is to set up the AI-Sonic room calibration tool. You can turn the room correction on and off with the remote, but the app is required to configure it.