Vizio Elevate SE SL512X-0806 Soundbar Review

This soundbar has a sleek, modern design with a durable fabric-wrapped front and a solid plastic back that feels sturdy. Lightweight aluminum caps magnetically attach to the ends, rotating up and down for Atmos and DTS:X playback. LEDs are built into the bar at the ends, where the height channels are. You can change the colors of these LEDS in the app or even have them display a dynamic rainbow effect.

The subwoofer has an oval shape with a downward-facing woofer and a rear port. The back also houses color-coordinated ports for connecting surround speakers. It sits on small rubber-padded feet, leaving a slight gap between the sub and the floor. Visually, it's similar to the sub that comes with the Vizio M Series Elevate M512E-K6. 

The satellites share a similar design to the bar, with a plastic body and a tightly wrapped, thick mesh fabric front. They're lightweight but still feel well-built. Small pads on the bottom keep them stable wherever they're placed, and they connect to the subwoofer via 8m/26 ft color-coordinated cables for easy setup.

This soundbar is a little wide, so it can't fit between the legs of a 55-inch TV stand. But it's not very tall, so it doesn't block your TV screen.

The subwoofer is very similar in size to the one that comes with the Vizio M Series Elevate M512E-K6. It takes up a similar amount of floorspace to a desktop PC but isn't as tall. 

The small satellites don't take up much space at all. They're not wireless, so you do have to wire them to the subwoofer for them to work, but their small size and unobtrusive styling means they'll slot into most living rooms easily enough.  

This bar also includes a quick fit mount, which works with compatible Vizio TVs to simplify the mounting process.

The Vizio Elevate SE 5.1.2 has impressive build quality. In general, the overall design and feel of this setup are similar to those of the Vizio M Series Elevate M512E-K6. The different speakers feel well-built from a mix of durable materials like plastic, cloth, and aluminum. The aluminum height caps can even be removed for cleaning or repairs since they attach magnetically to the bar.

• Quick setup guide
• Warranty
• Wall mount guide
• HDMI cable (1.8m / 5.9 ft)
• 2x power cable (1.5m / 4.9 ft)
• 2x satellite audio cables (8m / 26 ft)
• 2x satellite mounting screws
• 2x soundbar mounting screws
• 2x satellite mounting brackets

The Vizio Elevate SE has a decent stereo frequency response that resembles that of the Vizio M Series Elevate M512E-K6. Its sonic signature trends warm, with extra bass to give effects like explosions some added punch. It doesn't offer as much low-bass thump as the Vizio Elevate, but the boosted high-bass ensures basslines sound warm and enveloping. All that bass can muddy dialogue and instruments up a touch, but since the mid and treble ranges are pretty well-balanced, that's not too much of an issue. Voices generally sound clear and present without ever being harsh.

The Vizio Elevate SE 5.1.2 soundbar lets you customize its bass and treble amounts to your taste. In our room, we obtained the most balanced sound by turning the bass to '-1' and the treble to 3, which reduced some of the mud present in the default setting. That said, the settings you choose will depend both on your taste and on the acoustics of your room. 

This soundbar has a good stereo soundstage. It's not the widest, but does extend an inch or two further than the left and right edges of the bar. Happily, the focus is great, so sound effects and dialogue are well-positioned within the soundstage. Voices come from where you'd expect. 

The Vizio Elevate SE 5.1.2 soundbar has great stereo dynamics performance. Not only does the bar get plenty loud enough to fill a medium sized living room, but it leaves your audio virtually untouched by compression at its loudest volume. That means you'll get pure audio reproduction when listening loudly, and explosions won't lose any of their impact.

The center channel performance is great. It offers a well-balanced sound that represents sounds like voices accurately and with plenty of detail, making them easier to pick out during busy scenes. You shouldn't have too many issues understanding what characters are saying. If you do, you can always tweak the bass and treble amounts to taste. 

The surrounds performance is satisfactory. The dedicated surround satellites mean the bar can deliver a more immersive sound than setups without satellites. For instance, it's easy to make out sounds passing from front to back and left to right in this setup. These satellites don't put out much bass, but that's okay, as the subwoofer handles those frequencies. They also lack a little clarity, which can rob sounds like clashing swords of some shimmer. 

The Atmos performance is acceptable but doesn't excel. Only the bar itself has up-firing drivers, not the satellites, which limits the sense of height the system can produce. The up-firing drivers do add some sense of verticality to your audio, but never make you feel truly immersed in a vast soundscape. Sounds feel like they come from above the bar, but not from above you. The satellites do a good job representing detail, so you can easily pick out sounds like a helicopter zooming around you, but less well when something flies over you from behind. The subwoofer also delivers a solid amount of rumble in bass-heavy scenes without overwhelming the mix.

The Vizio Elevate SE 5.1.2 soundbar offers the same set of enhancement features found on the Vizio M Series Elevate M512E-K6 as well as the original Vizio Elevate. As with other bars in the Elevate series, there are three options for controlling the sides of the bar (with the up-firing drivers). AUTO rotates the sides upwards automatically when the system detects Atmos or DTS:X content, while UP and WIDE let you set the rotation manually. You can also set the surrounds to play the same stereo audio as the sound bar using DUAL mode. 

This soundbar has a fairly stripped-back selection of ports. In addition to the power socket, you get an HDMI eARC output port to connect the bar to your TV and a USB input port for file playback. But you can only playback WAV and MP3 audio files. Sorry, FLAC fans. 

The Vizio Elevate SE 5.1.2 offers remarkable audio format support over ARC. Blu-ray enthusiasts will appreciate its support for DTS and DTS:X formats, and streaming fans can enjoy watching both Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos content. 

This soundbar does not support HDMI in. 

This soundbar does not have an Optical input port. 

The Vizio SL512X 0806 has very good latency performance via ARC. You probably won't need to adjust the AV Delay function unless you're watching Dolby Digital content. But whether you'll have to will depend on the specifics of your setup.

This soundbar does not support video passthrough. 

You can wirelessly stream content to this bar via Bluetooth, but it doesn't support Wi-Fi playback, and there's no support for Chromecast or Apple AirPlay.

This soundbar has a vertical strip of small LED lights that change based on the selected source and settings. These lights indicate volume levels as well as adjustments to audio settings like bass and treble amount. The system is fairly intuitive, but it lacks the clarity of a text display. 

A simple set of physical buttons is located on the left side of the bar. There's a power button, a Bluetooth pairing button, and buttons for volume up and down.

This system doesn't come with a remote, so you have to use the Vizio App to access any controls that aren't found on the bar itself. Check out this video of the app in action. In our testing, we experienced pairing issues with the app. Twice, it failed to reconnect after powering the bar off, so we had to manually repair our phone and the bar. The lack of a physical remote means connection issues like this could become bothersome.

This soundbar doesn't have voice assistant capabilities.