Walmart has
Hisense 5.1-Channel 510W Soundbar w/ Wireless Subwoofer & 2 Rear Surround Speakers (R651) for
$89.
Shipping is free, otherwise free store pickup is available where stock permits.
Thanks to Deal Hunter
Navy-Wife for finding this deal.
About this item:
- 5.1 Surround Sound - 3 speakers built into the soundbar. Left and right front channel, center channel, plus two Tweeters, surround the listener in 3D audio for room-filling sound that delivers a true Cinema experience.
- Whether you're gaming, watching your favorite movie or show, or listening to that new track on repeat, Dolby Digital Plus and DTX Virtual:X enhances the entertainment you love across all your devices. It goes beyond ordinary listening by transporting you with the breakthrough spatial sound experience that draws you in deeper, so you hear and feel more.
- Wireless 6.5" Subwoofer - A wireless subwoofer delivers robust low-end frequencies that punctuate your favorite movies, music, and games, without any messy wires. You'll feel the "boom" while the two front- facing speakers project bright, clear high and mid-range frequencies. The wireless module requires a power cord to function the Subwoofer.
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First, definitely not a rebadge of last year and definitely no Atmos, which honestly is no big deal IMO. DTS Virtual X is very similar in what it does in post-processing and creating a "sound bubble".
Secondly, the design is really nice on all the components, as would be expected. I do want to note that the soundbar itself is, by far, the lightest bar I've ever picked up. It almost felt like there was nothing in there. It's cloth covered (and so are the rear speakers) rather than the metal grilles from last year.
Thirdly, the speakers do hook up differently than last year's Atmos model. Those were wireless (and many of us had issues with hissing sounds when the volume was low or even when the main unit was off). These plug into the subwoofer like most of the past Vizio models. For me, I prefer having the sub in the back of the room by my listening position anyway. They give you an amazing amount of speaker cable for each.
I do want to note that there are eight speakers total. Three drivers in the bar along with two tweeters, the two surrounds and the sub. This does have Dolby Digital Plus, which is an enhanced, upgraded version of standard 5.1 Digital and what most streaming services use for their audio encoding (Atmos can be delivered via DDP), so combined with the DTS processing, this hopefully should do well with the 3D effects.
One thing this system does have that last year's didn't (at least to my recollection) is Hisense's Pure and Pro Surround settings. Pure delivers the 5.1 sound as originally intended from the source you're playing. Pro creates a "virtual" surround for those that want all the sounds coming out of the speakers at all times, like dialogue. I've always found those kinds of settings completely distracting. I want to hear true surround, not hearing someone speaking out of all five channels at once. That kind of defeats the whole purpose of surround, but some people mistakenly believe sound should be blaring out of their rear speakers at all times, so I guess this is good for them. I wouldn't suggest it myself.
I'll follow up once I've had a chance to listen. This is obviously a Walmart specific model for the holidays. There is zero info about it even on Hisense's website.
I have had a number of Atmos bars, both with and without up firing drivers, and I concur with another poster who said that they never got good results with them. My ceilings are the ideal height and, even after playing around with settings, none ever knocked my socks off. What they were always good for was the object-based audio. Sometimes sounds seemed to be coming from a totally different part of the room, but height effects? Not so much. I've always found that DTS Virtual X worked just as well for that. YMMV
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Definitely worth the $89+tax for me.
Definitely worth the $89+tax for me.
I think that person was simply lamenting that there wasn't an input directly on the soundbar where they could connect a device directly to it and use the eARC port to their TV. It does seem to be a rather odd omission to me, but in fairness the SONOS Arc only has a single HDMI input and it costs $700, so what do I know really? The rationale behind wanting at least a regular HDMI input on the soundbar is because you lose an input to your TV when you are using it for ARC/eARC purposes for a soundbar or home theater AVR. If you have a lot of devices to connect (multiple game systems, UHD Blu-Ray player, etc...) it makes it a pain when you might have to unplug and reconnect an HDMI cable to the device you're wanting to use. Not to mention the wear and tear it puts on the HDMI port you're connecting/disconnecting all the time.
Hope that helps and let me know if you have any other questions.
10 adequate to really good
3 neutral to poor
1 negative review of the wrong model
Really appreciate the detailed insights in this thread.
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Also, did you check to see if the subwoofer paired successfully with the bar? I owned a Samsung in the past that never paired correctly, no matter what I tried, so there was zero output from the sub. You may need to check the back of the sub to ensure the connection is active or pair it manually if it's not. You won't get sound out of the sub or the surrounds if it never paired.
Just trying to be helpful here. You might've tried all this already. Trying to save you an unnecessary trip to the store. 🙂
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Just out of curiosity, I searched the HS5100 model that Walmart is also selling. So is Best Buy, Costco and several others it turns out. There are reviews for it online and you can find it on Hisense's site, unlike this one. It looks to be the exact system as this, with the same Dolby Digital Plus and DTS Virtual X capability. Even the components are identical. The only difference is that model is rated at 540 Watts and this one is 510 Watts. Same number of woofers and tweeters in the bar. That confirms my thinking that this is a (very) slightly less powerful model made specifically for Walmart to sell for the holiday season, but is otherwise identical to the standard model.
I only bring this up because if people are looking to see online reviews or find out more on the company's website, whatever info you find for that model is applicable for this one, if that helps you decide.
I'm sure most of you already know this, otherwise you probably wouldn't be here on the SD site, but oftentimes a manufacturer will make an identical (or very similar) model for a particular retailer just for Black Friday sales with a unique model number. It takes a bit of sleuthing online to find out more about the item because it almost will never show up on the manufacturer's website as one of their current models.
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