Side by Side Comparison of: VIZIO vs Samsung

Great price and works very very well with a Vizio TV. Senses you turning volume up on the regular TV remote and powers on the unit. Remote can control all variable levels, etc.. All accessories included. Great shipping and packaging.

Had this about a month so far. Really enjoy it. The kids dance around to music and it is a hoot. It was very easy to set up.I have had trouble getting my TV remote (samsung) to work for volume control. The cable remote works fine for volume control on the sound bar though.I highly recommend this.

Great product. Easy to install with wonderful sound. I bought this as my husband is hard-of-hearing. He can really enjoy the audio system now.

Easy to set up and sounds great. The only con for me is the remote doesn't have a lit background, makes it harder to make adjustment without having a lite on.

sound bar is awesome. great price and great sound. no issues with the remote or pairing with any device. have it hooked up in my room to a samsung tv, again no issues. the sound booms. the satellite speakers are a nice touch to get that true 3d feel and sound. would buy again for sure.

Talk about a great value for the money. I have this set up in my basement and I LOVE IT!! The fact that it does not require much wiring was a selling point for me. The product is not entirely wireless as you still have to connect the rear speakers to the sub woofer using the cable. The sound is much powerful than I anticipate. The only con I have witnessed so far is that the sounds sometimes rattles, but not often. I highly recommend.

This is not the absolute best quality soundbar on the market. This is not the smallest soundbar on the market. This is not the bassiest soundbar on the market. But this IS a great addition to a bedroom TV and blows the built-in speakers of any LCD out of the water. Decent range and acceptable clarity make this a great choice for those who need a significant upgrade but don't need a full subwoofer system in a small space. Perfect for my purposes and light years beyond the built-in speakers of even a nice new Samsung 32" TV.

I used a pair of sound bar mounting brackets to mount this under our wall bracket mounted Samsung 32" TV. Looks great and sounds much better than regular TV speakers. It will not rattle a room but it is great for TV in the bedroom especially. It has Bluetooth capabilities but our TV has only an optical audio out port. This sound bar also has an optical audio in port so hookup was easy. I just had to buy a very short optical cable so as to not tie up a lot of slack. It came with a cable however.

This is a nice sound bar. I was specifically looking for one without a sub woofer. I have it hooked up to my TV using the included optical cable (make sure to take the little caps off the ends first). I was able to program my cable remote to turn on/off and control the volume of the sound bar. This was great since now I don't have use the included remote to control the sound bar. The sound is really good. We were noticing that the sound from our TV speakers were getting worn out (we kept saying to each each other...what did they just say). Now after hooking up this soundbar we can understand people speaking again.

I got this to pair up with a 40" Samsung in a small living room and it's more than fine. I like that it's also a bluetooth speaker; I like to listen to my mp3 books and music on my Note 4 through it. And if you're having issues getting the optical audio cable plugged in, it's because you haven't taken off those white plastic nipple caps off the cable tips...Those who complain it doesn't have enough bass, IT DOESN'T; spend some money and buy one with a subwoofer. If you've got a big room where you're watching your 60"+ tv, this soundbar probably won't be loud enough; spend some money and buy a bigger soundbar unit.

Works great my wife loves it.!! Easy to install and mount

Great sound. Voices are very clear. Perfect for those that don't want big speaker boxes, and don't need the base blowing out the neighbors. Used with my cell phone for music very easy hook up.

So at $200 this is a great little sound system. I have a wide living room and the wireless communication lets me have my sub and surrounds where I want without wires crisscrossing everywhere. This is a product that knows what it meant for and does it well.Pros: Lightweight, cheap, good sound for the $, easy to mountCons: Remote has very tricky interface and is kinda tiny for a guy with bigger hands.

well it could be super great review, unfortunately the digital port of the speaker does not work.I struggled to plug it to my TV and Computer and could never figured it out so my solution was simply to use the bluetooth. I lose in audio quality but it works.This bar is powerful with the bass and sattelite. It goes quite high and i love it. with my tv it feels like a home teatherI would recommend it as the price is hard to beat.

The main sound bar works great, but I find the side speakers don't work unless the program is in (HD?). for example, an older TV show it won't work, but then come in clear for newer commercials. When it's not picking up the sound there is slight static noise coming from it that can bother my ears. So I only use the long sound bar, placed next to the television. 4-stars because it doesn't seem to be the fault of the system, but I think they are only made to work if the TV show is new enough. Sound bar alone (and might have considered purchasing just that) is superior to the built-in sound on my Samsung Smart TV.

Nice set up for my medium sized living room. The price was great and it delivers good sound along with a nice little subwoofer to heighten your movie or music experience. If you don't want to break the bank on various over priced surround sounds (in my opinion) this is the right product for you.

Very nice sound coming out of this bar, and for the price, I am surprised, I like the idea of playing music from my phone, it sounds very good clear and it's loud..

This is a very good sound bar system and at a good price, but the instructions to link everything together are not so easy. You have to rely on these flashing light codes on the sound bar and frankly, it gets confusing. I'm still trying to figure out how to have it work off the remote control to my HDTV.

great sound. one problem, it has no indication of a level of volume (like no number or bar indicting level). but it works great with wall mounted TV and other blue tooth devices. crisp clear sound, especially for the price. was easy to mount as well.

It does the job. I was disappointed that the bass wasn't a little deeper, but I guess that's why it's best to buy a unit with a separate subwoofer. Because of that, it's a bit pricey. Also, you can program it to power on with your TV, but it's doesn't power down when you turn it off. That doesn't make sense to me. If you're looking for a soundbar just to have the sound directed towards you, rather than it echoing from the back of your TV, like I was, then this is suitable.

While my own home theater is based on HD projection and a screen, plus a home theater sound system, I was recently asked to set up a small home theater for an older couple who both have hearing problems, and she also suffers from poor vision. But their 'theater' room was only a 9' x 9' bedroom with a small sofa in it, so we ended up with a good sized flat screen LED 'smart' TV by Samsung. They were only going to use it to watch DVDs, nothing online or streaming. So they ended up with a new TV that has a remote control and also their DVD player which has a remote control. They HATE remote controls.Then they realized that the built-in speakers on the TV were not loud enough for them to hear, and the sound clarity was not that great either. They could not understand what anyone in the videos was saying.Because the TV sits on its stand on top of a credenza which takes up the entire wall of the room next to its doorway, there was no room to add speakers on the credenza or the floor next to it. The bottom of the TV screen is only about 3" above the top of the credenza, so I investigated 'strip speakers' or 'sound bars' that could be placed on top of the credenza, in front of the TV screen, and still not have the speaker blocking the screen (or the receiver for the remote control).There was no room, or desire, to have a subwoofer, so I looked for sound bar speakers that did not come with a subwoofer. This narrowed the options down a lot. Then I decided to stay with the same manufacturer as the TV, in order to maximize integration between them, so I looked only at Samsung. The options were now only a couple of models, and this HW-J250 was the better rated of the two, and had mostly very good reviews on Amazon and elsewhere.This speaker can accept its audio from a number of sources, including via a fiber-optic cable from the TV, via a stereo audio cable similar to those used on computer speakers (i.e. from an MP3 player or a computer sound card), wirelessly via Bluetooth (i.e. from a smart phone or computer), and wirelessly from the TV over a Samsung proprietary connection ("TV SoundConnect") that is reportedly based on Bluetooth but which has improved integration between TV and speaker. This sounds bar also apparently can play from a USB connected drive or flash memory stick (thumb drive), but I did not investigate this feature in any detail.I called Samsung pre-sales support to ask about options for connecting this speaker to the TV in question. I learned that not all current Samsung smart TVs support the proprietary wireless "TV SoundConnect" connection, and that included the TV in question. Samsung recommended that we use the fiber-optic cable connection, saying that with this connection, the speaker would turn on of off automatically with the TV, and the speaker volume would be controlled using the TV's remote control.......no need to use a THIRD remote control for the speaker (although it does come with its own remote control).When the speaker was received, we plugged its included fiber-optic cable between it and the TV, and connected the wall-wart style speaker power supply. Immediately the speaker recognized that there was a digital input, and it switched automatically over to its "D-IN' (digital input) mode, and sound came out of the speaker when a program was playing on the TV. Great!The Samsung TV's on-screen menu had previously been grayed out in the area where options related to the TV speaker could be selected. But the TV also seemed to automatically recognize that it was connected digitally to the new speaker, and those menu options became selectable. We were able to turn off the TV's built-in speaker, and also turn on the feature for 'clear voice' which enhances speech for better clarity.However, we were disappointed to learn that Samsung's agent had given us bad information, and we called back and confirmed with another agent that this speaker does NOT automatically turn itself on and off with the TV, and worse, it does NOT get its volume control from the TV's remote control. Apparently it DOES do those things if connected via the proprietary wireless "TV SoundConnect" method, but not over the fiber-optic connection. So, the old folks now need to use three remote controls. The TV remote control is required to turn the TV on and off, the speaker remote control is required to turn the speaker on and off, and to adjust the volume, and off course the DVD player's remote control is required for its functions. I might investigate setting up a universal remote control for them.Overall, the speaker looks and sounds very good, and has in fact improved the ability of its older owners to adequately hear and understand the audio programming of their DVD movies. It just would have been nice if the speaker's integration with the TV of the same brand and vintage was more complete.Some specifications:-This sound bar is supposedly "2.2" channels. Samsung does not explain what this means, but from other sources I understand that the number on the left of the decimal point means the number of primary speakers, 2 in this instance, or plain old stereo. I also believe that the number to the right of the decimal point refers to the subwoofer. I have seen lots of home theater audio setups that have x.1 channels, meaning however many primary channels plus one subwoofer. But how about when there is a 2 in that position? Does that mean this sound bar has 2 subwoofers? Maybe it does. It certainly does not come with a separate subwoofer.- Built in 80W amplifier.- Dimensions are 28.35" x 2.64" x 2.95".- Weight is 4 pounds.- Color is matte black with a black cloth grille.

My plan was to use the included digital optical cable to connect my new 32" Samsung TV to this new soundbar but the digital optical cable provided in the package did not securely snap into the sound bar. It fell out very easily just like some other reviewers. Assuming this to be an problem with just some of the soundbars I asked Amazon to replace mine with a new one which promptly showed up on my porch. Alas, the second soundbar had the same problem. Not believing that Samsung would ship a product with such an obvious flaw I purchased a new digital optical cable from my local Radio Shack. Amazingly it snapped firmly in place and my soundbar sounds great. A big improvement from the very weak and tinny internal speakers in my new TV.The digital optical cable issue is not the fault of the soundbar but is the fault of the very cheap (and flawed) digital optical cable they included in my boxes. If you expect to use digital optical do not fret if your included cable does not stay in place. Replace it with a higher quality cable and all will be well.

This sound bar is just right. We did not need the 5 speaker surround system for our average size living room. Sound bar clearly better than just TV speakers. It has 4 different modes (standard, voice, sports, and 3D sound plus) and comes with a simple remote. Easy install and it looks great underneath our wall mounted TV. This sound bar is synced with our Samsung 60" TV and we only use one remote for viewing. Yes, I would recommend this product.

I bought this to go with a 32" flat-screen. I didn't have the space for a separate sub-woofer, so this fit the bill. The built-in sub isn't going to make the windows shake, but it's adequate for my application. The connection and set-up is easy and it's a definite improvement over the TV speakers.

sound from the smaller speakers aren't great but it will do until an upgrade

My first review was 1 star!I did not paid enough attention to the status of this item!They offered to refund,though.Product was hit or it felled on a hard surface.as a result,sometimes sub woofer stop working,not always though.

Surround sound fit for a home theater, when your home theater is really just your family room. Easy to set up, solid bass and pretty easy to customize to the room.

Good setup & sound is way better than cheap tv speakers, but at the price I expected better sound quality. For tv watching, bass is totally a waste & more distraction than good.

I like this sound bar very much, although it seems to fade in and out at times. The volume will get low then come back but it only seems to do it on certain programs. If Pandora is playing I don't have that issue. So I haven't figured out why it does that yet. other than that, LOL, I like it!

Ok for the price. The subwoofer isn't very good. I would probably pay a little more and get something with a better subwoofer. This one distorts very easily. There are still a lot of wires to run. The only wireless part is from the bar to the subwoofer.

The sound is fine, but not the best. I read other comments, which I will corroborate here. First, the red light at the front is kind of a nuisance to let you know the thing is off. If they had to put a red light there, make it fade a few seconds after the unit is turned off. Second, the woofer volume on the remote does absolutely nothing, and this unit is advertised on the Samsung website as having built-in woofers. Third, you're supposed to get four different options for the different types of sound, and changing those does absolutely nothing either. And one more peculiarity... when you increase or decrease the volume, the different icons at the top right of the unit circulate, which is OK, just kind of a strange way of doing things. Will be returning. One good thing is that it's controllable directly with a Harmony remote. And BTW, I compared this to a Vizio in the same price range, and the Vizio sounds, and is just designed, better.

No volume level...just one single light that blinks when you do anything...sound quality is better than a normal TV's speakers tho...bass boost is also nice but does not compare with a separate subwoofer

It's ok for the price. Design could have been better. When it's off, there is a red light in the front center. When it's on, the light will go away. I installed this in my bedroom; I don't want to see any light when it's off. All other indicators are on top, and I have installed this on the wall above eye level, when I lay down on my bed to enjoy the TV, I can't really tell what sound setting I am changing it to. I would be nice if the indicators are in the front, light up for couple seconds and go off. Sound quality is expected with this price range; don't expect big sound coming out from a small soundbar. I only use it at night watching TV before falling asleep, so I don't need big sound. One absolute good thing about this little soundbar is that it will turn on by itself when you turn on the TV (optically connected, not sure with other connection types).

soundbar audio volume has a default level which is lower than I want to hear on my Samsung smart tv therefore everytime I turn on my tv I must either turn up the sound on the soundbar or the remote. I spent hours with Samsung soundbar and smart tv technicians even upgrading the tv software on the smart tv that was bought month earlier but to no avail. also I do not hear any difference using the woofer level and very little difference using the sound effect on the remote. soundbar is an improvement over the small 32 inch Samsung smart tv speakers however.

Sounds good and decent for pushing movies. I received this sound-bar as a "deal" when I ordered a Samsung TV. It makes for a really good combination buy. I'm not an audiophile or "speaker" guy. There are multiple inputs (bluetooth) so you can use it as a stereo speaker as well. It comes with an optical cable and wall mount. It matches and sounds great with a TV. It doesn't get massively loud like a full surround sound system or more expensive brand, but can really give a more filling sound when watching a video or playing a video game. Overall, a awesome buy and addition.

It's important to be realistic about what this sound bar can do.This is not going to win any awards for loudness or bass or dimension. It's a short sound bar with a couple of small drivers inside it. The signal-to-noise ratio is 65 dB, according to the included manual. You can connect it via optical cable, aux (3.5 mm) cable, USB, or Bluetooth. Simple and straightforward.I purchased it for my Samsung 43" plasma set. No issues at all during setup. But, it was immediately obvious that my TV's internal speakers were already close to the level of this sound bar. I would describe the sound as warm, but lacking punch. Clear, but without character. To my ear, all three of the included sound presets were flat. Flat is not a bad thing, if the speakers are adequate. For my TV, they weren't.It's not a bad sound bar, per se. If I had a smaller TV (in the 32" to 36" range), I would imagine that I would be happy with it. At 40" and up, a larger sound bar becomes necessary to hear a marked improvement.I sympathize with other reviewers who purchased this because they don't want a subwoofer. I live in a second-floor apartment and worry about how much sound a subwoofer would leak downstairs. At this price point, I'll likely give the new 38" sub-less Vizio sound bar a try.

Can't get the sub to sync up with the sound bar.

Was great to start with, but after about 6 months both of the rear speakers are popping and go in and out. Not so happy with this purchase anymore. My last speakers lasted more than a decade.

The sound bar system was good while it worked, but after a month it would not turn on. I tried everything I could, but the device would not power on. I'm glad I bought the warranty, as this piece of junk is getting shipped back. Now I have to find a box big enough and pack all the crap back in as I threw away the original package.A word to the wise: if you still want to buy this product - buy the warrantee and KEEP THE BOX.

I give it two stars because when it worked it worked beautifully. However after using it twice it stopped working and wouldn’t turn on. I returned it and got a full refund. If you are thinking about buying this I suggest spending the extra money to buy it new instead of “like new”. Maybe then you won’t run into the same problems I did

We have had this product for less than six months and the sound continues to go out on us. In a typical one hour timeframe, we can expect the sound bar to go completely mute at least six times. It is absolutely ridiculous and we are ready to throw it in the trash.

Poor quality and shows signs of use. Has damage to unit where it does not work properly

Sound is better then TV speakers, sometimes it will turn on by itself and hear the TV channel audio since it's connected to the cable box with the TV off which can get freaky in the middle of the night.

Hugely disappointing. After about a week, returned it for the Vizio SB2920-C6 29-Inch sound bar, which is a gem. The Samsung bar produces flat, dull sound (very hard to hear dialogue) and is nearly impossible to get connected to Bluetooth. And if you are lucky enough to connect, good luck getting back to the optical output. Frustrating product & experience.

As of now I'm very unhappy with this product. After setting it up which was very easy and the sound was really good, but the sound would only work for 25 minutes and then just cut off - after 3 calls with Samsung the issue couldn't be resolved. So now I'm sending it back to Samsung for them to try to repair. Not happy at all....

The sound bar produces good quality sound, the only reason I give it a low score is the sound bar was very difficult to set up. Even Samsung Tech support could not help (Tech Support was definitely not in the U.S.). Accidentally, I pushed a button that was not clearly identified on the instructions or identified by tech support and the sound began to work fine and continues trouble free to this day.

The sound is muffled and should be purchased for smaller TV's less than 40". Didn't care for the sound quality. Also the remote has ability to change sound profiles, but you can't determine which profiles those are on, unless you walk up to the speaker and look at the incon on the top right of the speaker.

Could not get it to connect with my non-Samsung TV via the fiber optic cable.

Having it play for 30 mns and both the sound bar and subwoofer stopped at the same time. The led gave no more signal of life!

This sound bar is an old piece of junk and is worthless if you have a new TV. This 2014 model year sound bar is completely obsolete and is not compatible for auto turn on with any modern TV. If you need to connect an old model TV with RCA jacks, this is the sound bar you need. Without an HMDI port this soundbar has very limited applications. If you have a newer TV, buy a soundbar that has a HMDI or HMDI ARC port.

Everything worked great for the first 15 months. I received a lot of compliments on the sound whether it was when watching TV or music being played through bluetooth. Eventually, the sub gave out (satellite speakers still work) which is why I'm writing this review. Great product while it worked but stopped working in a short amount of time. I would stay away from this product.

I should have trusted the other negative reviews on here. I regularly have the audio cut out on me. I would not recommend to anyone.

Literally broke just over a year, just past the warranty. Avoid.

Terrible. I was pleased with it at first, but stated to notice issues, like a rattling sound coming from one of the satellite speakers at certain pitches, instead of the intended tone. The volume also fluctuates up and down on its own constantly, cutting down to a low volume, then fading back up over the course of about ten seconds. This gets very annoying.And then there's the sound bar.I paid a couple hundred bucks for this surround sound system. The satellite speakers and subwoofer are all controlled through the sound bar.(so they won't work for anything if there's something wrong with the sound bar) Just after the one year warranty expired the sound bar quit working, due to a burned out power supply. There was no power surge or storm or anything. All other elections in the house were fine and it was even plugged into a surge protector. The part was just a bad quality or a bad apple. I tried to get a hold of customer support to do something about it. It took them a week to get back to me, and in the end they told me the warranty was up, so too bad, I just have to fork over another couple hundred bucks to buy a new one. Forget that. I will never buy another Vizio product again. Terrible quality and terrible service.

Two months after it was installed, the Bluetooth connection failed and numerous attempts to reconnect it to my Samsung Smart TV and phone were unsuccessful.Next stop: a landfill.

Unable to connect to my LR set. I repacked and returned it.

For a product that should be so easy to hook up and use, this one fails badly. Like a lot of instruction booklets these days, it's hard to find what you need, and what's there is not very clear. Best example is a simple matter of the little, annoying red light in the middle of the bar. There is no mention as to whether this light indicates the unit is on, or off. It apparently stays on when the unit is off?! Why? What purpose does that serve?Now, as far as connecting the bar to your TV, that's a whole new experience...use the optical cable, or, it has bluetooth, oh, but it comes with a usb cable, yea, but is my tv compatible because, after all, it connects via wireless, right? Yea, it does, maybe, if you've got the right TV...all confusing instructions that assume the user is an audio expert.And then, there is the sound produced by the bar...yuck! All bass, all the time. Woofer control button on remote - does nothing, why is it there? Sound effect button on remote - does nothing, what's it for? Instructions say there are three listening modes. Pushing the Sound Effects button is supposed to change the sound; it does nothing.Nice try Samsung. It's coming back to you so you can resell it. It's worthless to me.

Speakers on TV sounded better. That is sad.

Sound Quality Good. Design HORRIBLE. If you don't have bluetooth DON'T Buy. The Digital Optical Cable is a Joke, doesn't snap in and keeps falling out. Horrible design Flaw, some serious carelessness on samsungs part.

I was very excited to get this Until I set it up and didn't work Call them talked with three different people unfortunately it was hard to understand them and for them to understand me it seems They sent me a new cord to plug into my TV it works the minute you turn the TV on you change the channel though and it stops working again if I could've given this no stars I would've