Vizio V-Series V51-H6

“TLDR; I’m just a random guy on the internet but I JUST came out of your exact situation, so do with that information what you will. Lemme tell ya something, I was just in your shoes literally 3 days ago. I bought the Vizio V51 h6 and it sounded like shit to me, and I don’t have particularly high standards. I thought people were exaggerating when they said “it’s better than the TV speakers but that’s about it” So I returned it and bought the Vizio M512ax-j6, thinking that the more premium model would be significantly better, and it was still disappointing, and I returned it. What I concluded is that the cheap sound bars are not worth it if you want decent sound. If your purpose is just “better than the tv speakers” then the 51 ah6 is one of the best setups *for the money* but the *for the money* part is very important. So what did I do over 3 days? I let the folks of this subreddit convince me to spend $850 USD on an entry level 3.1 system. HOWEVER I also understand that not everyone wants to do that, because I also did not want to do that. Prior to the cheap soundbars I’ve been running a $100 pair of bookshelf speakers plugged into my TVs aux port. I am not exaggerating when I say that this sounds better than either of the cheap soundbar kits I tried. I initially returned both soundbars with the expectation to go back to my powered bookshelf speakers, but I went off the deep end and bought a full AVR and 3 additional much more powerful speakers. So I say, if you want to go budget option, check out edifier bookshelf speakers, some of which even have a sub hookup, and for the same amount of money as the cheap soundbar you’ll have much more compelling performance. What I learned in the 72 hours of research I’ve been doing nonstop is that for soundbars to actually be worth the money, you gotta shell out for a high end one, but then if you convince yourself to spend $800+ on a soundbar you can just spend that one the beginnings of a proper setup instead.”