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Sony HT-X8500 vs Vizio V Series V21-H8

Sony HT-X8500

116 reviews

View Product Details

Vizio V Series V21-H8

Vizio V Series V21-H8

121 reviews

View Product Details

#73 most mentioned

Reddit · r/soundbars

#91 most mentioned brand

Reddit · r/BuyItForLife

Best Soundbar Under $200 For Bass

RTINGS · The 5 Best Budget Soundbars

Best Cinematic Experience On a Tight Budget

TechGearLab · Best Sound Bar of 2022

Great value for its price

Immersive audio experience with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X capabilities

Easy to set up

Comes with HDMI cable and handy remote

Advanced ESP audio processing compensates for lack of up-firing drivers

Great sound quality for the price

Powerful bass and expressive midrange

Easy to set up

Fast UI performance

Compact size, great for small spaces

Not ideal for dialogue-heavy content

Some users report connectivity and input setting issues

Some users find the sound quality to be lacking, particularly when it comes to bass and soundstage

Not ideal for linking other devices via Bluetooth

Reports of sound quality issues after some time of use

Remote can be difficult to open

Verdict

Overall, the Sony HT-X8500 soundbar receives mixed reviews. Some users find it to be a great value for its price, providing an immersive audio experience with its Dolby Atmos and DTS:X capabilities. However, others find its sound quality to be lacking, particularly when it comes to dialogue. Some users also report issues with connectivity and input settings. Despite its flaws, many users find the HT-X8500 to be a decent option for an all-in-one soundbar, especially for those on a budget.

Verdict

The Vizio V Series V21-H8 is a great soundbar for the price, offering powerful bass and an expressive midrange. It is easy to set up and has a fast UI performance. However, it can be difficult to link other devices via Bluetooth and there have been reports of sound quality issues after some time of use.

Reviews by Topic

Our analysis shows how reviewers feel about different topics. Please note these are not full reviews.

Speaker System

youtube

Sony HT-X8500 Soundbar Review: Dolby Atmos & DTS:X for under 300?

I was not impressed, however, with the tonality of things like dialogue or sound delineation during more complex, sound environments that had either d...

Neutral

Vizio V21 review: Best soundbar under $200

5mm analog input and another, all-new 3.5mm connection for your "voice assistant speaker" (read: Amazon Echo Dot). Ty Pendlebury/CNETThe idea behind the "VA" (voice activated) input is noble enough. You connect your smart speaker to this port and the soundbar switches to the input automatically when it hears a command

Positive

Speakers

Got my XH9505 65 inch and it is just amazing! (need a soundbar though xD) HT-G700 vs HT-X8500 vs HT-ZF9

I live in an apartment too and went with the HT-X8500 for my X950H. I'm very happy with it. It's enough bass for me, but not so much it annoys my neighbors.

Positive

reddit.com/r/bravia

The Roku Smart Soundbar seemed like the perfect solution. I used it for a few weeks and ended up returning it. Here is what I experienced:

Positive

reddit.com/r/Roku

Sound Quality

It's okay, but nothing special.

Overall, this might make a nice gift for a friend or family member (or a child) who isn't an audiophile or who has an old TV, but I'd highly, highly recommend just spending $1000 instead if you're going to buy a sound bar for yourself. It's just kinda not worth it at this price point. It does look beautiful though, I'll give it that, and when music is playing it's totally spectacular. It is overall better than my TV's built in speakers, but the occasional muddy or distorted voices bother me

youtube

DO NOT BUY - VIZIO V-Series 2.1 Home Theater Sound Bar With Wireless Subwoofer - Model V21-H8

It's the model number v821-h8 and it was at a pretty nice deal actually 159.99, not necessarily a steal of a deal based upon what costco can often giv...

Neutral

Connectivity

Good if all you want is HDR 10 Passthrough with Mediocre Sound

At first it will only recognize 4K30 HDR until you enable to enhanced HDMI through pushing and holding the news button for roughly 5-10 seconds. The part that really bothered me and made me return this was it is either very difficult or cannot work at all when you use the HDMI passthrough and the optical port at the same time. I tried to connect a device through optical and another device through HDMI to use at separate times. There is no way I could figure out how to switch between the two without unplugging the other

Do Vizio soundbars support changing the volume using Google Home?

I have v21 h8 and it is been very difficult to set up. Assistant can link via Bluetooth but then you cannot have other devices link to the soundbar. There is voice assistant aux in but sadly no ga gh product has 3.5 mm jack

Negative

reddit.com/r/googlehome

Features

youtube

Sony HT-X8500 Review 🌟 The Best All-in-One Soundbar?

If you have it or optical, do bear in mind to get the best sound quality through dolby, atmos and dtsx, you will need to connect using hdmi arc setup ...

Positive

youtube

VIZIO V21-H8 36" SOUNDBAR W/ SUBWOOFER | COSTCO

Wireless subwoofer that looks top of the line, looks modern and small. You can place it anywhere in that room as well. Has the better options than the...

Positive

Remote Control

Sound is okay but not super configurable, SUPER annoying input issue

This issue may seem minor but it was extremely frustrating for me because it made it impossible to use the same remote for the sound bar and the TV, since only the native remote was able to toggle the input setting. It's also difficult to fathom why this behavior occurred since only 1 input was actually connected to anything: why did it keep switching back to the unused input every day??

Vizio Customer Service scores ZERO

After extensive research for soundbar/subwoofer ordered a Vizio. Pre-read quick guide prior to arrival. Got all & was baffled at remote being impossible to open, so after googling & still couldn’t open, called Vizio. Connection to wherever the call goes to was hardly audible, finally Rep suggested I use a small coin to pry the remote open, which I gently did, and the the ENTIRE remote fell apart with pieces flying everywhere, and her suggestion was then for me to just not use the remote

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