After taking it down a notch with the V-Series 2.1 Home Theater Soundbar I took it one step further with the V-Series V21d-J8 Soundbar. This would be the least expensive soundbar they have coming in at $99 and is also touted as an All-in-One even without any subwoofer. Can it really sound that good for its price?
Style
The design of this soundbar is vastly different from the last couple of Vizio soundbars I reviewed. The V21d-J8 is a semioval shape that curves from front to back in a black colorway. There are no buttons on the top but rather the control reside on the right side for the soundbar. The left side just has the Vizio insignia. Length wise its 36” across and weighs a little over 5lbs.
LED lights are hidden within the front center of the soundbar indicating volume controls and other options. You also get voice prompts when changing the EQ settings on the device as well.
I like how on the V21d-J8 there is a cut out on the back that allows your wires to past through thus making it look neat. Ports on the back are USB, Optical, AUX, and of course HDMI(ARC).
Included with the V21d-J8 is wires for Optical, HDMI, wall brackets, and power cord.
Setup / Features
Getting the V21d-J8 up and running took a matter of moments. I just plugged it in, and the TV recognized it right away. I also I’m only using the HDMI connection on this soundbar as well. There is the ability to connect with Voice Assistants such as Google or Alexa and you can sync up audio via Bluetooth if you like.
As mentioned earlier the soundbar will give you LED indications when using the remote. There are options for EQ, Bass, Night, and Treble. They are bright enough to see whether in the dark or even in broad daylight.
Sound
Vizio touts this as a 2.1 soundbar since it has two speakers hidden beneath its speaker grill. It supports audio codecs as Dolby Audio and DTS just like the V21x-J8. This soundbar can get loud and give some thumping bass when cranked up. I tested this soundbar watching various forms of content. I watched various movies like “Thor Ragnarök”, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” which were on Disney+, and “The Dark Knight Rises” on Apple TV. Via my PS5 I watched “Spider Man Far from Home” and “Spider Man: Into the Spider Verse” on 4K UHD.
With Batman vs Bane’s first encounter you usually feel every punch but this time around you don’t. Spider Man Far from Home had some scenes with Mysterio that sounded good with the Virtual X but once again was lacking in the soundstage department and needing a bit of depth. I just felt this soundbar can get very loud but doesn’t have much detail behind it. Also if it turns cranked up a bit you can get some rattle from the sound.
Gaming on the Xbox Series X while playing Forza Horizon 4 gave some nice audio on the music tracks and driving around but I didn’t feel completely immersed in it like with their other soundbars. In these instances of gaming and watching content a subwoofer is missed quite a bit at least for this device.
It does do a good job in the dialogue area though as conversations are heard rather clear whether watching a movie or even sports telecast with the broadcasters chatting it up with their play by plays.
V21d-J8 was used with a PS5, Xbox Series X, NVIDIA Shield, and TV apps.
Verdict
Its not a bad soundbar if you are just starting out and need something to replace your TV speakers which are frankly never good in my opinion. You will get loud audio just not as detailed. But at its relatively low $99.99 price tag its hard to expect too much out this soundbar. I’d say if you want a bit more detail and umph their V21x-J8 is $50 more and comes with a subwoofer.
