Roku has been slowly increasing its line of inexpensive soundbars, most just lately with final 12 months’s compact, “fairly good” Streambar, and now comes the $180 Streambar Professional, the successor to 2019’s Sensible Soundbar. Whereas none of Roku’s soundbars will enchantment to audiophiles, they’re good for on a regular basis viewers seeking to improve their TV’s tinny audio with out breaking the financial institution, and the two.0-channel Streambar Professional ups the ante with surprisingly stable sound and a brand new digital encompass mode.
The Streambar Professional’s environment friendly audio efficiency is already a powerful promoting level, however the actual draw is an built-in Roku streaming participant with 4K HDR playback, to not point out Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit, and AirPlay 2 help. There’s additionally the vaunted Roku distant full with a microphone for voice instructions and search.
This assessment is a part of TechHive’s protection of the perfect soundbars. Click on that hyperlink to learn opinions of competing merchandise, together with a purchaser’s information to the options you must take into account when buying.
The Streambar Professional has its limitations, after all. It’s in any other case stable sound is a tad weak on high-end element, and it falters a bit in the case of music playback. And whilst you can improve the Streambar Professional with Roku’s wi-fi speaker pair and subwoofer, doing so vaults you right into a value vary with different soundbars with significantly better audio high quality. Nonetheless, we are speaking a few $180 soundbar-plus-streamer right here, so so long as you retain your expectations in line, you received’t be disillusioned.
Specs
The Roku Streambar Professional comes geared up with 4 1.9-inch full-range drivers that provide the entrance and proper channels, which mix to create a “phantom” middle channel for dialog. The soundbar doesn’t include woofers or passive radiators for low-frequency results, however as I’ll describe in a bit, the Streambar Professional manages to crank out a good quantity of bass with out them.
Whereas the Streambar Professional helps Dolby Audio, it doesn’t supply any object-based 3D sound modes akin to Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, though that will be asking a variety of a price range soundbar that already has a built-in streaming participant. That mentioned, the Streambar Professional does mark Roku’s first soundbar with a digital encompass mode, which (in accordance with Roku) delivers a “wealthy and immersive sound expertise” with out bodily encompass audio system. Digital encompass processing by no means sounds pretty much as good as precise satellite tv for pc audio system, however they are often efficient at increasing the soundstage of an in any other case slim soundbar whereas including a way of ambiance. Preserve studying for my impressions of the Streambar Professional’s digital encompass mode.
(By the way, Roku’s older Sensible Streambar may also be getting the brand new digital encompass mode by way of a firmware replace. The current Streambar received’t be getting the replace, with Roku saying that the Streambar’s angled entrance drivers already supply “that immersive expertise.”)
If you happen to’re keen to spend some more cash, you possibly can simply improve the Streambar Professional to a full-on 5.1-channel system by including the Roku Wi-fi Subwoofer ($180) and Roku Wi-fi Audio system ($150 for a pair). Doing so, nevertheless, brings the general price as much as $510, at which level the Streambar Professional will probably be outshined by such sonic performers as Vizio’s Dolby Atmos-enabled M512a-H6. Then once more, the Vizio soundbar doesn’t embrace its personal streaming participant, a lot much less AirPlay 2 help.
Measuring 14 x 4.2 x 2.4 inches (WxDxH) and weighing in at a mere 2.4 kilos, the Streambar Professional is comparatively compact as price range soundbars go, and was brief sufficient to sit down in entrance of my low-slung 55-inch LG C9 OLED TV whereas barely grazing the underside of the display. If you want, you can even mount the Streambar Professional underneath your wall-mounted TV, though you’ll must pony up further for mounting {hardware}.
Inputs and outputs
Like Roku’s different soundbars, the Soundbar Professional has only one HDMI connector. In case your TV has an HDMI-ARC port (which, except it’s greater than 10 years previous, it in all probability does), you possibly can join it to the Soundbar Professional’s HDMI port, with each video (4K and HDR10/HLG are supported, however not HDR10+ or Dolby Imaginative and prescient) and audio being transmitted over a single HDMI cable. In case you have an older TV that lacks HDMI-ARC help, you possibly can join the Streambar Professional’s HDMI port to one in every of your TV’s HDMI inputs, after which ship audio again all the way down to the soundbar by way of an optical (Toslink) cable. Each HDMI and optical cables are provided within the field.
Ben Patterson/IDGThe Roku Streambar Professional has only one HDMI connector, together with an optical enter and a USB-A port able to native media playback.
In addition to the HDMI and optical ports, the Streambar Professional additionally has a USB 2.0 Kind-A port that helps native media playback. Supported file varieties run the gamut from MKV, MP4, and MOV video recordsdata (which may include video encoded utilizing the H.264, H.265, and VP9 codecs) to AAC, MP3, FLAC, PCM, and ALAC audio recordsdata. I efficiently performed a 24-bit/96kHz FLAC off a thumb drive with assist from the Roku Media Participant (I’ll focus on the way it sounded in a bit), which is accessible from the streamer’s channel retailer.
Proper subsequent to the HDMI, optical, and USB ports is a reset button, together with an influence port. That port connects to a roughly five-foot energy cable with an in-line adapter, which terminates in a typical (thank goodness) two-prong plug.
Setup
Getting the Roku Streambar Professional up and operating is a comparatively painless course of, significantly for those who’re connecting it to a Roku-powered TV.
If you happen to’re fortunate sufficient to be utilizing a Roku TV, it can information you thru the method of establishing the soundbar by way of a collection of on-screen menus, and it might probably routinely hyperlink as much as your Roku account. If you happen to’re utilizing a non-Roku TV, you’ll nonetheless be guided by the setup course of (together with connecting to your Wi-Fi community) with on-screen menus, however you’ll must manually enter the e-mail handle related along with your Roku account. Easing the ache considerably is the truth that you possibly can say every letter of your e-mail handle utilizing the included voice distant (extra on the distant in a bit).
When you enter your e-mail handle, Roku will ship an activation hyperlink by way of e-mail, so you possibly can proceed the sign-in course of in an internet browser, together with including a channel lineup and choosing your subscribed streaming providers (like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, or Disney+). After a last immediate that promotes a handful of 30- and 7-day free trials, you’re prepared to observe—and hear.
Voice distant
The Roku Streambar Professional is among the few soundbars I’ve examined with completely no buttons or controls on its predominant speaker cupboard; as a substitute, you’re taking cost of the Streambar Professional utilizing the included Roku voice distant, and that’s a very good factor.
Powered by a pair of AA batteries (Roku thoughtfully consists of two Duracells within the field), the familiar-looking “enhanced” voice distant has a purple four-way navigational management, together with a Dwelling button within the top-right nook and a Again button proper subsequent to it. A “*” button takes you to a display of contextual choices, whereas 4 branded buttons for a quartet of streaming providers (Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and Hulu) sit on the backside of the distant. A quantity rocker and mute button hang around on the aspect of the wand.
The star of the present is the Roku voice assistant, which you’ll activate by urgent and holding the microphone button immediately beneath the four-way navigational management. You should utilize quite a lot of voice instructions, starting from “discover Star Wars” and “present me episodes of Friday Night time Lights” to “launch HBO Max,” “quick ahead,” “activate closed captioning,” and “begin over.” You can too file oft-used voice instructions and assign them to one of many two “private shortcut” buttons on the distant, that are labeled “1” and “2.”
Another nifty function about Roku’s “enhanced” distant is the three.5mm headphone jack, which helps you to plug in a headset for personal listening periods.
The Roku interface
We’ve coated the ins and outs of the Roku interface extensively over time, most just lately in our assessment of the Roku Specific 4K+. In a nutshell, Roku presents one of the crucial intuitive and pleasant interfaces of any streaming platform, full with useful menus and clear navigation; not often did I ever discover myself at a loss for what to do subsequent, or caught in any blind alleys. You possibly can even personalize the interface with themes and sound results.
Considered one of our gripes in regards to the Roku interface is its lack of an aggregated programming information that exhibits you what’s streaming throughout the preferred providers; as a substitute, you’ll must dip into every channel individually. That mentioned, voice searches do ship outcomes throughout a lot of the large streaming providers—so, for instance, a seek for “Star Wars” yields outcomes from the Apple TV app in addition to Disney+, whereas a “Kissing Sales space” search serves up the favored rom-com titles on Netflix.
In addition to subscription and premium VOD apps, there’s additionally The Roku Channel, the house of Roku’s rising assortment of ad-supported dwell TV channels in addition to Roku Originals, a trove of exhibits that Roku scooped up from the now-defunct Quibi cell video service. The Roku Channel additionally hosts hundreds of free, on-demand and ad-supported motion pictures and TV exhibits, which means there’s loads of content material to observe with out paying a dime, offered you don’t thoughts a number of commercials.
Sensible residence integration and casting
The Roku Streambar Professional works with each Alexa and Google Assistant, permitting you to make use of voice instructions akin to “Alexa, activate front room Roku” or “Hey Google, discover documentaries on bed room Roku” (if the Streambar Professional is in your bed room). The Streambar Professional can be appropriate with Apple’s HomeKit platform, which suggests you possibly can management the soundbar with Siri voice instructions in addition to the Apple Dwelling app.
Even higher, the Roku Streambar Professional (like different Roku gadgets) helps AirPlay 2, good for streaming video and music from an iPhone, iPad, or a Mac. Getting AirPlay 2 help on a soundbar as cheap because the Streambar Professional is a uncommon deal with, and it ranks as a significant plus in our guide.
Efficiency
We typically don’t anticipate an excessive amount of from a sub-$200 soundbar just like the Roku Streambar Professional; it actually can’t compete with the sound of pricier fashions, nor may it ever change a full-on residence theater system with separate audio system and an AVR. As an alternative, we consider price range soundbars as a cheap method to improve a TV’s built-in audio system, and that’s why I spent high quality time listening to the interior audio system on my LG TV—and never my regular 5.1.2-channel rig—earlier than operating by my normal assessments.
Total, I got here away pleasantly stunned. No, the Streambar Professional isn’t a soundbar for audiophiles, however in comparison with the anemic audio system on most TVs, it delivers stable, full-bodied audio, with a shocking quantity of bass (the important thing phrase is “shocking,” not wonderful) given its smallish mid-range drivers. Musically, the Streambar Professional proved to be hit or miss, however for watching motion pictures and binging TV exhibits, it ought to make for a noticeable—and inexpensive—improve to the sound coming out of your TV.
I began off with the Battle of Hoth scene from the UHD model of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Again on the Apple TV app, and I’ve to say, I used to be fairly impressed with the Streambar Professional’s efficiency. It seems the soundbar’s quartet of full-range drivers pack some first rate low-end oomph—not sufficient to shake the room, thoughts you, however adequate to anchor the thump of the Imperial Walker’s large ft. Whereas the whine of the Millennium Falcon’s engines was lacking a tad of high-end element, the general sound was a lot fuller than the skinny (if Atmos-enhanced) gruel from my LG’s tinny audio system. Additionally, the brand new digital encompass mode did a pleasant job of widening the soundstage and including some depth and atmospherics.
Switching to the thrilling opening titles of 1978’s Superman, the Streambar Professional deftly dealt with John Williams’s rousing rating, with the swooshing title playing cards getting some comparatively first rate encompass results whereas the “directed by” credit score for Richard Donner (RIP) landed with a satisfying, if not overwhelming thump. Once more, the Streambar Professional skimps a bit on the high-end, however that’s preferable to the shrill but too-boomy sound that some price range soundbars go for.
I additionally tried the opening sequence of Prime Gun, which presents a bit of little bit of every thing: Harold Faltermeyer’s deep, moody rating, the clink of cables on the plane service’s deck, the roar of the F-16s climbing into the air, and naturally the catchy crooning of Kenny Loggins. As soon as extra, the Streambar Professional got here to play, with some fairly first rate muscle plus full-bodied vocals (“Fly in-to the hazard zone!”) with out drifting into shrill territory.
To listen to how the Streambar Professional dealt with dialog, I dialed up a West Wing episode. Dialog-heavy content material on a 2.0-channel soundbar (i.e., no middle channel) can tire the ears, however the Streambar Professional delivered clear outcomes as soon as I turned off the digital encompass mode and switched the two-step “speech readability” setting to “low.” After that, the continuous White Home chatter sounded loud and clear, whereas the results and W. G. Snuffy Walden’s rating sounded moderately sturdy given the narrower soundstage.
For music, I performed a 24-bit/96kHz FLAC of Chet Baker’s “Photo voltaic” off a USB thumb drive, and whereas a lot of the element of the high-resolution file was (fairly naturally) misplaced on the Streambar Professional’s 1.9-inch drivers, the observe nonetheless sounded alive and punchy, with the digital encompass mode giving the soundstage a wanted enhance. I additionally streamed Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad” on Spotify by way of AirPlay 2, however whereas The Boss’s reedy vocals sounded clear and crisp, the drivers started to chuff a bit after I cranked the amount. Extra points arose with Larissa Dedova’s rendition of Maurice Ravel’s solo piano works for Centaur, with the audio straining throughout among the increased chords. The Streambar Professional had a better time with Ciara’s “Stage Up,” with the soundbar easily delivering the driving bass and Ciara’s bouncy vocals.
Backside line
Whereas I didn’t discover the Roku Streambar Professional to be all that dependable in the case of music, I believed its audio efficiency for motion pictures and TV exhibits was greater than acceptable, offered you’re judging it in opposition to the sound of your TV’s built-in audio system. Throw within the built-in Roku streaming participant and AirPlay 2, and the Streambar Professional turns into a superb worth for cut price soundbar buyers.
