Monoprice SB-600 5.1.2 Soundbar Review

The Monoprice SB-600 5.1.2 Soundbar is a Dolby Atmos home theater in a box. With a wireless subwoofer and surround speakers, it delivers clean loud sound with easy setup and flexible installation options. It only takes a few minutes to unpack and set up before you can enjoy room-filling sound and easy management of your video and audio sources. A handy remote and front display makes control a snap. Simple styling helps blend the speakers and subwoofer into your room.

Often, when one buys a shiny new big-screen TV the thrill is quickly extinguished when you hear its anemic built-in speakers. If sound is more than half the equation, why do flat-panel TV speakers suck? The answer likely has something to do with economy but fear not, there are reasonably-priced solutions available. For many years, there were home-theater-in-a-box systems that included a set of small speakers, a subwoofer, and a receiver. They ranged in quality from mediocre to very good but even the cheap ones were better than the speakers built into televisions.

Today, we have a plethora of soundbars that accomplish the same thing. By putting the electronics along with left, right, and center channels in a bar; it’s easy to get speakers up front near your flat panel without taking up much space. The small sub goes in a corner and a pair of surround speakers can bolt to the wall or be placed on the end tables by your seating. And with today’s wireless technology, you only need to come up with three electrical outlets to power everything. No longer do you have to run cables all over the living room.

Monoprice has really upped its audio game in the past two years with a host of new products like speakers, surround processors, amplifiers, and of course, soundbars. The SB-600 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos Soundbar I’m reviewing here might better be called a system because it includes everything needed to deliver 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos soundtracks from Blu-rays and streaming alike, for just $330. With simple installation and a handy remote, it’s a great solution for space-challenged users on a budget. Let’s take a look.

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The focal point of any soundbar system is, of course, the soundbar. It’s the one component that you’ll see when you’re watching TV. The SB-600 is definitely in the stealth category. It’s slim at just three inches high, 4.3 inches deep, and just under 41 inches wide with rubber pads on the bottom so you can safely set it on a bench or shelf in front of your flat panel. Since it isn’t very deep, it won’t stick out too far and call attention to itself. It can easily be mounted on a wall with the included brackets.

The bar is completely covered in a rigid grill that wraps around the front, top, and bottom. The pattern is broken only by four buttons on top that controls power, input, and volume. A tiny white LED glows from behind the grill in standby mode and a highly visible display appears when you power on. It tells you the current input, volume level when you change it, and the current sound mode. It also lets you know what audio codec is in use. It supports PCM and every Dolby format up to Atmos. There is no support for DTS-MA or DTS:X. Regardless of the number of incoming channels, every signal is up-mixed to use all the speakers in the system.

On the back is a small, recessed panel with two HDMI inputs and a single HDMI output. The latter supports eARC which means you can hook the bar directly to your TV with one cable if that TV also supports ARC. This is the easiest method of installation. If you are using a smart display like VIZIO Smartcast or LG WebOS, its sound will feed the SB-600 with no further user intervention other than to select the eARC source using the remote. Video passthrough includes HDR, Dolby Vision, and Ultra HD up to 120Hz. You can also connect components to a coax, optical, 3.5mm, or USB input.

The remote is super handy and works via infrared. It is not backlit. In addition to volume and tone controls, it lets you turn off the surrounds, cycle through DSP sound modes, and change inputs. It also has a lip-sync feature and volume trim for the surround channels.

The subwoofer is a short monolith just over 16 inches tall with a single eight-inch down-firing woofer and a port in the back. It has its own 180-watt amplifier but no volume, phase, or crossover controls. It’s an unassuming and unadorned black box with a light-absorbing finish that can easily disappear in a corner or behind furniture.

The surround speakers are tiny and mimic the look of the soundbar with rigid, permanently attached grills. The right channel has the amps for both speakers and connects to the left with an included cable. It’s powered by a wall wart, also included.

The SB-600 system installation is super easy. I spent more time unpacking and deciding on placement than on actual setup. The bar went on my center channel speaker stand in front of the theater with the sub next to it on the floor. The surrounds were placed on makeshift stands to either side of my seating, just above ear level. After connecting the surrounds with their 10-foot cable, I plugged in the wall wart power supply. I also plugged in the soundbar and subwoofer with their power cords. Though the system is wireless, you’ll have to plan for three outlets to run everything.

Turning on the power starts the automatic pairing process. It only took a few seconds for everything to sync up. There is no provision to set delays or channel levels. The user manual gives some rough guidelines for placement and distance. The soundbar should always be set below the TV with the sub at least three feet away and at least four inches from the wall. The surrounds should be just above ear level to the sides or just in back of your seating.

There are several options for connecting displays and source components. The simplest way is to run the included HDMI cable between the soundbar and your display. You’ll need an ARC-capable TV for this method. Then, connect other components like disc players or streaming boxes to the TV or the soundbar’s inputs. By setting the SB-600 to eARC, you can change inputs on the TV to switch between sources.

I went for the old-school approach. I used an Apple TV as the source, connected to the soundbar’s HDMI 1 input. Then I ran the output to a small Ultra HD TV I had on hand. The SB-600 provides passthrough of 4K signals with HDR or Dolby Vision. Since the Apple TV supports every possible video and audio format up to Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, it’s a perfect way to test the SB-600’s capabilities with a wide variety of content types.

Netflix carries its content in many different video and audio formats which makes it a perfect platform to help put the SB-600 Soundbar through its paces. I watched a few episodes of Sugar Rush which is presented in HDR and Dolby Atmos. Experimenting with the different DSP sound modes, I found subtle differences between them. Movie and Voice emphasize the center channel with both volume and extra boost in the higher frequencies. I found it a little too edgy and switched to Music. This mode is more balanced with warmer dialog. Regardless of the incoming audio format, the SB-600 up-mixes it to use all eight channels. This helps make the sound stage nice and wide with plenty of depth. If you find the surrounds too loud, there’s an adjustment on the remote. I didn’t have to use it in my room, but your mileage may vary.

The upper bass frequencies seemed a little less defined than the rest. Highs, mids, and bass below 80Hz were very clear and didn’t seem to falter when the volume was turned up. The remote also includes bass and treble rockers but again, I didn’t need to use them. I also noticed the volume control seemed a bit coarse. Each click made an obvious difference in amplitude. A finer control would be a welcome addition.

I also watched The Big Family Cooking Showdown which is a feel-good competition between UK families who like to cook together. The original encode is just two channels, so the SB-600 saw it as PCM and up-mixed it accordingly. It does a nice job with stereo tracks keeping the bulk of the sound up front and adding just a bit of ambient effect in the surround channels. The up-firing drivers in the soundbar are also active here helping to broaden the effect. Again, the dialog was nicely balanced in the Music DSP mode.

Dramas like The Haunting of Bly Manor and Locke and Key came across with suitable foreboding and suspense. Background effects were clearly placed in the surround channels with tactile bass coming from the subwoofer. Dialog sounded best to me in the Music mode here too. Both shows have Dolby Atmos encodes and their extra space and specific object placement were rendered accurately. This is easily the best Atmos sound I’ve heard from such an inexpensive system. Many soundbars can process the signal but the SB-600 is the first one in my experience that actually pulls off the effect.

The SB-600 can play music over any of its inputs, but I decided to try the Bluetooth function. I expect most users who are entertaining will simply stream their music from a phone or tablet. Connection to my iPhone 12 was swift once I selected the Bluetooth input from the remote. It’s version 4.2 so there is some compression involved. I found that quality varied depending on the original material.

Starting with Jacqueline du Pre’s 1965 recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, I found the presentation a bit thin. This was likely because my tracks are from iTunes and limited to a 256kbps bitrate. Her huge sound was no understatement though. It came through loud and clear. I found better quality when I switched to Bach’s Goldberg Variations played by Glenn Gould. I have a lossless rip from the original SACD that shimmers with detail. The SB-600 had no trouble resolving all of it while creating a feeling of space.

The final question, “Can the SB-600 rock?”, is answered in the positive. Generally, there is plenty of clean volume available to fill even a large room with sound. I listened to a few songs from Disturbed’s album, Immortalized. Their sound is often a bit mushy on the best systems. The SB-600 did a great job with the guitars and vocals while drum kicks were also clear. Only the upper bass seemed less defined though it did not dull the presentation for me.

Foo Fighters latest album, Medicine at Midnight is a better candidate for the SB-600. It’s recorded with more care and quality and features clear instrument separation. Each element occupies its own space and blends well at the same time. As with the classical selections, well-recorded material will sound better. That is a point in favor of the SB-600 as a neutral component. It won’t enhance or detract from the original material. Play good media and it will sound good.

The MONOPRICE SB-600 5.1.2 SOUNDBAR sounds far better than any TV’s built-in audio for the astounding price of $330. With 5.1.2 channels, it delivers Dolby Atmos and 4K video.

For $330, it’s hard to find any real flaws in the Monoprice SB-600 5.1.2 Soundbar. With Dolby Atmos and 4K video support, it can play just about anything streamed or on disc. Its only omission is a lack of DTS support which will impact the DTS-MA encodes found on most Blu-rays. But if you primarily stream your entertainment, you won’t find much DTS there. Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital are the principal formats used on all the major platforms. The SB-600 has no problem with those or with two-channel material. The up-mixing is first-rate and makes the most of all the drivers in the system. And it will pass Dolby Vision and HDR10 video.

The SB-600 is surprisingly musical too. I wouldn’t think of music as the principal use of any soundbar, but this one can certainly provide a wide soundstage with plenty of clean detail and volume. It is best served from quality recordings and whether you have lossless files or shiny discs, you’ll enjoy better sound than you’d expect for $330.

Value is the principal feature here. If you want to improve upon the sound coming from your TV’s built-in speakers, the Monoprice SB-600 5.1.2 Soundbar is hard to beat, even by competitors that cost more. Did you just buy a new Ultra HD flat panel? This is the best way to add quality sound for just a little extra cash. Highly Recommended.