TCL A65K Soundbar Review: Small Size, Big Sound

Compact and portable. A bully acceptable for smaller spaces and TVs. Acoustic euphony sounds large and distinct. Excellent country adaptation utilizing AI.

Surround dependable was lacking. Some euphony sounds washed retired and muddy.

Living successful a tiny abstraction has immoderate challenges, but mediocre cinematic dependable doesn't request to beryllium 1 of them. For those successful an flat oregon who person a smaller country for watching tv and listening to music, the TCL A65K Soundbar is not a atrocious enactment among the best soundbars retired there.

Priced astatine $499 connected Amazon (the database terms is $699), this pencil-shaped soundbar is astir 35 inches agelong and stands 2 inches precocious but packs 460 watts of power. With the included sub (which measures astir 14 x 14 inches square), you tin blast the latest Netflix movie oregon crank up immoderate 1 of the 3 caller Drake albums astatine precocious volume. Dolby Atmos support, a superb country adaptation diagnostic that uses AI, and a compact plan are the main highlights.

Call it a niche merchandise if you want, but judged arsenic a compact audio product, I liked the features and plan of the TCL A65K adjacent if the existent audio prime can’t vie with the Sonos Arc Ultra oregon adjacent travel adjacent to the Focal Mu-So Hekla. Audiophiles should decidedly instrumentality a pass, but the remainder volition find a batch to similar for the price, the tiny size, and astute design.

Setting It Up

One of the TCL A65K's astute plan choices has to bash with the merchandise size. The A65K soundbar weighs lone 2.5 pounds truthful I recovered I could easy clasp it with 1 hand. The sub, which is designed to look toward you, weighs astir 12 pounds. But it's besides not a back-breaker. Compare that to thing similar the Focal Mu-So Hekla soundbar astatine 34 pounds and the A65K feels featherlight.

I similar that TCL includes a basal partition mounting kit, which consists of 2 brackets and screws. I skipped that to marque the soundbar much mobile and moved it from my household country to my bureau a fewer times. Placed connected a TV stand, the all-black A65K looks comically tiny fixed that the tv I ain is simply a 65-inch model. I enactment the sub connected the level and went done the app setup, which was amazingly casual since it mostly involves connecting implicit Bluetooth and choosing a dependable mode, specified arsenic movie oregon music. You tin besides plug successful a telephone utilizing the USB port, spell with HDMI from your TV, oregon watercourse implicit Bluetooth (but not Wi-Fi).

I utilized HDMI and Bluetooth for my investigating and tweaked a fewer settings connected the TCL Home app. The USB larboard is nice, but it’s of the older USB-A type, which is disappointing, since astir of america person moved to the satellite of USB-C astir entirely. You tin skip the app wholly if you don’t privation to set settings. You tin besides skip the included distant (which has a bully layout and lets you power inputs quickly, but is different beauteous basic) and power euphony from an app similar Qobuz oregon usage your TV remote.

One configuration measurement was critically important, though. The TCL AI Sonic diagnostic tin assistance accommodate the A65K audio for your country size. I listened to euphony earlier and aft and it made a large difference, which I’ll interaction connected later. The process is straightforward. The app prompted maine to crook my iPhone astir truthful the microphone faces the speakers. I held it a fewer inches distant from the talker astatine first, past sat down connected my sofa for a 2nd test. The AI adjusted the dependable to beryllium fuller and much spacious, though movies and euphony ne'er filled the room.

That’s 1 compromise with a smaller soundbar—the diminutive furniture conscionable isn’t large capable to nutrient those monolithic explosions oregon drum fills connected a Radiohead opus that you’d get with a larger soundbar. Knowing this, and that the terms is simply a fewer 100 little than full-size soundbars, I dove into testing.

Movies and Surround Sound

The TCL A65K soundbar has up-firing audio drivers, making it look similar a level oregon a spaceship is flying astir the room. TCL partnered with Bang & Olufsen for the dependable design. There are 9 dedicated speakers successful the soundbar, including the halfway and broadside channels. The upfiring tallness channels enactment Dolby Atmos oregon DTS:X. Unlike immoderate Sony soundbars that usage virtual situation dependable and not existent drivers angled to the ceiling, the dedicated audio drivers successful the A65K should be much convincing when, say, a chopper rises supra the histrion line.

In practice, the TCL A65K is excessively tiny to marque the situation dependable that convincing. It’s a bully thought to battalion successful truthful galore speakers with truthful overmuch power. In the movie Unbroken, which I usage for investigating each situation dependable products, the planes and gunfire didn’t capable the country enough. I utilized the AI Sonic country adaptation feature, but it didn’t assistance the situation dependable that much.

One of my favourite dependable plan tests is successful the movie Predator: Badlands erstwhile the main quality extends some ends of a spear, the extremity pointing to the entity with a abrupt clank. I loved however the Focal Mu-So Hekla made it look similar that clank sounds similar it’s coming from the ceiling. Not truthful overmuch with the A65K soundbar. However, astatine $499, I wasn’t expecting sonic perfection. In the sci-fi bid The Boroughs connected Netflix, a musculus car rumbles by and the sub makes it dependable large and powerful— adjacent if we’re not talking movie-theater-quality dependable astatine all.

In the sci-fi movie Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, I noticed the euphony overwhelmed the voices astatine astir 50 minutes into the movie (about a clip traveler bent connected redeeming humanity). Playing astir with a fewer much customized dependable settings successful the TCL Home app, I accrued the halfway channel, lowered the "front top” audio and sub, and enabled a dependable enhancement option. It’s a pain, and I privation the A65K adjusted itself automatically, but it was effective. That’s wherefore my instrumentality connected the dependable prime for movies is “not bad” for the terms and size of the soundbar.

Music Quality

The taxable present truthful acold is—you won’t vie with your section cineplex for location theatre sound, but it’s passable. The tiny size won’t capable the room, and the up-firing audio is not ace convincing. However, astatine the price, determination are plentifulness of high-end features.

I’m a die-hard euphony fan, truthful I ran done a artillery of tests. I started with the caller unrecorded medium by Manchester Orchestra called Union Chapel, London, England. This stripped-back performance featuring mostly acoustic guitar, airy piano, and vocals was an fantabulous lucifer for the A65K soundbar. Songs similar “The Deer” and “Capital Karma” had a warmth and resonance. On that past song, the vocals deed a precocious transportation portion the little registry of the guitar rumbles along. Everything sounded chiseled with the much minimalistic instrumentation and had an integrated feel.

One of my favourite indie artists is Snail Mail. Her latest medium has uplifting choruses meant to capable the country with lush guitars and strings. Due to the A65K being truthful small, astir tracks sounded muddy due to the fact that of the aggregate instruments playing each astatine once, but the synths were distinct. In the opus “Light connected Our Feet” the strings were wide but did dependable a spot digitized astatine times. (You tin archer from the unrecorded show astatine 54:47 that there’s an existent cello involved.)

The wide powerfulness output is not bad, though. On “Want Want” by Maggie Rogers, I was impressed by the grungy, guttural dependable acknowledgment to the sub. On “So Neurotic" by the set Ex-Vöid, I was expecting full mush arsenic the guitars intersect, but it’s loud, jangly, and clear. “Spangled” by the set Fust had bone-crunching bass coming done the sub arsenic well.

Gaming, Sports, and News

For video games, the deficiency of room-filling situation dependable became adjacent much noticeable. Similar to movies and shows, the crippled Forza Horizon 6 is expected to blast you with motor sounds and exhaust, but it each felt excessively bladed and not spacious enough. Granted, that crippled doesn’t instrumentality vantage of Dolby Atmos enough, but I was not impressed with wide oomph.

That is until I tested Halo: Infinite. Laser blasts, screeching aliens, and large explosions astatine slightest seemed to travel from a fewer antithetic angles successful the room. I inactive missed the cacophony of Atmos-powered dependable coming from higher-end soundbars similar the Sonos Arc.

I switched to sports for a while, catching up connected the NBA playoffs utilizing the YouTube TV app. The broadcasters were casual to hear, but the assemblage sound was much similar a debased murmur, astir similar utilizing a sound generator. What you privation is to consciousness similar you’re astatine the crippled and tin perceive radical screaming and shouting during the unrecorded broadcast. A quality programme connected my section Fox presumption sounded wide and distinct, though. That’s not astonishing due to the fact that the A65K surely has capable powerfulness and chiseled audio drivers, adjacent if the situation dependable is conscionable so-so.

In the end, I felt the TCL A65K matched my expectations. It's tiny capable to acceptable connected a room antagonistic oregon adjacent a smaller television. It’s priced overmuch little than the high-end models that really present room-filling location theatre situation sound. Many of the tracks I played to trial euphony sounded pleasing capable if not thunderous and room-filling. If your extremity is to prevention abstraction and not wage an exorbitant sum, the TCL A65K is simply a compact and feature-rich choice.