Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus Review

Introduction

First it was video streamers. Then it was TVs, and now Amazon is making soundbars with the Fire TV Soundbar Plus.

I’d reviewed the more basic Fire TV Soundbar and found that to be a rather ho-hum offering – but the Fire TV Plus promises more. Better sound, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support for an attractive price.

There are still a few quirks about the approach Amazon has taken with its soundbars, but the Fire TV Plus is an unexpected surprise.

Availability

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus is priced at £249 / $249 / €269 / CA$329. There is a 5.1 version that’s only available in the United States. You can find it for $489.

Design

• Smart looks
• Wall-mounting kit
• Dot display

Considering the £249 / $249 price tag, the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus does not look half bad. In fact, it looks smart for the money.

It is grey, but that meshes well with its minimalist aesthetic – it’s not a soundbar that jumps out when you walk into a room. The build quality is solid, and the grey fabric around its midriff avoids the plastic, cheap look some soundbars at this price have.

There are controls on the top surface in case you lose the remote, which cover power, input selection, Bluetooth pairing and volume. Around the rear is a recessed area for the inputs and at 94cm wide it’s not too long that it looks ungainly on your AV furniture. When partnered with a 55-inch Fire TV 4 Series model, the soundbar sits perfectly between the feet.

Annoyingly Amazon has gone for the display behind the fabric grille to maintain the minimalist appearance. Like Samsung, LG, and Sony soundbars, it’s a series of blinking lights. Some may not mind it but I find it irritating. I don’t want to consult the manual to find out what the lights mean, and in some cases they flash by so quickly I’m not sure what they’re referencing.

Case in point, when the soundbar detects a Dolby Atmos or DTS:X signal, it recognises it with three green lights. But blink and you’ll miss it.

The remote is small but button presses are responsive. It comes with the same buttons (and a few more) as the soundbar itself. Accessories include a wall-mounting kit in the event you decide to heave it onto your wall.

Features

• Dolby Atmos and DTS:X
• 3.1 speaker system
• Four EQ modes

Dolby Atmos and DTS:X cover 3D spatial audio. Dolby and DTS cover the standard soundtrack formats. It’s worth noting the Fire TV Plus doesn’t have upfiring speakers to create the spatial audio effect through virtual processing.

There’s more DTS support in the form of DTS TruVolume which provides a consistent volume level with DTS audio.

Connectivity covers a single HDMI ARC/eARC port to connect to a TV. There’s also USB-A and digital optical for those without an HDMI port on their TV. Bluetooth is the means of connecting to the soundbar wirelessly.

The Fire TV Soundbar Plus has a 3.1 configuration which is a left, centre and right speaker, married with an internal subwoofer to give the low frequencies some punch.

There are four EQ modes in Film, Music, Sports and Night – Night mode tempers the low frequencies so they don’t become a nuisance to other people in your house, apartment or next door.

And that’s about it on the features front. This doesn’t come with built-in streaming (despite the Fire TV branding) nor does it have Alexa integration – it’s very much a ‘dumb’ soundbar and not smart like the Roku Streambar. There’s not even integration with the Fire TV app.

There is a 5.1 version that bundles in a subwoofer and two surround speakers but this is only available in America. I don’t believe you can pair it with the Echo Studio wireless speaker either.

Set-up is very simple with an Amazon Fire TV as the TV instantly recognises its mate. Any buttons not available on the bar itself can be found in the Fire TV interface – that’s if you’re connecting to an Amazon Fire TV – with the ability to tweak bass/treble, and enable DTS TruVolume and the Dialogue Enhancer.

Sound Quality

• Clear dialogue
• Bass can sound flat
• Sharp highs

In goes a 4K Blu-ray of La La Land into a Panasonic UB820 that’s connected to the Amazon Fire TV 4-Series, and right away the Fire TV Plus showcases a confident sound.

It’s easily a big improvement over the TV it’s connected to – the highs are bright and clear, the midrange clear, and the lows have decent weight considering this is just a single bar with no subwoofer attached.

Having a dedicated centre helps to give dialogue room to breathe, and through all the films and TV series I played, the Fire TV Soundbar Plus sounded natural with dialogue.

It’s a spacious listen too, with dialogue positioned high up and even off-screen where needed in Civil War. With La La Land’s music score, it’s punchy and expressive, and there’s no sense that the soundstage feels congested or compact.

It’s all been positive so far. In Blade Runner 2049, the built-in subwoofer fumbles the film’s opening – the bass sounds flat and there’s some distortion throughout the opening titles.

Treble sounds balanced enough but as soon as the eye appears on screen, I was hoping for a big, expansive, room-filling sound – instead the Fire TV Soundbar Plus sounds small.

There’s no mention of how much power is behind the Fire TV Soundbar Plus, but it lacks a degree of heft and scale.

Tonally it sounds as it should, and in terms of its spatial performance, the action in the heights could have more definition but there is a presence above the TV as K’s spinner comes down to land. The fight between K and Sapper has an intensity the TV can’t describe, with more force provided to the punches which hit with more clarity.

Dynamically it can veer between being good and average – in BR 20249 it stays at the same volume rather than getting slowly quieter as K makes his way to Sapper’s house. But with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Michael Giacchino’s score soars rather than falls flat.

DTS tracks do sound as if they need to be played at a louder volume, which I don’t believe is a soundbar issue and has more to do with DTS’ dynamic range. Nevertheless, while voices sound clear and natural with Fallen Kingdom’s DTS:X track, they lack a little weight.

When it comes to the action sequences, like the volcano explosion, it does lack a bit of thrust and punch. Applying DTS TruVolume has the adverse effect of making the soundbar quieter, which is not what you want.

I wouldn’t expect the same level of performance from the Fire TV Plus as I would the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 8 but on occasion, they sound similar. Both take a sharper tone to high frequencies which makes treble sound bright, but whenever the soundbar tries to describe sounds that happen out wide, there’s a sharp, harsh tone that makes it sound thin.

With music over Bluetooth, the Fire TV Soundbar Plus is… ok. Mogwai’s We’re No Here sounds thin and lacking in detail. The treble in GoGo Penguin’s Atomised is clear if not quite sharp or bright; while bass doesn’t offer much in the way of depth and weight. At times the soundbar’s music performance comes across as depleted.

Music doesn’t sound ‘big’ with the Music EQ on either, the soundbar doesn’t push sound out and away from its body but the vocals are well handled. Lianne La Havas’ Bittersweet sees the bar output a warm and smooth vocal performance. You can give bass a boost through the EQ but the low frequencies just lack punch and power to have an impact.

Should you buy it?