Vizio has made a successful entry in the sound bar market and it intends to continue this trend for 2013. I have to admit the ratio between price and sound quality is very good. At CES, the company has laid out its course of action for 2013: first of all, all the sound bars will have a unified design. This is a change from the 2012 editions, and a welcome one in my opinion. While it may not make a huge difference in your living room, having a design consistency is great for Vizio’s brand and will allow the company to focus on delivering sound quality instead of managing more industrial designs.Secondly, Vizio’s sound bars are going to match the various TV sizes on the market. As TVs grow in size (this year, we’re seeing a LOT of 60″, 70″ and 80″ models), the sound bars also grow to match them from an aesthetic perspective. Sound bars will grow to 54″ (length) to match 60″ (diagonal) television and will support audio from stereo (2.0) to surround sound (5.1). Interestingly enough, all sound bars will now have Bluetooth, so they will be compatible with your Bluetooth music players etc.
In terms of products, we’ve seen the Vizio S4251W-B4, a 42″ sound bar that comes with two satellite speakers for the rear channel (Dolby Digital + DTS) along with one 6.5″ subwoofer. It can connect so coax, Optical (SPDIF), Analog RCA, 3.5mm jack and USB — in addition to Bluetooth of course. Expect more of the same, in more sizes coming from Vizio.