Vizio’s new sound bars have Dolby Atmos support

Alongside its whole new 2018 TV lineup, Vizio just announced three new sound bars with Dolby Atmos and Chromecast audio support.

Dolby Atmos, if you’re not familiar, goes beyond traditional surround sound mixing by adding sound “objects” that are positioned in the 3D space of your home theater according to a director’s whims.

Of course, you need Atmos-mastered content to enjoy this level of immersion — thankfully there’s a lot more of that lately. Also you need a Blu-ray player or a streamer box that supports Atmos. So, not an Apple TV (yet).

But you also need speakers, which is where Vizio comes in. Vizio, “America’s #1 sound bar company,” has three new Atmos-compatible sound systems to choose from:

What does 5.1.4 mean? Well, five means there’s a center channel for voice, then left and right in the front, then left and right behind you. One means there’s one subwoofer channel. And the four is for the upward-firing channels that bounce sound off your ceiling (the Atmos part). I’ll leave deciphering the other two configurations as an exercise for the reader.

Like last year’s models, the Vizio’s sound systems combine a sound bar with a wireless subwoofer, and if you get the rear speakers those wire up to the subwoofer.

There’s no word on price yet, but Vizio’s last flagship sound system was $500, so brace yourself. Everything is supposed to start shipping later this summer.