Hisense AX5100G review: This mediocre soundbar isn’t worth the money

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$249

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Hisense has made a name for itself in the budget TV market, with excellent models like the U8H Smart TV, which has earned rave reviews here at TechHive. Inspired by this review and their excellent 43″ LED 4K UHD Series A6 TV that I had previously purchased, I bought a U8H TV and was amazed at the quality Hisense has delivered for the price.

That explains how much I was looking forward to testing the Hisense AX5100G 5.1 soundbar with subwoofer and surround speakers. If the manufacturer cracked the value code for TVs, I really wanted to see what quality they could deliver in a $250 surround system with a maximum of 340W of audio power, Dolby Atmos, and DTS:X.

Unfortunately, Hisense chose to cram the AX5100G’s impressive array of features into poor-quality speaker enclosures, resulting in a terrible listening experience.

This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best soundbars.

[Editor’s note: At the time of publication, the Hisense AX5100G was unavailable for purchase; a Hisense spokesperson said the soundbar will be back in retails channels before the end of the year.]

How big is the Hisense AX5100G soundbar?

If you see the Hisense AX5100G in a store, you might be impressed by the specs, as it comes with a main soundbar unit, a subwoofer and a pair of rear surround speakers. The main body of the soundbar measures 36.2 x 2.4 x 3.5 inches (WxHxD) and weighs just 5.78 pounds. The subwoofer measures 8.4 x 11.6 x 12 (WxHxD) inches and weighs 11.6 pounds. The surround speakers measure 3.6 x 5.9 x 4.4 (WxHxD) inches and weigh about a pound each.

Also in the box are power cords for the soundbar, subwoofer, and one of the two rear surround speakers. There is a 3.5mm RCA audio cable to connect the two rear speakers. You also get an HDMI cable, an optical cable, four wall mount brackets with screws, a remote control and 2 AAA batteries for the remote control.

That’s a lot of gear for the money, isn’t it? Well, the experience starts to fall apart when you take everything out of the box. The soundbar and rear speakers are encased in shockingly thin plastic, and their grilles are made of extremely thin perforated metal. The subwoofer enclosure is made from inferior MDF (medium-density fibreboard) with the same metal grille.

The build quality is reminiscent of the branded electronics behind the counter of a 24/7 drugstore – the kind of products you only buy in an emergency when it’s 2am and everything else is closed. Tap the rear speaker grille and you’ve got a hollow plastic punch with a touch of metal at the top. Tap the subwoofer’s speaker grille and it sounds like one of those tins that stagehands use to create storm noise in the theater.

James Barber/Foundry

Does the Hisense AX5100G soundbar support Dolby Atmos?

The next step was hoping the speakers would sound better than they look. After all, Hisense promises a wealth of features and they’ve managed to deliver TVs well above their price point.

With an eARC connection to the soundbar’s HDMI port, Hisense promises compatibility with a wide range of audio formats, including LPCM (2-, 5.1- and 7.1-channel), Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital and eight flavors of DTS, including 96/24 (24-bit/96kHz) and DTS:X.

Regular HDMI-ARC supports 2-channel LPCM, Dolby Atmos (Digital Plus version), Dolby Digital Plus, and four types of DTS including 96/24. If you have an older TV, both optical and coaxial connections support the same four DTS formats and 2-channel LPCM.

How many HDMI ports does the Hisense AX5100G have?

On the back of the soundbar is an HDMI port for ARC or eARC connections. There’s a USB port so you can connect a thumb drive for music playback, as well as AUX, optical (Toslink) and coaxial connections if you want to use the Hisense AX5100G with an older TV.

James Barber/Foundry

The best news about the Hisense AX5100G was that everything paired seamlessly when plugged in and powered on. There are instructions for entering pairing mode for the subwoofer and surround speakers, but the system I tested paired automatically and was ready to go.

Does the Hisense AX5100G soundbar come with a remote control?

The remote gives access to the various settings, so let’s describe them by looking at the remote. There’s a source button to toggle between inputs, while a Bluetooth button lets you pair the soundbar to a phone or tablet for easy music playback. A surround button allows users to toggle surround on and off, and the EQ button toggles between music, movie, news, sports, night vision, and gaming settings.

Center controls control volume up and down, as well as play, pause and skip functions when using Bluetooth or USB inputs for music playback. The bottom row of buttons allows you to control bass, treble and the brightness of the soundbar display. There is a mute button on the bottom of the remote control.

James Barber/Foundry

Is the Hisense AX5100G a Roku TV Ready Soundbar?

If you own a Roku TV, the Hisense AX5100G Soundbar has been certified Roku TV Ready.

That means the product has been designed to work seamlessly with Roku TVs, including an on-screen setup wizard and the ability to access soundbar settings via the Roku on-screen interface or the Roku remote.

How is the sound quality of the Hisense AX5100G?

After pairing with my iPhone via Bluetooth, I listened to the 1973 Paul McCartney & Wings album band on the run Streaming from Apple Music. Where to start The wall of acoustic guitars that kicks in about halfway through the title track was tinny and harsh. The top end of McCartney’s vocal range had a sharp and uncomfortable edge from both the soundbar and the rear surround speakers.

Granted the album was made under difficult conditions and the recordings always suffered from the technical issues that plagued the band when they decided to record it at EMI’s primitive studio in Lago, Nigeria, but those issues can’t explain how muddy the low was end tones through the subwoofer. To make matters worse, the Bluetooth connection was stubborn and inconsistent, with an unforgivable number of dropouts during playback.

James Barber/Foundry

The next step was to switch to Apple Music on a 4K Apple TV and try again using the eARC connection from my Hisense U8H Smart TV. Signal depth improved immediately and the overall experience was greatly improved, if not quite well. The harshness in the upper registers and mud in the low end were still there, a function of the materials used to build the cases.

When I switched to movies, I watched an Apple TV stream of director David Leitch’s 2022 action film express train with Brad Pitt. The 4K stream offers Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos sound. The graphics were fantastic, with amazing color depth and incredibly deep blacks on the Hisense TV.

The Hisense AX5100G more than adequately reproduced the object-based sound placement that Dolby Atmos promises, even if it lacks the upward-firing drivers required for true Atmos height cues. Instead, the soundbar relies on virtualization for height cues.

Ultimately, however, no amount of processing can compensate for the poor quality of the speakers. Audio at the top of the viewing spectrum fast train had the same sharp and uncomfortable quality that ruined the experience of listening to music.

James Barber/Foundry

Would a higher-quality enclosure for the speakers have pushed the price of the AX5100G to a higher point than Hisense thought the market would support? Maybe, but what we’re stuck with here is a feature-rich speaker system that doesn’t sound good at all.

Is the Hisense AX5100G worth the money?

Even if you’re on a budget and want to take advantage of the latest audio formats with your streaming TV, the painfully mediocre Hisense AX5100G just isn’t worth your money. Instead, look at an alternative like the Vizio M51ax-J6 5.1 soundbar setup, a product that offers the same speaker arrangement for just a few bucks more.

Hisense has demonstrated the ability to make great products at bargain prices. Let’s hope they get it right with their next surround sound offering.