The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus is currently said to offer room-filling 3D sound with Dolby Atmos and rich bass for around 220 euros. If that is indeed the case, you can rightly call it a price breaker. ntv.de tested whether the speaker bar does what Amazon promises.
In the summer, Amazon's first soundbar, priced at 140 euros, was able to impress with a more than decent, room-filling sound and uncomplicated simplicity. Now the company is following up with the better-equipped Plus variant. It should cost just under 260 euros, and only around 220 euros when it is introduced by December 2nd. What can buyers expect in return?
Bigger, but not higher
First of all, a significantly larger soundbar: the four kilogram Plus is 94.0 × 13.2 × 6.4 centimeters in size. But it's just wider and deeper; in terms of height, it's even 0.1 millimeters lower than its little sister. This means that it usually fits under all televisions set up. You can also screw it to the wall; Amazon supplies a simple angle bracket with screws and dowels.
On the back you will only find the most necessary connections.
(Photo: kwe)
The design is simple, the soundbar is a black plastic cuboid with rounded corners and a fabric cover in front of the speakers. On the top there are buttons for volume control, source selection, Bluetooth connection and power on/off. Inside there are three forward-facing tweeters and broadband speakers as well as two rear-firing woofers.
Sparse facilities, but uncomplicated
The soundbar is usually connected to the TV via an HDMI cable to the ARC or eARC input, for Dolby Atmos it has to be the second option. Otherwise, there is also an optical input and a USB-A port to connect playback devices. Like the small Amazon soundbar, the Plus can serve as a Bluetooth speaker, but it doesn't offer WiFi.
The sparse equipment has the advantage that the speaker bar is very uncomplicated, especially on an ARC connection. If the soundbar is connected to a socket and the television, it is already ready for use. You have to turn them on and off, but you can usually control the volume using the TV remote control.
More options
In contrast to its little sister, the manual that comes with the Plus is necessary because it offers more functions. You can use the compact remote control to increase the bass and treble levels by nine levels each, and there is a dialogue button to increase the clarity of voices in five levels. Additionally, the remote control has an equalizer button to choose between four preset modes: Movie, Music, Sports and Night.
You operate the soundbar using buttons on the top or with the remote control.
(Photo: kwe)
If you press the dialog button longer, you activate DTS True Volume, which automatically adjusts the volume for various content and apps on a television. This worked reasonably well in the test; the differences were not clearly audible.
Nice surround sound, but hardly 3D
Finally, there is a button to turn surround sound on and off. In addition to DTS:X, the soundbar also supports the more widespread Dolby Atmos. Ideally, you can hear 3D sound, or as Amazon writes, an all-round sound effect.
Tweeters and full-range speakers all radiate towards the front.
(Photo: Amazon)
To try this out, ntv.de watched films and series that offer Dolby Atmos and played on the Xbox Series X, which accepted the soundbar as a 3D system. In fact, the Plus opens up a wide stereo stage that only seems to end at head level on the left and right. The sound is also more room-filling than its little sister, but you can't really hear 3D.
That's not surprising either. Because no tweeter radiates upwards or is placed to the side. In addition, the Fire TV Soundbar Plus does not have the option to adapt the sound to the room. Other speaker bars are better equipped. But even with these soundbars, which are usually much more expensive, the all-round sound cannot be compared with a real surround system with satellite speakers.
Overall good sound
So the disappointment with the cheap box is limited. Otherwise it delivers good sound that sounds more expensive than 260 (220) euros. It particularly impresses with its clarity, which pays off, among other things, with voices that can be understood very well even without amplification. This is mainly due to the highs, which provide a lot of detail. The beautifully defined mids are also convincing.
The bass isn't bad, but don't expect too much. Compared to the small Amazon soundbar, the Plus is a monster, but the woofers are far from replacing an external subwoofer – even with the highest gain. It's a shame that there is no corresponding connection.
All in all, the sound is really good for a soundbar in this price range. The four modes also usually provide the ideal settings for their intended purposes. If you adjust manually, you have to find the right balance between bass and treble. If you can do that, you can take it a step further, especially when it comes to films. The soundbar can also handle music well; similarly inexpensive Bluetooth specialists rarely sound better.
Conclusion
For 220 euros you can call the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus a bargain, but a similarly priced, better alternative is difficult to find. At 270 euros, the competition isn't great, but at Stiftung Warentest you can already find a soundbar with an external subwoofer and good sound for a little more than 300 euros.
