Once just the maker of humble streaming boxes, Roku is slowly spreading into every facet of the home theater experience. First came the Roku TV, with the streaming platform built into modestly priced 4K sets. Last year, the San Jose–based company got into the audio game, releasing a pair of wireless speakers. If that was like a shot across the bow of entrenched home theater brands, then Roku is poised to unleash the full barrage: Today, the company unveiled two new Roku-branded speakers for your television.
The Roku Smart Soundbar is the main attraction. It’s a twofer: a speaker with a Roku player built in. It plugs into your TV’s HDMI port, and you get a 4K streaming platform and booming audio all through one cable. It’s important to note that this new Smart Soundbar works with any brand of TV—you may remember that Roku’s previous wireless speakers were compatible only with a Roku-branded TV. If you already have a Roku TV, you could still use the soundbar with it, but you’d be getting redundancy in features, since both products have Roku streaming players built in. And if you already have Roku's wireless speakers, you should know that the new soundbar will not pair with them. Really, the soundbar is aimed squarely at new customers who don’t have any Roku products already.
The player built into the soundbar is equivalent to Roku’s existing Ultra player. It offers 4K, HD, and HDR video, with support for Google Assistant and Amazon Echo. The soundbar also comes with a Roku remote, which has dedicated buttons to switch to the user’s connected Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming accounts. If you want to connect to the soundbar via Bluetooth and stream songs from your phone, you can do that too.
I got the chance to demo the Smart Soundbar last month. The actual sound that comes out of the bar is crispy Dolby audio, delivered through four drivers. Roku says that the listening experience was designed with TV-viewing in mind. To that end, there are three presets aimed at optimizing the audio as you watch. The “speech clarity” preset is exactly what it sounds like, making it easier to discern what the characters are talking about. An automatic volume leveling feature aims to keep you from scrambling for your remote every time there’s a jump or dip in the volume when the scene changes. (Also: No more blaring commercials assaulting your eardrums when a show cuts away to pay the bills.) The “night mode” preset does the same sort of smoothing out, but in a more extreme fashion, so a sudden explosion or swell in music won’t wake your housemates. The soundbar also pulls audio directly from the TV, so there’s no need to plug a game console into the speaker. Just connect everything to the TV and the soundbar detects the audio sources automatically.
In addition to the soundbar, Roku also unveiled a new wireless subwoofer. The sealed cabinet design spits out punchy audio through a beefy 250-watt amplifier with a 10-inch driver. It’s designed to work directly with the soundbar, via the same Roku Connect technology the company developed to link its wireless products together. Roku says the subwoofer will eventually be able to pair with its existing Roku TV speakers, but won’t say exactly when that will happen. Linked together, the soundbar and subwoofer auto-balance their output levels so both products put out complimentary frequencies.
The idea of a Roku-branded soundbar isn’t entirely new. Last year at CES, the company showed off a TCL-branded soundbar/subwoofer combo with built-in Roku voice controls for Roku TVs. But that speaker never made it to market, and it appears to have been shelved. A Roku spokesperson says the company still considers TCL a valuable partner, and that it will continue working with the brand to produce the models of its Roku TV sets. This new soundbar was designed and developed by Roku alone.
Both the Roku Smart Soundbar and the companion subwoofer are priced at $180 each. They’re available for preorder now on Roku’s website, and are slated to ship to customers this October.
When you buy something using the retail links in our product reviews, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read more about how this works.
- Nobody's watching the best giant monster movies
- How to get the most out of your smartphone battery
- You're racing toward a wall. Should you brake hard—or swerve
- A history of plans to nuke hurricanes (and other stuff too)
- For these sword-wielding warriors, medieval battles live on
- 👁 Facial recognition is suddenly everywhere. Should you worry? Plus, read the latest news on artificial intelligence
- ✨ Optimize your home life with our Gear team’s best picks, from robot vacuums to affordable mattresses to smart speakers.
