SonicGear’s home theatre soundbars are one of the best choices if you are on a budget to have cinematic sound in your living room, the brand has recently sent us the BT6500 for our evaluation, which is a feature packed and powerful soundbar that comes with a wireless subwoofer that pushes 200W of booming sound, here’s my take after using for a month.
Design wise, the SonicGear BT6500 is a very slim and lengthy looking soundbar that measures 865mm (W) x 70mm (D) x 65mm (H) and houses four 2-inch drivers, it fits most TV setups well and still looks good when I place it right below a 27-inch monitor, but if you prefer, the soundbar can be wall mounted to keep things clean.
As for the wireless subwoofer, it can take up quite a bit of space on the floor as it houses a large 6.5-inch driver, it will also require its own power and there’s no need to perform any pairing process with the soundbar.
The BT6500 comes with several input ports, including an optical audio in, coaxial in and AUX in, which is a common sight for budget soundbars, and interestingly, there is a non-detachable thin cable that serves as the soundbar’s FM antenna, which is a very unique feature that you won’t find on more expensive soundbars.
On the front, you get a USB port for playing music from flash drives.
Operating the BT6500 is very straightforward with the provided remote control, the sound source is labelled on the remote and doesn’t require you to press a ‘Source’ button to switch between sources, the soundbar also has a LED display to show you the mode status and volume level.
The BT6500 features Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity which offers a very reliable wireless connection when I tested it with my iPhone 14 Pro, it only supports the SBC codec which is sufficient for playing Spotify tracks.
In terms of sound quality, the BT6500 only supports PCM audio when you connect it to the optical in port of your TV, which is expected for a budget soundbar which you won’t be able to experience a virtual surround sound. Despite that, the BT6500 can deliver very powerful and clear sound when I watched movies on it, vocals doesn’t get suppressed by the strong bass and the details in musical instruments are presented well.
Sound tuning is very basic as it lets you adjust bass and treble levels using the remote, there are also a total of 5 EQ presets for you to switch for the best listening experience.
Overall, the SonicGear BT6500 is an excellent value home theatre soundbar with powerful sound that retails at an affordable price of RM399, it will most certainly outperform your TV’s speakers and a good option if you aren’t prepared to spend that much on a soundbar, go grab one here at SonicGear’s official store on Shopee.