Hisense AX5120G 5.1.2 soundbar – the beginnings of Dolby Atmos (AV review)

06/09/2024
By Ray Shaw
In Reviews

The Hisense AX5120G 5.1.2 soundbar adds surround sound upmix and basic Dolby Atmos capability to any TV.

The RRP is $599, but you can find it as low as $465 if you shop around. That is a critical point when starting an independent, no-PR-BS review. What else can you get for <$499, and how good is the sound?

Spoiler alert: Nothing is even remotely comparable for the price. It may not be audiophile-standard, but Joe and Jane Average will consider it money well spent.

Dolby Atmos (DA) is a term most often used and abused. What is it?

In short, true DA comprises 128 sound objects that can be moved anywhere in the room – front, rear, up, down, overhead, sideways, and all around – a 3D spatial sound envelope over your TV seating area.

How can a one-speaker toaster claim DA? For that matter, how can any soundbar claim DA? DA needs a few basic things.

First is DA content, where those sound objects are encoded into spatial metadata. This always accompanies Dolby Vision movies and is increasingly popular for music. DA content is not Dolby Digital, DTS, or PCM up to 7.1 – that is 2D surround sound.

Second is the DA decoder, which can understand DA metadata and decode it for use on the available speakers. These are found in DA-compatible TVs and soundbars.

Finally, enough speakers to obtain a true DA effect. We believe that the minimum is 5.1.4 to create a basic DA envelope comprising:

Left/Centre/Right front forward-firing or 3.x.x
Left/Right front up-firing or x.x.2
Left/Right dedicated rear forward-firing or 2.x.x
Left/Right dedicated rear up-firing or x.x.2
A subwoofer capable of low, mid and high bass from 20Hz to 200Hz or x.1.x

If you add these up, it is 5.1.4. Ideally, 7.1.4 gives a better surround effect, adding left/right front side-firing speakers. You really get the best DA impact with 9.1.4 or higher.

What is a DA envelope?

Simply put, it is a roughly circular dome of sound extending from the TV to the ceiling to about 1 metre behind your seating/viewing position. DA can then phase sound objects all around you so that Top Gun Jet flies overhead and the Jurassic Park dinosaur grows in your ear.

True discrete DA soundbars with rear speakers can create a dome about 3m high x 4-5m in diameter, matching the ideal viewing distance from a 4K TV.

This is 9.1.4 but you get how four up-firing create the dome and the other speakers create the surround.

Many all-in-one soundbars claim DA but use virtualisation (creating phantom speakers) via ‘psychoacoustics’ (bouncing sound off the adjacent wall and ceiling around the room). You will not experience the DA envelope unless you have a perfect psychoacoustic-compatible room—like a media room with closed sides and an acoustic ceiling to bounce sound off. The bottom line is to get discrete rear forward-and-up-firing speakers if you want true DA.

If you are keen to know more, we have additional reading

Australian Review: Hisense AX5120G 5.1.2 soundbar

Website	2024 soundbar range Hisense AX5120G Product page There is no Australian download manual. US manual here.
Price RRP	65/75/85” $2699/3699/4999
From	Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Good Guys, Bing Lee, Appliance Central, Retravision, Videopro
Warranty	1-year ACL
Made in	China
Company	Hisense (founded in 1969) is a Chinese-owned, multi-national white goods and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. It owns appliance brands, including Gorenje, Hitachi, Sharp, Toshiba, and some local China-only brands.
More	CyberShack Hisense news and reviews

New ratings in 2024

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.

We are also tightening up on grading. From now on, Pass, for example, means meeting expectations for the price bracket. We consider a Pass mark to be 70+/100 with extra points added for class-leading and excellence.

First Impression – Pass

The Hisense AX5120G has the usual black plastic chassis, acoustic grill, and fabric top. It is 920 x 60 x 90 mm x 2.62kg, which is quite light.

The wireless subwoofer is typical black customwood with a front acoustic grill and rear bass port. It is 214 X 294 X 304 mm x 5.24kg.

The wireless black plastic rears have a cable between them for power—the right connects to power. They are each 91 x 144 x 109 m x 1.37kg.

In other words, nothing is outstanding in design compared to the plethora of black soundbars. Except that this is the cheapest 5.1.2 DA soundbar with discrete rear speakers. The closest is the $699 Monster, and you really don’t want to go there. I would pick the excellent $999 JBL Bar 800 5.1.2 720W (RMS).

And to be frank, 5.1.2 is still not the full DA experience. You need to look at the $1699 LG S95TR 810W 9.1.5, the $1499 JBL Bar 1000 7.1.4 880W, or the $1995 Samsung Q990D 11.1.4. Or spend well over $4K for a Sonos Arc/Sub/Era 300 rears for the ultimate experience (and it truly is – see Sonos Era 300 as rears to the Sonos Arc – superb Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 soundbar).

If you don’t have a grand or so, then price becomes the compelling driver. The Hisense AX5120G is a competent, basic DA soundbar that will immeasurably enhance your TV SDR and HDR viewing.

It includes wall mount brackets for the soundbar and rears and an IR remote control.

420W – sorry its 140W RMS

Hisense uses the peak music power output (PMPO) measurement, which is great for bragging rights, but it is actually about 140W RMS—an accurate measurement.

That also relates to the speaker sizes. They are not much bigger than 5-10W TV speakers, usually 5-10W RMS.

Speakers include (PMPO rating – divide by approx. 3 to get RMS)

160W Front-firing left, right and centre (plus centre crossover tweeter) or 3.x.x
80W front up-firing left/right or x.x.2
60W Rear front-firing left/right 180Hz-20kHz or 2.x.x
120W Wireless 6.5” subwoofer 40-180Hz or x.1.x

These are capable of a maximum of 85dB (loud)

Native sound signature – Pass+

Technically, it is neutral (good), meaning it neither adds nor subtracts from the content. We measure at maximum volume.

Bass starts at around 40-50Hz (the beginning of mid-bass), so don’t expect room-shaking low bass <50Hz. In any case, there is subwoofer cabinet vibration from 50-80Hz.

It flattens from 80Hz to 6kHz when it dips to avoid harshness and then is relatively flat to 20kHz.

However, that technical description does not really describe the sound quality because there is quite a lot of compression and clipping from around 2-5kHz (clear voice territory 1-4kHz), which makes this segment a little dull. The mid-treble is harsh, and the high treble does not add the expected vibrancy.

But wind the volume back to 60-70dB, and you lose that harshness and vibration, making it a pleasant TV/Movie listening experience. It also allows the dedicated centre channel to reproduce voice with good clarity.

AI EQ & Pre-set EQ presets

Frankly, these presets don’t make much of a difference to TV listening. They can recess bass, mid, or treble but cannot increase these past the native sound signature.

Movie: does its best to add surround sound depth.
Music: I suspect this is simply 2.0 (with surround off)
Night: Cuts bass and treble, leaving clear voice
News: Clear voice focus by cutting bass.
Sports: Cuts crowd noise
Game: Focuses on games
AI Mode: Let it pick the best mode.
The remote also has +/-5dB bass and treble adjustments.

EzPlay with Hisense TV

Compatible Hisense TVs have an onscreen menu where you can change mode, add faux surround, change bass/treble, and set LED light brightness.

However, the presets and on-screen lack any rear volume or front 3D height adjustment, and we think this is a deal breaker. The rears were too soft, and the front height was not really above the TV.

SDR and HDR sound – Pass+

It materially enhances the TV sound experience by adding front-centric 2D sound. You can also add faux surround sound from the rear speakers.

Dolby Atmos – Technical Pass but practical fail

It decodes DA/DTS:X and DD/PCM/DTS to 5.1 (not 7.1).

It has a Dolby Atmos decoder that can take 128 channels (sound objects) and downmix to the soundbar’s 5.1.2 channels.

Hisense image is technical;ly correct but the dome is a lot smaller and forward-centric and there is a faux surround from the forward-firing rear speakers.

3D height – limited

There was little (if any) 3D spatial height at 3 metres from the screen (the typical viewing distance). The overhead DA effect was slightly more noticeable as you moved to about 1-2 metres. There is no rear 3D height as the rears don’t have up-firing speakers.

Summary: I did not experience overhead sound nor movement from left to right while watching Top Gun in DA.

Surround – limited

The sound bar does not have left and right side-firing surround speakers; it relies on the rear left/right forward-firing speakers. There is a huge gap in the side surround, as the rear volume is too low to make a difference.

Summary: It adds limited DA experience that might satisfy in a smaller room.

Ports – Pass

HDMI eARC or ARC 2.0b 18Gbps. It will pass through 4K@100Hz and DV 4.2.0 at 8 bits (25% of uncompressed colour information of 4K@4:4:4).
HDMI In 2.0b (we think – it could be 1.4), fine for Blu-ray.
USB A 5V/.5A/2.5W (32GB exFAT) for audio mp3 etc.
Optical in
AUX in 3.5mm
Bluetooth 5.3 SBC (no Chromecast or NFC fast connect)

It does not have Wi-Fi as it is not a multiroom, Google/Alexa/etc speaker.

Latency – Pass

We noticed a slight 120ms lip-sync latency with DA over HDMI. You can adjust the audio delay up to 200ms.

Power – Pass

Soundbar averages about 20W
Subwoofer averages about 15W
Surrounds up to 10W
In total, it went from 50W on PCM to 80W for DA.

CyberShack’s view: The Hisense AX5120G 5.1.2 is a decent soundbar for the price. It will materially enhance TV sound.

If you enjoy loud, clear sound and don’t mind selecting preset modes for different viewings, this is a terrific feature/value soundbar. It is miles better than any TV speaker.

CyberShack believes it is a good deal for anyone on a limited budget—hats off to Hisense for making basic DA affordable.

Audio and videophiles will LOL (laugh out loud) at that comment because you can do so much better if you spend two to three times as much.

Hisense AX5120G competitors

None at that price, or if they are, they are generic Chinese-made bars.

Hisense AX5120G 5.1.2 Ratings

There is a conundrum. If we rate it based on value/features for the money, it scores highly. If we rate it based on actual performance as a DA soundbar, it will not rate as well. We opt for features and price.

Features: 75—It has every feature you need for SDR and HDR, including discrete 2.0 rear speakers and a remote control.
Value: 85 – nothing like it within cooee of its price.
Performance: 75 – Decent native neutral sound signature, but don’t push the volume
Ease of Use: 75—Its remote makes it easy to use, but it lacks a few adjustments that would help with 3D height and rear sound.
Design: 70 – another black soundbar.