Roku’s pushing hard to be your one-stop-shop for all things home entertainment. You probably know the company best for its set-top boxes and smart TVs, but it’s been expanding into content curation and audio devices over the past few years. Its latest speaker, the $130 Roku Streambar, is designed specifically for people like me: those who want to upgrade their current TV setup without spending a lot of money or wasting a bunch of space.
That ask is more complicated than it seems when you’re talking about a home theater. You can easily drop hundreds (or even thousands) building the right setup for your game days and movie nights. But the Streambar attempts to deliver a streamlined, all-in-one solution that’s not just a soundbar, but also a 4K HDR streaming set top box and a Bluetooth speaker too.
Roku Streambar
Pros
- Compact design
- Solid audio quality
- Dolby Audio support
- 4K HDR streaming tech built in
- Works as a Bluetooth speaker
Cons
- No Ethernet port
- Weak bass
- No Dolby Vision
I hooked the Streambar up to the “dumb,” seven-year-old Vizio TV in our bedroom. I did this for a couple of reasons: first, that Vizio set has been connected to a Roku 3 for the past… well, since the Roku 3 came out. Second, we have a 55-inch TCL Roku TV in the living room. While I could have connected it to our living room set, it wouldn’t have been the best situation for testing the soundbar’s streaming chops since the smart TV already has Roku’s OS on it.
Gallery: Roku Streambar review photos | 6 Photos
Gallery: Roku Streambar review photos | 6 Photos
Setup was quite easy and that’s partially due to Roku including everything you need in the box. The Streambar plugs into a power supply and your TV’s HDMI ARC port and the proper HDMI cable comes included. After popping the provided AAA batteries into the voice remote, I followed the on-screen instructions to finish the setup process. This took me all of five minutes and that included the time needed to look up how to enable HDMI-CEC on my TV so the voice remote could control the entire TV-plus-soundbar system.
Before I go further, I should say that I was impressed by the Streambar’s design. It’s only slightly larger than a carton of eggs, which made it the perfect size to sit in front of my TV on top of a dresser. Most full-sized soundbars are double the length of this one, and I simply don’t have the space to comfortably connect one to our bedroom TV (it would be a stretch for our main TV, too).
The Streambar is fabric-wrapped, allowing sound from the front- and side-facing speakers to come through, and all of the connectors are on the back edge. These include the necessary power and HDMI ports, as well as optical audio and USB-A connectors. Unlike Roku’s standalone set-top boxes like the new Roku Ultra, the Streambar doesn’t have an Ethernet port so you’ll need an adapter if you want to hardwire it to your router.
I’m familiar with Roku OS so I basically used the Streambar just like I did my old Roku 3, with the added utility of the voice remote (which makes searching for topics like “Halloween” and shows like “Schitt’s Creek” much easier). Navigating the UI felt snappier than I’m used to thanks to the faster processor inside the Streambar. It only took a second or two for apps to open. In fact, the longest wait time I experienced was when turning the entire system on -- that took roughly five to seven seconds.