Pros & Cons
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- Decent audio quality
- Works as a 4K media streamer
- Supports Apple AirPlay
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- Weak bass without a subwoofer
- Little to no stereo separation
- No voice remote
- Lacks Dolby Vision support
Roku Streambar SE - 2-in-1 TV Soundbar with Built-in Streaming, Premium Speakers, & Speech Clarity Specs
| Bluetooth | |
| Built-In Voice Assistant | None |
| Channels | Stereo |
| Physical Connections | HDMI |
| Physical Connections | Optical |
| Physical Connections | USB |
| Wi-Fi |
The $99.99 Roku Streambar SE is a compact and affordable soundbar that also functions as a media streamer. It can produce better audio than the average TV, but it lacks bass, and its small size means you won’t notice much stereo separation. Even so, it's a worthy replacement for the original Roku Streambar, and it offers a good listening experience if you temper your expectations. Additionally, it's an easy way to upgrade an aging TV without streaming features. By comparison, the Vizio 2.1 Soundbar ($169.99) comes with a subwoofer that delivers plenty of bass, but its overall sound quality isn't as balanced or clean as the Streambar SE, and it doesn't offer any media streaming capabilities.
Design: One of the Smallest Soundbars We've Seen
Measuring 2.4 by 9.6 by 3.5 inches (HWD), the Streambar SE is downright puny. It’s nearly five inches shorter than the original Streambar, and replaces a triangular shape and wrap-around grille fabric with a blocky rectangular profile and a plain black metal grille on the front.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)The Streambar SE is free of any real controls, save for a reset button in a recess on the left side of the back panel. The recess also holds an HDMI port, an optical audio input, a USB port for connecting external storage, and a connector for the power adapter. The right side of the back of the speaker holds an open bass port to improve lower-frequency response.
Remote and Software: Media Streaming, But No Voice Features Without a Phone
The included remote is surprisingly basic for a Roku device. It looks almost identical to any Roku media streamer or TV remote, with the signature large, purple, plus-shaped direction pad near the top and purple fabric Roku tag on the bottom. Power and menu buttons are located above the pad, while playback controls and dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, and Netflix are positioned below. A volume rocker and mute button are located on the right edge of the remote.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)This is all standard, but it’s missing one key feature: a pinhole microphone. In fact, it might be the only Roku-made media device with no voice remote at all. Roku has never had a full virtual assistant like Alexa on Fire TV devices or Gemini (formerly Google Assistant) on Google TV devices, but seeing those capabilities completely absent on the Streambar SE is surprising. You can still use those voice features with the Roku app for iOS and Android, but they feel vestigial compared with other Roku streamers.
The Streambar SE uses the Roku OS platform to serve as both a media streamer and a soundbar, functioning effectively like a Roku Streaming Stick Plus ($39.99). It outputs video at up to 4K60 and supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in HDR10 and HDR10+, but not Dolby Vision, which is a notable omission considering it's a very common format on many major streaming services and can often look better than HDR10 on TVs that support it. The Streambar SE features Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) for wireless connectivity, but it lacks an Ethernet port, a feature found in the Roku Ultra ($99.99) streamer. It features Bluetooth 5.0 for private listening with wireless headphones.
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(Credit: Roku)Roku OS supports most major streaming services, including Amazon Video, Apple TV, Crunchyroll, Disney+, Netflix, and YouTube, but it does not support Twitch. It also features Apple AirPlay for streaming local content from iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
I like Roku OS for its relative simplicity and directness. It isn't loaded with recommendations, smart home features, and tons of menu options on every screen, and it doesn't strive to become your whole-home information hub. It focuses on media and offers easy access to your preferred streaming service through large, friendly icons. It occasionally shows ads and content suggestions, but nowhere near as many as the other smart TV platforms. Because of these aspects, I often recommend Roku devices to users who aren't very tech-savvy and just want to access their preferred services without being overwhelmed by content.
Sound: Don't Expect Bass or Spatial Audio
As a soundbar, the Streambar SE has two 1.9-inch full-range drivers in a two-channel stereo configuration. It lacks any spatial audio features.
The Streambar SE is loud enough to reasonably fill a small room, and rivals or surpasses the larger original Streambar in dynamic range. The opening acoustic guitar plucks in Yes’ “Roundabout” get a good amount of low-mid resonance along with enough presence in the higher frequencies to convey string texture. When the track properly kicks in, it’s well-balanced across that space without any element overshadowing another.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)Of course, there’s only so much low-end power you can get out of a speaker this small, and the Streambar SE simply can’t put out much bass on its own. When playing our bass test track, The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the kick drum hits sound muted, and the overall volume of the track seems to be tamped down with digital signal processing (DSP) to prevent the small drivers from blowing out when trying to reproduce the frequencies. If you want any appreciable thump with the Streambar SE, you’ll have to pair it with the Roku Wireless Bass subwoofer, which at $129.99 is more expensive than the Streambar SE itself.
Larger soundbars, especially ones with multiple drivers angled in different directions, can produce big sound fields that seem to extend beyond the physical position of the speaker itself. That isn’t the case for the Streambar SE, since its diminutive profile means its two drivers are too close to produce much in the way of a stereo sound field. The opening chase in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is louder than the built-in speakers on my LG C4 TV, with slightly stronger bass and better balance, but all of it unmistakably comes from the little speaker sitting just below the center of the screen. Obviously, any spatial audio is out of the question, and unless you get a subwoofer to go with it, the Streambar SE still won’t come close to producing any sort of real rumble.