TCL A65K Soundbar Review: A Pencil-Slim Speaker That Punches Well Above Its Size Priced at $499 with 460 watts, Dolby Atmos and a clever AI room-tuning feature, this slim TCL soundbar shines on music and value, but its tiny cabinet never quite fills a room with convincing surround sound. The TCL A65K makes an odd promise right out of the box: a tiny body that claims to deliver big sound. It sells for $499 on Amazon, though its list price is $699. This pencil-shaped soundbar runs about 35 inches long and stands just two inches high, yet it crams in 460 watts of power. The bundled sub measures roughly 14 x 14 inches square, and together the pair can push out the latest Netflix movie or any of the three new Drake albums at high volume. Dolby Atmos support, a smart AI-driven room adaptation feature, and a compact design are its biggest selling points. Featherlight build and an easy setup One of the A65K's smartest design decisions is its sheer size. The soundbar weighs only 2.5 pounds, so I could lift it comfortably with one hand. The sub, which is built to face toward you, weighs almost 12 pounds, but even that won't break your back. Set it next to something like the 34-pound Focal Mu-So Hekla soundbar, and the A65K feels practically weightless. I appreciate that TCL throws in a basic wall mounting kit consisting of two brackets and screws. I skipped it to keep the soundbar portable, moving it from my family room to my office a few times. Sitting on a TV stand, the all-black A65K looks comically small next to the 65-inch television I own. I set the sub on the floor and ran through the app setup, which was surprisingly painless since it mostly comes down to connecting over Bluetooth and picking a sound mode such as movie or music. You can plug a phone into the USB port, run HDMI from your TV, or stream over Bluetooth, though not over Wi-Fi. I leaned on HDMI and Bluetooth for my testing and adjusted a handful of settings in the TCL Home app. The USB port is welcome, but it is the older USB-A type, which is a letdown given that most of us have shifted almost entirely to USB-C by now. If you'd rather not fiddle with settings, you can ignore the app altogether. You can also set aside the included remote, which has a tidy layout and switches inputs quickly but is otherwise fairly basic, and instead control music from an app like Qobuz or use your TV remote. AI Sonic tunes the sound to your room One setup step, however, turned out to be critically important. The TCL AI Sonic feature adapts the A65K's audio to your room size. I listened to music before and after running it, and it made a noticeable difference, which I'll come back to. The process is simple. The app asked me to flip my iPhone around so the microphone faces the speakers. I held it a few inches from the speaker at first, then sat down on my couch for a second pass. The AI made the sound fuller and more spacious, although movies and music never truly filled the room. That is the compromise you accept with a smaller soundbar. The diminutive cabinet just isn't big enough to deliver the massive explosions or the drum fills on a Radiohead song that a larger soundbar would. Knowing this, and knowing the price runs a few hundred dollars below full-size models, I got stuck into testing. The surround sound claim versus reality The A65K uses up-firing audio drivers, which can make it feel like a plane or a spaceship is sweeping around the room. TCL partnered with Bang & Olufsen on the sound design. There are nine dedicated speakers inside the bar, including the center and side channels, and the up-firing height channels support Dolby Atmos or DTS:X. Unlike some Sony soundbars that rely on virtual surround sound rather than actual drivers angled at the ceiling, the dedicated drivers in the A65K should be more convincing when, say, a helicopter climbs above the tree line. In practice, the A65K is simply too small to make that surround effect truly convincing. Packing in so many speakers and so much power is a lovely idea. In Unbroken, the movie I use to test every surround sound product, the planes and gunfire didn't fill the room enough. I ran the AI Sonic room adaptation feature, but it didn't do much for the surround. One of my favorite sound design tests is the moment in Predator: Badlands when the main character extends both ends of a spear, the tip pointing skyward with a sudden clank. I loved how the Focal Mu-So Hekla made that clank feel like it was coming from the ceiling. Not so much with the A65K. Then again, at $499 I wasn't expecting sonic perfection. In the Netflix sci-fi series The Boroughs, a muscle car rumbles past and the sub makes it sound loud and powerful, even if this is nowhere near movie-theater-quality sound. In the sci-fi film Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, which follows a time traveler determined to save humanity, I noticed the music drowning out the voices around the 50-minute mark. Digging into a few more custom sound settings in the TCL Home app, I raised the center channel, dialed back the "front top" audio and the sub, and switched on a voice enhancement option. It's a hassle, and I wish the A65K adjusted itself automatically, but it worked. That's why my verdict on movie sound is "not bad" for the price and size of this soundbar. The running theme so far: you won't rival your local cineplex for home theater sound, but it passes. The small size won't fill the room, and the up-firing audio isn't especially convincing. Even so, there are plenty of high-end features at this price. Where it really shines: music I'm a die-hard music fan, so I put it through a battery of tests. I began with the new live album by Manchester Orchestra, Union Chapel, London, England. This stripped-back concert, built mostly around acoustic guitar, light piano, and vocals, was a perfect match for the A65K. Tracks like "The Deer" and "Capital Karma" carried real warmth and resonance. On that last song, the vocals hit a high pitch while the lower register of the guitar rumbles underneath. With the more minimal instrumentation, everything sounded distinct and had an organic feel. The overall power output is solid, too. On Maggie Rogers' "Want Want," I was impressed by the grungy, guttural sound the sub delivered. On "So Neurotic" by the band Ex-Vöid, I expected total mush as the guitars cross over each other, but it came through loud, jangly, and clear. "Spangled" by the band Fust pushed bone-crunching bass through the sub as well. Gaming and sports With video games, the lack of room-filling surround became even more obvious. Like movies and shows, Forza Horizon 6 is meant to bombard you with engine noise and exhaust, but it all felt too thin and not spacious enough. Granted, that game doesn't lean on Dolby Atmos much, but the overall oomph didn't win me over. That changed once I tried Halo: Infinite. Laser blasts, screeching aliens, and loud explosions at least seemed to arrive from a few different angles in the room. I still missed the cacophony of Atmos-powered audio you get from higher-end soundbars like the Sonos Arc. I switched to sports for a stretch, catching the NBA playoffs through the YouTube TV app. The broadcasters were easy to make out, but the crowd noise was more of a low murmur, almost like a noise generator. What you really want is to feel like you're at the game, hearing people scream and shout during the live broadcast. A news program on my local Fox station, on the other hand, sounded clear and distinct. That's no surprise, because the A65K certainly has enough power and clear drivers, even if its surround sound is only so-so. The bottom line In the end, the TCL A65K matched my expectations. It's small enough to sit on a kitchen counter or beside a smaller television. It costs far less than the high-end models that genuinely deliver room-filling home theater surround sound. Many of the tracks I played to test music sounded pleasing enough, even if not thunderous and room-filling. If your goal is to save space without paying an exorbitant sum, the TCL A65K is a compact, feature-rich choice. What this means for you Is it worth your money: • If you want to save space and get good music quality without spending a fortune, this $499 soundbar is a practical pick for a kitchen counter or a smaller TV. • If room-filling movie surround sound is your priority, the tiny cabinet may disappoint, and pricier models like the Sonos Arc would serve you better. Questions & Answers 1. How much does the TCL A65K soundbar cost? It is priced at $499 on Amazon, while its list price is $699. 2. What are the power and size specs? It is about 35 inches long and two inches high, packs 460 watts, and comes with a sub that measures roughly 14 x 14 inches. 3. Does it support Dolby Atmos? Yes, it has nine dedicated speakers plus up-firing height channels that support Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, with sound design done in partnership with Bang & Olufsen. 4. What is its biggest weakness? Its small size can't deliver convincing room-filling surround sound, and its USB port is the older USB-A type. https://trendkia.com/en/gear/tcl-a65k-saundabara-rivyu-chhota-kada-lekina-damadara-avaza-ka-bara-vada-1093 TrendKia — Har trend, sabse pehle.