Hisense AX5125H review: Highly immersive Dolby Atmos at a very affordable price | Expert Reviews

Hisense AX5125H review: What do we like about it?

The Hisense AX5125H has much to recommend it, not least of which is its price. This would be an affordable option even if it was a basic all-in-one soundbar, but the fact you get a full 5.1.2-channel system right out of the box is amazing value for money.

More importantly, this is a great-sounding system that delivers a genuinely immersive Dolby Atmos and DTS:X experience – with the latter being something of a rarity at this end of the market. The front soundstage has width and height, while the rears helped envelop me in the action. 

The system boasts a total of nine speakers, and I found them to be tonally balanced and generally well-integrated. The use of similar drivers throughout ensures that sounds pan smoothly around the room, and the rears manage to hold their own without getting lost in the mix. If you feel you need a bit more oomph at the back, you can adjust the surround volume, though I never felt the need.

The inclusion of a dedicated centre speaker ensures dialogue remains clear and focused on the screen, never getting swamped by all the other channels. The overall delivery is generally very good, with plenty of amplification grunt, an uncongested midrange and clear treble reproduction. As a result, higher frequency effects are rendered with pleasing clarity, and I never felt they sounded strained.

The subwoofer plays its part by taking over the heavy lifting at lower frequencies, and in general, it provides a solid foundation that gives drums or explosions added depth. However, as I’ll explain in the next section, this is the one area where the AX5125H’s affordability is most apparent.

The AX5125H not only decodes all the Dolby and DTS sound formats, it also offers several sound modes, including Movie, Music, Game, News, Sport, Night, and AI. In the absence of any other EQ controls, these modes are your best option for fine-tuning performance, and all are fairly self-explanatory.

I tended to use the Movie and Music modes the most, with the former beefing up 5.1-channel mixes and the latter delivering two-channel without any manipulation. Hisense includes its own Pure Surround processing, but I typically left this off and used the Dolby and DTS upscaling instead.

The film Midway is a favourite of mine, with a staggeringly immersive Dolby Atmos mix, and the AX5125H handled this object-based barnstormer admirably. Planes flew around the room, flak peppered the air with percussive thumps and bullets strafed from front to back. It was a commendable performance from what is essentially a budget soundbar system.

The overall clarity of the speakers makes the AX5125H surprisingly good with music, and listening to Suede’s Still Life in two-channel revealed plenty of width and epic sweep to the overall delivery, from Brett Anderson’s plaintive vocals to the soaring orchestral accompaniment. If you dabble in the recent trend for Atmos remixes you’ll also be pleased, and I must say Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon sounded great, with plenty of added dimension and some well-placed sound effects.

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