VSSL SX SOUNDBAR

The VSSL SX Soundbar comes from a Canadian company that builds multi-room audio for custom installation rather than for retail shelves. Its equipment is normally specified by an installer and hidden in a rack.

The SX range brings that approach to visible products, and the soundbar is designed to work as part of a whole-house VSSL system rather than as an isolated purchase.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 device rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It appears in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can put it in a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

Television sound does not go through Apple Home at all. That arrives over HDMI ARC or optical from the television, and the soundbar’s own remote and app control the modes and the volume.

Before you buy

VSSL sells through dealers and installers, so pricing and support work differently from a retail brand, and part of what you buy is the configuration.

The argument for it is consistency: if the rest of the house runs on VSSL amplifiers and the same app, adding a matching soundbar keeps one system rather than two.

If this is the only VSSL product you will own, a retail soundbar will be easier to buy, return and support.

Specifications