TaoTronics, a Chinese electronics brand, might be working on a new soundbar and subwoofer combo that runs the Fire TV operating system, much like the already available Fire TV soundbars from TCL and Nebula. TaoTronics has had no prior association with a Fire TV product, that I’m aware of, yet a new entry has just been added to the Fire TV Source Code Notice page for an unreleased product labeled as “TaoTronics_SoundbarSubwoofer_FireTVEdition.”
TaoTronics seems to primarily make small home appliances and wireless headphones, among other things. The brand is owned by Sunvalley Group, which also owns electronic brands RAVPower, HooToo, and VAVA. TaoTronics released a well-reviewed budget 34-inch soundbar in 2015 which reatailed for around $69.99. More recently, TaoTronics released a 32-inch soundbar that has primarily sold for just $39.99.
The listing of a TaoTronics Fire TV soundbar on Amazon’s Fire TV source code page is most likely unintentional. Prior to the most recent page update, just the source code link for the Fire TV Stick 4K was listed under the Nebula Soundbar and TCL Soundbar headings on the page. This is because those two soundbars have Fire TV Stick 4K units embedded internally. With the most recent page update, “AnkerNebula_Soundbar_FireTVEdition” was added under the Nebula Soundbar section, but instead of adding an equivalent new TCL entry under the TCL Soundbar section, a TaoTronics entry was added.
My guess is that someone at Amazon confused the existing TCL soundbar with an upcoming soundbar by TaoTronics, possibly because both brands start with the same letter. It’s worth noting that the new TaoTronics entry includes “SoundbarSubwoofer” while the Nebula entry simply lists “Soundbar.” This could be an indication that the TaoTronics Fire TV soundbar, should one actually be in the works, might come with a separate subwoofer for a true 2.1 speaker system. The existing TCL and Nebula soundbars do not include a seperate subwoofer and, instead, have a subwoofer built-in.
TaoTronics would be particularly strange since I thought the entire brand was removed from Amazon over the summer (allegedly part of that same Aukey/RavPower review-abuse purge that also saw a bunch of brands permanently banned). As far as I know that situation hasn’t been resolved?
That’s a really good point. I forgot that they were included in that purge.