Sound quality: AmazonBasics's 2.1 Channel Sound Bar delivers sound quality that falls in the Fair range, meaning that it has sonic shortcomings that leave a lot to be desired when listening to music but don't rule it out for dialog. The bass has decent impact, but is somewhat boomy and deep bass is lacking. The midrange is somewhat muffled and grainy, and a bit constricted. The treble is somewhat subdued and smeared and the upper treble is muted. This model doesn't do a good job of recovering the actual room ambience of recordings (the sense of the acoustic space in which the music was recorded), and sounds congested. In the Movie DSP mode the bass has good impact but becomes prominent and tubby and can overwhelm the midrange, the midrange becomes more even but the grain becomes more apparent, the sound takes on an almost echoey quality; while the treble is unchanged it sounds more balanced with the midrange, their is even less ambience recovery, and the sound stage increases a bit in height, but not in width. In the News DSP mode the bass is subdued and the midrange becomes more nasal. There was no significant difference in sound quality between the optical, analog, and Bluetooth inputs. The system can provide satisfying volume in a medium sized room.
TV setup and ease of use: Fair overall. Setup: All appropriate cables for TV connection included. Ease of Use: The remote's controls are well labeled, but the volume controls might be a bit hard to spot due to a cluttered arrangement with the Bluetooth transport controls. The console's response to the remote's mute and DSP buttons was erratic - it sometimes took multiple presses to get the soundbar to respond. The soundbar console has power, source, and volume controls; it lacks a mute control but if muted with the remote it can be unmuted using the volume buttons. All controls are on the top right and are easy to access, but they are very hard to see from arms length due to poor contrast unless light angle is just right. The soundbar console displays power status and has input and virtual surround mode DSP status indicators that are persistent and visible from arms length. It has a persistent indicator for volume muting, and a momentary indicator that the volume level has been changed; both are visible from across the room, but the volume indication doesn't show the level.
Features setup and ease of use: Fair overall. Setup: Bluetooth pairing is very easy - if no Bluetooth device has previously been paired, or the paired device does not have Bluetooth activated, the unit is automatically in pairing mode once it has been switched to the Bluetooth input. Ease of Use: The remote's controls are well labeled, but the volume controls might be a bit hard to spot due to a cluttered arrangement with the Bluetooth transport controls. The console's response to the remote's mute and DSP buttons was erratic - it sometimes took multiple presses to get the soundbar to respond. The soundbar console has power, source, and volume controls; it lacks a mute control but if muted with the remote it can be unmuted using the volume buttons. All controls are on the top right and are easy to access, but they are very hard to see from arms length due to poor contrast unless light angle is just right. The soundbar console displays power status and has input and virtual surround mode DSP status indicators that are persistent and visible from arms length. It has a persistent indicator for volume muting, and a momentary indicator that the volume level has been changed; both are visible from across the room, but the volume indication doesn't show the level.
