Sound quality: In the Standard sound mode JBL's Bar 3.1 delivers sound quality that falls in the good range - it reproduces music and dialog reasonably well despite the obvious shortcomings in its sound. The bass has good impact and goes deep, but is somewhat prominent and a bit boomy. The midrange is a bit thin, grainy, hollow, constricted, and harsh. The treble is extended, but is somewhat prominent and sizzly. This model does a decent job of recovering room ambience (the sense of the acoustic space in which the music was recorded), but is slightly congested. Compared to the Standard sound mode the Music mode, sounds a bit thinner, and the Voice mode sounds thinner still and has subdued bass. The Movie mode has more prominent bass and in the Sports mode the bass is even more prominent. The Surround setting, which can be used in addition to the other sound mode settings, makes the sound louder, echoey and adds to the harshness. There was no significant difference between the HDMI, optical, BT, USB, and analog inputs. The system can provide satisfying volume in a medium sized room.
TV setup and ease of use: Good overall. Setup: Programming the soundbar to respond to a TV remote was quick, easy, and straight forward. The soundbar can be controlled by TV remotes from major brands without programming. It comes with HDMI digital audio/video and optical digital audio cables for those types of TV connections, a stereo analog audio cable must be purchased separately if it is needed to connect the TV. Ease of Use: This model has two options that allow it to work seamlessly with your TV - it can be programmed to respond to most TV remote control volume and mute commands, or can be set to respond to the volume and mute commands of many major TV brand remote controls without programming. Its own remote has controls that are well labeled but the layout is cluttered. The soundbar console lacks a mute control, but if muted from the remote pressing one of the console volume buttons unmutes it. The power, source, and volume controls are well marked and all controls are on the top of the console where they are easy to see and access. Although the console display is large and can be seen and understood from a typical listening position, it lacks a power indicator, and except for the volume mute indication all of the display information is momentary and generally can't be recalled without changing the settings.
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 soundbar remote's controls are well labeled but the layout is cluttered. The soundbar console lacks a mute control, but if muted from the remote pressing one of the console volume buttons unmutes it. The power, source, and volume controls are well marked and all controls are on the top of the console where they are easy to see and access. Although the console display is large and can be seen and understood from a typical listening position, it lacks a power indicator, and except for the volume mute indication all of the display information is momentary and generally can't be recalled without changing the settings.
