Sound quality: Vizio's SB36312-G6 delivers sound quality that falls in the Good range - it reproduces music and dialog reasonably well despite the obvious shortcomings in its sound. In the Direct EQ mode the bass has good impact and goes deep, but is tubby and somewhat prominent. The midrange is fairly even but somewhat hazy and grainy, and can be somewhat overwhelmed by the bass. The treble is fairly extended, the lower treble is slightly subdued while the upper treble is even but a bit smeared. While this model does a decent job of recovering room ambience (the sense of the acoustic space in which the music was recorded), that ambience can be somewhat obscured by the tubby quality of the bass, the overall sound is somewhat congested. When reproducing stereo program material the sound field extends somewhat above and a bit beyond the ends of the front speaker array, and lacks front to back depth. The Movie and Music EQ modes sound similar - the sound field gets somewhat wider and taller, the bass becomes more prominent and boomy, and the overall sound gets diffuse and somewhat echoey. The Virtual Height mode has no significant effect in the Direct and Music EQ modes, but in the Movie EQ mode it makes the sound a touch more echoey but doesn't effect the height of the sound field much. When reproducing Dolby Digital and DTS multi-channel program material in the Direct EQ mode the sound image extends higher, and depending on the program material, may extend well past the sides of the soundbar, but still lacks depth. The Music EQ mode is even wider and taller, and more bassy; the Movie EQ modes has an even wider and taller sound field and is more bassy still. The Virtual Height mode has no effect in the Direct EQ modes; in the Movie and Music EQ modes it may make the sound a bit more echoey and/or extend the sound field up to the ceiling above the soundbar but not above the listener. When playing Dolby Atmos material in the Direct EQ mode the width and height of the sound stage expands and depending on the program material can fill most of the width of the front of the room; audio imaging can extend above from the front to not quite over the listener's head; since this Dolby Atmos system lacks rear surround and height speakers, sounds that should be coming from the sides and rear come from in front of the listener with sounds occasionally heard from the sides. The Music and Movie EQ modes effect the sound in a similar way as with stereo and multi-channel program material. There was no significant difference between HDMI, optical, analog, USB, WiFi, and Bluetooth inputs. Dolby Atmos program material can only be played through the HDMI input. The system can provide satisfying volume in a medium sized room.
TV setup and ease of use: Very Good overall. Setup: HDMI CEC activation and deactivation is done on the connected TV and not on this unit, and the instructions come with this soundbar refer the user to the TV instructions. Programming the soundbar to respond to the remotes of most TV's, and activating or deactivating the soundbar's feature that lets it respond specifically to a Vizio TV remote was quick, easy, and straight forward - instructions included with unit indicate there are clearly marked settings in the menu built into the remote so there is no need to refer back to instructions after the initial use. All appropriate cables for TV connection are included. Ease of Use: This model has several 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, it can be set to respond to the volume and mute commands of HDMI CEC compatible TVs without programming when connected via the HDMI ARC ports with and HDMI cable, and can be set to respond to the volume and mute commands of many Vizio TV remote controls. That's a good thing because the soundbar's own remote has a volume control that is a bit hard to spot, no clearly defined control groupings, and the soundbar's response to its own remote's volume and input selection commands is sluggish and erratic. App remotes that operate via WiFi can also be downloaded onto Apple and Android mobile devices. The section of the Apple mobile device app that can be used when watching TV was easy to use. While the same section for the Android mobile device app had a similar design, it's performance was often glittchy and/or sluggish. The soundbar console's power, source, and volume controls are adequately identified and easy to access but hard to see due to poor contrast and are susceptible to peeling off. Although the console lacks a mute button it can be unmuted by pressing one of the volume controls. The display consists of unlabeled patterns of indicator lights that can be seen from a typical listening positions but generally require referencing the instructions to decode. There's an indicator for power status, a momentary pattern for the source that's selected and the DSP effect mode that has been chosen, a momentary graphical volume display with very rough increments, and an indicator that shows when the soundbar has been muted.
Features setup and ease of use: Fair overall. Setup: Network streaming setup is straight forward for joining a home network and for streaming when using an Apple mobile device. The setup would also have been straight forward when using an Android mobile device except the instructions incorrectly state that the user should hear a tone rather than the "searching" announcement that actually occurs to indicate that the user should go on to the next step, and gives the user the means to skip this step which leads to an incorrect setup. If the user doesn't figure out that the "tone" asked for actually means the "searching" announcement and skips the step, the soundbar sets up but continually announces "searching" whenever it is turned on, so is for all practical purposes unusable. The user is asked to set up an account that request first and last name, email address, and a password, but opening the account not required for full functionality. The soundbar has a LAN port, but the instructions that come with unit don't indicate how to connect it with a LAN cable, there is no on-line user manual, and a LAN cable is not provided. Bluetooth pairing requires a long press of a well marked button on the console or remote that can also be used for Bluetooth source selection. Ease of Use: The remote has a volume control that is a bit hard to spot, no clearly defined control groupings, and the soundbar's response to its own remote's commands is sluggish and erratic. Apple and Android versions of app remotes that operate via WiFi can be downloaded on to mobile devices. These apps have general sections that are used to control the soundbar like a typical physical remote, and streaming player sections that are used to play audio streamed from the Internet through the soundbar. The general section of the Apple app version was easy to use and glitch-free. The general section of the Android version and the streaming player sections of both app versions were not difficult to use, but were sluggish and glittchy to varying degrees. The Vizio apps can only stream audio content from iHeart radio; the soundbar relies on Chromecast apps for audio content streaming from other Internet service providers. The Vizio apps can't stream audio content stored on the host mobile device over WiFi, a Chromecast compatible app is needed. The Internet streaming function sometimes didn't work with Apple mobile devices regardless of whether Vizio or Chromecast apps were used. While streaming services seem to consistently work with Android mobile devices, the services were often slow to load, and the app's volume, mute, and player control response was often slow. The console's power, source, and volume controls are adequately identified and easy to access but hard to see due to poor contrast and are susceptible to peeling off. Although the console lacks a mute button it can be unmuted by pressing one of the volume controls. The display consists of unlabeled patterns of indicator lights that can be seen from a typical listening positions but generally require referencing the instructions to decode. There's an indicator for power status, a momentary pattern for the source that's selected and the DSP effect mode that has been chosen, a momentary graphical volume display with very rough increments, and an indicator that shows when the soundbar has been muted.
