Sound quality: Vizio's SB36512-F6 36" 5.1.2 Sound Bar System 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 boomy and somewhat prominent. Midrange is fairly even, but is slightly grainy and hazy. Treble is extended, but is a bit prominent and smeared. This model does a decent job of recovering the actual room ambience of recordings (the sense of the acoustic space in which the music was recorded), but sounds somewhat congested. When playing stereo program material the sound field extends somewhat above and slightly to the sides of the front speaker array, and lacks front to back depth. There is no sound from the rear channels regardless of whether the surround and/or height settings are set to on or off. When playing 5.1-channel program material with the surround and height settings turned on the quality of sound is the same as with stereo program material except there is sound from all speakers, the sound field has a good sense of height, and with the proper listener position and adjustment of center and rear speaker volume levels can provide a sound field that envelopes the listener to the sides and rear, but not from above. When playing Dolby Atmos material the width and height of the sound stage expands and depending on the program material can fill the entire room; audio imaging can extend overhead from the front to the rear of the room depending on the program material as well as to the sides and rear, but the imaging wasn't as precise as full 5.1.4 Atmos systems which have rear height speakers. In the Music EQ mode the bass becomes less prominent and a bit less boomy, and the overall sound gets a bit echoey. In the Movie EQ mode the sound field gets a bit wider and taller, the midrange becomes more harsh, the overall sound becomes more echoey and a bit more bassy. Sound can be heard from the rear channel speakers for stereo program material for both modes if the surround setting is set to on. With the height setting turned on the Virtual Height mode has no significant effect in the Direct EQ mode with stereo program material, but in the Music and Movies EQ modes makes the sound noticeably metallic, more echoey, and makes it extended higher above the soundbar. When used with 5.1 channel program material in the Direct EQ mode the upper midrange and treble sound a bit metallic; in the Music and Movie EQ modes the sound extends higher, but not above the listener. There was no significant difference in sound quality between the HDMI, optical, USB, analog, WiFi, and Bluetooth inputs. Dolby Atmos program material can only be played through the HDMI input.
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 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 app that can be used when watching TV was easy to use. The soundbar console's power, source, and volume controls are adequately identified and easy to access but are hard to see due to poor contrast. 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 position 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 requires an app download to an Apple or Android mobile device, and is straight forward. 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 with a LAN cable and there is no on-line user manual, and a LAN cable is not provided. Multi-channel setup is straight forward; although there is a test tone feature to show that all channels are connected, it can't be used for balancing channel levels. Pairing a Bluetooth device required a long push of a well marked button - easy and straight forward. Ease of Use: 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 sections of both app versions were easy to use and glitch-free. The streaming player sections of both apps were not difficult to use, but were occasionally sluggish and glitchy. 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 third-party app is needed. Multi-room distribution is also done with Chromecast apps and not the manufacturer's app. The Internet streaming function sometimes didn't work regardless of whether Vizio or Chromecast apps were used. The soundbar console's power, source, and volume controls are adequately identified and easy to access but are hard to see due to poor contrast. 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 position but generally require referencing the instructions to decode. There's an indicator for power status, a momentary pattern for the source that's selected, the DSP effect mode that has been chosen, and the stereo/surround sound setting, a momentary graphical volume display with very rough increments, and an indicator that shows when the soundbar has been muted.
