Vizio 36-Inch 2.1 Sound Bar SB362An-F6 Review

Don't let its appearance fool you: Vizio's 36-inch 2.1 soundbar has not one, but two built-in subwoofers (hence the name).

For $139.99 (and regularly available for less), however, it's hard to imagine true sub-bass coming out of the 2.1's frame.

The good news is that the soundbar gets surprisingly loud and delivers solid bass depth.

Does it sound like there's a massive subwoofer in there? Not really.

But for the price, there's a lot of power and the EQ is adjustable, which is another solid feature.

The lack of HDMI connectivity is a head-scratcher, but beyond that, the SB362An-F6 is a solid bargain soundbar if you're looking for powerful audio and deep bass on a budget.

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Design

Measuring 2.1 by 36.0 by 5.3 inches (HWD) and weighing 5.6 pounds, the Vizio 2.1 can be laid down flat or upright, delivering sound upward or projecting it forward.

It can also be wall mounted, and two brackets and a mounting guide are included.

The grille itself features a rather unluxurious cloth covering with a somewhat interesting trapezoid-like contour, and either end is ported to release air moved by the drivers for more efficient performance.

There are buttons on the right end of the bar for Power, Input, Bluetooth, and Volume Up/Down.

Beneath the grille, there are two drivers and dual 4-inch subwoofers delivering the audio, supported by passive radiators.

There's also an LED indicator that tells you what volume level you're at, as well as bass and EQ levels.

The back panel houses connections for the included Optical cable, the included 3.5mm aux cable, and a USB cable.

The 3.5mm aux input also works with an included RCA-to-3.5mm cable.

It doesn't take long to figure out what's missing: there are no HDMI ports.

The included remote control runs on two AAA batteries (included).

It has controls for Power, Input, Pairing (connecting to your Bluetooth devices is simple and quick), TVol (which equalizes the volume levels), Mute, VRT:X (a virtual surround mode that is supposed to also include vertical sound placement), Bass, Treble, and EQ.

The EQ modes here are Music and Movie—switch back and forth between the two, and then adjust the bass and the treble in each mode to your liking.

In the center of the remote, there's a standard array of Playback, Tracking, and Volume controls.

From a functional standpoint, Vizio does a lot to make this soundbar easy to use and help you forget about the lack of HDMI.

We've tested more expensive models with less user-friendly remotes, annoying LED indicators, and less adjustable EQ scenarios.

Performance

In Movie mode with flat bass and treble settings, we checked out Chapter 13 of the Pacific Rim Blu-ray.

The soundbar already packs plenty of rumble with bass set to flat—adding more in certainly increases the rumble factor, but we recommend also including treble boosting so the bass doesn't overwhelm the mix.

VRT:X, as an effect, might add a little more excitement for some, but I wasn't exactly glancing at the ceiling or behind me to see if there were hidden speakers.

Leaving it off is probably your best bet—the audio is still plenty engaging, especially with a little boosted low-end.

On Chapters 2 and 3 of the Casino Royale Blu-ray, gunshots and explosions are less intense than on Pacific Rim, but the speaker still delivers them with solid depth.

In movie mode, with bass and treble at about 75 percent, things sound crisp, full, and dynamic.

Again, you can get far more rumble from systems with true subwoofers, but for this price, the power and bass are quite impressive.

For music, on tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the speaker finally runs into trouble.

At top volumes, in Music mode and the bass boosted to about 75 percent, the lows are immediately reduced to a vibrating mush that sounds terrible.

You need to lower the volume significantly to get to a clean sound.

Disappointingly, even lowering the bass levels to flat doesn't solve the issue—if the master volume is high, tracks like this will vibrate and distort.

Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less challenging bass levels, sounds far better.

The bass can be boosted here somewhat, as can the treble, to add a bit more punch and presence from the drivers—it rounds out the bass depth and there's no distortion to speak of.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop gets plenty of high-mid presence and the higher frequencies really come forward with some treble boosting, which is not necessarily a great thing—the vinyl crackle takes a huge leap forward when it's really supposed to be more of a background element.

But modest boosting or none at all serves this track just fine—the drivers deliver the sub-bass synth hits with solid depth and no distortion.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, can range from sounding flat and accurate to widely boosted.

We enjoyed some slight bass boosting here, but again, subtle boosting is the best way to get the most out of the soundbar.

Conclusions

For the price, there's really nothing to get too worked up about here, except for the distortion that may occur at top volumes on some music tracks with seriously powerful sub-bass.

Otherwise, the Vizio 36-Inch 2.1 is a bargain and packs some serious power that is balanced by the user-adjustable EQ.

It's easy to use, and were it not for the lack of an HDMI input, it would be the obvious choice for our top budget pick.

But the distortion, as rare as it may be, makes it slightly less alluring.

For this price, however, there are few soundbar masterpieces.

We're fans of the Polk Audio Signa S1, but nearly everything else will cost you more, like the JBL Bar 2.1, the Sonos Beam, and LG SJ7.

For $140, there's plenty to like here, especially if you don't need HDMI ports.