TCL Q6310 Soundbar Review: Solid Sound, Uninspiring Leave a comment

Swapping between the bar’s a number of inputs is barely extra intuitive, with a unique LED colour assigned to every enter: HDMI ARC glows magenta, optical is yellow, the analog enter is inexperienced, and the USB enter is cyan. This colour coding has change into extra widespread in A/V gear of late, normally seen in lively/powered bookshelf audio system just like the KEF LSX II the place area is at a premium. Within the Q6310’s case, the bar’s center-channel speaker seemingly takes up the actual property a conventional digital show may inhabit.

One other seemingly motive TCL punts on the visible show is that, as a Roku TV Ready soundbar, the Q6310 is designed to can help you management and regulate some settings instantly from a Roku-powered good TV. That performance stems from a protracted partnership between the 2 manufacturers, with Roku taking the reins because the good interface in lots of TCL TVs (although TCL now appears to favor Google TV for its extra premium fashions).

If you happen to don’t have a Roku-powered TV, TCL’s app makes controlling the bar’s sound modes, quantity, and different settings a lot simpler through an iPhone or Android machine. Different app settings embody a Night time mode to maintain the dynamics in verify when the household’s asleep, a Dialogue Improve characteristic, and digital encompass sound management.

There’s additionally a calibration characteristic, AI Sonic, which makes use of your telephone’s microphone to regulate the sound to your room, à la Sonos. That’s a powerful inclusion at this value, however the setup expertise is sort of loud, and I couldn’t hear a lot of a distinction as soon as it completed.

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My first thought once I began evaluating the Q6310 was that it doesn’t sound a lot better than numerous high-end TVs I’ve auditioned this yr. The sound is evident and ahead, particularly for dialog, however there’s a brittle, metallic high quality to the midrange and treble registers that may really feel as skinny because the soundbar appears to be like. To be honest, numerous pricier TVs nowadays are outfitted with a number of audio system like soundbars are, so evaluating the 2 isn’t as massive of a diss because it as soon as was.