Review on 🎥 140W 2.1 Channel Soundbar with 6.5" Wired Subwoofer, BYL Soundbar Bluetooth 5.0 Speaker for TV & Home Theater System by Cathy Espinoza

Bought this for $32 off the regular price with a lightning deal + coupon. Ordered on Saturday and arrived Monday, even after a sudden 6 inch snowfall. (Hey Jeff Bezos, next time don't endanger your drivers. Tell me to wait a day and I'll understand.) I bought a Vizio 2.1 soundbar with subwoofer from Costco a few months ago for $120 (discounted ) Bought. starting at $150) and I like it. Out of curiosity, I checked again and now it's on sale for $100. If I had seen that before purchasing this BYL I would have received it instead. I actually ordered another Vizio on a whim (FOMO) and will consider keeping this one. I think if I had gotten this before the first Vizio and/or if they weren't that close in price I would probably rate this BYL higher. So it might not be a valid comparison. But this is an unjust world. I love that I can program my TV remote to control this soundbar very easily. (I bought a TaoTronics soundbar (no subwoofer) for my dad, but it can't be programmed to work with the TV remote.) The only problem is that you can't choose which functions to program and which not. You have to turn ALL on, mute, program volume up and down in that order, no skipping. Okay, except I don't really need the on/off function with the TV remote. Turning the TV on and off sometimes confuses the soundbar. But I can overlook that. But that doesn't mean you can throw away the included remote; You still need to switch modes and adjust sound settings. Bass is good, not great. I usually "test" this with space launch videos (Apollo, Space Shuttle, etc.). There's a slight hum, but less than the Vizio. I have to crank the bass all the way up to get this effect on BYL; On the Vizio, I raised the subwoofer a little more than halfway. BTW, like most other soundbars, you need to set your TV's digital audio output to PCM. Vizio has Dolby capability. For the dialogue it is mostly clear, sometimes not. Better than the TaoTronics where high frequencies seem to be clipped (and no adjustment). However, when streaming music via Bluetooth, the bass becomes obnoxious and muddy under full load. (I usually test this with The Beatles' Come Together.) It's hard to find a happy medium in music. Pairing was relatively easy. Incidentally, the level of the subwoofer and the so-called "bass" cannot be regulated separately in the panel itself. The Bass +/- buttons control both at the same time. I wouldn't know if Vizio didn't let it. Also, instead of individual LEDs or icons to indicate the mode selected (Bluetooth, Optical, AUX, etc.), there is a single color-coded LED that changes color for each mode selected. Mice, but blue (for Bluetooth, yes) is hard to see. No problem until you try to see it blink every time you press the remote. I don't see much of a difference between cinematic and dialogue modes, especially since I have the high frequencies set to the maximum. It's better than the TaoTronics panel I bought about a month ago which lacks clarity and sounds clipped. I used a microwave oven (in the next room) while listening to music on this unit, and the radio frequency interference from the wireless subwoofer signal was terrible. It breaks and gets out of step and sometimes disappears altogether. Vizio didn't have this problem. I'll move it down and see if I get the same phenomenon. I'll say I've noticed that the stereo separation is just as good as the Vizio despite being 8 inches shorter. I don't know if it's due to Bluetooth 4.2 or something else. I've also tried a few YouTube sound test videos (via my TV and Firestick) and they sound pretty good, at least to my ears. There's even a slight surround sound effect. Manual mode is decent; it's "Chinglish" of course, but clear enough. (Actually, it's in English ONLY; no French, Spanish, German, etc.) The charts are clear and correct. Is it good in itself? Yes that is enough. But not great and not much less than great. Even at discounted prices, the $100 Vizio is a lot better than the $76 BYL (and now it's $92 again).