An imported 21 inch Sony KV-series Kirara Basso CRT on bedroom duties since 1993, was giving me eye sores. No, absolutely nothing wrong with the unit, works perfectly even today, brilliant picture and a wholesome clean sound. It will put to shame most HD flat-panels on the market today, anything fit for a 15’ by 13’ bedroom. About the sound quality, ask anyone who has owned a KB-KV and you will know what I am talking about.
Over a period of time, as DTH channels became converts from standard( 4: 3 ratio) to widescreen( 16: 9 ratio) formats, they practically reduced the picture size of my standard TV from 21 inch to 17 inches. I was struggling to read the small letters, like cricket scores, F1 standing, etc., at the bottom of the screen - I had to get out of bed. Exit the faithful Kirara Basso and enter a brand new 32" HD LED Bravia.
The good news, I can read the scores now, but my immediate thoughts were, how in God’s name do people listen to this tinny heartless sound! Frankly, one would be hard pressed to tell which was thinner, the LED panel or the sound it produced. So, the hunt for a ’soundbar’ was on. In the meantime, a NAD amp and a pair of Celestion 3 Mk2’s did stand-in audio duty for the Bravia.
My first choice for a soundbar was Sony’s SA-32SE1, which was inexpensive( retail around Rs.5, 000) and it seemed a perfect match in terms of color, finish and size for the 32" Bravia. However, I was unable to find one, at both on-line retailers and the local market. All sold-out, I was told. So, I had to go for the next item on my shortlist - a JBL Cinema SB100 soundbar. There was an element of risk in having purchased one on-line( MRP Rs. 9, 990/-, retail Rs.7, 500-odd) without having auditioned one first. But I am glad say that this’blind-date’ turned out to be just fine.
Some may not fall for the’retro’ looks of the JBL unit( wonder if the guy who put tails on the 50’s Cadillacs and wings on 60’s Chevy Impalas has been called out of retirement to work for Harman & Kardon.!). But as far as the sound goes, take my word, it is an absolute welcome relief from the native piccolo voice of the Bravia. No, it is certainly not going to move the furniture in the room or rattle windows, but the seamless balance between the highs and mid-bass is quite pleasing for long term listening. In other words, the sound is not harsh or hurting, not one bit.
The treble is pristine and open, the mids are clean and forward where vocals are sibilance-free and the bass feels nice and tight without any bloom( something that is normally associated with inexpensive home audio) . If I can say that, from right out of the box, then the sound is only going to get better after, say, 40 to 50 hours of’burn-in’. As for the bass performance, though the specs state a response of 80Hz to 18kHz at -6dB, I would roughly translate that to a bottom-end of 120-140Hz at 0dB in real life. Coming from someone who uses high-end valve amplification for music listening, the sounds from this plug-and-play JBL SB100 is certainly not audiophile grade, nevertheless, it is something that is quite easy to get used to and to live with.
Rated at 30 watts peak per channel( reckon, 16-18 watts RMS), with a pair of 3" mid-bass driver partnering a pair 1.5" high frequency transducers, reasonably high volume levels at attainable without any distortion. If the’final destination’ is an average to small size room in conjunction with a 32" to say, 46" flat-panel screen TV hooked up to a HD set-top-box, then the JBL SB100 is a perfect ear-candy to go with the idiot-box.
An EQ switch at the back of the unit can be set for’wall-mount’ and’table-top’ placement. With the’table-top’ setting the bass is slightly boosted. I found the’wall-mount’ position better suited for my TV viewing habits( via HD set-top-box) . There is also a "Bass Boost" button( only on the remote control) which I found upsets the otherwise natural sound balance. Some would like it. For those’slam-bang-die-hard’ movie fans, there is an RCA output available on the unit to hook-up an active sub-woofer. I think, with that configuration, most of us would be happy to watch Blu-Ray DVD movies. Forget the pains, strains and the gear involved in a full fledged 5.1 Dolby or DTS surround home theater system, I’ve been through that too and I am not willing to go back.
There is also a built-in propriety surround sound called Harman Display Surround( something akin to psycho-acoustic matrix systems like BBE or SRS) that can be activated via the supplied remote control or a button on the unit. It works, but it failed to impress me. With just one Toslink( EIAJ optical) and one 3.5mm mini-jack stereo inputs available in the back, it is somewhat limited in flexibility and thus a fit-and-forget proposition. Jitter related problems in audio transmission with cheaper fiber-optic cables are well known. That leaves us with just the 3.5mm mini-jack analogue input. HDMI or RCA inputs would have been welcomed by many. And, an additional 3.5mm TRS somewhere on the front would allow one to plug-in an iPod or an mp3 player for typical background music. But then, the cost would have also gone up.
What’s in the Box: the SB100 Soundbar, a( skimpy) remote control, a 3.5mm TRS jack to 2 RCA analogue interconnect cable, a Toslink optical interconnect cable, the AC mains cable, the user’s manual and a wall mount bracket( no screws supplied) .
Pros
Decent and balanced sound quality( with enough SPL for small to medium size rooms) .
Ease of set up( took me 15 minutes from the time it came out of the box) .
Build quality, finish and the heft.
Teaching TV remote( TV remote can learn to control volume and mute) .
Turns on/off with your TV.( goes into standby mode if no signal input is sensed for 2 or 3 minutes) .
Fairly unobtrusive size but has heft( H 108mm x W 810mm x D 92mm at 3.8 Kg) .
Simple DIY wall mount hardware.
Output for a powered( or active) sub-woofer( I am not using one) .
Auto-voltage between 110-240 AC mains operation.
Cons
Retro styling may not appeal to some( but, I don’t mind it) .
Though it says for 32" TV, it is marginally wider than a 32" Bravia.
Lack of RCA( L/R) or HDMI audio inputs( a 3.5mm mini-jack and a Toslink only) .
Lack of bass/treble controls( will not deter anyone, as the sound is well balanced) .
Toslink input and supplied cable( some users report failure) may be OK for US market.
Cheap looking remote control( mine didn’t work, dead CRC battery perhaps) .
The built-in Harman Display Surround system, somewhat synthetic and thinned out.
Instruction Manual could have been simpler, the part that explains learning remote.
Conclusion: Not having compared the SB100 with other brands is a minus factor here. For anyone seeking better quality sound from their existing flat-panel TV sets at the mentioned price level need to look no further, the JBL SB100 is the perfect answer. The "SB" does not imply Surround Bar but Sound Bar, and it does the job that will satisfy most. Folks looking to rattle windows or re-arrange furniture need to look elsewhere for more expensive options.
Update 27th Aug 2014:
After 9 months of everyday use, I can say that the JBL SB100 is indeed a fine sounding unit, and invisible one too. Perhaps the process of’burn-in’ over time has made the unit sound a bit more refined and better integrated. A few weeks back, a relative who came over to watch a cricket match with me, said, "I have the same Sony TV, how come yours sounds so good?" He did not notice the SB100.
I also went out and got a new battery for the SB100 remote, and now the remote works. The bass boost button does function - a small but noticeable boost to the lows. It is not boomy or resonant as I once thought when the unit was new. I now use the bass boost at times while watching HD movies on Tata-Sky.
One negative factor(I wouldn’t call it negative, more a safety factor) is that whenever the mains power goes off, the unit switches to standby mode and does not get revived by the signal sensing circuitry, as it does during normal operation. One has to go to the unit and switch it on manually. It is not a big thing, and I think it is designed that way on purpose, to avoid any surges and brown-outs when the mains power comes back.
The "relative" went and bought a Yamaha system(I don’t know the model) that cost him three times that of the JBL SB100 and I got to audition that recently in a room slightly larger than mine. Yes, the Yamaha sounds much larger and deeper in scale. Perhaps the active sub-woofer or the DSP cirtcuitry had something to do with it. Though the Yamaha experience was not an extended one, I find that the JBL sound is much easier to live with when it comes to long term. In real life, if have to do this all over again, I would take home the JBL SB100.