Hisense HS3100AU 3.1 2024 soundbar – fix poor TV sound for not much cash (AV review)

06/09/2024
By Ray Shaw
In Reviews

The Hisense HS3100AU 3.1 soundbar is a no-frills 3.1 soundbar that fixes poor TV sound while adding a dedicated centre speaker for clear voice and a separate subwoofer.

Its RRP is $399, but astute shoppers may find it as low as $295 plus freight. At that price, there are alternatives from TCL, JBL, and LG.

Let’s explain precisely what the Hisense HS3100AU 3.1 does and who the best user is.

There is none of this faux psychoacoustic Dolby Atmos stuff—just a soundbar with forward-firing left, right, and centre speakers, left and right crossover tweeters, and a 6.5” subwoofer. It has a remote control, but most TV remotes will control it.

You can place it under the TV or wall mount it. It attaches via HDMI, Optical-in, or Aux-in and processes the sound stream to allocate it to its speakers.

It decodes Dolby Digital (not Atmos, which it converts to DD), DTS (not X or HD, which it converts to DTS), and PCM up to 5.1. The soundbar can also play MP3, WAV, and WMA music via USB or streamed over Bluetooth 5.3 from any smartphone.

The best user is anyone with an older TV with HDMI, Optical or AUX-out that wants clearer sound and is on a tight budget. It can also assist the hearing impaired with the dedicated centre speaker for a clear voice. Hisense is a safer buy than those cheap generic soundbars.

If you are keen to know more, we have additional reading

Australian Review: Hisense HS3100AU 3.1 soundbar

Website	2024 soundbar range Hisense HS3100AU Product page There is no Australian download manual. Manual here.
Price RRP	65/75/85” $2699/3699/4999
From	Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Good Guys, Bing Lee, Appliance Central, Retravision, Videopro
Warranty	1-year ACL
Made in	China
Company	Hisense (founded in 1969) is a Chinese-owned, multi-national white goods and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. It owns appliance brands, including Gorenje, Hitachi, Sharp, Toshiba, and some local China-only brands.
More	CyberShack Hisense news and reviews

New ratings in 2024

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.

We are also tightening up on grading. From now on, Pass, for example, means meeting expectations for the price bracket. We consider a Pass mark to be 70+/100 with extra points added for class-leading and excellence.

First impression – Pass

The Hisense HS3100AU has the usual black plastic chassis and acoustic grill. It is 902 x 62.3 x 91 mm x 2.6kg – very light.

The wireless subwoofer is typical black customwood with a side-firing acoustic fabric and rear bass port. It is 161 x 303 x 304.5 mm x 3.64kg – also relatively light.

It comes with a reasonably intuitive IR remote controller.

480W – sorry, it is closer to 150W RMS

Hisense uses the peak music power output (PMPO) measurement, which is great for bragging rights, but it is actually about 140W RMS—an accurate measurement.

That also relates to the speaker sizes. They are not much bigger than 5-10W TV speakers, usually 5-10W RMS.

Speakers include (PMPO rating – divide by approx. 3 to get RMS)

Left, centre and right front-firing (3 x 60W) 120Hz-20kHz
Left and right front-firing tweeters (2 x 60W) These reinforce the mid and upper treble.
Subwoofer 180W 40-150Hz

Native sound signature – Pass+

Bass starts at around 40-50Hz (the beginning of mid-bass), so don’t expect room-shaking low bass <50Hz. In any case, there is subwoofer cabinet vibration from 50-80Hz.

It flattens from 80Hz to 6kHz when it dips to avoid harshness and then is relatively flat to 14kHz when it drops off the cliff to 20kHz.

Maximum volume is 85dB.

However, that technical description does not really describe the sound quality because there is quite a lot of compression and clipping from around 500Hz to 5kHz (clear voice territory 1-4kHz), which makes this segment a little dull. The mid-treble is harsh, and the high treble does not add the expected vibrancy.

But wind the volume back to 60-70dB, and you lose that harshness and vibration, making it a pleasant TV/Movie listening experience. It also allows the dedicated centre channel to reproduce voice with good clarity.

The sound stage is as wide as the TV, and sound appears to come from the screen.

Presets – Basic – Pass

Frankly, these presets don’t make much difference to TV listening. They can recess bass, mid, or treble but cannot increase these past the native sound signature.

Movie: does its best to add surround sound depth.
Music: I suspect this is simply 2.0 (with surround off)
Night: Cuts bass and treble, leaving clear voice
News: Clear voice focus by cutting bass.
Sports: Cuts crowd noise
Game: Focuses on games

There are no AI settings or room calibration – what you hear is what you get.

EzPlay with Hisense TV

Compatible Hisense TVs have an onscreen menu where you can change mode, add faux surround, change bass/treble, and set LED light brightness.

SDR and HDR sound – Pass+

It materially enhances the TV sound experience by adding front-centric 2D sound. You can add faux surround sound, which phases sound between the front left and right speaker to widen the sound stage a little.

Ports – Pass

HDMI ARC (not eARC) 2.0b 18Gbps. No pass-through.
USB A 5V/.5A/2.5W (32GB exFAT) for audio mp3 etc.
Optical in
AUX in 3.5mm
Bluetooth 5.3 SBC (no Chromecast or NFC fast connect)
It does not have Wi-Fi as it is not a multiroom, Google/Alexa/etc speaker.

Latency – Pass

There was no lip-sync latency and no on-device adjustment.

Power – Pass

Soundbar averages about 50W
Subwoofer averages about 35W
At full volume, it was around 80W

CyberShack’s view: The Hisense HS3100AU 3.1 is a decent soundbar for the price. It will enhance TV sound significantly.

Apart from quoting PMPO Wattage, this is a no-nonsense plug-and-play soundbar that will work on any TV, including old ones.

It does not deliver room-shaking bass, and the treble is a bit thin, but you should be OK with that. Interestingly, it has two tweeters that Hisense could probably boost with new firmware.

It is the right soundbar for those needing hearing reinforcement or want better sound.

Hisense HS3100AU competitors

The only decent competitors are the LG S60T 3.1 340W RMS (RRP $499, but it can be found for $399) and the JBL SB550 3.1 250W RMS (RRP $299, but it can be found for $249).

Or step up with Hisense AX5120G 5.1.2 soundbar – the beginnings of Dolby Atmos.

Hisense HS3100AU Ratings

It is a good, honest soundbar (apart from PMPO figures). Any rating above 70 means it is better than the pass mark.

Features: 75—It has every feature you need for free-to-air SDR.
Value: 75 – It has some competitors in its class
Performance: 75 – Decent native neutral sound signature, but don’t push the volume.
Ease of Use: 75—Its remote makes it easy to use
Design: 70 – another black soundbar.