Sound quality: Insignia's Powered (Pair) (NS-HBTSS116) had Good overall sound quality. Bass has good impact, but is slightly prominent and boomy, and the deepest bass is lacking. Lower midrange is a touch muffled, while the upper midrange is a touch bright, and the midrange is somewhat grainy and congested overall and a touch boxy. Treble is extended, but lower treble is slightly subdued while the upper is slightly prominent, smeared, sizzly, and bright. Does a decent job of recovering room ambience but is somewhat congested. This model comes as a stereo pair, and its sound stage width and focus depends on how well it is placed. Provides a decent volume level in a medium sized room, but can sound strained at higher volumes. No significant difference between Bluetooth, RCA, and Aux sound quality.
Ease of use: We found the Insignia Powered (Pair) (NS-HBTSS116) ease of use to be Very Good overall. Wired Setup: The speaker wires provided are ready, are of predefined length, tinned and split for terminal connections (no tools required). Instructions are provided which explain to make sure to match polarity between speaker connections. Bluetooth Setup: Unit is always in pairing mode when Bluetooth source is selected and not already paired, shows a pairing mode indicator. Indicates when pairing mode has occurred and never times out. The unit is also NFC capable. The volume control is a labeled multifunction infinite-turn knob (Volume/Standby/Input selector) which has a visual indicator light when max and min volume is reached. Volume control is not prominent due to position on side of speaker. The source selector control is a high contrast labeled multi-function push button-knob. The control is located on the side of unit. Source selection uses color coded lights with different blinking patterns to indicate the source selected. May need to refer to instructions to decode.
