JBL Bar 1000MK2  Soundbar Review

Like the previous generation (JBL Bar 1000), the JBL Bar 1000MK2 offers you the option of connecting the small drivers to the soundbar or using them as satellites, leaving the slim bar under your TV. The sleek, mostly plastic soundbar has rounded edges with fine metal grilles over all the drivers and two vented ports at the back. The top displays the brand logo in the center, which doubles as a status indicator. It uses touch controls, but the plastic is fairly prone to picking up fingerprints. Compared to the JBL Bar 1000, it comes in a darker shade of black, whereas the original looks closer to charcoal.

The wireless subwoofer is all black with rounded off corners. Its 10-inch driver faces downwards with a bass port located around the back. The design means you don't have to worry about grille cloths snagging on any pets or rowdy kids.

The two slim, detachable satellites are completely wireless and run on internal batteries when they're removed from the central bar. They can charge either via a USB-C connection or when they're connected to the bar. According to the manufacturer, the batteries last 10 hours and take four hours to fully recharge, but how long they last for you depends on variables like output levels. You can manually turn them off/on, too. Most conventional wireless satellites still need to be plugged into a power source, but then again, they don't need charging.

Their look totally matches the bar: black plastic with metal grilles covering the front-facing and upfiring drivers.

The bar is rather compact when the satellites are removed at 90 cm (35.4 inches) and can fit between the legs of some larger TVs. With the satellites docked to the bar, it's wider at 120 cm (47 inches). It's not very tall either, so it won't block the bottom of your TV screen.

The subwoofer is on the larger side, housing a 10-inch driver, though it's not as imposing as the dual 10-inch driver-equipped Nakamichi Shockwafe Wireless. It's a bit shorter than the JBL Bar 1000's sub, and a bit more squat.

The satellites are rather small and discreet. Their totally wireless design means you can pop them anywhere.

The soundbar includes all the necessary brackets, screws, washers, and wall anchors to mount the bar and the two satellites. Often, satellite mounting hardware is an extra cost, so it's nice to see it included.

The JBL Bar 1000MK2 is very well built. The hefty bar and satellites are made of the same plastic shell with metal grilles protecting drivers spread across the bar. The undersides of the satellites feature anti-slip rubber feet, preventing them from scratching surfaces. Each connection point feels solid.

The subwoofer is mostly plastic with smooth seams and feels pretty dense. It has anti-slip rubber feet to elevate the 10-inch down-facing driver off of even shag carpet

• Quick Start guide
• Safety Instruction and Warranty papers
• Remote with batteries (2x AAA)
• 2x power cables (1.5 m / 4.9 ft)
• HDMI cable (1.2 m / 3.9 ft )
• 2x L-shape wall-mount bracket (for the main bar)
• 2x U-shape wall-mount bracket (for the satellites)
• Template for mounting with screws, nails, anchors, and washers
• 2x side caps for the soundbar (when satellites are detached)
• 2x side caps for satellites (when detached from the soundbar)

The JBL Bar 1000MK2 has a very good stereo frequency response. We tested it in 'Smart Mode,' with 'Pure Voice' disabled, and Atmos/Surround set to the default 'Mid' setting. We also used the room correction tool.

It's capable of producing a deep low-end extension for a full bass without any chuffing, thanks to the dedicated subwoofer. It has a somewhat mid-forward and warm treble tuning. As a result, rumbly sub-bass elements, such as wobbly bass synths and hefty 808 kicks, are prominent in the mix, while the airiness and sparkle of cymbal hits sound relatively dulled. You can change the tuning within the companion app, too. With 'Smart Mode' off, the frequency response matches our target a little better, seemingly brightening up the treble a touch, but the soundbar defaults to it being on every time you power the bar on. Here's a comparison of sound modes: 'Smart Mode' on, off, and 'Pure Voice.'

Notably, regardless of the sound mode setting, the bar upmixes stereo content and sends the audio to the rear satellites and all other channels, which appears to be meant to create a more immersive listening experience. However, it may be annoying for some people who prefer to listen to stereo mixes as the creators originally intended without additional processing.

Compared to the last generation, JBL Bar 1000, the bass is more controlled, and the top-end is darker on the MK2 model. The upmixing effect seems less artificial on the MK2, as well.

Basic adjustments are pretty limited: you get a bass slider ('3' is default). However, more nuanced equalization can occur within the app's seven-band EQ, but this moves beyond the scope of a basic preliminary calibration. That said, if you adjust the 8kHz slider to '+4' in the app, it brightens the somewhat dull treble response and brings it a little closer to our target by reintroducing some sparkle.

The JBL Bar 1000MK2 has a good stereo soundstage performance. It's perceived as a few inches wider than the bar's ends. Tracking from side to side is good without obvious holes in the soundstage. However, content panned to the extreme left or right is allocated to the satellite speakers rather than coming from the bar. This seems intentional and is meant to make your audio feel more immersive, but depending on your preferences, it might be unwanted. If you turn off 'Smart Mode,' the soundbar sends more audio to the rear speakers.

The JBL Bar 1000 MK2 gets pretty loud and demonstrates impressive dynamics. If you push the bar to max volume, limiting occurs in the treble region. If you turn off 'Smart Mode,' there's slightly less dynamic range compression at maximum volume, but otherwise, the performance is comparable to the results with 'Smart Mode' on.

The JBL Bar 1000MK2's center channel has amazing performance. The soundbar uses a discrete center channel, which produces a rather even sound for solid dialogue clarity. Although it has some peaks and dips, in all, the sound is smooth with airiness in the high-treble region. With 'Smart Mode' turned off, the sound trends a bit less full in the low-end.

The 5.1 surround performance is very good. However, it's quite bass-heavy with 'Smart Mode' enabled, with a significant dip in the low-mids and a relatively harsh push in the high-mids and low-treble. Sounds like Godzilla's stomps arrive with a burst of boom and thump, while dialogue can still cut through the mix, it might sound a bit uneven with deeper speaking voices.

The surround performance is better with 'Smart Mode' off, and tends to sound fairly bright in comparison.

With 'Smart Mode' on, the JBL Bar 1000MK's Atmos and height drivers are fairly well-tuned, particularly for dialogue (including whispers), and tracking from side to side is good and easy to follow. Depending on the content, trebly sounds can sound convincing or suffer from too much compression, which takes away from the immersive element. Meanwhile, low, rumbling, and growling sound effects play with a good amount of body and boominess.

However, there's not much noticeable height effect, and the bar treats object placement somewhat oddly because the rear speakers don't output channels as loudly, which skews the sound field and impacts definition. We also noticed a slight delay in the audio coming from the wireless satellites. With 'Smart Mode' off, the delay is more prominent, with the upshot of a more even distribution of audio playing back from the satellites. This distracting audio delay isn't observable with the JBL Bar 1000, but the height effect sees a bit of improvement on the MK2.

The JBL Bar 1000MK2 includes a wide range of sound enhancement and customization features. There's a room correction tool, which requires a few steps, including removing the satellites; you can follow the steps using your remote or the app. You get two different types of night modes: one that mutes everything except the satellites. You can also press and hold the 'mute' button on the remote for five seconds, followed by the '-' volume button, to apply a more conventional dynamic range compression effect that levels out quiet and loud sounds. Besides that, you get scope for virtually every other metric: dialogue enhancement ('Pure Voice'), a seven-band EQ, and level adjustment for every channel.

By default, 'Smart Mode' is enabled whenever you power up the soundbar, and the bar won't recall your settings next time. If you prefer the standard surround mode, you'll need to turn it off manually each time. To disable 'Smart Mode,' press and hold the 'mute' button for five seconds, then press the '+' volume button; unfortunately, we found this method to be somewhat unreliable and doesn't consistently work. But when it works, you'll see the display on the bar indicating whether 'Smart Mode' is on or off.

You can even access 'Broadcast Mode' via the companion app and take the detachable satellite speakers with you outside of the room with the soundbar.

The JBL Bar 1000MK2 supplies plenty of ins and outs with a similar layout as the JBL Bar 1000, including a whopping three HDMI In ports. Although these aren't HDMI 2.1, they save you the hassle of plugging and unplugging different consoles, PCs, and media players from the bar. Additionally, eARC is available, as is an Optical port for connecting older devices.

The sole USB-A port can be used for listening to MP3 files, but this feature appears to be U.S.-exclusive, and in other regions, the port is for service-only. There's an Ethernet port for establishing a hardwired Internet connection, too.

This soundbar supports all of the common audio formats available, including Dolby Digital, Dolby Atmos, and DTS:X. One thing to keep in mind is that the soundbar treats Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus audio channels so that left- and right-panned content will play from not only the bar, but also the surrounds, at all times. This is intended behavior by the soundbar, which can make some content feel more immersive. However, if a sound is meant to move from a surround speaker to the bar's front-facing driver, such as a plane whizzing by, the soundbar's treatment reduces the impact of that effect, because instead of audio passing from the satellites to the front bar, the satellites always play a faint version of the sound.

The JBL Bar 1000MK2 lends support via its three full HDMI In ports to nearly all audio formats. The bar covers surround sound, 3D object-based audio, and PCM, you name it. While this may not be an issue for most people, the bar processes Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus formats by sending left and right audio channels to both the respective left and right channels on the bar, as well as to the rear satellites. As a result, anything panned to the left side (for example) also plays from the left satellite at the same time, which appears to be meant to make your experience more immersive. The trade-off is that if a sound is mixed to move from a satellite to the front-facing speaker (or vice versa), it won't replicate this effect.

The JBL Bar 1000MK2 supports the usual audio format suspects: Dolby Digital, DTS, and PCM. This covers most streaming services and Blu-rays. Since this bar processes Dolby Digital audio by sending L/R channels simultaneously to the rear satellites, as designed by the manufacturer, panning from a satellite to its matching L or R channel doesn't occur. Instead, audio will play from the satellite and the respective left or right front-facing driver.

The soundbar's eARC latency is good. Although some audio latency is present, most of the supported formats have tight enough timing that A/V sync should match up well. If not, you may choose to make adjustments to your TV's settings to compensate.

We also noticed that the Atmos audio coming from the satellites exhibits a longer delay when 'Smart Mode' is off, causing them to fall slightly out of sync with the rest of the audio, which is noticeable for some people. PCM and Atmos together have an 84 ms latency with the satellites, whereas Dolby Digital Plus with Atmos exhibits a 114 ms delay. Unfortunately, you can't compensate for latency just for the satellites.

The HDMI In audio latency is also good. Most of the supported formats have low latency figures, but that can depend on your specific media, app, and TV configuration.

We noticed there's additional latency between the bar and subwoofer compared to the wireless satellites with Dolby Atmos content, causing the satellites to have a greater delay than the rest of the kit. With Atmos and PCM content, the satellites have a 90 ms latency, and Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus content have a 114 ms latency. While you can adjust various settings to compensate for audio latency, there's no clear solution to fix the latency between parts within the soundbar kit.

The Optical's audio latency is fair. Optical tends to yield higher latency figures than eARC or HDMI In, so you may encounter some lip-sync mismatch, particularly with Dolby Digital content. However, you can use the app or your TV settings to offset the difference.

Although not the most comprehensive in terms of support and refresh rates, the three HDMI In ports on the JBL Bar 1000MK2 can deliver 4k video at 60Hz (8-bit, 4:4:4). 1080p content is supported with the quicker 120Hz refresh rate, which means you can watch sports or play fast-paced games, also in part thanks to the variable refresh rate and ALLM video passthrough options.

The JBL Bar 1000MK2 lends you fantastic wireless playback options. In addition to the expected connections, like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the bar is also Roon Ready. If you have an account with Roon, you can wirelessly connect your curated audio library.

The display is a dot-matrix screen positioned behind the front-facing metal grille. It indicates volume levels, input sources, and warns of low batteries on the detachable wireless satellites.

The JBL Bar 1000MK2 features touch-sensitive controls located in the center of the soundbar's top panel. They're pretty simple: volume -/+ and input source, with the status indicator integrated into the JBL logo.

The remote looks a bit different from the last generation's remote. It mostly uses symbols, and some functions are secondary, which requires some memorization. Otherwise, most of the functions, like EQ, are also accessible via the JBL ONE companion app, which you can see in action.

The soundbar doesn't offer built-in support for any voice assistants, but if you own a device with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple's Siri, then you can use it if you connect it to the bar.