JBL Bar 5.1 Surround  Soundbar Review

It's a sleek soundbar with a matte black finish. Its front and sides are covered by a fine metal grille.

The subwoofer sits on four plastic pegs, and the speaker is located underneath. This subwoofer is made from black melamine, which makes it look sleek.

This soundbar is a bit wide, so it doesn't fit between the legs of most 55-inch TV stands. However, it's not very tall, so it won't block the bottom of your TV screen unless it sits flush to the table.

The subwoofer is a bit tall since it has small legs to elevate it from the ground. However, it's about as large as a standard desktop PC.

It has a great build quality. The body is made of sturdy plastic with a fine metal grille to protect its front and sides. In comparison, the subwoofer's body is made of melamine and has four legs to raise the sub since the speaker is located underneath it.

• Remote with 2x AAA batteries
• HDMI cable (3.9 ft / 1.2m)
• 2x Power cables (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Mounting brackets and screws
• Mounting template
• Manuals

This soundbar's stereo frequency response is very good. Its sound is fairly balanced, especially in the mids, where most voices and lead instruments are reproduced. There's a touch of extra punch in the bass range to bring action-packed scenes and bass-heavy music to life, though the treble can sound a bit dull. It's still suitable for most types of audio content, which is great.

The manufacturer recommends that you use the smart mode feature when you want to enjoy rich sound effects in your TV shows. However, for more vocal-centric programs like the news or weather forecasts, they suggest switching it off and returning to the standard mode. For our tests, we kept the smart mode off, which took away a touch of bass in the mix, resulting in a slightly mono sound. Turning it on emphasizes effects, though it can sound a bit overprocessed at times. Of course, your preferences can vary, so you can try both modes to see which makes the most sense for you.

The bar's bass feature allows you to adjust the subwoofer level based on your preferences. It's set to '3' as its default, and we recommend maintaining this setting if you prefer a more balanced sound with stereo content.

The JBL Bar 5.1's stereo soundstage is alright. It's a little bit wider than the bar but the bar doesn't do any tricks to make it sound any wider. The soundstage doesn't seem very focused either and objects seem to be coming from a general area rather than coming from precise pinpoint locations.

While this soundbar can get loud enough to fill a large or crowded room, if you push this bar to its max volume, there are pumping and compression artifacts, especially in the bass range. You aren't likely to notice any issues if you listen at an average volume level, though.

The JBL Bar 5.1 has a great THD performance, so audio reproduction is clean and pure whether you're listening at normal volumes or with the volume cranked up. The sound isn't distorted, which is great.

The bar's discrete center channel improves vocal reproduction. Its frequency response is especially balanced in the mids, where most voices are reproduced, making it easy to follow the action on screen.

This soundbar doesn't come with discrete surround speakers. Instead, it uses front-firing drivers built into the bar itself to simulate sound effects in the space around you. Unfortunately, this doesn't provide a very clear or real feel, and sound effects seem like they're focused in the space in front of your couch rather than stretching all around you.

You can check out the JBL Bar 500 if you want a similar bar with Atmos capabilities.

The bar doesn't offer a lot of customization tools for the price. You can adjust its subwoofer levels, but it has only two EQ presets: 'Smart Mode', which helps emphasize sound effects, and 'Standard', which turns smart mode off. The manufacturer recommends turning smart mode on with more action-packed content but keeping it off with dialogue-focused shows like the news and the weather report. However, you can't adjust its bass and treble, and you can't use a graphic EQ to switch up its sound, so you're pretty limited if you want to adjust its output.

That said, you may find that you don't need these additional features. The bar comes with a room correction tool, which uses a microphone built into the bar itself to analyze your room's unique acoustics and adjust its output accordingly. It's called Automatic Multibeam Calibration, and you can access it by pressing and holding the HDMI button on the remote. To access the night mode feature that balances the volume level across different programs and commercials, simply hold the MUTE button for two seconds, then press the volume down button.

This soundbar has a wide array of physical inputs. You can even use the bar as a hub for multiple devices like your TV and gaming console. USB playback is only available with the US version of this soundbar. Other regional variants can only use this USB port for updating the soundbar's firmware.

This soundbar has a unique virtual surround feature called Smart Mode that impacts its implementation of surround sound formats like Dolby Digital. With Smart Mode on, the side-firing surround drivers are enabled, but when you turn Smart Mode off, those side-firing drivers turn off, too. Since Smart Mode is a virtual surround feature, it doesn't playback 5.1 content as intended by the initial sound engineers—rather, it relies on psychoacoustics to simulate a more immersive sound. It's disappointing for those who want a true 5.1 experience, as the bar can't deliver that, even with Smart Mode on.

Again, because the bar relies on its Smart Mode virtual surround feature, it can't play 5.1 audio like Dolby Digital as intended. Turning on Smart Mode activates the side-firing drivers, but the reliance on psychoacoustic principles means that content isn't reproduced as intended by the original engineers.

The bar has the same performance with Dolby Digital over Optical. As Smart Mode is designed to enable the side-firing drivers, you'll need to turn it on to hear the right and left surrounds with this content. Still, it isn't able to reproduce true 5.1 surround.

Latency can vary depending on many factors, like the app or TV you use. With this soundbar, it's best to connect it over HDMI In to ensure that the audio you hear appears in sync with the video you see on your screen. ARC and Optical connections have a noticeable delay, which is unfortunate.

You can use the bar as a hub between different devices, like your TV and your PC, for video passthrough. The bar doesn't support HDMI 2.1, so you can't passthrough higher resolutions like 4k @ 120Hz. Plus, you can't benefit from any variable refresh rate technologies, which is disappointing if you want a tear-free gaming experience.

This bar has fantastic wireless playback options. This soundbar supports all common wireless playback options without a problem, meaning you can stream your favorite tracks or albums to the bar wirelessly.

The interface is located on the right side of the bar, behind the metal grille. It displays your volume level, inputs, and subwoofer level. It also lets you know when you're on standby mode.

This bar has controls on its top side. You can turn the bar on/off, adjust the volume, and switch inputs.

The JBL Bar 5.1 has a simple remote that controls all of the bar's functions. However, it doesn't have play/pause or track skipping.