JBL Bar 9.1 Soundbar Review

The JBL Bar 9.1 True Wireless Surround with Dolby Atmos is a high-end 5.1.4 soundbar from JBL's 2020 lineup. This soundbar has a unique set of truly wireless satellites that use 4-pin connectors to connect into the bar's sides to charge, which isn't really like any of the bars we've tested so far. It also offers an immersive experience as it supports Atmos content. Its main competitors are the Samsung HW-Q90R, the Vizio SB4514-F6, and the JBL Bar 5.1 Surround.

The JBL Bar 9.1 soundbar is a sleek black bar with detachable satellite speakers. It has a metal top and front while its speakers are protected by a fine metal grill. Without the satellites attached, you can see their 4-pin connectors.

The subwoofer of this soundbar is elevated by four plastic peg legs as its speaker is located underneath. Its black melamine body helps to keep it sleek and minimal-looking.

The JBL Bar 9.1 uses truly wireless satellite speakers that are made from hard plastic and metal. They can be attached to the bar or placed around the room. Their furthest edges are curved with a metal grill-like mesh to protect the speakers, which also helps to give it a sleek look.

The JBL Bar 9.1 can fit between the legs of a 55" TV, provided you don't have its two satellite speakers connected to it. It's not too tall, so it shouldn't block out the bottom of your TV screen unless it sits flush on the table.

While the footprint of the subwoofer is pretty average-sized and is about the same as a standard desktop PC, it's a bit taller than most other subwoofers as it has small legs.

The satellites are long instead of tall, but they still have a small footprint. They're also completely wireless, so they don't need to be wired to anything to work, as long as they have battery life left.

The back of the JBL Bar 9.1 has one opening for the power cable and inputs. There are also universal holes on its underside if you want to wall-mount it. Luckily, JBL includes wall-mounting supplies like brackets, screws, and a template in-the-box, which is nice.

The back of the subwoofer is very plain. It has a port at the top of its back and the power cable is found below it.

The back of the JBL Bar 9.1's satellites have a small groove so you can add an adapter for attaching a bracket for wall-mounting them. The bracket, screws, and wall-mounting template are all included in-the-box.

The JBL Bar 9.1 has a great build quality. Its top and front sides are made of metal, which helps to protect its speakers while giving it a sleek look. While the rear and bottom are made of plastic, it feels sturdy and durable. The subwoofer, in comparison, sits elevated on four plastic pegs, as the speaker is located on its underside. It's made from melamine, which feels durable. The satellites are made from the same material as the bar and have similar metal grill-type mesh on its top, front, and sides. Both satellites are truly wireless and you can easily charge them by connecting back to the sides of the bar, or by micro-USB. You can even use them while charging, which is a handy feature.

• Remote with 2x AAA batteries
• HDMI cable
• Power cable for subwoofer
• 2x L-shape wall-mount brackets (for the main bar)
• 2x U-shape wall-mount brackets (for the satellites)
• Mounting screws
• Mounting template
• Manuals

The JBL Bar 9.1's stereo frequency response is great. When set to 'Standard' mode and with room correction on, the bass is present and thumpy, which is well-suited for action movies or bass-heavy music. The rest of the response is very accurate and neutral. If you don't like the way it sounds, there's also a few EQ presets that you can use to find the best sound for your needs. There's also a room correction feature available, which can help improve audio reproduction to better fit your room.

The JBL Bar 9.1's stereo soundstage is very good. It seems to be about as wide as the bar, but the bar doesn't do much to make it sound any wider. That being said, the soundstage's focus is good, so you can easily pinpoint where sound is coming from.

Update 09/21/2020: We've discovered a value input bug that would cause the Dynamics box results to be slightly off. All soundbars reviewed since January 30th, 2020 have been updated.

The JBL Bar 9.1 has good stereo dynamics. It can get loud enough for a large room or a crowded environment like a house party. However, there's some thumping and compression artifacts present at max volume.

The JBL 9.1's THD performance is great. At a normal listening volume, there's a low amount of THD, resulting in clean and accurate sound. However, when pushed to max volume, there's a small jump in THD, particularly in the bass range. That being said, most people may not hear any harmonic distortion with real-life content.

The JBL Bar 9.1 is a 5.1.4 setup with an outstanding center channel performance. Thanks to its dedicated center speaker, dialogue and vocals in your favorite content sound clear and accurate. It gets pretty loud, which is nice as well.

The JBL Bar 9.1 True Wireless Surround with Dolby Atmos' surround performance is amazing. Thanks to its 5.1.4 setup, it has dedicated surround speakers that produce an accurate localization of objects in its soundstage.

The JBL Bar 9.1's Atmos performance is passable. It plays sound from the bar's top speakers as well as its satellite speakers, which helps to bounce sound off the ceiling and reflect it back to the listener to create a more immersive experience. However, it doesn't sound as real as discrete up-firing speakers like those in a dedicated home theatre setup.

The JBL Bar 9.1 has disappointing sound enhancement features. It has three EQ presets: 'Smart Mode' for rich sound effects, 'Standard', and 'Night Mode'. While it doesn't have a dialogue enhancement feature, the manufacturer recommends using the 'Standard' EQ to help reduce sound effects. There's also a room correction feature, which can further improve audio reproduction, but other than being able to tweak the bass as well as rear and height levels, that's about it for features.

The JBL Bar 9.1 has several physical inputs and you can even use it as a hub for multiple devices like a gaming system and your TV. However, while there's a USB port, USB playback is only available on the US version of this soundbar. All other regional versions can only use the USB for updating the soundbar's firmware.

Thanks to its HDMI ARC port, it can support all common formats. It also supports eARC, so it can play object-based surround signals and lossless formats.

Thanks to its Full HDMI In port, you can use the JBL Bar 9.1 as a hub between external devices like a Blu-ray disc player and your TV. It supports all common audio formats including Dolby Atmos and DTS content too, which is great for movie lovers.

The JBL Bar 9.1 soundbar supports Dolby Digital and DTS content via its optical port. This content is usually found on streaming content as well as Blu-ray discs.

The JBL Bar 9.1 has incredible wireless playback options. No matter how you like to wirelessly stream content, you can cast it to the soundbar without a problem.

The JBL Bar 9.1 can be used as a hub between your TV and another source like your PC to play 4k content at 60Hz. Text looks crisp and clear on a 4k TV.

The subwoofer connects wirelessly to the bar but it still needs to be connected to a power source.

The JBL Bar 9.1's satellites are completely wireless and don't require a power cable at all. They're advertised to last up to 10 hours before they need to be recharged, and they can be recharged by connecting them back to the bar or by micro-USB. They can also play audio while charging.

The JBL Bar 9.1's interface is located behind the metal mesh grill. It displays the volume level, as well as bass and rear levels. It can also tell you when pairing via Bluetooth, and it can alert you when the satellites are low on battery.

The bar has controls on its top side. From here, you can turn the bar on/off, adjust volume, and switch inputs.

The JBL Bar 9.1 has a simple remote. You can use it to control most of the soundbar's functions including volume and power. However, you can't switch EQ presets and you won't be able to track skip or play/pause your audio.

The JBL Bar 9.1 can be partially controlled via the Google Home app. You can control the volume level as well as cast audio files from your mobile device. Unfortunately, that's about it.

If the JBL Bar 9.1 is inactive for more than 10 minutes, the bar and subwoofer switch into standby mode. Ten minutes later, the detachable speakers also go into standby mode and its status indicator turns off as it's no longer connected to the bar wirelessly. Thanks to its HDMI CEC support, you can also control basic functions of the soundbar with your TV remote too, which is nice.