JBL Bar 5.1 Surround Sound Bar - in-home entertainment system, with streaming capabilities and subwoofer, in black

After reading lots of reviews on different soundbars and subs , I chose the JBL 5.1 with 10" sub. Great choice, easy to set up . Lovely deep bass from the sub , you do get echo if you have the tv volume on at the same time but easily sorted , just turn the tv volume down to zero. 👍. Iv not used it for gaming yet . But music films and TV are spot on . Happy with the build and quality I'd certainly recommend for the price .

For the record, I have extensive experience in music production listening to very high-end reference monitors and headphones. When buying the system I was ready to be disappointed and to send it back if I was not entirely happy. Fortunately this product has been exactly what I wanted.I use the system in my living room for music and films. For music it has far exceeded my expectations. It sounds incredibly full with plenty of detail and instrument separation, doing better than Bose or Sonos for the money.For use in film it has been extremely exciting, being plenty loud enough with immense rumbling bass, very clear voices and enough treble without sounding too harsh.Highly recommend.

I have been using daily the JBL 5.1 soundbar with my LG nanocell for about 3 weeks, it sounds great its very easy to sync with the TV (at least from my experience)Watching content from netflix never sounded better in my living room.Quick pro's and cons.Pros : simple to use, great bass, clear sound, smart mode which does an excellent job to be honest if it didn't had this option I would be returning this product I always use the smart mode even when listening to music it just makes the sound extremely crisp and pleasant. It has an super simple but yet efficient calibration just hold the HDMI button till it begins the calibration and do not keep the bass closer than 1m from the soundbar itself. No delay from the actual movie every word its coming on time which is very nice. I can't think of anything else I might have missed something though.Now the cons.Cons : the remote control jesus this thing is crap! Do not expect a nice remote ( you can use your TV's if you use the HDMI cable which you should anyway) for this amount of money I was expecting a better remote but I guess the sound is what really matters?No dolby atmos, just 4kpass through and dolby audio combined with the multy beam technology is actually not bad at all it still gives that cinema experience we all want.It's way to simple you can't choose any sort of channels just the bass volume from 1 to 5, night mode and smart mode. This is everything.Overall its a decent soundbar JBL after all. For someone like me and my wife we like simple but yet efficient tech and this one ticks the box. The sound is great we couldn't ask for better tho for that amount I would at least expect a dialogue enchanting technology, there isn't any. The words are still crisp and coming out clear tho sometimes the action scene is a bit louder, perhaps from the movie? I don't know.Don't get your expectations to the sky and you won't be disappointed. I ordered it and I was ready to return it back if I didn't liked something but here we are jamming one more night and having fun with it.Thanks for reading.

Very good

To start with, it is NOT a surround sound system at all as the name would suggest it is, if you are looking for surround I would consider getting the JBL 9.1 surround or other. I bought this to replace my ageing Samsung 2.1 sound bar and it was a vast improvement. This review is based on my own personal experience. I watched several YouTube videos and read many more before purchasing. I am no audiophile, my living room is square 5m x 6m, the sound bar is placed in-front of my tv and the sub is placed 6ft away in the corner of my room, my tv is a LG 55” OLED. The sound bar fits perfectly in front of the tv. On initial connection (I connected the bar direct to the internet via Ethernet cable) the bar immediately downloaded a software update. It then took a minute or so to connect to the sub woofer. The instructions that came with it are very basic so I downloaded proper instructions via the internet. After running the room balance program, I followed the instructions to set it to use my tv remote (all straightforward). It has no programmable settings such as “cinema, music, game” etc, the only adjustment available is to the subwoofer, level 1 to 5. Level 1 is basically bass off, level 3 (which it comes set to) is about mid range 5 is full Bass. So how did I find using this sound bar? Brilliant, the sound is great, you don’t need different settings as JBL have got it just right. I have the bass set to level 4 (5 for some action movies). Music sounds great, the bass in films is booming, vocals are clear and distinct so news broadcasts and such are clear. I have my Nvidia Shield connected to the bar 4K films play no problem and the sound is fantastic. As I said this is not a true surround sound experience which is why I gave it 4 stars. For my room size the sound is deep, full and booming (when you want it to be). I am very happy with this sound bar, for the price I think it’s great value. A massive improvement over my old Samsung bar. I would certainly recommend it based on my own experience.

I though this was a pretty safe bet for mid-range soundbar because of the good reviews. In reality I’ve found it awful. For context, for the last 10 years I’ve been using a cheapish dvd surround sound system from ~2008 and still have it in another room. Moving to the Jbl soundbar was awful. I kept thinking my new tv was broken until I searched online and found other people have the same issue.Dolby audio playback causes voices to be lost in the background sound meaning you have to turn the movie way up and the bass way down giving you a loud, tinny, but but still muffled sound. I found tips online on how to use obscure remote combinations to turn off “smart mode” which is on by default every time you restart the bar. It sounded a little better after this but still bad. Not worth it. There are other options in this price range. I’m on the hunt for a new one.