JBL Bar 5.1 Surround: High on Music

Scottlewis
3 min readSep 21, 2020

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You know the sound would be awesome when you hear the name JBL and this has actually turned synonymous with high-quality music. And one of the recent devices by the brand was JBL Bar 5.1 Surround and with the very name of the product, you can conclude that the device is capable of offering a fully immersive theater-like experience when switched on.

The device hit the market almost 4 months ago and has received a lot of good reviews from a lot of people. Wish to know more about this amazing device? Here are some of the best things that you need to know about it.

JBL Bar 5.1 Surround: The Design, Look & Feel

The Bar 5.1 Surround occurs in a matte dark gray shade, with the main soundbar measuring 2.3 x 40.0 x 3.9 inches (HWD) and weighs about 6.2 pounds. It accompanies a wireless subwoofer that measures 17.3 x 12.0 x 12.0 inches and shows about 23.4 pounds on the weighing scale.

The two pieces get automatically connected when you switch them on. You can lay the bar flat on a tabletop, or mount it on a wall with the supplied brackets and screws.

The device is operated with the help of remote control that runs on two AAA batteries and it includes buttons for Power, TV, Bluetooth, Bass Level, HDMI, Volume Up/Down, and Mute.

The volume range of the device is 1–31, and at max levels, the system can get pretty loud. Plus, it also supports Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Cast. There’s no built-in mic or smart controls on the bar or the remote but this is the app-based support that you can control via your phone.

The JBL Bar 5.1 Surround supports Bluetooth 4.2 and AAC codecs. The USB port supports playback for MP3 and WAV files.

JBL Bar 5.1 Surround: The Music Quality

It won’t be an exaggeration if you call the JBL Bar 5.1 Surround a floor-trembler.

It delivers an intense low-frequency option that will appeal to bass lovers and even at the max volume levels, the bass doesn’t distort on the tacks regardless of its setting. If you operate it at high levels, the thunders are palpable, with wall-shaking power. Did I already mention the floor-trembler?

At moderate volumes and with bass set to mid, the music actually sounds a lot balanced and accurate. The drums in the songs get some modest extra depth without being overly thunderous. And though this powerful device can work great for both the movies and the tracks, the lack of user-adjustable parameters apart from the three bass settings may render it tough, sometimes, to locate the ideal sound signature for a given movie or track.

The device is powered by a powerful MediaTek MT8516 chipset that is present in the bar. It’s a quad-core chipset with 64-bit size that specialize in audio processing, voice assistant options and also offers an array microphone, and integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity support.

No doubt, when you switch the device on, the bar would automatically get connected to the main device in seconds and this is the power of the MediaTek chipset in it.

JBL Bar 5.1 Surround: The Price

JBL Bar 5.1 Surround costs you $499.95 to be exact and offers you rich quality in music, promising great performance even in a big space with a lot of people. Do you think this is a good device at the cost? Would love to hear your views.

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