JBL - LINK BAR 100W Soundbar with 4K Support and Google Assistant - Gray

I have been shopping around for a soundbar with Google for months, came across this deal today where this soundbar was on-sale for 229.00 with the 299.00 sub included for free! Way to good to pass up so I jumped on it. Unboxed and had setup in less than 20 minutes and never even opened the instructions. As for the review below I'm not sure why they had so much trouble programing the remote just follow the onscreen instructions, Google literally walks you through setup. This thing is no different than a chromcast or google home. Honestly my best deal yet for 2020!

Good lows and highs . Sounds great with movies . I have more control over sound when there is dialog .

Omg, this JBL sound bar is great sounds so good would highly recommend.

Everything was working perfect it is a great product for the price. Untill it started giving me a big problem all of the sudden for no reason. I would be in any app watching a movie, listening to music, etc. And it would just kick me out of the app and crash to the home screen and it just keeps doing it over and over again within minutes. I dont recommend this product as of right now.

I bought the JBL Link Bar to improve on the sound quality of our 2016 Samsung TV which was previously connected to a Bose Solo soundbar. The optical port on the TV is no longer functioning properly so a soundbar that could connect via HDMI ARC was a must. The sound quality of the Link Bar, especially when paired with the SW10 subwoofer, is a huge improvement over both the sound of the TV speakers and the sound of the Bose Solo. However there are some caveats that make me only recommend this soundbar if you can get it with the subwoofer included for free and for a total of $250 or less. First, the setup should be fairly quick and easy but I had a lot of trouble getting the JBL remote to pair with the soundbar. I ended up having to unplug it and restart the process all over again and was finally able to get it to work. Fortunately pairing the Link Bar to the subwoofer was seamless and only took a few seconds. I’ve had no issues with the connection dropping out between the sub and the bar to this point. Initially the Link Bar was not appearing as an option in the Google Home app to be added to a speaker group but when I checked a few days later it was there and I’ve successfully used it to play music along with the other speakers in the group. There aren’t many sound adjustment options available other than to choose the level of bass. There is no voice adjustment but we’ve been able to clearly hear the dialogue in both TV shows and movies. Next, if the Google Assistant functionality is an important part of your decision I would suggest going with something else. It just doesn’t really work here. When you say “Hey Google” the four white lights on the front of the Link Bar will illuminate but very rarely will you get a response regardless of what the request is. On the occasion that it does respond, the volume of the Google Assistant voice is much louder than whatever content you are watching on TV. We ended up just turning the Google Assistant off because it was causing issues with the use of our Home Hub in the kitchen because it would pick up the wake words first but not do anything. Unfortunately that means that four orange lights are always present on the front of the Link Bar. I wish there was a way to turn them off as it’s kind of annoying. If you do want to use the Assistant to control the soundbar then using a different Google Home device or the dedicated Assistant button on the Link Bar remote has worked well for me. Finally, the Link Bar is a capable streaming device with the built-in Android TV and we’ve used it to watch Netflix many times without any issues. The only problem with it is trying to switch inputs when first turning the TV on. It wants to default to either the ARC input or the Android TV home screen even after you’ve selected a different HDMI input. Sometimes this will happen twice before it finally will stay on the input you’ve selected. Again this is an annoyance that I wish Google would address with a software update. I do love the connectivity options that the Link Bar provides. Having three additional HDMI inputs has been nice. The video passed through to the TV has been in sync with the audio and we’ve been able to control the volume of the soundbar using an Apple TV remote, AT&T TV Osprey remote, and the Samsung remote that came with the TV. If you can overlook the frustrations caused by the smart features and your primary concern is great audio for your TV and movies then definitely give the Link Bar a listen. Don’t consider it at full price but it’s a compelling value on sale.

I grabbed this to upgrade the sounds at home during pandemic, especially once it was obvious movie theatres were off the table. The soundbar made my fire stick redundant with all of the available streaming apps. The wireless subwoofer makes this sound system rumble just right for movies or music! On the suck side, I could not and still can’t get my remotes properly programmed to this thing, though syncing/controlling the products via HDMI helps most of the time. I’ve also had a few errant Bluetooth “connections” when no one is around, no sound, but the bar keeps reconnecting to a non-existent device. Restarting the bar is the only fix.

I got this for a great open box deal recently, which also included the 10-inch JBL subwoofer for free. The good: the bar is very neutral sounding, with good midrange, nice treble, and excellent clarity for voices. Bass without the subwoofer is a bit lacking but not bad, it improves markedly with the sub. I disagree with one reviewer that said the sub overwhelms it, you need to adjust the sub level carefully. Also, just because subs are wireless, doesn’t mean they can go anywhere and the sound will be the same. Placement matters, and I find that placing it to the left or right of the bar makes it blend well. The bass is great for TV sound and adds nice low end punch to music. This is a nice soundbar for music as it is neutral; not overemphasizing any frequency. The sub is quite good, with tight bass when adjusted correctly, and does not sound boomy. The Not So Good: As others have said, the bar will turn itself off sometimes. It has not happened with TV audio via HDMI Arc for us. It has happened with Bluetooth. It’s not enough to be an overwhelming bother, it’s easy to reconnect and keep playing. If you want a really loud soundbar, you might want to look elsewhere. However, it’s more than enough for small to midsize rooms. Also, some settings (like subwoofer level) require a dive into the menu via the screen, which is annoying. Overall, for the price paid, a really good buy. We do not use the Android TV or Google Cast features as they are not needed for us.

This is a pretty good sounding bar for the price. The remote is BlueTooth, This will cause issues if you were hoping to control it with another remote. You might run into some issues with setup. The thing is basically a TV without video display. It has its own video setup including apps like Prime and Netflix. It will try to take over your TV. Which is good if you do not already have a smart TV. The problems get complicated if you already have a cable box, and a smart TV., these things seem to conflict. Eventually you can tame it down and figure out how to get it to be just a sound bar if you want.