Customer Ratings & Reviews

I absolutely love this sound bar system. The rechargeable and completely wireless satellite speakers are effortless. when attached to the bar they work in unison and the sound is quite impressive. I found that sports and regular tv shows sound better with the satellites attached, while movies or tv shows with dolby atmos or surround effects is much better when they are removed. the sub produces some clear deep bass, my setting is 3 for most stuff. Bluetooth to my phone is so easy, and music sounds awesome through this system. I plugged into my Samsung OLED TV through eARC and it works well, only once in a while do I have to power cycle to get them to connect. Usually my fault for trying to navigate the TV menu before they finish connecting. The Atmos surround is awesome, while watching the tomorrow war, the sound effects from the ceiling made it feel like we were there, my son even looked up thinking a helicopter is in the room, he's a toddler... Anyway, after reading many reviews including rtings dot com, I bought this setup. I compared to the Sonos, Bose, Samsung and Klipsch systems and feel this was the best overall for my needs. 80% tv/ movies; 20% music.

The sound quality is amazing however the battery life of the detachable surround speakers is lacking.

I really like this audio system, which I connected to my 4K TV. Stunning surround sound that seems to immerse you in the abyss of what is happening on the TV screen of the ocean of events. This creates the effect of presence, without allowing you to doubt the reality of what is happening on the screen. Adequate price and excellent quality of these audio speakers make them indispensable in creating a high-level mini Home Theater.

I've always been partial to JBL products from experience with them playing music professionally. We just moved into a new place with a larger TV room. I had been using a Pioneer Elite 9.2 receiver with Pioneer Elite tower speakers and wired surround speakers. I swapped that out for a little Bose Cinemate 15 we had been using in our basement, in deference to my wife. She absolutely hates wires strung all about so I agreed to go wireless in our new place. I had narrowed my choices to this and the Nakamichi but I chose JBL simply because it was in stock and the Nakamichi was not. Plus I was totally confident I'd be happy with the item because - JBL lol. It arrived the day after ordering it. I unboxed it to find the soundbar, the two magnetically attached wireless satellite speakers, the 10" wireless subwoofer, an HDMI cable, and some brackets and hardware for wall mounting. Inputs include power, USB, optical, Ethernet, HDMI Out (TV ARC/TV TV eARC), and HDMI in. I'm using the HDMI in, running the HDMI out from my Philis Hue Sync Box into the soundbar then the HDMI/ARC HDMI out to my TVs HDMI ARC input. The sub has its own power cord. When you plug everything up, the sub automatically connects wirelessly. The satellites need to be attached to the soundbar at first because they require a three-hour initial charge. I use wired network connections so when I first turned everything on the bar connected to my network and downloaded a firmware update right away. After charging the satellites I detached the satellites and placed them as recommended for the simple onboard calibration routine. You have to run that twice. Then it was ready to go! I really like the sound. Crisp highs and fantastic bass, good old JBL once again didn't disappoint. Highly recommended.

Exceptional... No issues and easy to set up! Recommend this sound bar! Great sound for sure!

I have had JBL speakers for a few decades and have never been disappointed with their build quality. This setup is not different. It sounds great and supports modern audio formats. I would prefer a full audio system but this time I wanted to keep it simple and have decent quality audio with very little wiring and so on. For a soundbar they sound pretty darn good....close to the BOSE 700 series. For a few bills less, this system fits the ticket. I do have a issue with their connectivity issues occasionally but do like the removable wireless surround speakers. Just a suggestion, the first time you set the system up, connect via Ethernet. The wireless option is sometimes flaky. Allow it to update and you should be good. Turn down the bass and rears if you have issues with hearing center channel voice/speech. If there is a real negative for me, it's the lack of adjusts with using the Google home junk. JBL could have just had a single button to move through profiles. The manual certainly doesn't offer any assist other than calibration. I do like the system but JBL could have done much better with customization AND reliable connectivity. I mean why the heck does a soundbar HAVE to be connected to my network? I understand steaming audio and all that but just give me the option to connect with a phone and be done with it. Let me update the firmware through my phone.

This is the 3rd soundbar that I’ve tried and my goal is to find one without any quirks, or without any quirks that I would consider to be a deal breaker. The Sonos Arc had no visual volume level indication at all if you didn’t use the App and that’s not a good solution. The rear channels on the Bose 900 were just plain bad using the older rear speakers and the new rear speakers cost as much as the soundbar itself. SETUP This was slightly frustrating as the quick start guide was the only thing included in the box and it was largely just pictured. There was enough there to get it set up and do the calibration, but there were some missing functions. Fortunately, the manual is online and very well laid out, with actual descriptions of the settings. This would have been much easier to manage had JBL created an app for the soundbar. You basically plug the sound bar into power and the Arc port, attach the rear channel speakers to the bar for charging, plug the subwoofer in, and power the whole thing on. After the speakers are charged you run the room calibration (twice), and it should be set up. The frustration comes with the fact that disabling the AI mode isn’t mentioned in the quick start and the remote use other buttons to turn some of these hidden functions on and off (why not just add 3 or 4 extra buttons to the remote). BUILD QUALITY From what I can tell the build quality is great and the included Subwoofer might be the best of any that are included with the soundbar. I have no complaints regarding this aspect of the soundbar at all. OUT-OF-THE-BOX PERFORMANCE So, setting up the soundbar and running the calibration didn’t deliver the results I was expecting and it wasn’t until after updating the firmware, that the setup started to perform closer to what I had expected. Of course, there were issues with things like Echoing and Excessive Bass from the default levels. This most certainly did not match the finely tuned box experience that the Bose Delivered. PERFORMANCE & ADJUSTMENTS What I found was balance was way off regarding bass, height, and rear channels. So I made the following changes. BASS – Set to 2 (It isn’t perfect at this level, but it works well for movies and 3 can be acceptable as well). Rear – I set these to Mid because Low wasn’t strong enough and High was too much for something right beside your head. ATMOS – This was creating an Echo, so I had to set this to High as there was way too much body and not enough height effects. The result is a soundbar that certainly exceeds the quality of the stand-alone Sonos Arc or Bose 900. I am comparing it to the standalone products of the competitors because the price of the JBL was similar to the price of those stand-alone bars. SURROUND SOUND The sound certainly fills the room and I can very much hear the sound hitting the ceiling and bouncing back down. I test the system using the Dolby Sound Demo on YouTube and it was absolutely capable of true Atmos positional audio. One of my other tests was Mad Max Fury Road and sure enough, the cars coming from behind you and into the scene on the TV came straight overhead with thundering engine sounds that faded as they disappeared further into the scene. The second of my tests was Deadpool. While Deadpool was sitting on the overpass, you could hear the cars driving by him on the left side of the room, coming from in front of you to passing right by the left side of your head. Deadpool also had several other examples of positional audio. Anyway, the point is that people are claiming that the soundbar isn’t delivering true positional audio and is either doing something wrong, or they have something wrong with their hearing, as this thing is as good as any soundbar on the market that’s under $1000. COMPARED TO THE SONOS ARC The Arc sounds nice, but it is not any better sounding than this when both are properly configured. Also, this bar comes with a remote control, rear speakers, and a Subwoofer, and the soundbar itself has a very nice LCD panel that shows you the soundbar codec, the status of the different components, and best of all it shows you volume levels… You don’t get any of that with the Arc and the JBL was only $100 more. So, this is clearly the better option. Another area where the JBL is better is the fact that it doesn’t require any additional hardware to calibrate it, just the speakers themselves… The Arc makes you pull your phone out of its case and walk around your room with it upside down. Also, the Sonos doesn’t have a true rear implementation, so it uses a virtual setup with its multi-room sound setup and that’s not ideal either. COMPARED TO THE BOSE 900 The Bose has the distinction of being the readiest to use right out of the box and honestly once you do the room calibration you rarely have to touch that soundbar at all. With that said, the mids aren’t as meaty as the Sonos or JBL, even with a subwoofer, but it does have the best sound stage of the three. If there’s one deal breaker with the Bose it is the rear channel speakers, as they will cost you an extra $700 and they just aren’t very good. The App on the Bose is solid and straightforward, without anything being hidden or tucked away into some confusing menu. With that said, once you get through the calibration and tweaking the JBL comes with everything you need for a true Atmos experience and the mids are better than the Bose, so you get an overall better experience. However, the Bose with the 500 Subwoofer is only $1099 and that makes it fairly close in sound quality if you’re not concerned with the lack of a rear channel. Overall, the JBL has a slight edge here, but only if you’re okay with tweaking and finetuning the gear for your room. QUIRKS So, there are a few quirks with the bar and I’m not sure I would say if any of them are a deal breaker yet or not. 1st. why do I have to hold down HDMI to kick off the calibration or hold down mute and then press the up arrow to disable the AI Sound enhancement feature? Why couldn’t add 2 or 3 extra buttons to the remote? 2nd. There’s no app to manage the sound bar or settings, this means you’re forced to use their remote to make any changes to the sound profile, so you can’t really drop down to a single remote. 3rd. AI Sound cannot be permanently disabled as it will be enabled again as soon as you power the speaker off or put it to sleep. 4th. Airplay / Home Kit is no longer supported, but they didn’t bother to take the old instructions out of the manual or remove the claims of support from the marketing material. Sorry, but using Google Home is not a good solution for people who don’t have Google devices in their houses. OVERALL Overall, this is a fantastic setup for the money and even though it isn’t a perfect solution, it is a top-notch surround sound implementation. It has a true 9.1 Atmos surround, brilliant display, truly wireless speakers, and a fantastic subwoofer. I wish there was an app or a better remote control, but I cannot complain about the setup itself.

The perfect addition to our Friday night movie night! Love that it’s Bluetooth cause wire lines are so annoying. The detachable speakers do require charging after a certain amount of use time, so think about wall mounting placement so that they are accessible and not too high or out of reach. Our home is about 1200 sq. Ft and this system is quite powerful in our space. The entire house shakes :) Voices in the movies we watch sound great and all the action sounds amazing and clear. We usually have the volume on 15 for movie watching and 8-10 for regular leisurely watching.

Really great sounding sound bar! True up-firing front and rear speakers for Dolby ATMOS support. Strong bass (when set at level 4 or 5). Clear center. Plenty of power. In fact, we keep them dialed down most of the time. To get the most out of this sound bar (these recommendations will really improve the sound): 1. Although the rear speakers have a battery, they don't last that long (about 10 hours). And we experienced some static on battery power. So instead, buy the supported micro USB to USB/wall charger for AC power. Then the speakers are always powered. Much better solution. A separate micro USB cable is required for each rear speaker. 2. Apply the software updates! When we purchased the sound bar, there were 5 updates waiting to be downloaded when we connected to WIFI. These updates make a BIG difference in the sound, specifically in the balance of the output. The result is a much better balance between the speakers and much better surround. You'll need to connect the satellite rear speakers to the main sound bar in order to do the update. Afterwards, they can be moved back to their rear locations. The update does take about 10 to 20 minutes. For our smaller room, the best settings were bass set at 4 and surround set at Medium. You won't go wrong with these speakers!

This soundbar produces clean & balanced sound and makes it really easy to have amazing home theater sound in 15 minutes. The wireless surround speakers are a clever innovation, but there is room for improvement. You will need to place them back on the soundbar to charge each day or plug them in with USB cables, which are not provided. Plugging them in on the dock is easy and they are magnetically attached, which is nice. The big drawback for me is that the soundbar must be turned off (standby mode) for the wireless speakers to charge. When I turn my TV off, the soundbar just sits idle, but doesn't automatically go into standby mode, so the surround speakers don't charge if you don't remember to turn off the soundbar. It seems like a system update could easily place the soundbar into standby after no signal is detected. I don't know if some newer TVs may correctly signal the standby mode in the soundbar, but my TV does not, although it does support ARC HDMI. For this reason, I will invest in some long USB cables to keep the surround speakers continuously plugged in and mounted on my rear wall. The subwoofer is clean with relatively tight bass that can rattle your room if you want it. The center speakers are full and crisp so it's easy to hear people talking on your TV shows. This system makes it really simple to get great sound while remaining easy to configure the settings. There aren't a lot of settings to mess with, so it keeps it simple and easy to use. I recommend this system highly if you are trying to save space and want something that sounds amazing without buying a traditional receiver system. Plenty of bass, easy to hear dialogue, and plenty of volume for most situations.

In the last few months we've purchased 4 items from Best Buy. The microwave oven had a big dent and was returned. The washing machine didn't work and was replaced. The TV required a lot of setup adjustment. The Soundbar only works very well when HDMI is connected to the TV, Blue Tooth introduces a delay which is very noticeable and very annoying. Once set up with HDMI however, performance is very good.

I was a bit skeptical of the price tag on this but now that I have it and have it set up I’m blown away. For one thing this system gets VERY loud while still maintaining clarity. Not only was the volume on the bar itself and the rear speakers great (I had to turn the rears to low for my setup) but the subwoofer was loud and low. I settled on volume level 2 out of 5 for my subwoofer because it vibrated everything in the room too loudly. This sub has the butt shaking, chest punching quality that’s the sign of a great subwoofer and doesn’t distort even at high volume. The truly wireless rear speakers with up firing Atmos drivers are what makes this system, the flexibility opens up possibilities for a lot of room setups like my own that this previously wouldn’t have worked in. The positional Dolby Atmos audio also worked surprisingly well. Not only did it handle 360 degree positioning very well but the height channel was clear and obvious. Watching Doctor Sleep and hearing all the fluorescent lights flick on and buzz overhead in the hotel was an awesome moment. Clarity and my ability to understand what people were saying at low volume was also a nice surprise. My last soundbar was very difficult to hear without turning it up loud enough to wake up others in the house. Music was also a very good experience, clarity and volume were as good there as it was for the video content. Overall I would say this is close to a true theater experience, which is great in these times of isolation. Lastly, you really can’t beat the value, you’re lucky if you get this kind of sound from a true surround sound system that costs twice as much. It blew my true 7.1 Onkyo system out of the water.

Sound is great like you would expect from JBL. Very loud. The only thing I don't like is the rear speakers are rechargeable. I don't like that I have to disconnect from docking stations on the soundbar and place in the back of the room and then put them back again every time I use them. For that I only gave 4 stars.

This sounds fantastic! It feels like movie theatre, the wireless rear speakers work fantastic! Although my first unit with best buy had some issues as calibration wouldn't work on the first unit, but 2nd unit calibration works. With or without calibration, it still sounds very good! TV easily detected the sound bar additional input and the minimalist control on the remote allows you to set the remote aside once you have found the right balance you like for bass, rear speakers and atmos setting. You can clearly hear the bass! Wifi setting was a little challenge, but I think it's an iphone issue. I ended up using my room mate's android phone to connect to wifi, thereafter streaming through airplay is a breeze. I have been a bose users all these years and first time exploring other brands as I am curious about the atmos settings and JBL wins the crown here for me! Highly recommended though bose has much clarity, the typical bose sound bar does not give you the same cinema effect unless you go for the high ends which you will also need to inherit many cables too! :) I originally purchased the Samsung Q900T soundbar which I managed to get a deal for $700, but regreted it once I have it set up. What you hear at the store would be differently because the Samsung soundbar doesn't sound good for all sorts of stuff, only for specific contents I guess. I found myself constantly having to adjust the volume as it's so unbalanced. I EQ the treble and bass on the samsung and it still gives piercing treble most of the time. Bass is weak too. Ended up returning that.

Sounded alot like we were in a theatre. Awesome soud and floor shaking sub woofer.

This is a great bar and the satellite speaker work good. I will say that you should at least have an apron to adjust the highs, which can be annoying at times. The bass is very boomy and doesn’t spread across the room too well. But I enjoyed it, though a bit annoying interface.

This is a great sounding system for average home owners. The sound fills up our large family room with ease. We noticed the wireless rear speakers run out of charge faster than we thought. Also, they infrequently loose connectivity. With that said, I would still recommend this product.

I've tried to upgrade to a sound bar from a 460 watt JVC bookshelf system over the years but the JVC which is nearly 20 years old kept blowing whatever I tried out of the water. Not the case with this. Bass is great but not overdone, detail is really impressive and the remote surrounds work flawlessly. As for atmos I couldn't tell much but having the rears totally wireless really added to the experience. Almost didn't buy because of the lack of an EQ but honestly they are tuned so well movies shows sports music it really didn't matter it sounds great. Automatically picks up your tv or cable remote to control volume. Big enough to have proper depth of sound but still fits in front of tv without blocking it. I have a full 7.1 theater room as well and don't feel I have to use it every time I want to get the full experience out of a movie. Simplicity is great when done correctly and they have a winner here. One word of note is I had to make adjustments on the Xbox, dish, tv, and fire stick to support the pass the best sound to the bar. Just make sure you do that or you won't get the full experience. The Xbox you actually have to download an atmos app.

Awesome sound and good base...i love this system...it was very easy to hook up also...

Sound is great with powerfull bass movies,sports,and games sound realisticly great