BAR 5.1

Overview

The Bar 5.1 is a 2017 soundbar system from JBL. The bar is 1148 mm wide, 58 mm high and 93 mm deep, comes in black and can be wall-mounted with the bracket kit in the box. A 10-inch wireless subwoofer and two detachable wireless surround speakers are included.

JBL lists six 2.25-inch racetrack drivers and three 1.25-inch tweeters, and 510 W of total system power. The surround speakers are battery-powered, with up to 10 hours of playing time according to JBL.

Three HDMI inputs take 4K sources, and the HDMI output with ARC connects to the TV. There are also optical and analog inputs, Bluetooth and a USB port for music playback from a USB flash drive. JBL SoundShift switches between the TV sound and Bluetooth audio from a phone or tablet.

The bar comes with a remote control, has touch controls on the bar, and works with the TV remote. A calibration microphone in the box is used for audio calibration. The box also contains the HDMI, optical and AUX cables, the power cable and the manuals.

What the specs mean

• 5.1 speaker setup: five main channels plus a subwoofer channel. The two detachable surround speakers and the wireless subwoofer are included, so the system is complete out of the box. There are no height channels.
• HDMI ARC: the Audio Return Channel sends the TV's sound to the soundbar over an HDMI cable, and lets the TV remote control the bar. The newer eARC is needed for high-bitrate formats such as Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Atmos, which the Bar 5.1 does not support.
• Audio formats: Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS.
• HDMI passthrough (4K, HDCP 2.2): consoles and players connect to the three HDMI inputs, and the bar passes 4K video on to the TV.
• Room correction: the included calibration microphone measures the room so the bar can adjust its sound to it.