Bar 500

Overview

The Bar 500 is a 5.1-channel soundbar with a 10-inch wireless subwoofer from the JBL Bar series that HARMAN announced at CES 2023 for the US. The bar is 1017 mm wide, 56 mm high and 103.5 mm deep, comes in black and can be wall-mounted with the kit in the box.

JBL lists four racetrack drivers and three 0.75-inch tweeters in the bar, 290 W for the bar and 300 W for the subwoofer, 590 W in total. The TV connects over HDMI eARC or optical, and one HDMI input takes a console or player. Over dual-band Wi-Fi the bar supports AirPlay, Chromecast built-in, Alexa Multi-Room Music and Spotify Connect; Bluetooth, Ethernet and a USB port (MP3 playback on US units) are also built in. Setup and EQ run through the JBL One app. The bar has no built-in microphone; it works with a separate Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri device.

What the specs mean

• 5.1 with wireless subwoofer: five channels from the bar plus the subwoofer in the box. JBL's MultiBeam processing aims sound at the walls for a surround effect without rear speakers.
• Dolby Atmos: the bar decodes Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital; it has no up-firing drivers.
• HDMI eARC: the enhanced Audio Return Channel sends the TV's sound to the soundbar over one HDMI cable, with enough bandwidth for Dolby Atmos.
• 4K passthrough (HDR10, Dolby Vision, HDCP 2.3): a source on the HDMI input passes its 4K HDR picture on to the TV.
• PureVoice: JBL's dialogue enhancement keeps voices clear when effects get loud.
• Room correction: the sound calibration adapts the surround effect to the room.
• TV remote: over HDMI-CEC the TV remote controls volume, mute and power; the bar can also learn IR commands from a TV remote.