Bar 800

Overview

The Bar 800 is a JBL soundbar system with a 10-inch wireless subwoofer and two detachable, battery-powered surround speakers in the box. It first appears on JBL's US site in 2023, which this site uses as its model year. The bar is 884 mm wide, 56 mm high and 120 mm deep (1174 mm wide with the surround speakers docked), comes in black and can be wall-mounted with the kit in the box.

JBL lists three racetrack drivers, three 0.75-inch tweeters and two 2.75-inch up-firing drivers in the bar and one racetrack driver in each surround speaker: 340 W for the bar, 2 x 40 W for the surrounds and 300 W for the subwoofer, 720 W in total. The surround speakers run up to 10 hours on their batteries and recharge when docked. 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 runs through the JBL One app.

What the specs mean

• 5.1.2 channels: left, centre and right in the bar, two surround speakers, the subwoofer and two up-firing height drivers in the bar. The system is complete out of the box.
• Dolby Atmos: the up-firing drivers bounce sound off the ceiling for height; the bar also decodes Dolby Digital.
• 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 calibration measures the listening zone and the position of the surround speakers.
• TV remote: over HDMI-CEC the TV remote controls volume, mute and power; the bar can also learn IR commands from a TV remote.