JBL Bar 9.1 – Review 2020

JBL offers plenty of soundbars—we’ve reviewed many of them—and the Bar 9.1 sits at the very top, both in terms of performance and price. It’s JBL’s first soundbar with Dolby Atmos built-in, and in addition to a subwoofer, it comes with two small wireless speakers that charge by attaching to the left and right ends of the bar. When removed, they become the rear left and right speakers, no cables required. It’s a clever design, and the audio performance is powerful and exciting. Watching movies is definitely the main reason to spring for the $999.99 JBL Bar 9.1, but music also sounds excellent through its drivers—though there are some subwoofer settings that will need to be changed depending on the genre.

Design

The Bar 9.1 measures 2.4 by 48.4 by 4.7 inches (HWD) with the rechargeable speakers magnetically docked, and frankly, that’s the most important measurement, because even if it measures 2.4 by 34.8 by 4.7 inches when they’re not attached, you’ll need to plan for that space—6.8 additional inches on either side—wherever you place or mount the bar (the system ships with mounting supplies for both the soundbar and the two surround speakers). The bar and speakers are black, with black metallic grille paneling covering the divers. The subwoofer is a substantial 17.3 by 12.0 by 12.0 inches, and weighs 24.5 pounds.

Internally, the 400-watt soundbar houses four racetrack-style drivers and two up-firing full-range drivers, as well as three 1-inch tweeters. The two 60-watt surround speakers deliver audio via a single up-firing driver and a 1-inch tweeter. The total of four up-firing drivers in the bar and the two side speakers are the Dolby Atmos drivers.

The 300-watt sub has a 10-inch down-firing driver, and its back panel houses a bass port for efficient airflow, as well as the power/pairing button and the connection for its included power cable—the sub automatically pairs with the system when powered up. The system combines for a frequency range of 34Hz-20kHz and 820 watts total output.

The top panel of the soundbar houses controls for power, volume down/up, and sound source, switching between Bluetooth, HDMI, and TV (HDMI ARC). The back panel houses connections for HDMI (for 4K video input, which automatically adjusts the video coming in to match your screen’s optimal resolution), HDMI ARC (for TV video), Ethernet, optical, USB (for both service and audio playback), and the connection for the included power cable. There’s an included HDMI cable, but no optical cable.

The remote control runs on two included AAA batteries. It has dedicated buttons for Power, TV, Bluetooth, Atmos Driver Volume, HDMI, Volume Up/Down, Mute, Bass Volume, and Rear Speaker Volume.

A scrolling LED readout beneath the front-facing grille goes the extra mile—when you pair a phone, it will tell you the name of the device (Timothy’s iPhone, for instance). It’s a simple touch, but this level of specificity is always welcome. Volume levels, including for bass and rear channels, as well as the Atmos drivers, are also indicated on the readout, though for the former two parameters, you get number values (Bass is 1-5, Volume is 1-31), and for the the rear speakers and Atmos drivers, you get Low, Medium, and High as your only options.

For a system that looks like it might be a pain to set up, the most annoying part is just getting everything out of the massive box. The soundbar is easy to connect after that—one power cable for the bar, one for the subwoofer, connect the included HDMI cable to the HDMI (ARC) port on your TV, and you should be good to go. It’s advisable to connect the wireless speakers to the bar and let them fully charge before doing anything else, but you can use the soundbar while they’re connected—you just won’t be getting the benefit of surround audio when they’re docked, obviously (though they do output audio when docked).

Calibrating the rear channels is achieved by pressing the HDMI button on the remote for five seconds—a series of directional frequency sweeps is measured and the speaker levels are adjusted appropriately. There are two steps—one for having the speakers right beside you on your couch, the other for having them slightly behind you.

Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Cast are built into the Bar 9.1. There is also support for Bluetooth 4.2 and AAC codecs. Bluetooth pairing is quick and simple.

The side speakers get roughly 10 hours of playback before needing to be recharged, but your results will vary with your volume levels.

Movie Performance

Blade Runner 2049‘s crash scene, in which Ryan Gosling falls from the sky in something that looks like a flying Lamborghini, features multiple explosions—and they can be positively thunderous through the Bar 9.1 with the bass boosted high. At maximum bass levels (5), the rumble is theater-level intense, and at 1 or 2 it is tamed, but it never sounds thin. The surround channels can seem too subtle if you don’t have them properly calibrated, but redoing this process is simple. Boosting their overall volume, as well as the Atmos Driver levels, will get you the most immersive results.

The clarity of the system is top-notch, with crisp, clear dialogue and effects complemented by scalable bass depth that highlights the ominous score just as much as explosions.

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When the Death Star explodes in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the Bar 9.1 delivers a powerful punch, but at high volumes and high bass levels, what you actually tend to notice most is the immersive mix provided by the Amtos drivers and the rear channel speakers. Since the rear channels are wireless, their placement can vary greatly, and it is advisable to run a calibration every time you place them in a new spot. When you get it right, the system really draws you in, with a surround experience that combines what is more like a 5.1 build with the Atmos drivers, which add a layer of directional experience and immersiveness.

Music Performance

Dialing the bass to the middle level (3), and lowering the Atmos drivers to their minimum level, we checked out some music. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the Bar 9.1 can deliver room-shaking thunder or a more refined bass experience. At mid levels, you get a bass-forward sound out of the sub, while low levels offer a more refined, subtle experience, and max is something like a club PA. At top, very loud volumes levels, the Bar 9.1 doesn’t distort, and at more reasonable listening levels, the system offers a balanced, bass-forward experience.

If there’s something missing, it’s a treble volume adjuster—it would be nice to balance the system out to taste for music. Many soundbars have neutral or music modes to contrast with the audio output for movies, but there are no listening modes here, just various adjustable parameters. That said, the audio is balanced enough and crisp enough that it’s not nearly a deal breaker.

Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the Bar 9.1’s general sound signature. Even at bass level 3, the drums here sound powerful and boosted in the lows. At 1 or 2, you get a more accurate sound, and up at the highest levels, the track sounds unbalanced in the lows. Callahan’s vocals get a pleasant low-mid richness to complement his baritone delivery, and the higher-register percussive hits and acoustic strumming have a bright, clear presence that is more prominent when the bass is set to reasonable levels. The rear and Atmos levels seem to play a far lesser role when listening to music.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop gets a solid amount of high-mid presence, keeping its attack punchy, but it also gets some added bass thump, more so than we often hear on this track, even at mid subwoofer levels. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are, interestingly, less powerful here than the thump of the beat, which is not always the case. Regardless of what the sub volume level is set to, the bass is more prominent with the drum hits than with the sub-bass synth hits—often, it’s the other way around. This tells us that the majority of the sub’s bass depth is focused on the lows and low-mids, and starts to taper off in the truly sub-bass realm. You would never call this system thin or brittle—it’s thumping and powerful—but the concentration of bass depth fades a bit as you get to truly low frequencies. The vocals on this track are delivered with solid clarity and no noticeably added sibilance. This is a crisp, detailed sound signature with some serious added thump.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, can sound natural, slightly boosted, or ridiculous, depending on the subwoofer settings. We recommend keeping it around 2-3 for classical and jazz—the higher-register instrumentation will retain its crisp detail while the lower-register instrumentation plays a strong anchoring role. Dialing it up from here will appeal to some listeners, but the bass starts to upset the balance of the mix at 4 or 5.

Conclusions

The JBL Bar 9.1 is a powerhouse. It’s a pricey soundbar at $1,000, but you also get an immersive, wireless rear channel experience with Dolby Atmos, a powerful sub that can be easily adjusted, and a remote that makes it easy to switch between sources. We’d like to see better EQ options for the price, and you can argue that a properly calibrated, wider soundbar (with a sub) can provide similarly immersive audio for a similar or lower price. But there’s little to complain about here. In the $1,000-plus realm, we’re also fans of the $1299 2.1 LG SL10YG and the $2,500 Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar, though neither offers rear channels. And if all of these options are way out of your price range, the JBL Bar Surround 5.1 is a solid alternative at $500.

JBL Bar 9.1 Specs

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Further Reading