JBL Bar 5.1 Surround: Are its 550 watts an anti-gloom remedy? – 20 minutes
- Cinema and concert halls with closed doors, our entertainment crystallizes on our screens.
- With its 5.1 Surround Bar, JBL offers a sound bar with a power of 550 watts which has everything to ambience our confined evenings.
- Sold for 479 euros and ideal for video and gaming, it offers a good whiff of decibels to our entertainment at home.
Cinema and concert halls, theaters, stadiums … while waiting to be able to reinvest these places of celebration and culture, our entertainment is concentrated at home … in front of the television. You might as well take the opportunity to breathe life into these shows. This is the promise of the Bar 5.1 Surround soundbar from JBL that 20 minutes was able to test. So, ready to brighten up your confined evenings?
A woofer with an impressive diameter
Unboxed, the JBL Bar 5.1 Surround fits perfectly in front of our 49 ” / 125cm TV. Measuring 101.8 x 58 x 1 meter, it is finally quite discreet and thin enough not to interfere with the bottom of the screen (its brackets for attaching it to the wall are also provided). More massive, its subwoofer (30.5 x 44 x 30.5 cm for 10.6 kg) needs to elbow to settle in the living room. Luckily, it is Bluetooth and works with the soundbar without any wires on the leg. Connected to the sector, a place next to the sofa can be reserved for it.
While installing the hitch is quick, it takes a little longer to set up. The reason ? Google Home compatible, you have to go through the application of the Mountain View firm so that the 5.1 Surround Bar can be activated. Let’s face it, this is a constraint that we always encounter with Google Home or Amazon Alexa compatible products. They are Plug & play… But a little longer to install. The advantage, then, remains all the same to be able to use the microphone of the soundbar to ask Google, as with a connected speaker, just about anything you want. For the rest, the sound bar can be connected to the television via HDMI Arc. Thus, your usual TV remote control will become universal.
While the box incorporates an impressive woofer 12 ” / 30.5 cm, the bar is weighted with 5 midrange speakers on the front, and two 32 mm side tweeters. The idea here is to broadcast a sound with effects surround virtual. And it is quite successful.
550 watts and full immersion
If nothing replaces a classic 5.1 sound system for perfectly balanced rear stereo effects and realistic spatialization, it is clear that the soundbar from JBL, however, knows how to distinguish itself. No doubt: she knows how to perfectly immerse us in the atmosphere of a show.
Unfortunately, it is not Dolby Atmos, depriving the user of vertical virtual effects, such as coming from above. We nevertheless took advantage of the device to binge watcher the new Netflix series Baker Street Irregulars.
These teens leading under the leadership of Holmes and Watson their investigations in a London plagued by supernatural phenomena have found with the soundbar from JBL a beautiful case. The device’s 550 watts made a major contribution to this. However, beware of neighbors who might not appreciate the decibels once the curfew hour comes, and when the demons burst the screen …
From the remote control, a simple press of a button skilfully modulates the power of the box in five stages, which can contribute little to a better relationship with the apartment next door.
A very bassy sound first for games and video
Uncomfortable in high frequencies, the JBL Bar 5.1 Surround nevertheless offers a pleasant musicality. We used it to find out Do you know ?, Gaetan Roussel’s new album uploaded to Deezer, which made us want to go to a concert again. For its part, the album Not Your Muse by Celeste accompanied a late evening drunk and spring. The singular range of voices of the British singer is particularly well reproduced here. The sound of the JBL Bar 5.1 Surround is warm. He is also mean. Without great finesse, it is however not suited to a classical musical repertoire but has something to seduce most users, especially for games or video.
Launched at 599 euros, the JBL Bar 5.1 Surround has serious competitors at the same price: sound bars Yamaha ATS-4080 (which has the merit of being able to integrate a multiroom), the
Klipsch Cinema 600, or the
Samsung HW-Q800T. But currently benefiting from a 20% discount in most shops (ie a selling price revised to 479 euros), JBL’s Bar 5.1 Surround suddenly gains in potential for sympathy.
According to Mediametry, during the first confinement, “the duration of individual television viewing amounted to 4.43 hours a day, against 3.28 hours a year earlier”. The 15-24 year olds would be the most affected with 69% additional audience over the same period. With better sound, the coming weeks may be shaping up to be just as televising, but a little less painful …