JBL Bar 500MK2 Review: A Fantastic Soundbar System

Compact barroom fits easy beneath modern TVs. Excellent bass from 10-inch subwoofer. Great code processing. Immersive Dolby Atmos (for a 2.1 bar). Easy streaming from compartment phones and tablets. Usable integer display.

Everyone wants immersive, cinematic dependable successful their surviving room, but not everyone has the country (or the outlets) for placing rear situation speakers. Folks successful smaller apartments oregon with smaller surviving rooms oregon older homes volition emotion the powerfulness of the caller JBL Bar 500MK2 arsenic overmuch arsenic they emotion however compact the main barroom is.

This is astir apt the best-sounding smaller soundbar setup I’ve ever heard—the benignant of happening that really benefits from a disc subordinate and my recently eBay’d transcript of Casino Royale. If you person a medium-sized fund but truly privation to jazz up the crappy dependable of your monolithic flatscreen TV, this is simply a fantastic and reasonably affordable mode to bash that, and truly get bang for your buck.

Nondescript Design

The champion portion astir the Bar 500MK2 is that it is simply a small, oblong rectangle that easy fits beneath immoderate modern TV. JBL doesn’t marque its ain screens, truthful it puts a batch of attraction into making definite everything fits betwixt assorted feet and pedestal designs, and the short, 2-inch precocious barroom squeezes beneath the bezel (and IR input) of astir TVs.

You get the barroom itself and a ample wireless subwoofer to spot anyplace successful your room. I find the champion mode to bash this is to plug it successful wherever you person a convenient outlet, past determination it astir until you similar the dependable best, but successful my acoustically treated reappraisal space, that happens to beryllium close adjacent to my TV.

The subwoofer is nary joke, astatine astir 13 x 16 inches and 18 pounds, but it’s not thing you’ll request to determination erstwhile you get it acceptable up, and it contributes massively (pun intended) to the extent and breadth of the Bar 500MK2’s sound. With a 10-inch driver, it’s much than capable to get to its claimed 40-Hz floor.

Controls connected the barroom are minimal, with measurement and input buttons hidden successful the halfway of the matte achromatic bar, and an included distant that lets you set settings. There is simply a convenient LED surface hidden wrong the close beforehand of the grille that tells you successful plain English what is going on, which is simply a bully departure from galore brands’ assortment of lights and colors.

Jamming On

The awesome 750 watts of claimed full output of the talker and subwoofer truly are a bold departure from immoderate built-in TV speakers. In fact, for a tiny bar, the Bar 500MK2 filled my investigating country with immoderate of the astir immersive dependable I’ve heard from a barroom that doesn’t see rear situation speakers.

It has an uncanny quality to bounce sounds astir you successful a mode that makes it consciousness similar they’re genuinely coming from the sides oregon rear, particularly erstwhile playing Gran Turismo 7 connected PlayStation 5 Pro.

Dolby Atmos effects successful movies are arsenic impressive. While watching my 4K Blu-ray transcript of Ford Vs. Ferrari, cars zipped by my caput successful specified lifelike item I sometimes felt similar I needed to thin retired of the way. When listening to euphony similar Agave Fire Pit's “Goodnight,” I was impressed by however cleanly it is capable to render the vocal effects close successful the halfway of the stereo image.

Likewise, folks who are a spot hard of proceeding volition emotion JBL’s fantabulous PureVoice 2.0 setting; it tin rise dialog based connected ambient dependable successful the country and the existent measurement of the bar, helping you really perceive what the characters are saying without subtitles.

Bass effect is afloat and warm, though this isn't the speediest and astir punchy I've heard; it does amended with the THX intro dependable than it does with speedy Outkast footwear drums, but that's not really a immense woody to my ears. I similar warmer, slower, bolder sub-100-Hz bass from a strategy this size, alternatively than the basal punchy low-mids that smaller woofers thin toward.

On the precocious end, the brightness is ne'er excessively bright, and determination is tons of definition. Rainbrother's “Black Chemicals” showcases conscionable however large it tin beryllium with stereo guitars; my aforementioned transcript of Casino Royale showcases however awesome it tin beryllium with Bond-y slug ricochets (shimmering, not ear-piercing).

I besides emotion that the barroom supports each large casting method: Airplay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, and Roon Ready. Basically, if you privation to formed audio to this happening from your phone—any phone—it works flawlessly. It besides includes HDR10+ and Dolby Vision pass-through, which makes it casual to brace with disc players oregon gaming consoles, if you don’t person capable inputs connected your TV. JBL's One app allows you to set bass and treble to your liking, and determination is country calibration that helps it set settings to your circumstantial listening environment.

As a convenient mode to get proper-ish situation dependable successful medium-sized rooms oregon smaller, I americium not definite determination is simply a barroom I similar much that doesn’t travel with rear speakers (and the associated hassle). The JBL Bar 500 has it wherever it counts: It’s nether $500, it fits beneath astir TVs, and the 10-inch subwoofer truly provides the due magnitude of bass, adjacent with a smaller barroom beneath the TV itself.

It’s a large solution to the occupation that galore bars have, which is simply a deficiency of due debased end, and a weird bump successful the debased midrange that affects the dependable of voices connected screen. The JBL barroom has nary of those problems, and it inactive fits successful the immense bulk of rooms. If you privation a compact soundbar setup that really performs well, this is simply a large spot to start.