Phenomenal performance, a not-so-phenomenal price

With theaters still closed in most locations, the home theater experience is more important than ever. A sleek Atmos surround sound system can take your viewing experience to the next level, but you might not want to run wires or install speakers all the time in your room. Well, that’s the niche that JBL is targeting with the JBL Bar 9.1. It’s an Atmos compatible soundbar with 820W power and removable satellite speakers that you can place in the room when you need them. It’s also fully integrated with Google’s Chromecast platform, so you can manage it from the Home app. While the audio experience is great, the price isn’t. JBL wants a cool grand piano for Bar 9.1, which is more than most people should pay for the convenience.

Design, material, what’s in the box

The Bar 9.1 looks like your average soundbar with its gray casing and various speaker grilles, but it’s a big boy nearly 35 inches wide. The top and sides are metal, but the bottom and back are plastic. On the back you have your ports, including power, USB, optical, Ethernet, and two HDMI ports (ARC audio and 4K HDR passthrough). The 10-inch subwoofer is very simple physically, but it is large. Ideally, you want the sub to be at least a few feet from the soundbar, which may not be possible in smaller spaces.

There’s no real display on the soundbar – all it has is a “dot-matrix” panel on the front that can show you a few characters at a time. This makes fiddling with settings quite boring, typically requiring you to hold down one or more buttons on the remote and then wait for the messages to scroll. The sound bar has a few physical controls on the top surface, but they’re all replicated on the remote. The remote control is also very discreet. There are only a few buttons, so again, you’ll want to keep the manual handy to research the button combinations you’ll need to change settings.

You can choose to install the 9.1 bar with cables and call it a day. However, it also has Wi-Fi connectivity, and to use it you’ll need the Google Home app. This is how you connect the bar to your WiFi and how the bar keeps its firmware up to date. Once added to your account, it will appear in the Home app just like any other Chromecast compatible speaker. You can add it to speaker groups and play it from any local device. There’s also Bluetooth and Air Play 2 support if you’re not into Google’s home ecosystem.

The satellite speakers attach magnetically to the ends of the bar for charging, and they’re there very securely. If you don’t know detachable satellites, you’ll probably never know they come off. Once disconnected, the satellites will synchronize wirelessly with the rest of the system. I had no connectivity issues during my testing either. Satellites are supposed to offer 10 hours of playback, and it seems pretty much accurate based on my time with the 9.1 bar. It is probably a bit less, but you shouldn’t have any problem watching a few movies back to back without connecting the speakers.

This is a $ 1,000 sound system, so you’d expect a few extras in the box. There is of course the remote control, sound bar, satellite speakers and subwoofer. There are also power cables, an HDMI cable, and a wall mount kit. Be careful if you decide to go this route; the sound bar with attached speakers weighs over 10 pounds.

Audio and features

While the 9.1 bar has “9.1” in its name, it’s actually called a 5.1.4 setup. The “best” Atmos systems have speakers, which you don’t get with the Bar 9.1. However, the sound bar can bounce sound off the ceiling to create a more immersive experience. You’ll need to calibrate the speakers to suit your room, which is one of those things that requires an esoteric combination of button presses. Due to this speaker configuration, the Atmos “height” channel is low compared to systems with dedicated overhead speakers. If you’ve never had an Atmos home installation, you’ll probably still be impressed.

Fortunately, this is the only negative thing I have to say about the audio quality. Everything from movies to concerts sounds amazing on the JBL Bar 9.1. On default settings, the soundbar has powerful but not overwhelming bass, crisp highs, and rich, pleasing mids. Even with the bass at maximum, it’s intense but not overwhelming for the rest of the audio. It is by far the best sound system in my house.

The Bar 9.1 supports both optical and HDMI connection options, but you should go the HDMI route if possible. Optical only supports DTS and Dolby Digital, and even then you might suffer from bandwidth issues. HDMI has Atmos, DTS: X, and even more advanced lossless formats such as DTS-HD Master Audio. One thing to note here: you can only use the HDMI audio option if your TV is equipped with an ARC or eARC HDMI. Otherwise, you’ll have to use the optics, which doesn’t support all of the fancy Atmos features. If the other HDMI ports on your TV are using an older specification, you may need to use the soundbar’s HDMI input port to get 4K content from other sources. This describes my TV, so I’m very happy to see support for 4K HDR relay.

Should you buy it?

Buy it if …

• You want high-end sound for your home entertainment system, but you don’t want to install a bunch of speakers.
• You don’t mind spending a lot on a good sound system.

Don’t buy it if …

• Your TV’s built-in speakers or a cheaper sound bar are perfect for you.
• You love audio technology so much that Atmos’ poor support will ruin the experience.

Buy: Amazon, Crutchfield, B&H