With cinemas still closed in most places, the home theater experience is more important than ever. A sophisticated Atmos surround sound system can take your visual experience to the next level, but you may not want to run wires or have speakers permanently installed in your room. Well, this is the niche that JBL aims for with JBL Bar 9.1. It’s an Atmos-enabled sound bar with an incredible 820 W of power and removable satellite speakers that you can place around the room when you need them. It also has full integration with Google’s Chromecast platform, so you can manage it in the Home app. Although the audio experience is great, the price is not. JBL wants a great price for Bar 9.1, which is more than most people should pay for convenience.
Design, hardware, what’s in the box
Bar 9.1 looks like a regular sound bar, with its gray box and several speaker grids, but it is a big boy almost 35 inches wide. The top and sides are made of metal, but the bottom and back are made of plastic. At the rear, you have its ports including power, USB, optics, ethernet and two HDMI ports (ARC audio and 4K HDR pass-through). The 10-inch subwoofer is very simple physically, but it is big. Ideally, you want the sub at least a few feet away from the soundbar, which may not be possible in smaller spaces.
There is no real screen on the soundbar – all it has is a “matrix” panel on the front that can display a few characters at a time. This makes confusion with the settings quite uncomfortable, usually requiring you to hold one or more buttons on the remote and wait for messages to flow through. The sound bar has some physical controls on the top surface, but all are 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 search for the button combos needed to change the settings.
You can choose to configure Bar 9.1 with cables and end the day. However, it also has Wi-Fi connectivity and, to use it, you will need the Google Home app. That’s how you connect the bar to your WiFi and the bar keeps your firmware up to date. Once added to your account, it appears in the Home app like any other Chromecast-compatible speaker. You can add it to groups of speakers and play it from any local device. Bluetooth and Air Play 2 are also supported if you are not in Google’s home ecosystem.
The satellite speakers are magnetically coupled to the ends of the bar for charging and they are there very securely. If you didn’t know about removable satellites, you probably would never know they come out. When disconnected, the satellites will be synchronized wirelessly with the rest of the system. I also had no connectivity issues during my tests. Satellites should offer 10 hours of playback, and that seems more or less accurate based on my time with Bar 9.1. It’s probably a bit less, but you shouldn’t have a problem watching some consecutive movies without fitting the speakers.
This is a $ 1,000 audio system, so you would expect some extras in the box. There is the remote control, the sound bar, the satellite speakers and the subwoofer, of course. There are also power cables, an HDMI cable and a wall mount kit. Be careful if you decide to follow this path; the sound bar with attached speakers weighs more than 4.5 kg.
Audio and resources
Although Bar 9.1 has “9.1” in its name, it is actually known as a 5.1.4 configuration. The “best” Atmos systems have overhead speakers, which you don’t get with Bar 9.1. However, the sound bar can bounce the sound from the ceiling to create a more immersive experience. You will have to calibrate the speakers according to your room, which is one of those things that requires an esoteric combination of pressed buttons. Due to this speaker configuration, the Atmos “height” channel is weak compared to systems with dedicated speakers. However, if you have never installed Atmos at home, you will probably still be impressed.
Fortunately, that’s the only negative thing I have to say about audio quality. Everything from movies to shows has incredible sound at JBL Bar 9.1. In the standard settings, the soundbar has powerful, but not oppressive, rich, pleasant bass and clear treble. Even with the bass very loud, it is intense, but not overwhelming for the rest of the audio. This is without a doubt the best sound system in my house.
Bar 9.1 supports both optical and HDMI connection options, but you should follow the HDMI route, if possible. Optical supports only DTS and Dolby Digital, and you may still experience bandwidth problems. HDMI has Atmos, DTS: X and even more advanced lossless formats like DTS-HD Master Audio. One thing to note here: you can only use the HDMI audio option if your TV has an ARC or eARC HDMI. Otherwise, you will have to use optics, which does not support all the sophisticated things in Atmos. If the other HDMI ports on your TV use an older specification, you may need to use the HDMI input port on the sound bar to obtain 4K content from other sources. This describes my TV, so I am very pleased to see support for 4K HDR pass-through.
Should you buy?
Perhaps, but only if you’re a high-quality audio nerd – and not so nerdy as to install a complete Atmos system. The JBL Bar 9.1 offers excellent audio in a compact and attractive package. You do not need to install speakers or run cables, and it supports all existing audio formats (via HDMI). I also appreciate that satellites can remain attached to the soundbar most of the time. It’s easy to pick up the speakers and put them around the room when I’m watching something with high-quality audio, and the rest of the time, they’re out of the way. I am also happy to have the integration of Google Home with Bar 9.1 because, again, it is the best speaker configuration in my home.
The only hardware problem I see is the lack of a screen. Even a rudimentary menu system would be easier than using combinations of buttons on the remote and the simple dot matrix display. This is not a big problem, but the price is. JBL Bar 9.1 is keeping very close to its suggested price of $ 1,000, even after months of availability.
Buy if …
- You want high quality audio for your home entertainment system, but you don’t want to install many speakers.
- You don’t mind spending a lot on a good sound system.
Don’t buy if …
- The TV’s built-in speakers or a cheaper sound bar sound good enough for you.
- You love audio technology so much that Atmos’s mediocre support will ruin the experience.
Purchase: Amazon, Crutchfield, B&H