JBL Bar 500: 5.1-Channel soundbar with MultiBeam™ and Dolby Atmos®, Black

Quality sound at a customers price!
I purchase this soundbar and wireless sub, TWICE! I bought one for myself to put in our living room early this year and man, the quality of sound is amazing. I’m a bit of a sound geek and I was skeptical to say the least upon the original purchase. However, the sound was very impressive. So much that I bought another for a family member this Christmas! Bluetooth is easy to operate, there is no sound lag like u see in lower quality sound bars, the sub is subtle and very suited for the application. 10/10!

Decent sounding soundbar
I ordered this on a black Friday sale. Overall it sounds decent. The sound seemed very narrow to me and the lack of upfiring speakers was very noticeable. I have returned it in favor of the Polk Magnifi Max AX and the sound is so much better from that soundbar. There is a decent price difference between the two though. Overall I think this is a good soundbar for the price when it is on sale.

very nice product.
very nice sound . Took longer to unpack than it did to hook it up…love it

JBL Bar 500: 5.1-Channel soundbar: not bad but not really 5.1 channel either
Got this for about $380 which at the time of this review is a decent (but not cheap) price for a decent soundbar and woofer combo.I will say that the set up was easy since it was plugged into a new TV with eARC ports. No issues at all calibrating (which took like 15 seconds) or connecting to the woofer (which is wireless). I kept the woofer within 7′ of the soundbar though. I don’t recommend trying to place it a whole lot farther since the wireless connection can be touchy at times at longer distances.The bar and woofer both appear to be well made. No creaky flexy plastic and everything has a nice heft to it. The bar is fairly big and, assuming you’re putting directly under the TV while its on a stand with legs and not wall mounted, will fit under 85″ TV’s but might not fit under some 73″ TV’s depending on how wide the legs sit. Definitely not anything smaller.Sound quality is noticeably better than the stock speakers on my new 85″ TV (Samsung UN85CU7000 2023 model). But that is normal these days. Used to be decent TV’s had decent speakers. Now even high end OLED’s that cost $2K+ typically have mediocre speakers built in. Then they push you to buy some soundbar system that costs another $800-$1K+ to milk you for more money.Pretty irritating IMO.There is also an improvement in the directionality of the sound but its nowhere near as good as a proper 5.1 channel sound system that has speakers behind where you’re sitting on both sides. Think of it as a glorified 2.1 channel sound system (yes this was tested with a movie that had 5.1 channel sound) with more pronounced directionality from the L and R and you won’t be disappointed. That is the main reason I knocked off some stars. If it says 5.1 sound on the box that is what I should be getting!! No ifs, ands, or buts about it!! Also even after discount vs MSRP this thing is on the pricey side for what you get. IMO it should’ve cost $100 less given the speakers that are in it. They aren’t bad ones but they’re definitely nothing all that special either.Of course I also think nearly all soundbars are WAY overpriced for what you get and nearly none of them perform as advertised so perhaps YMMV here. Out of a whole bunch of rather bad deals this was the best one at the time of purchase here in late 2023.

The subwoofer is 10/10 in concrete apartment it very difficult to have a good sound but this one did the job and i tested bose and none worked good in concrete,I didnt have to pair the sub with the bar it was already pair.1st thing to do is buy a very good HDMI cable quality get the best you can,2nd thing is UPDATE THE FIRMWARE ON WIFI because purevoice have a very important update that make it BAD/GOOD and the update is a massive change for purevoice quality sound, without the update it hisssss SSSSSSSS it was very bad before the update, DO THE UPDATE OR YOU GOING TO RETURN IT 100%. **IF YOU WANT GOOD SOUND FOR OLD PEOPLE DO NOT CALIBRATE BECAUSE IT GOING TO REDUCE CENTRAL SPEAKER (VOCAL ONE) FOR ATMOS ON SIDE SO YOU GOING TO UP AND DOWN VOLUME NON-STOP WITH VOCAL TOO LOW AND EFFECT TOO HIGH**3rd thing is setup your tv setting and use all potencial of a quality hdmi cable. You can go PCM (on tv) ** Do not dolby digital plus for old people it going mess the vocal just use normal dolby digital** and uncompressed audio quality, with a very good hdmi cable you can get best possible song from tv. Check every setting and tune it/test it **TUNE IT UNTIL YOU LOVE THE SOUND IF NOT KEEP ADJUST TV/CABLE BOX/JBL ONE APP4th: put the app on a tablet/phone and adjust the equalizer to your taste (For old people it can be flat you be fine with nice bass and perfect vocal IF YOU NOT USED CALIBRATE FEATURE).**This is a very good product if you take the time to adjust it and if you buy it for a 60+ years old do the update/setupOnTv/setupOnAPP take your time and you get what you want** ***DO NOT CALIBRATE IT BECAUSE IT RUIN THE SOUND BY MAKING VOCAL SUPER LOW AND ALL OTHER EFEFCT SUPER HIGH***Massive strong powerfull bass (i use level 3 if not calibrate and 1 if calibrate for young taste of the 5 and is strong).Clear voice dialog very good for 60 years old + people (IF NOT CALIBRATE AND NOT USE DOLBY DIGITAL PLUS).JBL Subwoofer work on concrete condo and thats pretty rare, i tried bose and returned the bose.If you can get it at 30% or more discount get it. If you buy it for your father is a good one the purevoice make all dialog very loud and clear. the bose tv speaker was good BUT the voice was canned into the bass and was hard to hear by old peoples even with the vocal mode ON.***WARNING THE JBL ONE APP IS A MESS AND EACH TIME YOU OPEN IT MAYBE IT RESET WHOLE THING AND CANT CONNECT TO THE SOUNDBAR UNTIL A RESET OF THE SOUNDBAR *BLOCKING WIFI* BUT THE JBL ONE APP IS ONLY GOOD FOR UPDATE THE FIRMWARE ONCE THEN AFTER YOU FINE TO NEVER USE IT AGAIN EVER***For young people in a house that want mega bass with mega effect do the dolby digital plus and calibrate you get loud home theater. BUT FOR 60+ YEARS OLD DO NOT CALIBRATE OR USE DOLBY GITAL PLUS STAY WITH DOLBY DIGITAL NOT THE PLUS THEN YOU GET THE BEST QUALITY FOR VOCAL AND A SOUND THAT YOU WONT KEEP UP/DOWN EACH 5 MINUTES.Remember for old peoples: NO CALIBRATE EVER (IF YOU DID JUST RESET THE BAR) AND NO DOLBY DIGITAL PLUS GO NORMAL DOLBY DIGITAL. with this you get the best movie sound quality and a subwoofer who punch but not like young kid in a sport car the whole building going to hear. (the PCM is the best sound possible for old people and no need to turn up/down volume every scene)trouble tips: If you just buy it and have some trouble with no audio sometime or stop working after a day or 3, this is because of the hdmi cable if you have a bad cable you can turn off the eARC to go in only normal ARC inside the tv setting. try look for a eARC quality hdmi cable if you not want any trouble.

Excelente bocina vale la pena cada peso muy recomendable