JBL Bar 9.1 – Channel Soundbar System with Surround Speakers and Dolby Atmos, Black

The JBL Bar 9.1 is awesome!! It has everything you ever want!
****UPDATE 6/11/20It looks like the Fire TV Stick 4K doesn’t do Atmos with the JBL Bar 9.1. I don’t think the Cube TV does it too. I just picked up a Shield TV 2019 and Atmos works on Netflix and Disney+. The system will tell you in the front that it’s doing Atmos so don’t believe on what you see just on screen on any app. The trick with the Shield TV is that you need to turn off Dolby Surround in the audio settings.The Sonos Arc is out now and honestly it’s a good system but overall this JBL Bar 9.1 fits my needs better. It’s has Bluetooth, HDMI IN, chromecast, DTS-X, and fully wireless up-firing rears. If all you want to do is get a single sound bar setup and didn’t want to spend more then $800 then get Sonos Arc as it’s a great speaker just by itself. If you want more and want the complete package then just spend $200 more period.US version doesn’t get the 4 side caps after all. Which sucks and u wish you could just buy them separately. I’m still talking to JBL about giving them to me so we’ll see. JBL should’ve included them in the first place, come on we are spending $1,000 on this.******I don’t write a lot of reviews and honestly this is probably my first one ever on Amazon. I feel like I need to with this product just to defend it after reading the other reviews so far.I got my unit about 1 1/2 weeks ago and so far it’s been near perfect. There were some hiccups in the beginning but I haven’t had any issues since. This is an excellent surround system period! Yeah it’s true that this isn’t a ture 9.1 system like one of the reviewer said but what it does have is 9 separate channels of sound though. It’s all just marketing from JBL. I don’t mind it being just a 5.1.4 system as all I really wanted were the up firing Atmos speakers. One thing that I do wish this had are some side firing speakers to make it 7.1.4 like the Q90R. That system is $1,600 though.In the box I was missing the 4 side caps though but I think that was by accident maybe. I did reach out to JBL to see why it was missing. They didn’t mention that it wasn’t part of the US packaging. They don’t have it in stock at this time but will ship them out to me once they are. I did get the mounting brackets though unlike the other reviewer. Also I didn’t know it was supposed to come with micro USB cables as well but that’s fine as I will just get some later on if I decide to hard power the rears.I was able to calibrate my system just fine. It’s a 2 stage process and takes a few minutes. I didn’t have to do anything extra then what I saw in the manual. I do wish the remote had more buttons for Night Mode, Smart Mode (Hold mute for 5 secs, let go and hit VOL +), & Sound Mode (EQ modes if they did support it like the Bar 5.1). Yeah I do wish this system had more refine settings to mess with like the menu system on my Sony. It would’ve been great if it did have an app for it as well.My TV does support Atmos but I plugged my Fire Stick 4K directly into the Bar 9.1. My Disney+ does show Atmos along with Vision. Netflix is showing Vision only but I wasn’t aware that the app on the Stick 4K doesn’t support Atmos. I’m looking to either get the Shield TV (2019) or the new Apple TV 4K whenever it comes out. The Stick 4K does support YouTube HDR though. I’m planning to upgrade my TV either this year or the next with eARC support and ATSC 3.0. I’m eyeballing the Sony 900H at this time.The rear battery life have been great so far. I have been able to watch several TV shows and movies the night before then wake up to watch additional TV without charging them again. It does prompt you when they are low though so you could either charge them via micro USB or with the bar. I believe it does have quick charge but I’m not too sure. I do wish you could tell how much battery life is left though. You could however hit the power button to see the LED indicator, again app support would’ve been nice. Having no wires is awesome though and it’s nice knowing that I could always hard wire them in the future if I wanted to.Chromecast aka Google Cast + Airplay 2 support are great and was one of the main reasons why I got this unit over the Samsung Q90R plus I’m a Google fan! The bass is booming and I love being able to turn it up or down. I use this for music too over Bluetooth and casting, both sound awesome but casting will give you higher fidelity. Of course each peices of this setup won’t sound as nice as a Sonos setup (~$1,800 total for ARC, Sub, 2 Ones) but it’s not meant to be at almost half the price. Sonos doesn’t have have DTS-X or HDMI INs though which are deal breakers for a lot of people out there. I does have support for Airplay 2 but I don’t think you could Chromecast though. Having 820W on the JBL Bar 9.1 makes this system louder then the Q90R which was one of the main complaint about it.Overall it’s an awesome system that is near perfect. I’m still giving it 5 stars though because basically JBL gave us everything necessary in a modern system without any extra for a great price. Yeah this system will be on sale eventually at $800 or less but I couldn’t wait and I’m glad that I got it now instead. They’re still hard to find at this time though being sold out everywhere. If you could get one now you should. It’s worth every penny like most JBL products are. Good luck with your shopping and thanks for reading my long review.

It’s puts my old surround system to shame!
Firstly, the packaging was put together well and sturdy. The unboxing and setup was straightforward and quick, run hdmi between EARC on the sound bar and tv, then plug in power to the sub and sound-bar. I originally had setup the system to my Wi-Fi but while troubleshooting a spotty internet connection a couple weeks later I reset my router and passwords. In doing that the sound bar wouldn’t connect to the Wi-Fi. So in my case I just ran another Ethernet cable to the sound-bar and boom, all is well again! Now I’m no audiophile but this system is just wow. I didn’t know a sound bar system could sound this damn good. I hear great things about the Sonos but it’s more than double the cost of this for the whole setup. I have been thoroughly impressed with this, the bass is ridiculous, it will literally shake things in your house. The mids and highs are pretty nice also, so this JBL isn’t just a one trick pony with the bass. But to reiterate, the bass is amazing! Removing the satellite speakers and calibrating to my room was simple, just a couple presses on the remote and it runs it’s own calibration. My system came with the latest software update installed, with that said I have not experienced a single cut or drop out from the satellite speakers. The battery life seems good, I haven’t tried to kill them but I think the longest they’ve been used straight was around 5 hours at medium to high volume and the did great. I do typically leave them connected to the sound-bar for normal tv watching or YouTube videos, but when I get into a good show or jump into some games I will disconnect them and set them around the room for the full experience. I don’t know much about ATMOS, I understand what it does but I haven’t watched anything yet that is ATMOS enabled. With it being connected via EARC the CEC thingy in my tv fully controls the sound system. I turn on my tv and the JBL turns on with it. The volume control works through my tv remote flawlessly, it’s the little things like not having to constantly grab another remote to make life worth living lol. My only real complaint (and this isn’t a dealbreaker by any stretch) would be the remote and it’s lack of tuning capabilities. It’s a very simple remote with minimal buttons, but the few things you can adjust make a big difference in the sound. All in all I’m completely happy with this and I don’t think anything can even come close to it for the money!

The saying nobody/nothing is perfect applies to this product. I’ve been looking for the best home theatre system with Dolby Atmos for my home. I don’t like the usual ones that has wires with them because it takes a lot of time installing them. I have been eyeing one product that has wireless subwoofer but then its satellite speakers are attached to it. I wanted something that would minimize clutter on my sofa side tables, something that I can just put away after watching a movie. It took me more than a year of waiting for the best one to come along. Finally, I was stumbled upon JBL 9.1 on Amazon this year. It was attracted to it being truly wireless Dolby Atmos surround sound speakers which is the perfect one that I have been looking for. Totally no wires cluttering around my living room and easy to install. After watching and reading reviews on this, I finally decided to purchase it. At CAD 999.99, the price is not bad at all because aesthetically, this sound bar looks great! The build quality is good! Although it is made of plastic but it looks quite premium. The only downside for me is that some of the movies I watched, the dialogues are not that audible enough, especially when watching some of Amazon Prime’s TV series. I need to pump up the volume just to be able to hear the dialogues well. This is not good for me because when I the volume is up, the background sound becomes so loud which I don’t like. The Dolby Atmos effects is good.I played a Dolby Atmos rainforest video and my wife, who is not an audiofile, would say that she can hear the sounds of birds from above and the rain sounds coming down from the ceiling. Very powerful bass! I set the subwoofer’s volume to just 3 because I feel like if I set it even higher it might blow my walls down. It is very long for the base of my 55″ Roku TV but I was able to solve this by buying a TV stand that adds a good space for it to sit at the base of my TV. Despite its imperfections, overall, I am still pleased with my purchase. For me it is still the best priced and the only one truly wireless soundbar Dolby Atmos with DTX soundbar as of mid 2020.

Pros: incredible sound, easy to use, solid construction, simple to set up. 4k pass-through, Dolby Atmos/DTS-X, hdmi E-ARC. Affordable.Cons: constantly searching for wifi signal (no way to disable this) questionable software support, turns itself on (interrupting the rear speaker charge cycle) questionable quality control. Drops rear signal to either speaker once in a while.I absolutely love this system and hope it lasts for years. Grab an extended warranty. There is definitely a chance you’ll be needing it. Ive had mine since Boxing Day and use it every day.

too bad, they were great when they worked. still very good, but this is an known issue. very good as a soundbar. excellent tv speaker. dolby vision, atmos, dts, 9.1. still no comparison to when I could use rears as they were intended.