Get Them Here
So for that last few months the Bose Smart Sound 300 has been my go to sound bar. But today we’re going to see how it stacks up to these newer sound bars like the JBL Bar 5.0 and the Samsung HW-S60A. Now personally I am rather exited to compare the JBL sound bar to this new Samsung sound bar cause Samsung actually owns JBL. But nonetheless if you’re looking for a compact sound bar either for your bed room or small living room, lets see which ones right for you.
Regarding pricing the Samsung retails for $330, the JBL retails for $350, and the Bose retails for $400. So all three of these sound bars are in the same price range. Now for the purpose of this review we’re going to be evaluating these sound bars by themselves… But with both the Bose and Samsung sound bars you can always build them out with optional wireless sub woofers and wireless surround speakers… where as with the JBL sound bar you can’t build it out. Nonetheless all of these sound bars are going to be perfectly fine for a bed room or small to medium sized living room all by themselves.
Now first lets talk about the designs of these soundbars… size wise the Bose is the thinest sound bar here and it has the smallest foot print. So placing this sound bar in your set up is going to be a little easier than with the JBL and especially Samsung sound bar. But one very important thing to point out about the Samsung sound bar is that it also has an external power brick that you gotta hide where as these other two sound bars don’t. Now JBL’s sound bar is fairly small and low profile… but its just not as sleek as Bose’s sound bar.
Regarding ports, the Bose and Samsung sound bar are pretty much in the same boat. They’ve both got a single HDMI port to plug into your TV, they have an optical port if you’ve got an older TV that doesn’t have an HDMI ARC port, and they both have a micro USB port thats going to go mostly un-used.
Where as the JBL sound bar has little more going on. Most notably it has an HDMI in port so that you can plug in your blue ray player and the hope here is so that you can watch your dolby vision and dolby atmos content with minimal processing. It also has a USB A port which you can play music off if you plug in a USB stick and it also has an ethernet port so if you want you can hard wire this sound bar into your wifi network.
But one minor detail that I gotta point here is that both the JBL and Samsung sound bars come included with an HDMI cable which is nice where as Bose’s sound bar only comes included with an optical. Now if you want to get the most out of your Bose Sound Bar you wanna use it with an HDMI connection… but that means you’re going to have to shell out a little more cash and get your own HDMI cable.
Now regarding wireless connectivity, all three of these speakers have wifi and they all have Airplay 2 support, so as long as your device is connected to the same wifi network as this sound bar you can stream music to it. However just keep in mind only the JBL has that ethernet port if you want to get a hard wire connection going.
But also all three of these sound bars have bluetooth… so whether your sound bar is in an area of the house with spotty wifi or if you just want you share your sound bar with a friend so that they can DJ, then you can always just use bluetooth.
But now lets talk about what really matters and thats going to be sound. When it comes to speaker set ups these sound bars are very different from one another. Now first there’s the Samsung which has three frontward firing mid range tweeters and a pair of frontward firing woofers. But the Samsung also has a pair of transducers that fire out the sides of this sound bar which mostly focuses on the mids and highs. But then there’s the Bose which has a center front ward firing tweeter, which is flanked by a pair of frontward firing full range drivers. And on each side there’s another full range driver that shoots out at like a 45 degree angle. And finally there’s the JBL sound bar which has the most impressive set up here. The JBL has three front ward firing drivers, and on each side there’s another driver that shoots out at like a 45 degree angle very similar to the bose… But the stand out characteristic about the JBL is that it has a total of 4 passive radiators that shoot out the bottom and top of this speaker. Plainly said the JBL sound bar has an above average amount of bass and the bass on this sound bar hits so hard it’ll make you think that there’s a sub woofer in the room. But so that you can hear for yourself we’re going to jump into a sound test. But before we actually get into the sound test just know that we’re using my EQ settings. Out of the box the Samsung sounds very flat and bright, so I went in and raised the bass and lowered the highs through the smart things app… with the Bose I raised the bass a little bit and the JBL is playing while in its stock EQ.
So obviously like you may have just heard anything is going to sound better than you’re TV’s built in speakers. Your TV mostly like just has a pair of downward firing transducers that bounce sound off of the table. But the biggest issue for your TV’s built in speakers is going to be just the bass. If you’re watching a big action set piece or if you’re just gaming… if that bass gets going then your TV’s speakers is just going to be a rattling mess. Which just sounds awful but it can also take you out of the viewing experience.
Now when it comes to actually comparing these three sound bars… personally the Samsung is my least favorite sounding sound bar here. Now don’t get me wrong, its get the job done and its better than your TV’s built in speakers for sure… but the Samsung is the most narrow sounding sound bar here and it has very little physicality to its bass. So if you’re planning on getting a sound system and you want to feel what’s on the screen then you’re either going to have to get the optional sub woofer for this sound bar or you’re just going to want to go with a whole other sound bar period.
But then there’s the JBL Bar 5.0 who’s stand out characteristic is just its sheer amount of bass. Thanks to its upwards and down firing passive radiators this sound bar has an above average amount of bass to it. Now this sound bar doesn’t have as much bass as a proper sub woofer… but you can definitely feel what’s going on on the screen with this sound bar.
But bass isn’t everything, instrument separation on this sound bar is also very good and the mids and highs are well defined as well so they don’t get over powered by all the bass on this sound bar. However one problem with this sound bar is its dynamic range comparison. With this sound bar if you pump up the volume so that you can hear what people are saying when you’re watching a movie… if you then go into a big loud action set piece you’re going to have to lower the volume on this sound bar cause the action is just super loud.
Where as with the Bose, it does a much better job of bring out the dialog when people are talking so that you know what’s going on but it also does a good job of keeping those loud explosions in check when the action gets going which means that with the bose you can set it at a volume you like and forget it. Its not like the JBL that you gotta constantly raise and lower the volume.
But also the Bose has the widest sound stage here so it sounds very open. Now even though the bose doesn’t have those crazy passive radiators like the JBL… it still has a very good amount of bass to it so you can still feel what’s going on on the screen. So even though I like how the JBL sounds and it has a ton of bass which is great for movie… I gotta say that for the best viewing experience the Bose is the better way to go cause of the better dynamic range comparison which brings the dialog out and keeps those explosions in check so that you don’t have to constantly be changing the volume on your sound bar.
But finally I wanna talk about pairing these sound bars with other speakers. Since all of these soundbars have wifi support you can pair them up to any other smart speakers with AirPlay 2 or Chrome cast and have them all play in sync. But with the Bose if you’ve got a pair of Bose NC 700 headphones you can connect them to your sound bar and fully enjoy your content late at night without disturbing anybody. Which is a neat feature to consider if you already have a pair of NC 700 headphones.
So with all that being said, for me the Bose Smart sound bar 300 is still my go to sound bar as of summer 2021. The Bose offers a well rounded listening experience with with great instrument separation and a good amount of physicality to its bass. So even without a sub woofer you can still feel whats going on on the screen. But the important thing here is that the dynamic range comparison on the Bose brings out the dialog in a quiet scene and keeps the explosions in check when the action comes on. Where as even though I really like how the JBL sounds and the bass on this sound bar really is impressive… having to constantly raise and lower the volume on this sound bar when you’re watching something can get annoying. But still, the JBL Bar 5.0 is a decent sound bar for someone who’s really looking for bass from their sound system, im just splitting hairs between the Bose and JBL. But finally there’s the Samsung HW-S60A… for sure its better than your TV’s built in speakers and it gets the job done. But this is not my favorite sounding sound bar cause it does sound very narrow and leans more towards a brighter signature… and the bass on the this sound bar is very flat.