So JBL’s sound bar’s have always been good and they always brought with them a lot of extra features… but I always felt that they were a little clunky especially their software and audio normalization. But now we have the JBL Bar 300, and overall this is a good sound bar, but more importantly, the software is a lot more refined.

Now regarding pricing, the JBL Bar 300 has a retail price of $400, but just knowing JBL, I do expect this sound bar to go on sale on a regular basis. But more importantly, I truly feel the Bar 300 has a good sound to size ratio to it, plus its feature packed. Nonetheless, if you want to pick this sound bar up it’ll be linked down below.

Now first, I have to point out that with the JBL Bar 300, you can’t build it out like you can with some other sound bars out there. So if you decide to pick up the bar 300, you cant add satellite speakers to it or an external subwoofer to it like you can with lets say Bose’s or Sony’s sound bars.

But next up lets talk about the design of this sound bar. The bar 300 is relatively compact especially for the sound that it delivers. The Bar 300 has a length of 32 inches, a width of 4 inches and a hight of 2.2 inches. It also has a mostly plastic matte black body so this sound bar does a really good job of not causing any reflections, so it easily disappears in your set up, but there’s also a built in display that turns off after a few seconds and there are physical media control buttons up top as well.

Now the Bar 300 also comes included with wall mounting brackets… and this sound bar is relatively light weight, weighing in only at 5 and a half pounds… but also, this sound bar does not have an external power brick to worry about.. you just plug in an AC cable. So since this sound bar comes included with a wall mounting kit, its light weight, and there’s no external power brick, wall mounting this sound bar is very easy. And even if you’re not going to wall mount this sound bar… just not having an external power brick to worry about is just cleaner.

Now when it comes to ports, there’s an HDMI earc port which goes connected into your TV. And this sound bar comes included with a decent HDMI cable. But then there’s also an HDMI in port that supports up to 4K, HDR10 and Dolby Vision. So if you have a Blue Ray Player or a gaming console, you can plug it into there. But if your TV doesn’t have an HDMI Arc port, there’s also an optical port… but the Bar also still has an ethernet port, which is rather rare these days for sound bars. So if you want to hard wire your sound bar into your network, you can do that, and there’s also a USB A port where you can plug in a USB Stick and play music off of it.

But if you want to, you can always connect this sound bar up to your wifi, and I recommend that you do so that you can get the most out of it. Now the Bar has support for both Airplay and Chrome Cast, so you can always stream music to it as long as you’re on the same wifi network whether you’re an iPhone or an android user, but it also has bluetooth, so you can also connect directly to it with out the need of wifi.

Now this sound bar also comes included with a decent remote control… but honestly, I never use the remote control on my sound bar and instead I like to use their app. And thankfully JBL now has a sleek app for their sound bars. Now from here you can easily adjust the EQ of this sound bar to your liking. You can also easily do an audio calibration, and you can delay the Audio Sync if you have to. But also from here you have access to your remote control where you can toggle your source, adjust the volume, and adjust your Dolby Atmos Settings.

But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Now I feel the Bar 300 has a unique speaker set up for a sound bar these days. It has 4 frontward firing drivers, there’s an exhaust port that shoots out the back and there are two tweeters that shoot out the sides. Now this is a fully contained sound bar, as in there is no external sub woofer like with lets say the JBL Bar 500. And some people might just want fully contained sound bar cause they just don’t have the room for an external sub woofer, or maybe they don’t want to be that guy with the sub woofer always going on in the apartment next door. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test. The Bar 300 is playing at 75% volume, with its stock EQ and we’re going to be cycling between having Dolby atmos turned on and off. And also, we’re going to be using the built in speakers found on the 2023 Sony Bravia X90L TV and they’re going to be playing at max volume.

Sound Test

So like you may have just heard, obviously a sound bar is just going to sound better than your TV’s built in speakers. Your TV most likely just has a pair of drivers that shoot sound downwards, they don’t get all that loud and when the bass really gets going they’re just going to be a distorted mess.

Now the speakers on the Sony X90L’s get decently loud and distortion isn’t a problem for them like with some more affordable TV’s… but with the Sony X90L you’re still going to want to upgrade to a sound bar if you want to truly envoy your movies.

Now with the Bar 300, right off the bat I noticed that this sound bar has a very strong center channel and that’s partly cause you have all 4 main drivers firing directly at you. So with the Bar 300 it is very easy to hear and understand dialog with it. Now this sound bar also has very good instrument separation and with its stock EQ, its sounds very balanced.

But something that has been fixed with the Bar 300 is the audio normalization. With the Bar 300 it does a good job of bringing out people’s voices in quite scenes and explosions aren’t super loud any more. Cause with the JBL Bar 5.0, this was a sound bar that you would constantly have to readjust the volume on. Raise the volume during the quite scenes, and lower the volume when there was action on the screen.

But as for the left and right channel separation, I can’t help but feel that this sound bar leaves you wanting a little more… and since there are no upwards firing speakers on this sound bar… there isn’t a sense of verticality to it… in general, this is a decent sounding sound bar… but the immersivness isn’t up there like with some other sound bars.

Now when it comes to the bass on this sound bar, like I said, there is no external subwoofer… but the Bar 300 has a decent amount of bass to it… but its definitely not going to rattle any walls and its going to leave you wanting more as well and the bass on this sound bar is mostly on the audible side. You’re not really going to be able to feel what’s happening on the screen with this sound bar. Unfortunalty the Bar 300 just doesn’t have nearly the same amount of bass as its predecessor the JBL Bar 5.0 which had these huge built in passive radiators.

Now you can always go in and adjust the EQ to your liking and you can raise the bass… but the bass on the Bar 300 just isn’t up there, period. The JBL Bar 300 is going to be better suited if you just want to be able hear what people are saying… and you want to hear the bass… but the level of immersivness with this soundbar isn’t up there cause the left and right channel separation isn’t spectacular and you can’t really feel the bass all that much.

But finally there’s max volume performance on this sound bar. Now the JBL Bar 300 gets decently loud for a small or medium sized bedroom or living room… but if you have a larger living room, this sound bar just isn’t going to get loud enough. And if you plan on hosting multiple people… and if you’re looking for a sound system for your living room, then the Bar 300 is going to leave you wanting more as well. Overall, I would mainly recommend the JBL Bar 300 for a small or medium sized bed room or living room, and mainly for small viewing parties.

But with all of that being the JBL Bar 300 is still a solid pick up if you’re looking for a full self contained sound bar. From a design stand point its small and light weight, so placing it in your home theater setup or wall mounting it is relatively easy. Its also feature has that HDMI in port if you want it, so you can plug in a blue ray player or gaming console. You can also physically wire it into your wifi network, and the app on this sound bar is now much easier and more pleasant to use.

But when it comes to the actual sound of the Bar 300, the bar 300 is a good option if you want to better hear what people are saying cause it has a very strong center channel. However, don’t expect the bass on this sound bar to rattle any walls and don’t expect to be able to feel what’s happening on the screen.