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 500, and overall this is a good sound bar, but more importantly, the software is a lot more refined. You can think of the Bar 500 as a suped up version of the Bar 300.

Now regarding pricing, the JBL Bar 500 has a retail price of $600, but just knowing JBL, I do expect this sound bar to go on sale on a regular basis. Nonetheless, if you want to pick this sound bar up it’ll be linked down below.

Now first off, I do have to point out that the Bar 500 comes included with an external subwoofer. Which is great. However, everyone might not have room or want an external subwoofer due to their needs and wants. So if you need a fully self contained sound bar, you’ll might want to look at the JBL Bar 300, Bose Smart Sound Bar 600, or the Sony S2000. And also, with the Bar 500, even though it has a wireless subwoofer, you can’t add any satellite speakers to it.

But next up lets talk about the design of this sound bar. The bar 500 is relatively compact especially for the sound that it delivers. The Bar 500 has a length of 40 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 500 also comes included with wall mounting brackets… and this sound bar is relatively light weight, weighing in only at 6.2 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.

But also, like I mentioned earlier, the Bar 500 comes included with an external sub woofer. Now this external sub woofer also doesn’t have a power brick that you have to worry about, and since its wireless, you can place this subwoofer anywhere you want and it’ll automatically connect to the sound bar. The only thing is, this subwoofer is pretty big. Its 12 by 12 and it has a hight if 17.3 inches. So placing it can be a bit of a problem.

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 now lets talk about sound, regarding speaker setup, the Bar 500 has three tweeters, one shoots out the front, and the other two shoot out the sides. And there’s a total of 4 speakers that shoot out the front. And unlike with lets say the Bar 300, there are no exhaust ports found on the sound bar it self. All of the bass production is handled by the external 10 inch subwoofer. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test. The Bar 500 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.

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 500, something that I really noticed about this sound bar is that is has a very strong center channel and that’s cause you have that tweeter and those 4 drivers shooting directly at you. So hearing and understanding dialog with this sound bar is very easy.

But more importantly, I noticed that the Bar 500 has better left and right channel separation than the smaller JBL Bar 300, and that’s cause the Bar 500 just gets louder than the bar 300. So the side tweeters are just easier to hear and they’re more noticeable than the side tweeters found on the Bar 300. But there still is no sense of verticality with the Bar 500 cause this sound bar doesn’t have any upwards firing speakers.

But overall, the JBL Bar 500 does a better job of immersing you in your content than the smaller JBL Bar 300 cause those side tweeters are able to put out more work here. So its much easier to make out the left channel and the right channel.

But also, the audio normalization on this sound bar is much better this time around. Cause with JBL’s older sound bars, I always found myself having to raise the volume during quite scenes so that I could hear the dialog and I would have to lower the volume when there were action scenes cause the explosions were too loud. But thankfully that’s no longer the case with this sound bar.

But then there’s the bass and the subwoofer on this speaker. Now with this subwoofer, you’re going to be able to actually feel what’s happening on the screen. And this subwoofer is going to somewhat rattle the walls in your house. However, I do feel that the bass coming out of this subwoofer can be a little muddy at times and it does feel a little loose when compared to other sub woofers out there. And also, just given the sheer size this subwoofer, I can’t help but feel that I wish that it put out a little more. Now you can always go in and adjust the EQ of this sound bar, and if you go in and raise the bass, you’re going to get more out of it… but still the bass sounds a little muddy at times. Overall, this is a decent performing subwoofer and it gets the job done, but its punch isn’t as precise as with some other subwoofers out there.

But finally there’s the max volume performance of this sound bar. Now the bar 500 is going to have no problem filling a large living room with sound. And if you’re looking for a sound system for your living room to entertain guests with, than the Bar 500 should be able to keep up, no problem.

But with all of that being said, the JBL Bar 500 is a great and affordable sound bar that also comes included with a subwoofer. From a design standpoint, the sound bar it self is relatively slim and light weight, making it fairly easy to wall mount and should be able to easily fit in most home theater set ups. The only thing is, the subwoofer is a little big. But from a features standpoint, the Bar 500 has the HDMI in port if you want to plug in your gaming console or blue ray player, it has both Airplay and chrome cast support, and more importantly, it has a solid app now.

But more importantly, when it comes to the sound performance of the Bar 500, this sound bar has a very strong center channel cause it has those 4 drivers and that tweeter firing directly at you, but its also have better left and right channel separation than the bar 300 cause the side tweeters are more active. The Bar 500 also has really good bass to it thanks to its 10 inch subwoofer, but I do feel that this subwoofer can sound a little muddy and I wish it put out a little more bass given its size.