If you’re in the market for a soundbar and you’re looking outside the boundaries of Samsung, Sony, and LG, then you may wish to cast your gaze over to the JBL Bar 1000. Laced with a couple of special physical features, it’s a home entertainment system trying to be more unique and less a “cut from the same cloth” sort of device.
What Am I Looking At?
As its name suggests, the Bar 1000 is a soundbar, designed to deliver a home entertainment and immersive listening experience within the confines of your home’s living room or, more specifically, the TV room. In terms of specifications, it’s a 7.1.4-channel device, with a total speaker power output of 880W. That’s through the combination of the soundbar and the two detachable surround sound speakers.
Connectivity for the Bar 1000 comprises Bluetooth, an HDMI out, three HDMI In ports, an Ethernet port, and a USB port that, given that we’re outside of the US, is only for servicing purposes. Control options are simple: the power and volume buttons are located at the top of the soundbar, and you have a remote control that allows you to switch between the different outputs. Oh, and there is also a subwoofer that wirelessly and automatically connects to the soundbar automatically when turned on.
What’s Good About It?
As a Bluetooth speaker, the Bar 1000 sounds impressive to my ears. Highs and mids are at the forefront, which is typical for a soundbar. Lows are handled by the sub-woofer, and you can adjust its strength based on how much you want to feel the “oomph”. Vocal clarity is top-notch, surprisingly, and songs from the likes of Ella Fitzgerald sound warm and bright. Likewise, if you were to take tracks from artists like Chihiro Onitsuka’s Gecko and Firefly, you can really feel the emotions oozing out from their performance.
The Bar 1000 can, and will rattle the ceiling quite literally, when you push the volume up close to its maximum output and the best part about it? It exhibits no signs of break or distortion. This is a good thing, especially if you’re watching a high-octane, action movie, as it really amps up those effects.
As an extra added bonus, one fun bit we had with the detachable surround speakers of the Bar 1000 was when my video team took to some bush mechanic-king and strapped them on to the headrest of a chair using zip-ties and praying to the forces of gravity that it wouldn’t fall apart. The end result is what you’d expect of a surround speaker: once calibrated through the dedicated button on the remote, watching a movie or gaming (the latter being what we did) with the setup actually works and still retained its immersion. Obviously, this isn’t the ideal setup and I wouldn’t recommend you do this, for reasons I will explain in the next section.
What’s The Catch?
While the detachable surround speakers at the side lend to the overall immersion when taken out of their cradle, it still isn’t practical in its execution – the battery inside them lasts for 10 hours, and when they’re low on battery, the only way you can charge them is by reconnecting to the side of the mother bar. On that note, JBL says it takes around three and a half hours to fully charge them when they’re drained. So, about the time it takes to finish watching Lord of the Ring’s Return of the King, then.
The performance, powerful as it is, isn’t consistent though. The lows tend to muddy up the other pitches when used to blast music. However, that muddying is…choosy and specific to certain genres. For example, if you were to play songs such as Nina Simone’s Feeling Good or Blur’s Tender, the output sounds normal. However. if you start playing tracks like Tank or Digging my Potato from Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts, it begins to sound bass-heavy and overwhelming, rather than balanced.
The other drawback to this speaker? It’ll cost you a whopping RM4,999. Granted, this isn’t the most expensive price tag we’ve seen slapped on a soundbar, but it’s far from the cheapest either.
Should I Buy It?
Again, at virtually RM5,000 a pop, the JBL Bar 1000 is not cheap but it’s not the most expensive soundbar on the market. At that asking price though, you are guaranteed a solid, powerful, immersive, and more importantly, entertainment system, complete surround sound when need be.
My only gripe with the Bar 1000 at this point isn’t the price but the fact that its detachable surround speakers feel more of a gimmick, rather than a substantial and value-added inclusion to the whole ensemble. If this is the route JBL plans on heading down for the foreseeable future with the range, then I would suggest they at least provide the speakers with an alternative charging method.
Photography by John Law.
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