JBL - BAR 1300X

Get the 1300x if it's an option. People that are saying it isn't immersive are just lying to you. The Atmos can be better in some situations in my opinion, but watching movies like John Wick and horror movies or anything in that realm is very realistic, especially in a smaller room. My room is a 15x25, and I feel no loss in audio loudness and definitely not bass if you set it up the right way. Use proper speaker stands and set them up correctly. It’s almost perfect in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend it over a true home theater, but for a soundbar, it's one of the best in my opinion.

Personally, I own a JBL Bar 1300X and it's without a doubt the best money I've spent in a while until I finally get the couple thousand I need to get an actual home theater, but honestly, if you’re going to spend near 2k, I would recommend spending the little bit of extra money and getting the brand-new Nakamichi Shockwave for 2500. You get 11.2.6 and from what I've heard, they are without a doubt the soundbar kings unless, of course, you own a Samsung tv then the 990D and others are worth it because it can use the tv speakers as well, but I would look into Nakamichi before getting a Samsung or JBL.

My first soundbar ever was the LG SP8YA w/ sub and rear speaker kit. Since I was coming from built in tv speakers, I was unbelievably happy. Then I heard a Q990D at a friend's house, and immediately went to reddit where I saw basically everyone recommend it. Tried it off of Amazon for almost a month. It was definitely much better than the LG, but I couldn't help but feel the bass was lacking. Then I got a JBL Bar 1300X from Best buy to test side by side. The bass had me giggling like a little kid. I could not believe a soundbar based system was shaking my entire apartment like that. Unfortunately, I thought the rears flat out sucked, and the soundbar itself just felt small/tinny. Not that big of a soundstage. I returned *both.* I now have a Sonos Arc ultra w/ rears and dual subs. Its not even a comparison for me. Dual Subs give as much or more impact than the JBL in a much cleaner, higher quality way. The rears literally blow anything else I've ever heard away, and I don't even have the era 300s yet. And the soundbar itself is everything I wanted the Samsung to be. No I don't think it's 3x the system... So the q990f is a better value. But now that I know Sonos, id rather build a used system second hand (arc, sub 3 or sub mini, and era 100s for example for around 1k) or spend the extra money and just know I have way better sound. AND FOR MUSIC? Sonos gets even further ahead.

I’ve got the JBL Bar 1300x. Pretty bass heavy but otherwise phenomenal!! I’d say check out lower end JBL’s on said note

If you like more bass heavy stuff, you can get the JBL Bar 1300X for ~$850 from a factory refurbished place. Enjoyed mine a lot, but wasn’t quite what I wanted. Needed expandability down the road, but once calibrated and EQ’d how you like, the surround effects and overall sounds pretty good for what it is

I just got a JBL 1300x (MK1) and wasn’t impressed with it to be honest. The bar itself has no depth which means the crossover for the sub is high to address that; but I’m also picky with audio. I’ve noticed when the surrounds are plugged in to the bar, when playing music, no speakers on the bar produce sound, only the surrounds. Everything works when they’re unplugged of course. The bass is pretty dang good, just wish the EQ on the app would let you adjust stuff under 125hz, to help with that high crossover point. Honestly I don’t like the 1300x MK1 for music at ALL. Decent for movies however. If you’re paying ~1600 for the MK2, I’d check [this](https://store.nakamichi-usa.com/products/shockwafe-wireless-11-2-6) out. I’m returning my 1300x and picked up their Dragon setup. The dual 10” sub in the Shockwafe should provide more and better coverage for bass too.

I haven’t heard the 990f in my own room (just at a friends house), but have a JBL BAR1300X with 12” sub that I got refurb for $770, and have a Klipsch Flexus 300 with their 200 surrounds and their 12” sub. The Klipsch bar by itself was very impressive. Obviously much more expensive, but I think I’d rather go with just the Flexus 300 at first and add the surrounds and sub later with how good the bar itself was. It honestly surprised the crap out of me, I thought the sub was hooked up when I first set up the bar. If you have the extra coin to spend, I’d 100% recommend looking into the Klipsch setup. The 990f vs 1300x, the 990 has a little better bar clarity for music listening, but for movies, the punch from the 1300x fits my liking better, once I got the EQ dialed in on the app. It’s very impressive for the refurb price, if I paid retail, I’d absolutely rather spend the extra and get the Klipsch setup

I think soundbars are really only the solution when you don’t want/have room to have nice tower fronts and decent surrounds or running wires for each speaker throughout a room. They do provide a good bang for the buck for sure, but you end up paying more for a convenience factor for sure. I picked up a Nakamichi Dragon soundbar and the thing is awesome. If you have a room that will let the channels do their thing since the surround relies solely on bouncing sound off walls/ceiling. Have to keep that in mind for sure. The output is actually ridiculous, the stock quad 8’s do good for what they are but being a bass head, I had to change it up. Using their stock amps to send signal to a MiniDSP Flex, to a Behringer MIC2200V2, and one channel of a Crown XLS2502 is going to the 8’s running 200hz-70hz, and the other channel is going to a Stereo Integrity SQL15 with two Dayton Signature 15” passive radiators and ran DSP on both the channels. Took the sound from pretty good to surprisingly good. Room is a smaller like 15x15 I’d say, but watching movies it’s got stupid output. The surround actually does really good in a room like this, used REW to set the channel volumes through the soundbar and that helped a lot too. Think people tend to just guess with that stuff and ends up skewing their results. You’ll never beat the stereo separation for music that you can get from a good AVR and nice front speakers. I’ve got this bar tuned and EQ’d and now with the sub stage changed up and the 8’s acting as more of mid ranges, it’s really changed how it sounds. All in all it depends what your room setup is, if you want to run wires for all your surround speakers, ideally using in-ceiling speakers for your Atmos channels otherwise it’s the same deal that soundbars use with up-firing speakers just bouncing sound off the ceiling, and what you prioritize for your content. If you don’t listen to music much or aren’t a snob for certain things like immaculate channel separation for stereo listening, a soundbar is a good way to go until you want to upgrade and spend a good chunk of money to get a really nice AVR setup. I had the JBL 1300X before this and it was pretty good, heard a Q990D at a friends’ house in a similar room and he let me mess around with all of its settings, but the Dragon is leaps above those. I’d probably just stick with what you got, maybe see about adding an amplifier for your front stage if the ~95w/ch isn’t sufficient for what you’re looking for.

I use my jbl1300xmk2 mainly for playing 4k blu rays through the Panasonic 820 (which I have hooked up straight to the soundbar itself) I watch a host of different codecs from atmos to DTS hd 5.1 I can say that the neural upmixer for DTS content is very much improved on the mk2 vs the last generations 1300x. I really cannot recommend this bar enough. The Samsungs flagship for our living room and lifestyle just wouldn’t work. We have small kids so having the rears needing to be plugged into an outlet at all times just wouldn’t work as our youngest would mess with them constantly. However just being able to put the rears onto the table behind the couch when we are watching a film is an absolute game changer. I think for the 1699 (and we got it on sale last month on Amazon and it’s bound to be on sale again come Black Friday) this is probably the best in its class. Short of having a dedicated surround setup. Side note we owned last generations 1300x for 2 years before purchasing the mk2 last month and I will say the volume is much louder this generation on top of the clear audio 2.0 is a great improvement. I suppose the only downside is the lack of 2.1 passthrough. It’s not an issue for me as I have the ps5 going straight into the tv and then my 4k player straight into the soundbar and this works perfect for my setup.

I second the comment above. I live in a downtown apartment and had the first generation 1300x. The 12-in sub is simply too loud for apartment living. The bar 1000 with a 10-in sub is still going to give all the boom and shake one could possibly want but perhaps is better defined. If it were me doing it again in an apartment situation I would do bar 1000 MK2.

I too purchased the 1300x MK2 and can't wait to get moved in and hook it up. I had the Bar 1300x and have read nothing but high praise on the improvements made for the MK2.

If you have an unlimited budget, the JBL Bar 1300x or the 1300x mk2 variant. 1300x is on Woot right now (refurb) for under $900. It's phenomenal.

My pick would still be the Q990F. The JBL Bar 1300x is fun and hits hard, but it can’t be calibrated to reference level — you’re mostly stuck with preset tuning. With the Q990F, you can actually measure and fine-tune the frequency response (using tools like HouseCurve + SpaceFit Pro), balance the channels, and get it to reference-grade accuracy. Once dialed in, the Q990F has a cleaner, more cinematic presentation with proper object steering for Atmos. JBL’s dual subs are great for raw impact, but Samsung gives you more control and precision.

The JBL 1300x, the latest upgrade from the 9.1, offers incredible sound quality. You can easily configure it for an immersive movie experience by pulling out the rear speakers and placing them behind your seating area when watching action movies. Once the movie is over, simply put them back in place. JBL designed this feature to address the aesthetic concerns of permanent rear speakers.

Yes. JBL designed wireless rear speakers to address the aesthetic concerns of permanent rear speakers.

This sub, samsung this and samsung that. Search Samsung in the sub and you see the issues they have to deal with. It is actually JBL 1300x that you want to try and hear for yourself. The 12 in subwoofer alone will win you over.

Or someone has not tried JBL 1300x

Definitely JBL 1300x

Jbl 1300x is great for movies. The smart mode is designed for dialogue.

JBL 1300x doesnt have the center voice issue

Jbl 1300x and never look back

Jbl 1300x is great for both music and movies.

JBL 1300x is awesome soundbar. The bass is amazing. You can get a used one on Amazon for less than $1K.

Exactly. While JBL 1300x is at 11%, it is an awesome system with great bass range.

JBL 1300x. From the manual: 8.3 PureVoice dialogue enhancement technology By taking advantage of the PureVoice dialogue enhancement technology, the PureVoice allows you to enhance vocal clarity and easily hear and understand speech. By default, the PureVoice is enabled if you play movies from the TV/ HDMI IN source; and the PureVoice is disabled if you stream music over Bluetooth, Chromecast built-in, Alexa Cast and AirPlay. To disable or enable the voice mode, • On the remote control, press and hold for more than five seconds and then, press Bass * “ON PUREVOICE”: The PureVoice is enabled. * “OFF PUREVOICE”: The PureVoice is disabled. Next time you switch on the soundbar, the Purevoice is enabled again automatically.

A used jbl 1300x on amazon. Amazing bass!

$1K. A used JBl 1300x from Amazon.

Avoid Samsung. Im not sure about the LG but i am very happy with JBL 1300x.

Search this sub for “Samsung brick” and you can determine Samsung soundbar reliability for yourself. I have JbL 1300x and love it! Not much wire to run, amazing bass!

JBL 1300x solves all your wire concern needs. It also produces amazing bass with a 12-in subwoofer.

JBL 1300x has 12 in subwoofer. I heard many many thunders in real life but i got scared when i heard a thunder through that sound bar. You can feel the couch vibrates during action movies.

I also love the floor rumbling bass during movies of JBL 1300x. Get a used one on Amazon.

JBL 1300x rocks! The 12-in woofer produced amazing bass. Flexible wireless rear speakers. The best part is that it didn’t brick like many Samsung’s sound bars did.

I thought so with my old sound system too until I tried JBl 1300x. It’s 12-in subwoofer is amazing.

JBL 1300x rocks my house with 12 in subwoofer that you cant find in other soundbars.

Ya I demoed The JBL 700 and 1300x and they were both excellent for music as well as movies. Bought the 700. I also listened to the Yamaha favorite, good for movies but fell down on music. My opinion.