BAR 1300X

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.

I'll share with you what I shared to someone else with the exact same problem. I had an LG SP8YA w/ sub and surrounds to start. Hot garbage. Sub virtually did nothing (literally.) I got to hear a friend's sound system once, no idea what components he had, and it made me want so much more for myself. I played around with some stuff from Onn and Vizio, but all garbage as well. Because of this subreddit I upgraded to the Q990D. Huge improvement over the LG. I think if *all* you care about is value, and you're coming from TV speakers or a really basic soundbar, it's a freaking sweet deal and system. But I still just wasnt happy with the bass, or how the system *felt * I returned it and tried the JBL 1300X. HO. LY. CRAP. The subwoofer was absolutely unbelievable... That 12 inch downward firing driver had me giggling like I was a kid again. But everything else about it was meh. Surrounds barely did anything for me no matter what I tweaked, and the bar didn't sound as good as the Q990D either, which I already didn't love. Then, because of a reallyyyyy annoying mishap with a Best buy store, the manager helped me out and I ended up getting a 2nd Gen Sonos Beam, w/ a sub mini for literally a couple hundred bucks. I got some cheap random Sonos/IKEA surrounds off Offerup, a PAIR for $90. It...... *DESTROYED* everything is heard. The subwoofer was absolutely phenomenal, the surrounds were ACTUAL speakers so just so much more capable than all the little surround satellites kits come with, and even though the bar was small, it sounded much bigger, but more importantly, FELT great. Really really rich and warm sound profile that I loved. I bought a pair of era 100s to replace my cheap rears to add rear virtual Atmos since the beam 2 has virtual Atmos up front, and LOVED that system. Blew everyone that came over away. Since then I've moved that system to my inlaws, and myself have an arc ultra w/ dual gen 3 subs, era 300s, and used a 3rd party app to add era 100s as FRONT surrounds. The system literally makes people who come over say they would never go to a movie theater again lol my first Sonos setup already blew everything else out of the water, but my current setup makes the Q990 series sound like a toy. If you're a bass head, I recommend Sonos first overall. If money is no object, and for some reason you're opposed to Sonos (like you have a ton of physical blu ray discs so you require DTS), check out the nakamichi dragon, or you can also look at Klipsch. The flexus core 300 bar w/ 2 subs and their surrounds will be much better than the Samsung. If you're coming from TV speakers, but you love bass AND value, so you want the cheapest thing possible with crazy bass, unquestionably the JBL 1300.

I had an LG SP8YA w/ sub and surrounds to start. Hot garbage. Sub virtually did nothing (literally.) I got to hear a friend's sound system once, no idea what components he had, and it made me want so much more for myself. I played around with some stuff from Onn and Vizio, but all garbage as well. Because of this subreddit I upgraded to the Q990D. Huge improvement over the LG. I think if *all* you care about is value, and you're coming from TV speakers or a really basic soundbar, it's a freaking sweet deal and system. But I still just wasnt happy with the bass, or how the system *felt * I returned it and tried the JBL 1300X. HO. LY. CRAP. The subwoofer was absolutely unbelievable... That 12 inch downward firing driver had me giggling like I was a kid again. But everything else about it was meh. Surrounds barely did anything for me no matter what I tweaked, and the bar didn't sound as good as the Q990D either, which I already didn't love. Then, because of a reallyyyyy annoying mishap with a Best buy store, the manager helped me out and I ended up getting a 2nd Gen Sonos Beam, w/ a sub mini for literally a couple hundred bucks. I got some cheap random Sonos/IKEA surrounds off Offerup, a PAIR for $90. It...... *DESTROYED* everything is heard. The subwoofer was absolutely phenomenal, the surrounds were ACTUAL speakers so just so much more capable than all the little surround satellites kits come with, and even though the bar was small, it sounded much bigger, but more importantly, FELT great. Really really rich and warm sound profile that I loved. I bought a pair of era 100s to replace my cheap rears to add rear virtual Atmos since the beam 2 has virtual Atmos up front, and LOVED that system. Blew everyone that came over away. Since then I've moved that system to my inlaws, and myself have an arc ultra w/ dual gen 3 subs, era 300s, and used a 3rd party app to add era 100s as FRONT surrounds. The system literally makes people who come over say they would never go to a movie theater again lol my first Sonos setup already blew everything else out of the water, but my current setup makes the Q990 series sound like a toy. If you're a bass head, I recommend Sonos first overall. If money is no object, and for some reason you're opposed to Sonos (like you have a ton of physical blu ray discs so you require DTS), check out the nakamichi dragon, or you can also look at Klipsch. The flexus core 300 bar w/ 2 subs and their surrounds will be much better than the Samsung. If you're coming from TV speakers, but you love bass AND value, so you want the cheapest thing possible with crazy bass, unquestionably the JBL 1300.

Because of this subreddit I tried a full setup from LG, then a Q990D, and then a JBL 1300X. Each was a progressive step up, but all pale in comparison to Sonos for me. My first Sonos system was the Beam Gen 2 w/ a sub mini and the IKEA symfonisk bookshelf speakers as rears, and even that was better than all the others lol Now I have an arc ultra, dual subs, era 300s as rears, and thanks to a 3rd party app, era 100s as front L/R and the sound absolutely embarrasses anything else that comes from a soundbar. You have the budget to get creative based off what you want and are willing to do. Knowing what I know and actually testing and owning all of these systems, if I was LITERALLY you and didn't want to go over $1500 right now, I would get either a Sonos Arc Ultra and a sub mini, and add the surrounds later... Or I would get the Sonos Arc Ultra and a pair of Era 100s and add the sub later. The second I could afford it, I'd add the missing link. If for some reason you NEVER want to spend over $1500, id unquestionably go used Sonos. Arc ultra for ~$800, sub mini for ~300, and a pair of Era 100s for ~300. $1400 NO TAX and you'd be set with no need to upgrade. If you want to buy from a retailer that has return window and warranty, then Sonos also has an official refurb section. A beam gen 2 is 400 and original arc is 450, sub mini is 400, and era 100 is $180 each. That means an arc, sub mini, and era 100s would be $1210. ($50 less if you go beam gen 2) All from Sonos directly, but if you went with a used arc ultra it'd be more like You'd have enough room to get another pair of Era 100s and the $3 sonosequencr app to use them as fronts, and again... It'll destroy anything else. And since you wouldn't have gone arc ultra this way, it's worth it to be the better dialogue. The arc ultra has much better dialogue but the front era 100s will help the arc sound better in that regard plus give you the enormous soundstage a bar on its own can't. Moral of the story is go with the best Sonos system you're willing to spend on.

The X version using standard subwoofer, not the dual 8 inch one. I believe it won't be that impresive compare to the original 1300MK2 without the X in the name

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.