Bar 500

I went with jbl SB590. Didn’t want to have a separate speakers setup .

MK1 500 here. Yes, kill the bass a bit, or at least make sure it’s not over shadowing the bar. Lift the midrange in the equaliser till it sounds better. If you’ve run calibration try a reset and then don’t run it, see how that sounds. Mine always needs a good tweak after running it.

Couldn't disagree more. My Sonos Arc Ultra is crystal clear while the JBL 500O had before is a muddy mess.

JBL Bar 500: 5.1-Channel soundbar with MultiBeam™ and Dolby Atmos®. $399 on Amazon now or you can wait until Black Friday for a deeper discount, if possible. I got this over a year ago and it's still performing perfectly. [https://a.co/d/9vyVwUh](https://a.co/d/9vyVwUh)

I had just bought a JBL Bar 500 mk1 last week on sale for $400 at Best Buy. Returned it 3 days later. The bass was awesome, but the mid range and dialogue was absolute trash. It felt like everyone speaking was doing so from behind a wall. I could not stand it. I tried EVERYTHING and every adjustment known to man. I felt huge buyer’s remorse and had to return it. People were saying the MK2 has better mids and dialogue. Glad to know I didn’t waste more time and effort going with the MK2 either. Believe it or not, I went back to my $150 13 year old 2.1 Vizio soundbar with sub. Weak as hell bass, but the dialogue is full and rich. I think im just going to get another 2.1 bar with a beefier sub. The problem with soundbars with a center channel is that it is just undersized. No matter how expensive you go, the center channel seems like it’s going to suck, just based on limitations of physical speaker size.

I have the Flexus Core 210 myself and it's a fantastic system. My experience with the Bar 500 MK1 was quite disappointing however I have heard that these MK2's are a significant improvement from the mk1's. I thought the mk1 subwoofer seemed very punchy & overemphasized in the mid bass. Apparently both the new subwoofer & bar are improved quite a bit. Between the 2 I think I might lean a bit more towards my Core 210, but I'd have to listen to both side by side to really determine, but I guarantee it's close so you really can't go wrong either way

Bose Smart 600 + BM700. The subwoofer is just madly powerful and honestly sits alone in my opinion. It plays very deep, possibly deeper than any other soundbar subwoofer right now, and has absolutely plenty of power so having enough bass shouldn't possibly be an issue. And the bar although small, is incredibly clean and detailed at any volume like you wouldn't believe. It's got a good amount of power in it too so it most likely won't seem like it's falling behind the subwoofer, unless of course you want it to, then just turn up the subwoofer, or buy a 2nd subwoofer if you're a true bass head. The new MK2 JBL soundbars might be a good one to look into as well. Different subwoofer than previously so hopefully they made improvements. JBL will provide you a lot of bass for the price, good but not excellent soundbar quality. But the subwoofer might not sound incredible either. The first generation JBL Bar 3.1 had a loud & clean subwoofer. The JBL Bar 500 I tried had a slightly different subwoofer that I somehow ended up thinking sounded noticeably worse than the Bar 3.1. Hopefully they improved the subwoofer this time.

Yes I looked it up and that has the "oval" shape I'm referring to. My bar 500 had that subwoofer design and I absolutely hated how it sounded. Somehow felt like they made the subwoofer worse than the previous design.

1000% the Bose setup. I had the Q800B myself before (not quite the 990 but it's the same subwoofer design), it was pretty good. I had the Bose Smart 600 + BM700 later, the BM700 absolutely blows the Samsung subwoofer away. It plays a little deeper than the Samsung, I bet it's louder at max volume too. And you can always add a 2nd subwoofer if you want to later on which you can't do with Samsung or JBL. As for the JBL, it's definitely a strong and loud ass subwoofer, but i guarantee it doesn't play as deep as the BM700. I've had many soundbar setups ranging from the JBL Bar 3.1, Bar 500, Sonos Arc + Sub Mini, Samsung Q800B, Sony S2000 + SW5 (garbage), & a few others. My 2 favorite subwoofers were definitely the BM700 & the Sonos Sub Mini, followed by the Samsung but pretty far behind. If you're after bass, I think Bose is quite possibly king, but there's one I do think could be a contender for that title too, but it's a little more expensive... The Sennheiser Ambeo Plus is a fantastic sounding system, I've only heard demos in stores but the demos are madly impressive. I have read about the Ambeo having a few minor bugs though so maybe consider trying it out with a way to return it easily. But the reason I bring them up is that they let you pair up to 4 Ambeo 8" subwoofers!! Yes FOUR subwoofers! I'd be putting one in each corner of the room if that was my setup. It's a really tough call for me to decide if the 4 Ambeo subwoofers can be louder than the 2 BM700's, but I kinda lean towards the 4 Ambeo subwoofers cause it's more cone area (32" with 4 Ambeo's vs 20" with 2 BM700"s). 2 BM700's will play a little deeper, but I think 4 Ambeo subs will be a little louder. But it's a tough choice for me cause it's also 2 ported subs vs 4 sealed subs..... Either way you'll have ridiculous amounts of bass!

Facebook marketplace & best buy open box deals can be a great place to get soundbars for a good price. I've had amazing deals. Got my Sonos Arc, 2 Era 100's, & sub Mini for $1200 which was an $1830+ system. Got my Bose Smart 600 + BM700 setup for $830 which was about a $1200 system. Bought a JBL Bar 500 for $250, went for $600 brand new. And I sold each one for a small profit too.

JBL BAR 500 is the best sound bar for $400 or less. I just bought one for Black Friday and am very happy with it. https://www.bestbuy.com/product/jbl-bar-500-5-1ch-soundbar-with-multibeam-and-dolby-atmos-black/J7LXFW2ZYW/sku/6532530?sb_share_source=PDP&ref=app_pdp&loc=pdp_page