JBL Bar 5.0 MultiBeam review: enjoy movie sound

JBL comes with a soundbar that would like to replace the complete surround installation for your TV. The brand uses its MultiBeam technology for this, and the JBL Bar 5.0 presents itself as an all-in-one cinema experience for the home. In this review you will discover whether it also lives up to expectations.

JBL Bar 5.0 MultiBeam

The Bar 5.0 MultiBeam introduces itself, a new soundbar with great ambitions and a price from the middle segment. With its suggested retail price of 399 euros, it is not the cheapest, but on the other hand, if you know how big his ambitions are, the price looks very interesting.

The Bar 5.0 comes with MultiBeam technology. The audio drivers are carefully focused, and the soundbar therefore promises a 3D surround experience in your living room. According to JBL, his product is only capable of creating a cinema experience, and of course we also tested that.

Good design, and that’s how it should be

The Bar 5.0 has a design that won’t offend interior designers. The Bar 5.0 MultiBeam just looks good, without bells and whistles and with a design that disappears nicely into the background. You can simply place the soundbar on your TV cabinet, or mount it on the wall.

The Bar 5.0 uses LEDs behind the speaker grille as a simple display. That is a very neat solution, and you will also find the simple buttons for operation at the top. There is not only a speaker grill at the front, but also one at the top, and at the back you will find all the ports: an optical audio connection, two HDMI ports (in and out), an ethernet connection and the port for the mains adapter.

Easy installation

To connect the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam to your TV, use the included HDMI cable. It is best to connect it via the HDMI OUT port to an HDMI ARC connection of your TV, because that provides the best sound effects. In addition, you can connect a game console or Blu-ray player directly to the HDMI IN port.

The Bar 5.0 MultiBeam works with Alexa Multi-Room Music (ARM), Apple Airplay 2 and Chromecast. So all I had to do was put it in ‘Wi-Fi set-up’ mode with the control buttons and then I could connect it to my WiFi network via the Google Home app. Extremely convenient. If you already have a speaker group in the Home app at home, you can also add it to it if you want to listen to music, for example.

Keep in mind that this soundbar does not work with the Google Assistant, and that is a function that the JBL Link Bar does have. And that soundbar provides support for Android TV on top of that, although it does not come close to the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam with its sound.

The service is a job

I also encountered a less user-friendly aspect, and that is in the operation. The Bar 5.0 comes with a single control button on the device and a simplistic remote control. So to adjust settings like the bass level or to calibrate the surround sound, you have to long-press or combine buttons, and that’s not exactly easy or intuitive.

This soundbar actually lacks a handy app where you can find all these options in the blink of an eye. The Bar 5.1 Surround, another soundbar from JBL, does have its own app, but only for installation. Most bluetooth earphones come with an accompanying app, but it is certainly not a luxury for soundbars either. Is there the price difference with, say, the Sonos Beam (449 euros), which works in the Sonos app together with all other speakers of the brand? It looks like that.

Sound

Movies and series

The most important task for a soundbar is of course to make watching movies and series a more fun and immersive experience, and the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam absolutely succeeds in that. Anyone who puts on an action film or plays a shooter game will empathize much more with the content, because that is how the sound effects come into their own. The moments when Indiana Jones runs from a large rolling boulder, or when lightsabers collide in Star Wars, are exactly why you get a soundbar like this.

Effects sound best on the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam when you also turn on the Virtual Dolby Atmos function with the button on the remote control. With this function, you can optimally enjoy sound effects while streaming movies and series. The Bar 5.0 MultiBeam has passive radiators at the top that can have sound effects directed upwards. Can that MultiBeam technology really replace a 5.1 surround set? No, because sound that comes from behind cannot be imitated with a single soundbar. But for the rest of the effects, the Bar 5.0 is a joy to have around the house. It is also nice that no separate subwoofer is required, and that simple set-up will appeal to users.

When you watch TV programs, you can turn on the Smart mode with the remote control. This is in fact an equalizer function that produces richer sound effects. If the weather chat is busy, you can turn the function off again, but the Smart mode has never really disturbed while using the soundbar.

Music

You can certainly also use the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam to brighten things up at home with some nice songs. Music generally resonates well on the soundbar, except for the low tones. Where the lack of a subwoofer was not a problem for film sound, it is a loss for the bass sounds in music. You hear a strange knocking sound from the passive radiators, and music sounds better if you reduce the standard bass level to level 2.

Conclusion

The Bar 5.1 MultiBeam is a soundbar that will be able to convince a lot of families, because watching movies or gaming is a really nice experience. The sound effects are really intense and for many people this will be the only sound device they need for their TV setup. Just do not expect that the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam can fully compete with a 5.1 surround setup, because that is obviously not possible.

If you really want to listen to music often with the Bar 5.0, be aware of the limitations in terms of bass. The device comes without a subwoofer and with that you miss the real, full sounds in a beat. It is nice that you can connect the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam in the Google Home app, because then you can make it part of a speaker group if you want to play music.

You notice that JBL is trying to push the price of its soundbar to the detriment of the operation and software of the device. An app that guides you through the settings and features could help people get the most out of their soundbar. But there is no such app, so you better quickly learn those key combinations from the manual by heart.

Still, you get good sound in exchange for the mid-range price of the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam. If it’s mainly there for you: you know, the sensation when Indy narrowly ducks away from a rolling boulder, then this soundbar is a very good choice.

Buy JBL Bar 5.0 MultiBeam

The JBL Bar 5.0 MultiBeam is only available in a black shade and has a suggested retail price of 399 euros.