Surprisingly, before today, JBL never had a soundbar that supported Dolby Atmos. Of course, that all changes today, with its recent announcement at CES 2020.
This is the JBL Bar 9.1. It is a surround sound system, so it’s more than just a sound bar. It actually sports a rather cool design, but not one that is new.
JBL Bar 9.1 has detachable rear speakers that are battery-powered
This sound bar is similar to the JBL Bar 5.1 that has been on the market for a little while. Where the rear speakers actually attach to the sound bar itself. This allows it to charge, and so you don’t need to run wires to those rear speakers. Which is a really cool feature.
Those rear speakers should get you around 10 hours of playtime. And when you need to recharge them, just attach them to the sound bar once again. It’s a pretty cool design that works really well.
The JBL Bar 9.1 also comes with a wireless subwoofer, making it a really impressive sound system for most people.
This sound bar still sports most of the features that you’ve come to know and love from JBL. That includes AirPlay 2 and Chromecast for streaming content from your smartphone. By supporting both, no matter what smartphone you are using, you can stream your content to this sound bar. And that’s great news.
And there’s support for Dolby Vision HDR, for those that have TVs with Dolby Vision built-in. The JBL Bar 9.1 is going to make for a really good soundbar to add to your entertainment system.
Finally Dolby Atmos comes to JBL soundbars
JBL has been making some really good soundbars in recent years, and many have been pretty affordable. But there was always one box that JBL’s soundbars could not check. And that was Dolby Atmos.
Well it was Dolby Atmos. It’s now here on the JBL Bar 9.1. Which is going to provide you with some really great sounding audio from your TV. Just watch something in Dolby Atmos and you’ll really notice the difference.
So far, Dolby Atmos has been a pretty big topic at CES 2020. Amazon has announced that its Fire TV soundbars will get Dolby Atmos support soon and now JBL has a soundbar with Dolby Atmos.
Pricing & Availability
JBL says that the Bar 9.1 will be available starting this Spring and will be priced at $999.95 in the US. Pricing for other markets was not announced.
Update: An earlier version of this article stated that the JBL Bar 9.1 was going to cost $899.95. It’s actually going to cost $999.95.