Key Features
Review Price:
£749- SoundDolby Atmos and DTS:X support
- DesignDetachable speakers that act as rear channels
Introduction
The JBL Bar 1000 MK2 is a soundbar system aimed at film fans who want an immersive home cinema experiencewithout the complexity of home theatre separates.
It boasts great connectivity, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support, plus detachable battery-powered wireless surround speakers.
This design twist isn’t new, we first saw Philips do much the same with the Fidelity B5 soundbar back in 2023 – so the big question here is how effective is this updated implementation?
Time to take a closer listen…
Price
The JBL Bar 1000 MK2 sells for £749 in the UK. In the US, it’s priced at $1200, while Australian buyers can expect to shell out AU$1430.
It’s positioned below the flagship Bar 1300 MK2, and a small step up from the Bar 800 MK2.
At this price, it’s competing for buyers who want more than a stereo soundbar but have little appetite for an AV receiver, a room full of speakers and a nest of wires.
Design
- Detachable rear speaker
- Sizeable subwoofer
There’s a lot of hard plastic in the box. Fully assembled, the soundbar measures 1203 x 52 x 113mm and weighs 5.5kg.
With those detachable speaker modules removed, its width shrinks to 900mm. The rear modules themselves measure 228 x 52 x 128mm.
JBL includes cosmetic, magnetic end caps for both the main soundbar and detached rear speakers, to tidy things up when they’re apart. These help maintain a rounded, finished appearance when the system is operating in full cinema mode.
I reckon the system is suitable for screens 55-inches and larger. It may look relatively compact when those modular rears are removed, but they will return to roost when the film is over; they need to return and recharge, so make sure you have the space to accommodate them.
The rears also feature a tripod bush. This means you can mount them on stands if there’s nowhere convenient to place them. It’s probably not the most elegant solution visually, but it is practical.
The subwoofer is another reason to pre-plan your installation. Weighing 9.1kg, it’s significantly larger than the MDF enclosures often supplied in soundbar systems. Imagine a 325 x 400 x 325mm drum, rear ported, with a 10-inch driver.
Rounding the package off is a simple, black remote control, but I really don’t like it. It’s not backlit, and even worse the buttons are labelled in grey rather than white, which makes them a real struggle to read in a dimly lit or dark room (yes I did resort to my smartphone’s torch).
The soundbar communicateser Dolby Atmos is being received, or acknowledges menu navigation
Connectivity
- Four HDMI ports
- Ethernet
This is where the Bar 1000 MK2 excels.
All too often soundbars, even those with significant price tags, offer only one HDMI eARC connection. Here we get that, plus three additional HDMI inputs, plus Ethernet and a USB port; there’s also a digital optical audio input for legacy TV connection. Bluetooth is v5.3, Wi-Fi is dual band.
These bonus HDMI inputs make the JBL particularly useful in a busy home cinema setup. You can connect several sources directly to the soundbar instead of the TV and use it as an AV hub.
Features
- MultiBeam 3.0
- Pure Voice 2.0
- Dolby Vision and HDR10+ passthrough
JBL says that the Bar uses trickled down expertise from its long history in cinema sound, and that may well be true.
A key ingredient is MultiBeam 3.0, a proprietary digital beamforming system, designed to create a wide, immersive sound field. It’s a mix of DSP, phase manipulation, psychoacoustics and driver‑level acoustic steering.
The Bar 1000 MK2 doesn’t need an immersive codec to utilise all its drivers either. Rather cleverly, it’ll upmix anye centre channel, while spreading music and miscellaneous sounds to the rears. Effectively, the Bar’s surround ambience is omnipresent
Alternatively, you can enable Broadcast mode, and use one or both of the detachable modules as a multiroom Bluetooth speaker, so you can listen to TV audio or music, in a separate room
The driver array is comprehensive. The main bar contains six racetrack drivers, two 25mm tweeters and a pair of 70mm up-firing full-rangers. Each detachable rear speaker has its own racetrack cone and 70mm height driver.
The system supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+ passthrough, and also works with Google Home, Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and is Roon Ready.
There’s also Pure Voice 2.0, which is available to improve dialogue clarity.
Sound Quality
- Wraparound audio
- Deep impactful bass
- Limited height action
This system, says JBL, is configured in a 7.1.4 channel arrangement. To my ears, it sounds more like a 5.1.4 setup, not that it matters particularly.
I placed the detached rears at either end of my sofa, and wired for the magic to happen.
With the rear speakers in situ, this ensemble does indeed produce a genuine wraparound soundfield. The value of having physical surround speakers behind me is immediately apparent.
The Dolby Atmos ‘Amaze’ demo is a great illustration. Steerage is smooth, with the rear speakers doing a convincing job of moving sounds behind and around.
However, much like Richard Hammond, there’s a limit to how high they can reach.
I got a sense of movement above my head, but the system doesn’t build the kind of seamless overhead canopy that a more elaborate speaker installation can achieve. The rear modules, in particular, don’t have quite enough umph to project upwards and reflect.
Rear speaker volume control isn’t incremental, rather it’s a stepped preset offering Low, Mid, and High.
I’d hesitate to place the modules too far away from the main listening position. My advice is keep them close, and stick with High.
If there’s one thing the Bar 1000 MK2 isn’t short of, it’s bass.
Interestingly, despite the subwoofer’s size and driver, bass duties are handled by both the main bar and the sub. Typically with soundbar/sub systems, the crossover is set to 100Hz. Everything below that is handled by the subwoofer. Here, JBL has set the crossover lower, at around 50Hz I would guess. This makes for quite a prominent low frequency front end.
The Bar 1000 MK2 isn’t especially interested in being discreet about its deep-throated abilities either.
There’s no bass management beyond a stepped five level increment on the remote. Level 5 makes everything, even speech, boom, so don’t be tempted.
The system isn’t light on power. The whole ensemble is rated at 960W RMS. The main soundbar accounts for 500W, the surround speakers provide 80W each and the subwoofer claims 300W.
Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, is a hoot. The system’s weighty delivery is driven home as Superman and Wonder Woman clash with Doomsday, exaggerating both the slam-bam action and the musical drumbeat of Wonder Woman’s anthem.
So just how low does the system go? I measured bass down to 31.5Hz, where it pontificates with some considerable authority.
The same sonic signature emerges with Reacher (Prime Video). The Bar 1000 MK2 seizes upon every opportunity to unleash a barrage of bass. I felt like Reacher was punching me in the face.
The way the system can upsample and spread audio around, even when it was never mixed in a multichannel format, is also quite remarkable.
Dialogue performance is clean and crisp. The Pure Voice mode gives an uplift to speech, and while I didn’t find it particularly engaging, I can see that some might appreciate that extra lift.
When it comes to music playback, the system has detail and presence, but spatial mixes, streamed from Amazon Music, comes across as rather subdued, although this is obviously dependent on individual tracks. Elton John’s sublime Dolby Atmos mix of Rocket Man never quite takes off the way I would expect it to.
That said, the system is always entertaining. A combination of genuine immersion, slamming bass and extreme versatility, make it a formidable performer.
Should you buy it?
Power in spades
If you want a powerful home cinema system, with ‘now you see ‘em now you don’t’ rear speakers, great connectivity and a subwoofer that has scant regard for decorum, then the Bar 1000 MK2 is well worth auditioning. The price represents good value too…
Immersive sensation
Look elsewhere if you want a stronger overhead Dolby Atmos presentation, a more refined music-first sound or just a system with a smaller room footprint…
Final Thoughts
The JBL Bar 1000 MK2 knows what you like – rollercoaster audio, and great connectivity – and delivers it in spades.
The big takeaway is that those detachable rear speakers are more than a marketing gimmick. They provide a far more convincing sense of surround sound than virtual processing can manage.
The Bar 1000 MK2 also has enough raw power to make large-screen viewing feel appropriately cinematic.
There are niggles. The remote control is wretched to use, and the rear speaker modules don’t quite have the dynamic power to extend the soundstage skywards, but their convenience factor alone makes them worthwhile.
And if you have the space to accommodate the sizeable sub, and can roll with its bass punch, then movie night jollity is guaranteed.
Trusted Score
How We Test
The JBL Bar 1000 MK2 ousted a traditional AV receiver and speaker setup, with a Panasonic UHD Blu-ray player, Sky TV box and a Fire TV streaming stick plumbed into its spare HDMI ports. It was partnered with a Philips OLED TV running Google TV.
A wide range of material was then viewed, including demo discs, premium streamers and music services. Measurements were duly taken and popcorn consumed.
Do the detachable rear speakers need power cables?
No. The rear speakers are battery powered. They connect to the main soundbar over Bluetooth, and offer around 10 hours of wireless playback. They recharge when attached back to the main soundbar.
Is the JBL Bar 1000 MK2 good for music as well as films?
Yes, in so much as it supports a wide range of music streaming options, and offers plenty of detail and presence, but it’s at its best with film and TV soundtracks. Stereo sounds constrained when compared with the scale and impact it delivers with action soundtracks.
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