JBL Bar 2.0 All-in-One Sound Bar - in-home entertainment system, with streaming capabilities, in black

Product Information

A soundbar as small as this has no right to sound as big as it does. Measuring just 34cm wide, it features three drivers. The left and right channels get a small 19mm speaker, while the centre, mid-range driver is 51mm, and there’s a separate 37cm tall subwoofer. There are no upfiring speakers here, but clever Dolby Atmos software processing means the speakers do a great job of spreading audio to all corners of the room with “virtual” Atmos, without losing focus. The Sonos Arc has been scooping up industry awards like they’re going out of fashion. It offers a wonderful combination of usability, features and brilliant sound performance, and if it’s within your budget, this soundbar should be very close to the top of your shopping list. This Denon soundbar doesn’t have wifi connectivity and you can’t talk to it with a voice assistant, but it does have the latest “virtual” Dolby Atmos compatibility (albeit without upfiring drivers) and creates a big, impressive sound for not very much money. If you’re looking to upgrade your TV audio, this is a great place to start.

Setup is therefore blissfully simple. To connect to a TV, use either the HDMI ARC connection (there's
no additional hookup for source switching) or digital optical audio input, and you're up and running. For other devices, there's the aforementioned Bluetooth provision (v4.2) ...and nothing else. Even the 3.5mm input of the Bar Studio has been left off the spec sheet. There’s a snug but well-lit LED panel on the front, and power/volume buttons on the side in the event that you ever misplace the remote. Measuring 50 cm in length, this sits well on smaller cabinets or, like us, the top of a fireplace, but there are also two pre-built holes for wall mounting if you prefer. At 115cm wide and 8.5cm tall, it is big. But, it is also sleek and looks superb under our TV, and all that width makes room for 11 speakers, two directed upwards, to create an immersive experience, especially if you’re playing films with Dolby Atmos, which puts you right in the heart of the action. If you thought Disney’s Coco was a tearjerker before, try watching it with the Sonos Arc, and be prepared to sing and sob in equal measure. This is measured in wattage. The bigger the wattage number, the more powerful the sound (anything above 250W will be loud enough to wake the neighbours). However, not all brands provide sound output information, as it can easily be confused with sound quality. Dolby Atmos Before you hit the buy button, it’s worth understanding a little bit of the jargon used and the features available on the latest soundbars. We’ve outlined the most important factors below to help you make the right decision. ConnectivityThere’s also AirPlay 2 from Apple devices, which we’ve used to play the same album from our iPhone over a Roku Streambar in the living room, Apple HomePod Mini in the hallway and Sonos Roam outside – all fully synchronised. Weight and dimensions For everyday TV viewing, the soundbar's strengths are its solid handling of dialogue, noticeable bass delivery and crisp, clean presentation of higher-frequency effects.
With a live football broadcast, the latter helps convey the crowd claps and whistles, and the scale of the stadium. Advertising jingles and TV theme tunes enjoy the extra bass weight so often missing from a flatscreen's speakers. A slight criticism is the sheer number of volume steps – you can hammer away at
the remote's key for quite a while before reaching the level you want. The soundbar doesn't mind being driven loud, although it's obviously not suited to a large room. Another gripe is that for UK buyers the bar's USB port is service only, but in the US it doubles as a media player (MP3, WAV). Given the stripped-down spec, the Bar 2.0 All-In-One lives or dies on its performance. Thankfully, it proves highly accomplished, and reaps the rewards of an increase in onboard power over its forebear (now a claimed 80W rather than 30W), and, says JBL, improved driver design.

It’s not a soundbar for everyone. This model is too big and cumbersome for many living rooms and TVs, but once in position, you’ll be transported to your own mini multiplex, as 5.1.4 channels of Dolby Atmos flood the senses with a deep and powerful, but controlled performance. One of the more important features if you care about surround sound, Dolby Atmos is a cinematic audio format that ensures sound bounces around the room to give you a truly cinema-like, immersive experience. We set it up in under five minutes – plug in the mains power cable, attach the HDMI cable to your TV and follow the steps on the brand’s Smart Control App to pair it to your home’s wifi network. From there, you tailor the sound output to your room using the four built-in microphones and we found the process to be seamless – with the soundbar examining the size and shape of our space and altering the output accordingly.This means you can buy multiple speakers for a surround-sound setup or use the soundbar as a regular speaker and have music playing out into multiple rooms. Sonos speakers are particularly good at this, and if you already have one of their speakers for music, you won’t be disappointed if you add one of their soundbars too.