JBL Bar 5.1 Sound System w/ Wireless Surround Speakers

Update: it's been months since I bought this. Unfortunately I had to send it back to JBL for replacement because it kept losing subwoofer sync and would crackle. The satellite speakers did the same thing. I practically begged them to allow me to pay the extra to upgrade to the Bar 9.1 as that doesn't seem to have the same issue but incredibly they refused. What company doesn't want more money? Oh, JBL doesn't. Because of their incredibly restrictive policy on returns we will have to do this dance over and over with their return and warranty policy police again until we finally get something that works. Please don't buy this product. I wish I'd sent this back after my Day 1 experience.... Day 1: Just unpacked it and set it up. I switched it on expecting to hear no midrange from all the reviews. Couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, I found that the midrange was WAY too high. Trebles sound flat. Bass overwhelming. The out of box experience leaves a lot to be desired. I played some music, while at the same time hunting for the manual equalizer settings to control this. There are none. How does a $500 sound bar have zero manual equalizer controls? Or an app to control settings with? It's 2020 right? All you get are the preset modes to choose from, none of which really tame the midrange. So I switch from music to a movie. This is now making more sense. As a sound bar to watch movies and TV on it's fine. But without the ability to control the equalizer properly makes it difficult to recommend for music. Heck, even their portable speakers have an app via bluetooth to change settings. I'm strongly tempted to send this back and get the Bose 700... Day 4: It took a lot flip flopping but I think I made the decision to keep it. With any of these soundbars, it's a serious tradeoff of price against features. Lots of soundbars seem to focus on wifi streaming, app support etc with a tradeoff on sound quality. Others focus on the sound quality with little to no capabilities on wifi streaming, apps etc. This is the latter. Here's my thoughts on its strengths and weaknesses: Strengths. 1. It really does have good sound quality, particularly in TV shows and Movies. I found that only two sound settings are viable - 'Movie' and 'Sports'. The rest sound terrible. 2. Forget the reviews that complain about the midrange. There's stacks of midrange. IMHO there's too much midrange. 3. For those that are restricted with cabling the innovative capability to have truly wireless surround speakers is fabulous. This is the primary reason I bought it and the primary reason I'm keeping it. 4. The bang for buck on audio performance is difficult to beat at $500. The subwoofer is super powerful and rich. When you use the 'movie' or 'sports' setting, the audio is crisp and clear. Weaknesses 1. It really is such a shame, and a MASSIVE miss on a $500 sound bar to not even have manual EQ settings aside from the bass on the sub. I'd go so far as to say the product manager that designed this should be fired for it. Vizio does WAY better in this department. I'm shocked that they didn't provide some kind of app that could interface via Bluetooth to change it. I wouldn't be surprised if the functionality was actually there, but the cheap @sses who bought (previously way better) JBL de-invested from proceeding with it. 2. No wifi streaming or app support. So why didn't I get the Bose? I didn't want to spend $1000 more. Bang for buck, if you can stream to it via your TV or Apple TV, then this wins.