JBL Bar 1300

JBL’s flagship soundbar has detachable surrounds and delivers energetic and immersive sound

- 

A soundbar package is a great option if you want serious movie sound but don’t want the fuss and expense of a full home cinema system. Comparatively simple, sleek and affordable, such packages usually consist of a ’bar, a subwoofer and two wireless surround speakers. The super-flexible approach of the JBL Bar 1300 sees the ends of the soundbar detaching to become the surround (or even standalone Bluetooth) speakers.

The Bar 1300 measures just under 140cm in width with the rear speakers attached on either end; that’s a lot of bar, a fair bit wider than most standalone soundbars. With the rear speakers detached, though, the main section measures just 100cm, around the same as the smaller Yamaha True X soundbar.

The main soundbar houses six 46 x 90mm racetrack drivers, five 20mm tweeters, and four 70mm upfiring full-range drivers. The rear speakers feature three drivers of the same design as those included in the main bar, along with two rounded-rectangle passive radiators. Having matching drivers across the different components should increase the potential for an even and seamless surround experience.

We find the configuration of the drivers in the rear speakers to be slightly curious, however. Of the three drivers, one is firing towards the listener, one is aiming upwards, and one is firing behind where the listener is seated. The lack of a driver firing along the side wall and back towards the soundbar has us wondering if this configuration might impact the system’s sense of width. The subwoofer is a rounded cuboid shape and stands 44cm tall and around 31cm wide and deep, with four small feet and one downwards-firing 10in driver underneath. It’s a solid unit that matches the look and feel of the accompanying bar and rears.