The JBL Bar 5.0 has a sleek design with rounded corners and an attractive matte black finish. A metal grille surrounds the sides and front, while the top is metal with grilles that house the passive radiators, along with some basic controls in the center. At the front right is a four-digit display that shows the volume, input, sound format, and any updates. The Bar 5.0 can be mounted on a stand or on the wall, and JBL includes brackets, spacers, screws, and a template for the latter. The soundbar shouldn’t cover the screen when placed in front of a TV, as it measures 709 x 58 x 101 mm (WxHxD) and weighs 2.8 kg. In the package you will find a remote control and batteries, a power cord, a quick start guide and an HDMI cable. The JBL Bar 5.0 uses the company’s proprietary MultiBeam technology to distribute sound around the room, creating a larger and more expansive soundstage. It also combines these sound beams with psychoacoustic processing to decode Dolby Atmos. However, since no upward radiating drivers are used to create the overhead channels, the immersive sound is rather virtual. The soundbar contains five identical speakers, three front-facing for the left, right and center front channels, and one at each end radiating to the side. These speakers are made up of 48 x 80mm Racetrack drivers and each has a gain of 50W. There are also four 75mm passive radiators, two on each side, one facing up and one facing down. The Bar 5.0 has a frequency response of 50Hz to 20kHz. The Bar 5.0 supports Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and Dolby Atmos, as well as two-channel and 5.1-channel PCM. Unfortunately, there is no support for DTS, which makes this soundbar less than ideal for anyone with a large Blu-ray collection. However, if you’re mainly interested in streaming, DVD, and most 4K discs, which are dominated by Dolby, this will be less of an issue.
