I just tested this all-in-one Dolby Atmos surround soundbar — and it made me feel like I'm at the movies

The JBL Bar 1300X is one of the best soundbars you can get — there’s no doubt in my mind. It’s JBL’s top-of-the-range home cinema setup, with an 11.1.4 channel sound. The 12-inch subwoofer is phenomenal at making the floor shake, and the two surround speakers translate Dolby Atmos surround sound with true immersion.

The 1300X is by no means a cheap soundbar — it’s $1,699. However, it’s not as expensive as some of the dedicated hi-fi setups that can set you back thousands. For a first home cinema setup, I think the 1300X is one of the best you can get.

It’s not just a movie soundbar: with the JBL One app, the soundbar can transform into a smart speaker with Google Assistant and Alexa compatibility. However, you won’t be blown away unless you use it for its intended purpose: bringing the movie theater home.

$1,699 is a lot of money to spend, though — is the soundbar system worth it? Let me walk you through everything in this JBL Bar 1300X review.

JBL Bar 1300X review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A complete home cinema setup with a soundbar, subwoofer, and two wireless, rechargeable surround speakers
• Who is it for? Serious cinema enthusiasts, considering the price and sound quality
• What does it cost? $1,699 / £1,269
• What do we like? The sound quality is to die for
• What don’t we like? Sometimes there’s 1 second lag after unpausing

JBL Bar 1300X review: Specs

JBL Bar 1300X review: Price & availability

The JBL Bar 1300X is pretty pricey: it costs $1,699 from Amazon U.S. and £1,269 from Amazon U.K.. It’s worth noting that you do get the soundbar, subwoofer, and two surround speakers included in that price, so you don’t need to worry about buying extra channel speakers or a subwoofer.

The 1300X is the priciest home cinema setup on JBL’s roster. If you want to get it with an 8K HDMI cable, it’ll cost $1,799. I tested with a standard eARC-compatible HDMI 2.1 cable.

The JBL Bar 1000 is $1,199, which has a 7.1.4 channel instead of the 1300X’s 11.1.4 channel. The 1300X’s subwoofer is 12 inches versus the 1000’s 10 inches, which results in deeper bass.

Similarly, Bose’s Smart Soundbar + subwoofer + two surround speakers will set you back $1,347, or $1,547 with the 700 surround speakers. However, those looking to own an upgradeable, versatile setup might want to check out Sonos Ultimate Immersive Arc Ultra at $2,561. Sonos’ closest competitor is probably the Premium Immersive Set with Beam at $1,796, which is a 5* product all round.

JBL Bar 1300X review: Design & controls

The JBL Bar 1300X has four different parts: the soundbar itself, which is 39 inches long, a 19-inch tall subwoofer with a 12-inch transducer, and two dinky 2-inch-high speakers.

The surround speakers magnetically attach to the soundbar itself when you’re not using them for 360° sound. When you are using them, they connect wirelessly to the soundbar, and can hook up via Bluetooth to compatible devices, doubling up as wireless speakers.

The soundbar itself has a range of inputs: eARC, HDMI ARC, Optical, Bluetooth, and USB. I tested via eARC connected to our Panasonic MZ1500 4K OLED testing TV.

There’s nothing striking about the look of the sound system: the soundbar itself is quite chunky, not as streamlined in appearance as the Sonos Arc Ultra or the Samsung HW Q990B ($1,599). However, then again, there’s nothing wrong with the appearance, either.

JBL Bar 1300X review: Features & setup

While most of the features are app-selectable, so I’ll discuss them in the ‘App’ section below, there are a few features on the remote control.

In testing, I found the setup really simple, despite the user reviews I’ve seen that report a complex process. All you have to do is plug in the soundbar and subwoofer, then place all the speakers in their ideal locations, which the app/user manual will tell you.

The two surround speakers attach magnetically to the soundbar when you’re not using them, and charge via USB-C cables. When you are using them, they need to go behind wherever you’re watching from.

Before listening, you can calibrate the setup with the remote (which will walk you through what buttons to press and when), which sends a pulsing sound between all four of the speakers to get optimum sound.

There’s a ‘Night Listening’ mode, which effectively turns off the subwoofer and the main soundbar, instead only playing through the separate channel speakers.

JBL Bar 1300X review: App

The JBL Bar 1300X is compatible with the JBL One app. I really liked this app due to its ease of use and functionality. It just worked, unlike some other smart home soundbar apps, like Sonos’.

I set up the soundbar, subwoofer, and speakers, then calibrated using the app. Initially, the app said ‘Calibration unavailable’, but I closed and re-opened the app and that seemed to fix whatever was going on. I calibrated the speakers and then started watching.

The JBL One app has options for ‘Night Listening’, which mutes the soundbar and subwoofer for quieter listening. There’s also an ‘Audio Sync’ option to correct out-of-sync picture and sound, which is a slider that alters the delay to match the video.

There’s also an EQ setting, in–app music, and a remote control page on the app, for ultimate smartphone control. With this app, you wouldn’t need the remote control again.

Unfortunately, the in-app music doesn’t have Spotify, but you can connect to the soundbar using Spotify’s native speaker control. JBL One is compatible with: Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon Music, Calm Radio, Napster, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio. It’s strange that there’s no Spotify or Apple Music compatibility given these are two of the most popular and best music streaming apps.

If you don’t fancy listening to music, the JBL One app has a range of ambient soundscapes (city life, forest, beach etc) for some calming background noise. I particularly liked the tinkling ‘rain’ soundscape.

JBL Bar 1300X review: Sound quality

Considering the premium price of this soundbar — and that it’s an 11.1.4 channel setup — I had high hopes for the JBL Bar 1300X. Thankfully, the soundbar lived up to my expectations.

Movies

As standard with our Dolby Atmos soundbar testing, I watched ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ to put the JBL Bar 1300X through its paces.

From the very first scene, I was blown away by the 1300X’s sound quality. The jet engines rumbled through the floor so I felt the bass in the sofa underneath me. It wasn’t just loud, though — I could hear every clink of metal and the whooshing of ropes.

There was balance between the booming bass notes and the softer, high-frequency sound effects. Even with ‘Danger Zone’ booming in the background, I could still hear the quiet tinkling metal sounds.

In the scene where (spoiler alert) Tom Cruise reaches Mach 10, I could hear/feel the fighter jet’s fire in my bones. I didn’t need to adjust the volume between the interior jet scenes and the quiet sky scenes, which is an issue with cheaper soundbars.

The soundscape was balanced but not flat, dramatic but not overpowering, and room-filling but not deafening. I was thoroughly impressed with the sound.

After ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, I watched ‘Alien: Romulus’. I was blown away by the spaceship sound effects in this movie. Every time spacecraft airlocks released, I felt like the air was brushing against my skin. When one of the characters was crawling through a zero-gravity tunnel, I felt the stillness of the vent around my body.

The harp notes in the OST were sonorous, but didn’t overshadow the actors’ spacesuit breathing noises. There was a delicate balance between the soft fabric noises, tense violin notes, and sci-fi jitterings of control panels.

I was absolutely gobsmacked by the 1300X’s quality in both these movies, and was super disappointed when the movies ended. My only qualm during the experience was that the soundbar took a second to start up after being paused for a while. However, this was literally one second, and I found it easy to live with.

Dolby Atmos

As briefly discussed in the previous section, the 1300X’s Dolby Atmos performance is stellar. I was truly immersed in the movies I watched. In ‘Alien: Romulus’, there’s a scene where a character has to maneuver through clumps of acid in zero-G. The liquid acid sound effects floated over my head as they followed the character, and when the character was hovering in an elevator shaft, I could feel the tension in the air.

Thanks to the two channel surround speakers, I could hear the Xenomorphs breathing in my ears. However, I do wish you could increase the volume of these surround speakers more than the JBL One app allows.

There’s one scene in Alien Romulus that I actually couldn’t watch — body horror and gore fans will love the immersive Dolby Atmos in this scene, but it was way too much for me and I had to pause the movie for a while. Of course, this shows that the 1300X has incredible surround sound, but is it good for wimps like me? Not always.

TV

I tested the 1300X while watching TV on Netflix. While the 1300X excels at translating cinematic experiences, I must note that it still performed fantastically with less movielike production.

I watched ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ and ‘Toxic Town’ on Netflix. In the opening credits of ‘Toxic Town’, I was really surprised by the closeness of Jodie Whittaker’s voiceover: despite not being Dolby Atmos, the voice sounded like it was coming from right in front of me. Even the vintage clips of demolition sites sounded clear.

‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ was less immediately impressive than Toxic Town, but it still sounded fantastic. The dialogue was not muffled or overpowered by the soundtrack.

In general, I think the 1300X did a fantastic job at both movies and TV, but it’s only mind-blowing with Dolby Atmos encoded movies — as you may expect.

Music

I linked the 1300X up with my Spotify app and played a range of songs. When I played ‘Alice’ by Sleepazoid (one of my favorite Aussie indie bands at the moment), I upped the bass to accentuate the track’s heavy chorus. I wasn’t disappointed; the floor started shaking in the heavier parts. I wanted to increase the volume even more, but didn’t want to disturb my floor-below coworkers more than I already had.

Obviously, the soundbar is tailored towards cinema, so doesn’t have the same music proficiency as a dedicated audiophile setup, but it’s still pretty good for a soundbar.

When I played the synth-heavy indie pop track ‘In Love With A Memory’ by SASAMI & Clairo, I was impressed with the vocal clarity, but there was a little tinniness in the percussion. I lowered the higher frequency in the JBL One app EQ settings, which fixed the tinniness issue.

I also listened to ‘Yosemite’ by KETTAMA and Interplanetary Criminal, which is a bass-forward electronic track. The percussion and synths were balanced and infectious, and I was really impressed with the vocal proficiency, too.

It’d be worth noting that you might need to alter EQ based on genre, or stick to one genre at a time if you want the best listening experience. However, I’m sure true audiophiles would argue that listening to music on a soundbar is not the best start for über-fidelity listening in the first place.

JBL Bar 1300X review: Verdict

The JBL Bar 1300X is probably the best non-ludicrously-priced home setup I’ve tested. If I was decking out my home cinema for the first time, this is where I’d start. For $1,699 you get an 11.1.4 channel sound system, which translates to phenomenal sound in real-terms.

The Dolby Atmos is truly 360°, and the soundbar doubles up as a great smart home system and music speaker in a pinch.

While true audiophiles won’t be hugely impressed by the music playback, I found it a great way to combine both my movie watching and kitchen disco-ing. The device links seamlessly to Amazon Music, TIDAL, and more — it doesn’t have built-in Spotify, but that doesn’t stop Spotify working with its ‘find speaker’ feature.

To truly hear the benefits, you’ll need to watch 4K HD with Dolby Atmos audio, obviously, but I was also impressed by the lower-production-value TV shows I watched. The 1300X is a fantastic all-rounder, and a great place for a hi-fi enthusiast to start.

The JBL Bar 1300X is top-of-the-range for a reason. What’s the reason? Because it sounds awesome.