Nov 22, 2019
Read MoreJBL Bar 5.1 vs Sonos Beam review
Sonos Beam review
When testing Sonos Beam vs JBL Bar 5.1 it becomes clear that Beam is the latest home theater speaker system in the Sonos universe. Positioned as a compact soundbar, the model not only sounds good, but also bears the proud title of “smart” thanks to the integrated Alexa assistant. Beam is easy to plug in and set up, and overall this soundbar deserves a buying recommendation. There are 3.0 built-in channels. 
JBL Bar 5.1 review
What was interesting when comparing JBL Bar 5.1 vs Sonos Beam is that its first strong point is connected with a real wireless subwoofer (up to 300 W) and a 25-cm speaker. The second plus of JBL Bar 5.1 is based on its removable surround speakers, working wirelessly for 10 hours. The soundbar is equipped with three pairs of 6 x 5.7 cm bass midrange speakers and three 3.2 cm tweeters distributed across the three front channels (left, right and center). Each channel is amplified by a special power module with a total peak power of 300 watts. This corresponds to a peak of 50 watts per channel or continuous power of 20 watts, good enough for this type of speaker. JBL Bar 5.1 has three HDMI 2.0 inputs with support for HDCP 2.2 (UHD Blu-ray) and 4K up to 60 frames per second and 4: 4: 4 color coding. It does not implement video scaling, but also does not degrade the signal. 
Sonos Beam pros & cons
Pros
- Great sound from a tiny soundbar
- Simple single HDMI cable connection
- CEC control allows the TV and connected devices to adjust the volume and turn the soundbar on and off
Cons
- HDMI ARC connection may consume a valuable HDMI port on your TV and limit the available ports you have for use with actual video devices, especially if you have multiple 4K/HDR capable devices
JBL Bar 5.1 pros & cons
Pros
- Not only does it sound great, but it's just so awesome to show off
- You'll only need the JBL remote when you want to configure the settings
Cons
- I got scared when reading about people claiming the mids were non-existent
JBL Bar 5.1 vs Sonos Beam
JBL and Sonos
bar-5-1.jpg
Add soundbar to comparison
We didn't find anything to show here
Common
Product
JBL Bar 5.1
Sonos Beam
Model
Bar 5.1
Beam
Brand
JBL
Sonos
Reviews
3060
3280
General
Placement type
table-top, wall-mountable
table-top, wall-mountable
Connection to source
wired, wireless
wired, wireless
Soundbar buttons
power, volume down, volume up, input
volume down, volume up, microphone, play/pause
Audio features
Built-in channels
5.1
3.0
Amplification type
active
active
Output power, W
510 (overall)
Separate speaker (in package)
2
0
Separate speaker connections
wireless
wireless
Subwoofer
Built-in subwoofer
Separate subwoofer (in package)
Separate subwoofer connections
wireless
wireless
Streaming services
Apple Music (AirPlay)
AirPlay
AirPlay 2
Amazon Music
Spotify
Other streaming services
Pandora, Tuneln, Deezer, Chromecast
Pandora, Tuneln, Chromecast
Connectivity
WI-FI
Bluetooth
Ethernet (RJ45)
0
1
NFC
HDMI input/output
3/0
1/0
HDMI ARC
HDMI eARC
HDMI CEC
Optical digital input/output
1/0
1/0
USB
1 (USB 2.0)
Coaxial digital input/output
0/0
0/0
Analog audio input/output (RCA)
1/0
0/0
Headphone output
0
0
Subwoofer output
1
0
Features
Voice control
Amazon Alexa
Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
App control
Microphone
Remote control
Multi-room
Multichannel surround
Dolby Atmos
Dolby (other)
Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II
Dolby Digital
DTS:X
DTS (other)
has not
has not
Dimensions
Size (Wx H x D), cm/in
114.8 x 5.8 x 9.3/45 x 2.3 x 3.7
65 x 6.8x 10/25.6 x 2.7 x 3.9
Weight, kg/pounds
3.9/8.6
2.8/6.2
Other
Release year
2017
2018
Soundbars CHooseratoR comparison rating
- 7.2JBL Bar 5.1
- 6Sonos Beam
Latest soundbar comparisons
$700$500
$800$500
$500$1700
$500$900
$200$500
$500$600
$500$1100
$500$1800
$500$400
$700$400
$400$200
$800$400
Popular soundbar comparisons
$700$600
$400$600
$500$600
$700$600
$400$300
$600$600
$900$1000
$1200$900
$600$1000
$900$300
$1200$1200
$1200$700
$300$400
$700$400