Bose Smart Soundbar: https://geni.us/GC-BoseSmartSB
Bose Bass 500: https://geni.us/GC-BoseBass500
JBL Bar 500 MK2: https://geni.us/GC-JBLBar500MK2
Sony Bravia 5 TV: https://geni.us/GC-SonyBravia5TV
The Bose Smart Soundbar is my favorite soundbar to recommend if you’re looking for a sound bar for a small or medium sized living room, and its a great option if you’re looking for something for your bed room cause it sounds good and its super compact and it doesn’t need an external subwoofer. However, for me it is very hard to justify building out the Bose Smart Soundbar with an external subwoofer, cause bose gets very pricy very quickly.
So if you’re looking for a soundbar that comes included with a subwoofer, then you’ll might want to look at the JBL Bar 500 MK2, cause this system comes with a Subwoofer and it gets much louder as well. So today we’re going to compare these two systems and lets see which one is right for you.
Regarding pricing, the Bose Smart soundbar by itself has a retail price of $550, not bad given that its has true atmos support. But if you were to throw in Bose’s smaller bass module, the 500, it has a retail price of $550 as well. Pretty up there. But if you were to bundle these two together, bose will give you a solid deal at $988… im being sarcastic if you haven’t noticed. Where as with the JBL Bar 500 MK2, this system has a retail price of $650, not bad… but given that this is a JBL soundbar, I do expect it to go on sale on a regular basis. Nonetheless if you want to pick either of these two systems up they’ll be linked down below, or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button. And if you want to further support the channel then you can always watch some of the related videos in the description down below.
So first there’s the design of these soundbars, the Bose Smart soundbar is noticeably smaller than JBL’s soundbar. But more importantly, Bose’s soundbar doesn’t require an external subwoofer cause it makes it own bass. So I feel that this soundbar is a great option for your bedroom, or for a small to medium sized living room cause you don’t have to make room for an extneral subwoofer if you don’t want to. Where as with the JBL, this system requires a subwoofer cause the soundbar it self doesn’t produce its own bass. Now both of these subwoofers are wireless so you can place them wherever you want… but more importantly, the Sub that comes with the JBL is much larger and denser than the Sub that comes with the Bose.
Now connectivity wise, both of these soundbars have an HDMI port that goes connected to your tv, duh, and they both come included with an HDMI cable, and there is no need to go out and buy a third party audiophile or cinema grade HDMI cable, those are an IQ test and if you buy them then you failed. But more importantly, the JBL also has an HDMI in port, so if you want you can plug in a gaming console or blue ray player. And this is nice cause if you’re a power user with multiple consoles then you can be a little more effeicnt with your HDMI ports.
But besides that, both of these systems are easy to wire and place into your home theater setup. All of the components plug in an AC port and none of them have an external power brick to worry about, both of these Subwoofers are wireless so you can place them or hide them where ever you want, and you just have a single HDMI cable to goes into your TV.
However, if you do plan on wall mounting these soundbars… keep in mind that Bose’s wall mounting kit is sold separately, which I do feel is not cool… where as with the JBL you get wall mounting brackets. And both of these soundbars are relatively light weight weighing in a little under 7 pounds, so you don’t have to worry about your walls taring down either in your new construction home that’s probably already falling apart, or in your “Luxury Apartment” that you’re clearly overpaying for.
Now both of these systems are going to work well with any tv out there, however neither of these two systems will work in conjunction with your TV menus or TV built in speakers, like how if you were to use a Sony TV with a Sony Soundbar, or and LG TV with an LG Soundbar or a Samsung TV with a Samsung soundbar. Although I do feel JBL should work better with Samsung TV’s cause Samsung own JBL. But regardless with both of these systems you can adjust their sound through their apps or you can also use their included remote. But to be honest, I never use these remotes. But also, both of these systems do have airplay, so you can stream to them… but I don’t think airplay on a soundbar is too important cause I usually just stream to the TV… but these two systems do have bluetooth so you can always share your soundbar with a guest without needing to share your wifi password…
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound, and these two systems are very diffrent from one another. With the Bose, this system is just overall smaller, the soundbar has a total of 4 speakers, two that shoot upwards and two that shoot out the sides, and a single frontward firing tweeter. And its subwoofer is also smaller and its downward firing. But the good thing about the bose is that it has true dolby atmospheres support cause of the upwards firing drivers. Where as with the JBL, this soundbar has a total of 5 frontward firing speakers and a total of 4 tweeters, two that shoot out the front and two that shoot out the sides. And this subwoofer is also downward firing, but larger.
But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest, the Sony Bravia 5 tv is going to be playing at max volume, where as both the Bose and JBL are playing at 70% volume, but the Bose is playing with its bass set to 5 which is half… and the JBL is playing with its bass playing at 3 which is also half cause it only goes up to 5.
Sound Test
So first off, obviously any soundbar is going to sound better than your tv’s built in speakers. Your TV most likely has a pair of downward firing speakers that bounce sound off of the table, they don’t get all that loud, and when the bass gets going then it can become a rattling mess. However if you were to go with a more premium TV like lets say the Bravia 5 like we have here, distortion isn’t a problem… however you are going to be better off getting a soundbar cause these built in speakers are going to be mainly for hearing dialog with.
Now when it comes to comparing Bose’s system to JBL’s system… we need to address max volume. The Bose Smart soundbar is a great soundbar for a bedroom or for a small sized living room. But if you have a medium sized living room or large living room… then I think the Bose isn’t going to cut it cause it just doesn’t get as loud as the JBL Bar 500. I think the JBL Bar 500 is going to have no problem with a medium sized living room cause it does get louder and it also have more kick in its bass.
But speaking of bass, the JBL Bar 500 is going to have more bass than the Bose base module 500. But the problem with JBL’s subwoofer is that sometimes its bass can get a little overwhelming, and it can overpower your dialog sometimes.
But when it comes to sound signature, these two soundbars are closer than you’d imagine, which is very impressive on Bose’s part. Both of these soundbars do lean towards the brighter side, as in they have well defined highs, so dialog is very promonite on both of these systems. However, the JBL does have slightly stronger highs than the Bose cause the JBL has 4 tweeters versus the single tweeter found on the Bose. But with the Bose, this system does sound a little more open in real life thanks to the upwards firing drivers, you get a sense of verticality, and you’re also going to have true dolby atmospheres support which is something the JBL just doesn’t have.
But with all of that being said, I really like the Bose Smart soundbar… its a great soundbar to use in a small or medium sized living room… and its my go to option if you’re looking for a soundbar for your bedroom and you don’t want to have to deal with an external subwoofer. Thanks to its upwards firing drivers it has true dolby atmospheres support and it sounds very open. And thank to its frontward firing tweeter, dialog really pops with this soundbar. But for me it is very heard to justify building out this soundbar by adding an external subwoofer cause first off it gets over priced very quickly… but more importantly, the max volume performance of the Bose Smart Soundbar isn’t going to be able to adequately fill a medium or large sized living room. Where as with the JBL Bar 500 MK2, this system is going to get much louder than the Bose, plus its also going to have more kick in your bass, and it also puts a strong emphasis on dialog like Bose’s system. But more importantly, with the JBL Bar 500 MK2, you’re going to get a much better bang for your buck than you would with Bose’s built out system.