JBL’s new cinema system costs the same as a premium soundbar – but has a few sound advantages

Out of almost nowhere, JBL recently announced a huge range of products that should provide a massive shake-up to the world of home cinema. Not only did it launch a five-strong range of AV receivers that starts at just £500 / $400 (which is the sort of thing that hasn’t been seen by any brand except Denon in years), but it also launched a complete range of matching surround and Atmos speakers .

While I think there’s every reason for Denon to be a bit worried about this, JBL says that it’s not really targeting existing AV receiver buyers. Instead, it’s aiming for those people looking to move on from wireless speakers and take their first steps into proper home cinema (and, in fact, stereo) sound. It’s particularly interested in those who might be considering a soundbar , or who have a soundbar and perhaps want something a bit more, for want of a better word, ‘serious’.

JBL is attempting to woo these people to its new home cinema range with the sort of fresh styling and ease of use that hasn’t been seen from AV receivers before, and it then plans to impress them with sound quality. I, for one, think this could be a great shot in the arm for a category that’s been suffering slightly from a lack of competition.

Of course, all of that depends on the new JBL AV receivers and speakers actually sounding good. My colleague Lewis Empson and I had the opportunity to visit JBL in its offices near Cambridge this week in order to listen to three different combinations of MA AV receivers and Stage 2 speakers, and while beforehand it was the full-fat, top-of-the-range 5.1.4 system that I was most excited to hear, I actually ended up most charmed by the entry-level 2.1 system, which costs the same as a premium soundbar but can do some things of which a soundbar could only dream.

The listening session

The system in question starts with the MA310 AV receiver, which costs just £499 / $400. It’s a 5.2 amplifier, but for this listening session it’s connected to a pair of Stage 250B standmount speakers (£399 / $400) and a Stage 200P subwoofer (£499 / $500). The total cost of the system is £1397 / $1400.

We’re first played the very snazzy advert that JBL has produced for these new products, which is hardly typical testing fare, but I’m immediately convinced that this 2.1 system sounds markedly better than any similarly priced soundbar in a core audio sense. It’s a really hefty sound with the sort of tonal naturalism that you can only really get through full-size speakers. There’s solidity, texture and warmth to the sound, and good cohesion between the speakers.

JBL is keen that this new home cinema range is seen as musical, too, so the second clip is a piece of music sent from a phone using Bluetooth. While I think a lack of wi-fi support on the MA310 is a bit of an oversight (all other models do have wi-fi), it’s fair to say that this Bluetooth track sounds good.

This is a pure two-channel test, with no input from the sub, but there’s still weight and richness to the sound. The vocal is well-focused, too, but the delivery is also open and spacious, with a nice sense of three-dimensional depth. That said, the track is one with which I’m not familiar, and it doesn’t sound terribly testing. I would want to listen to the system with music that will more explore its limits – and those of the Bluetooth delivery method.

Moving to movies but sticking with the musical theme, we’re next played a clip of Lady Gaga singing Always Remember Us This Way in A Star is Born . That vocal naturalism is unsurprisingly present once more, but here I’m even more struck by the way the system conveys the feeling of the room. In this 2.1 setup, there’s none of the virtual surround processing that you would get from a modern soundbar, which means you’re not enveloped in sound, yet the presentation is really open and three-dimensional-sounding, with nicely rendered crowd noise. It does a far better job of transporting you to the concert space than I expected.

Our listening session culminates with the stampede scene from the live-action version of The Lion King . The first word that comes to mind yet again is ‘natural’. There’s that tonal authenticity again, with weight and dynamics that very few soundbars could match. Detail levels are pretty high, too, and the whole delivery is impressively exciting and engaging.

Pros and cons

I do have some reservations about this MA310-based 2.1 system. As mentioned, I think the decision to do without wi-fi is an odd one. I realise costs must be cut to hit the £499 / $500 price, but Bluetooth feels a bit low-rent for an AVR – support for the likes of Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect feels pretty essential, even at this level.

And while JBL claims to have made setup super-simple by offering calibration via a phone app, this calibration only balances the speakers with the subwoofer – it doesn’t do things such as work out speaker distances, so you will still need to get a tape measure out and manually add those figures, which I think some people in the target audience might find off-putting. Admittedly, that’s not so important when dealing with just a 2.1 system, but if you add surrounds at a later date, you will need to do that extra work.

Then there’s connectivity: having four HDMI inputs is theoretically very useful, but on the MA310, none of these are 2.1-spec so they won’t handle 4K/120Hz gaming from a console or gaming PC. Again, you could say that’s inevitable given the price of the AVR, but someone who is weighing up paying £1397 / $1400 for the JBL system or spending similar on a soundbar system such as the Samsung Q990D might consider the latter’s two HDMI 2.1 sockets to be of more use than the former’s four standard HDMI inputs.

The big thing that this MA310 system can’t do that a soundbar system such as the aforementioned Samsung can is surround sound and Dolby Atmos . You can add surround speakers to the JBL system at a later date, but that obviously means spending more money, and this AVR doesn’t support Atmos at all. The Samsung Q990D system, on the other hand, does a great job of delivering Atmos and surround sound using its combination of ‘bar, wireless surrounds and wireless sub.

What JBL’s AVR-plus-speakers system seems to offer instead is a richer, weightier and more natural delivery that should appeal in other ways, particularly to those who want a system for music as well as movies.

Of course, all of the above is based on a brief listening session in an unfamiliar room with mostly unfamiliar content, and we will need to get the MA310 and the Stage 2 speakers into our own test rooms for a full review before we pass final judgement. On the evidence so far, though, I think this could be a compelling alternative to a premium soundbar.

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