JBL Bar 300MK2 Review: Powerful, Bass-Heavy Dolby Atmos Soundbar

Experience impressive Dolby Atmos sound with JBL Bar 300MK2, delivering powerful bass and cinematic audio that's perfect for your home theater setup.

If your TV’s built-in speakers leave you longing for more oomph, a soundbar is often the game-changing upgrade you need. For those who don't have the space or the budget for a full multi-channel audio system, soundbars offer a sleek, affordable way to boost your entertainment experience. Enter the realm of Dolby Atmos soundbars—compact, budget-friendly units that can still fill your room with immersive sound.

Having been a fan of JBL Bar 300MK2 Soundbar for years, I was curious how their Bar 300MK2 stacks up. It’s been 12 years since a JBL soundbar snagged a coveted five-star rating, so this latest model had big shoes to fill—and plenty of expectations to meet.

Price and Market Position

JBL Bar 300MK2 lands in the lower-middle tier for Dolby Atmos soundbars priced around $450. It positions itself close to the Sonos Beam Gen 2, which retails for about $449 and frequently goes on sale for less. Sonos’ Beam has earned multiple awards for its expert Atmos processing, warm yet clear sound, and musicality. But JBL's more affordable price and robust features might just rattle the leader’s throne.

This new Bar 300MK2 follows the original JBL Bar 300, which impressed with clear dialogue and deep bass yet scored only four stars due to somewhat lacking midrange frequencies. So, did JBL manage to fix that with the MK2? Spoiler: yes, and then some.

Design and Build Quality

At first glance, the MK2 looks quite like its predecessor—simple, clean, and understated. The black chassis with rounded edges and a plastic front grille gives it a modern but unobtrusive vibe. JBL smartly refined the layout, embedding volume and Wi-Fi buttons flush with the body for a sleek finish.

Wall mounting is a breeze thanks to included brackets, making it flexible for various room setups.

A nice surprise is the LED display on the front panel—something you don’t get with the Sonos Beam Gen 2. This screen quickly shows volume levels and input selections, offering useful feedback without needing to guess.

Weighing just 2.9 kg (about 6.4 lbs), the soundbar is light enough to move around easily. Its dimensions — 5 cm tall, 94 cm wide, and 10 cm deep — mean it fits perfectly under 48- to 55-inch TVs, though it also comfortably sits beneath larger 65-inch models without blocking the screen.

The included remote is long, slender, all-black, and straightforward, with buttons for toggling Dolby Atmos, Bluetooth, choosing input, adjusting volume, and boosting bass levels from 1 to 5.

JBL Bar 300MK2 Specs at a Glance:

• Connectivity: HDMI eARC, 1 HDMI input, Bluetooth 5.3
• Supported formats: Dolby Atmos
• Audio system: 5.0 (no subwoofer)
• Size: 5 x 94 x 10 cm
• Weight: 2.9 kg

Keep in mind, the remote isn’t backlit, which might make nighttime control a bit tricky—a small compromise considering many in this price range don’t offer remotes at all.

Features and Performance

Inside that slim chassis are five mid-bass “racetrack” drivers and four 0.75-inch tweeters, shaping a 5.0-channel sound system. While the Bar 300MK2 doesn’t sport upward-firing speakers, it supports virtualized Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X, convincingly simulating that overhead sound space.

JBL claims a solid 450 watts of power, which you can definitely feel in your chest during bass-heavy scenes.

The back panel sports two HDMI ports: one input and one output that doubles as an eARC connection for high-quality audio from your TV. Though it lacks 4K/120Hz passthrough, it fully supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+ passthrough, catering well to modern 4K HDR setups.

Control and customization come via the JBL One app, a centralized hub for managing the soundbar and fine-tuning its sound profile to your room. The app plays a series of test tones in a quiet room to calibrate the audio, and I noticed a richer, fuller sound after calibration—definitely a smart touch.

Streaming options abound with built-in support for Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Amazon Music, and Qobuz, plus Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless playback.

Interestingly, the soundbar doesn’t offer preset sound modes like night mode or speech enhancement. Instead, you adjust highs and lows through the app’s equalizer, which is straightforward enough once you get the hang of it, although I found the default sound settings pretty balanced already.

Sound Quality: Cinema and Music

Right out of the box, the Bar 300MK2 delivers immersive sound that feels like a step up from almost any built-in TV speaker setup. Testing it with “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” on 4K Blu-ray, the soundbar impressively created a credible Atmos effect. When Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt flies a helicopter over the ocean, the sound spreads across the room and moves above you, simulating the helicopter's flight path overhead.

While the sound doesn’t quite spill beyond the listener’s position—something reserved for pricier, speaker-laden setups—the Bar 300MK2 successfully fills the gap between you and the screen with rich, enveloping audio. The bass rumbles deep, adding visceral impact to those helicopter rotors buzzing overhead.

The soundbar also handled our classic bass stress test in “Blade Runner 2049,” delivering a clear separation of frequencies and powerful sub-bass. Though at near-infrasonic lows, there was a slight distortion and the bass driver seemed pushed, it’s a minor quibble since many soundbars, including pricier ones, struggle here.

Despite the weighty bass, voice clarity remained sharp—a crucial factor in lively musical scenes like the “Dancing Through Life” sequence from Wicked. Each lyric came through crisply, while the bass kept a solid rhythm beneath.

One of the Bar 300MK2’s strengths is maintaining dynamic range, crucial for building tension. In the recently remastered “Master and Commander” on Blu-ray, the quiet, tense moments before cannon fire hit felt genuinely suspenseful, with sounds shifting from subdued to explosive. You could hear the crackling high frequencies of splintering wood and the spray of debris, delivering a cinematic punch even if it doesn’t quite match the Sonos Beam’s dynamism and precision.

When switching gears to music via Spotify Connect, the soundbar still holds its own. Playing Aurora’s “My Name,” layered vocals and thick synth bass filled the room with immersive energy. However, in the densest moments, the Bar 300MK2 struggled to keep all elements distinct, resulting in a slightly cluttered sound compared to the Sonos Beam Gen 2, which offers greater clarity, finesse, and control. That said, the JBL’s bold, room-filling sound is hard to resist, especially if movies are your mainstay.

Final Verdict

The JBL Bar 300MK2 is a clear step up from its predecessor, improving in every key area and emerging as one of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars we’ve tested at this price point. It truly challenges the Sonos Beam Gen 2 for value and performance.

While the Beam edges ahead with finer accuracy, detail, and musicality, the JBL’s more robust, bass-heavy, and room-filling sound will win over many fans who crave cinematic impact without breaking the bank.

Scorecard:

• Sound: 5/5
• Features: 4/5
• Build Quality: 4/5

“JBL Bar 300MK2 delivers impressive, room-filling Dolby Atmos sound that elevates movie nights with powerful bass and clear vocals.”

FAQ

• Does the JBL Bar 300MK2 support Dolby Atmos?
  Yes, it features virtualized Dolby Atmos support to create an immersive surround sound experience.
• Can I mount the soundbar on the wall?
  Absolutely, it comes with mounting brackets for easy wall installation.
• Is there a subwoofer included?
  No, the Bar 300MK2 is a 5.0 system and does not include a separate subwoofer.
• What connectivity options are available?
  It offers HDMI eARC, one HDMI input, and Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless streaming.
• Does the soundbar come with voice modes or night mode presets?
  No preset modes are included, but you can adjust highs and lows through the JBL One app’s equalizer.

Ready to bring cinematic sound right into your living room? Explore our collection of stylish album cover posters to decorate your space and showcase your love for music and movies. Find your favorite at Architeg Prints and let your walls sing as much as your soundbar does.