JBL's $399.95 Link Bar is a smart soundbar that essentially doubles as a media streamer with Android TV, Chromecast, and Google Assistant. Throw in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HDMI, and optical connectivity, and it pretty much does it all. From an audio perspective it delivers crisp, clear sound and rich, boosted lows and low-mids, but there is no sub-bass really. That is left for an optional wireless subwoofer that costs an extra $300, and it sounds like something is missing without it.
Design
The Link Bar, available in black with a wraparound cloth grille, measures 2.3 by 40.1 by 3.7 inches (HWD). The top panel is matte plastic, emblazoned with the Google Assistant logo. Up here, there are controls for source, Bluetooth pairing, volume down/up, and a "privacy switch" that is essentially a mic mute control. The far-field mics are also located on the upper panel.
Behind the cloth grille, there's a status LED, which among other things, lets you know when the mic is listening—after you say "Hey Google," it lights up. Beneath the grille, there are also dual 20mm tweeters and four 1.7-by-3.2-inch racetrack-style drivers delivering a combined total of 100 watts and a frequency range of 75Hz to 20kHz.
Along the back panel, there are connections for HDMI (three total HDMI inputs, including support for 4K, and a fourth port for HDMI ARC), optical, 3.5mm aux, and USB-C for service. There's also a button for pairing with a wireless subwoofer A single HDMI cable is included. The Link Bar can be mounted on the wall, and JBL includes mounting brackets and a guide.
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In addition to the physical inputs, the Link Bar streams via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It's worth noting that it took multiple attempts for us to successfully pair an iPhone 8 with the Link Bar until we realized this process involves using a connected TV screen. You can't simply pair the usual way via your phone's Bluetooth menu—you must also agree to pair using an on-screen TV prompt (you also need to use a TV screen when you want to listen to music via Google Assistant). Regardless, once paired, you can listen as you would with any Bluetooth device, without needing to use the TV screen to control playback (though you can).
The included remote control has buttons for power, Netflix, HDMI, optical/aux, Google Assistant, home, backward, mute, Bluetooth pairing, and volume up/down. In the middle of the remote, there's a control pad with a central playback button, and an outer ring that controls track/film scene/menu navigation. The remote runs on two included AAA batteries. There are also plenty of other ways to control the soundbar, including using Chromecast on your mobile device, or your voice to activate Google Assistant.
Android TV
The JBL Link Bar is powered by Android TV, so it serves as a media streamer as much as it does a soundbar. With that in mind, you'll want to connect it to your TV over HDMI, and probably use it for your primarily input on the TV. Android TV supports a wide variety of apps and streaming services on its own and the bar includes three HDMI inputs it can switch between, so it can effectively replace your TV's menu system for handling your most commonly used home theater inputs.
Android TV offers a wide variety of features, including most commonly used apps and streaming services. They include Amazon Prime Video, Google Play Movies & TV, Google Play Music, Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, Spotify, Tidal, Twitch, and YouTube. It also supports Google Cast, so you can stream audio and video to the bar and your TV from your smartphone, tablet, or a Chrome tab.
It also comes with Google Assistant, and you can access it with your voice thanks to the Link Bar's far-field microphones. Just say "Hey Google," followed by a request for information, smart home control, media playback, or any other task Google Assistant can perform. Because it's an Android TV device rather than an audio-only smart speaker, it tends to default to YouTube for music instead of Google Music. If you just say "Hey Google, play Queens of the Stone Age," you get sent to a Queens of the Stone Age YouTube channel.
Often, it took longer to get to a YouTube channel than it would to get to a standard Google Music offering. And our first time through, playback crashed and we were sent to the main menu. Things improved afterward, but it's unclear what caused the initial issues.
The TV screen being sporadically integral to operation of the speaker is frustrating. You may only wish to hear music from Google Assistant/Google Play, but asking for music always seems to take you to a YouTube channel, so if your TV is off, you'll need to turn it on and to the input for the Link Bar's home interface to appear. From there, you can press play or pause on the remote. The experience wouldn't feel limited if other, screen-free options were just as easily accessible and controllable, but needing to use the TV screen to pair a phone or listen to music is an extra step that often feels annoying.
Performance
To test the Link Bar's movie performance, we watched Blade Runner 2049's crash scene, where Ryan Gosling falls from the sky in a futuristic flying vehicle. It features multiple explosions, and the Link Bar delivers decent low-frequency presence. In the absence of a subwoofer, the rumble isn't thunderous, but the thuds accompanying punches are powerful enough. The music is delivered with solid bass presence and bright, clear highs, and the dialogue is crisp and easy to understand.
When the Death Star (spoiler alert) explodes in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the Link Bar delivers strong clarity throughout the frequency range, and a decent amount of bass depth, but those looking for real rumble will want to add in the subwoofer we keep mentioning—the Link Bar alone simply can't pump out those deep bass frequencies. What you're left with, however, is a crisp, clear dialogue experience.
Particularly with music, the Link Bar can get quite loud. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the Link Bar delivers laudable bass depth, but the deepest lows, as with movies, aren't really there. At top volumes, the DSP (digital signal processing) kicks in and thins out the deepest bass thuds a bit—they sound fuller at slightly lower levels. The mids and highs, however, are delivered cleanly and clearly.
Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the Link Bar's general sound signature. The drums on this track have a natural sound to them—not really boosted much in the deep lows. Callahan's baritone vocals get a serious boosting however, and we start to realize that the Link Bar pushes out some serious presence in the lows and low-mids. The higher register elements of the mix, like some percussive hits and the acoustic guitar, are delivered with brightness and excellent clarity. Thankfully the vocals also receive enough treble edge to keep things clear and defined—otherwise that low- and low-mid boosting would make things a tad muddy.
Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild" receives an ideal high-mid presence, allowing the drum loop's attack to maintain its punchy edge. The vinyl crackle and hiss that's usually relegated to background status also steps forward in the mix significantly. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered without much sense of their true bass depth and power—we hear more of their raspy top notes than anything else. The vocals on this track are delivered cleanly and clearly with some sibilance added in there, though it's not unpleasant.
Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound the most natural through the Link Bar—probably because they need a subwoofer far less than movie explosions or deep-bass electronic music do. Simply put, the Link Bar is a bright, clear, sculpted soundbar with some very rich lows, but no real sub-bass.
Conclusions
The JBL Link Bar feels somewhat incomplete. From a features perspective, it does more than pretty much any other soundbar we've tested thanks to Android TV. As a speaker, though, it feels like it's missing too much of the audio experience without a subwoofer in the mix, so we recommend adding it or going a different route entirely. We've tested 2.1 systems from JBL that cost only a little more than this and have a powerful subwoofer as part of the equation, namely the $500 JBL Bar 3.1. We also really like the $800 LG SL8YG—it costs about the same as the Link Bar and its wireless subwoofer would as a package, so the pricing here isn't ridiculous. But you can also get quality 2.1 audio for far less with the $180 TCL Alto 7+, which delivers fantastic performance for the price.
The JBL Link Bar integrates Android TV and Google Assistant in a soundbar that delivers quality audio, but it sounds tame without the optional subwoofer.
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Sign up for other newslettersAbout Tim Gideon
Contributing Editor, Audio
![Tim Gideon](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/authors/04896dWbRzLlA7BUwmQSojs.fit_lim.size_200x200.v1723226071.png)