Are you familiar with the feeling when the sound from the TV seems flat and expressionless? The characters in movies sound like they are speaking from a well, and the music in concert recordings lacks volume and air. Many people put up with this for years, believing that good sound is difficult and expensive to achieve.
But what if it's simpler? We tested the JBL Cinema SB190 soundbar to dispel any doubts. This compact device radically changes the home viewing experience. It doesn't require a mountain of wires and complicated setup — just one cable is enough.
In this article, we will give you our honest opinion on how the SB190 handles blockbusters, music, and TV series. You will find out whether it really does give you that cinema experience, or if it's just empty words. It's time to stop doubting and finally hear the difference for yourself.
If you're still wondering whether to get a soundbar instead of a full home theater system, the JBL Cinema SB190 is the moment when you can leave your doubts at the door. It doesn't just make your TV louder — it turns watching movies and TV shows into a real cinema experience: clear dialogue, rich bass, and surround sound without wires or complicated settings. Install it, turn it on, and immediately feel the difference. It's a simple but effective way to upgrade your TV without overpaying for unnecessary features.
The first soundbar
“A stereo pair is always cooler” — I've been guided by this idea for many years, which is why the JBL Cinema SB190 was the first to find its way onto my TV stand. It's black, not too bulky, and even attractive, thanks to its glossy plastic finish. If you set it up correctly, you could even mistake it for a piano lacquer finish. And you need to set it up correctly, because a piano lacquer finish for just under 23,000 rubles is, of course, a pipe dream.
The soundbar is almost 90 cm wide. Probably, here, as in any other area of audio, size matters. But since the SB190 is a pioneer, it will be judged not by its size, but by its ability to reproduce a wide variety of audio from a wide variety of sources.
After all, a soundbar simply has to be a universal device. However, there are still some cinema-specific features. As a rule, such devices have all kinds of DSPs with presets built in, which help them (albeit through digital processing) to create a spacious sound field.
The JBL Cinema SB190 has this feature too: when playing content with a Dolby Atmos audio track, the soundbar doesn't get confused and starts decoding it all into Virtual Dolby Atmos. And movies with 5.1 or even a simple stereo track can be converted to virtual Atmos with the push of a button.
Here's the main advantage over a stereo pair: you can only get a pair of speakers to produce something like this with an AV receiver. And that's a separate device, new costs, and wires… In short, we've been through something like this before and we know how it can turn out.
Appearance and power
Let's move on from demagoguery to the technical solutions that JBL engineers decided to apply in the flagship soundbar of the Cinema line. Let's start with the subwoofer: naturally, it is active. But the fact that it turned out to be wireless was very surprising! I did not expect such solutions to already be available in this price segment.
The subwoofer has a 6.5-inch driver loaded onto a fairly large phase inverter on the rear panel. The subwoofer's power, provided by a built-in amplifier, is a whopping 200 watts. Also on the rear panel is a power cable connection socket and a button with an indicator for connecting the subwoofer to the soundbar. That's it!
Honestly, after all these audiophile issues like frequency cutoff and phase adjustment, you feel a little discouraged by such minimalism. However, this is a completely different class — and different tasks. Therefore, it is worth abandoning such comparisons.
The subwoofer rests on four legs, which are designed to be high enough so that the long-throw driver in the bottom panel does not touch the floor. The exterior finish is matte black paint. Apparently, according to JBL's designers, this color scheme will allow the subwoofer to be as inconspicuous as possible in the interior.
The soundbar itself, as already mentioned, is glossy. This maneuver is understandable: we always want to hide subwoofers somewhere — especially wireless ones. But a soundbar is always on display, so it needs a little glamour and style. Well, JBL has succeeded in this. The glossy finish, which smoothly transitions into a fine-mesh protective grille, looks interesting.
The grille protects four speakers. Two of them are 1.25-inch tweeters. The other two are oval midrange speakers measuring 48 x 90 mm. According to the manufacturer, the JBL Cinema SB190 has a power output of 180 W. So, we get a fairly loud (and not only according to the numbers in the passport) speaker set with a total power of 380 watts.
The frequency range covered is from 40 Hz to 20 kHz. Of course, the bass could be deeper. But, first of all, this subwoofer is not large enough to require any infrasonic frequencies. Secondly, 40 Hz is quite enough for most cases — we're not building an IMAX theater.
Hidden under the protective grille in the center of the soundbar are LED indicators with a very wide range of colors. By pressing the buttons on the remote control, the soundbar can be made to indicate green, red, yellow, white, orange, and even blue.
Some of these lights can not only glow, but also flash with varying intensity. Frankly speaking, it takes some time to get used to such an abundance of indicators. But after a couple of days, all the signals from the new guest began to be perceived intuitively.
The last element of the soundbar is the touch buttons on the top panel. Only the minimum necessary for control is duplicated there, but you still don't want to press them — fingerprints will immediately remain on the beautiful glossy surface.
Remote control and functionality
Let's start with the connectors, which are located in a convenient recess on the rear panel of the soundbar. The first and most important connector is HDMI eARC. This is perhaps the best and certainly the most convenient way to connect the soundbar to a TV. It is through this connector that the TV and soundbar become one in terms of audio: the TV remote control gains superpowers and begins to control the volume of the soundbar.
And when adjusting the volume, the name of the audio device currently playing sound is displayed on the screen. You quickly get used to this, and you immediately want to put the JBL Cinema SB190 remote control somewhere on a distant shelf. But don't repeat my mistakes: we'll still need it.
HDMI eARC has a fairly serious bandwidth — up to 32 channels at speeds of up to 38 Mbps. This means that the SB190 can definitely handle DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD, and everything related to Dolby Atmos.
Next to the HDMI eARC, there is another HDMI input. It is convenient to connect, for example, a video game console or any other source of your choice to it. There is also one optical input, one USB, and even Bluetooth version 5.1 — it is convenient to listen to music from your phone with it, and you can connect to a smart TV in this way completely avoiding wires!
The remote control is small, plastic, and fits comfortably in your hand. The buttons have a pleasant resistance when pressed and provide full control of the JBL Cinema SB190. The list of full controls includes: on/off, volume control, input selection, and sound mode switching.
All sound modes are DSP presets with familiar names: “music,” “movie,” and “news.” In addition, the “voice” button in each of these modes can be used to activate “dialogue boost.” Pressing the same button again deactivates the function. Next is the button with the Dolby icon: it turns the virtual surround sound effect on and off, and it can do this on top of each of the three presets.
The button labeled “bass” has two settings that adjust the subwoofer level. In simple terms, this means more bass and less bass in each of the three modes. Thus, by applying certain adjustments to each of the three presets, you can fine-tune the sound of the JBL Cinema SB190 with surprising precision.
Attentive readers may have noticed that the remote control also has buttons for controlling playback. According to the manufacturer, the American version of the JBL Cinema SB190 can play content via a USB port by connecting an external storage device to it. In the European version, however, the words “service only” are emblazoned on this port, and all attempts to access a connected flash drive have ended in failure.
Experience
The first time you turn it on is like crossing a certain threshold. In our case, the threshold was crossed smoothly and seamlessly. Of course, the JBL Cinema SB190 sounds clearer, more voluminous, and clearly more interesting than the TV's built-in speakers. But there was no “wow!” factor.
From that moment on, the JBL Cinema SB190 began its working career: YouTube, movies, rarely video games, and background music. After a few days of use, an interesting effect was noticed: the sound stopped drawing attention to itself.
And that's great, because before, every time I watched YouTube, the TV sound was constantly annoying: there were unpleasant noises at above-average volume, insufficient clarity of dialogue, and a lack of volume. The SB190 gave the TV sound exactly what it was missing: it made it comfortable, voluminous, and, of course, there was bass!
The JBL Cinema SB190 handled a 15 square meter room with ease. But sometimes this pair was a bit too much — only when background music was playing. The thing is, the volume adjustment step is three units, and sometimes I wanted a slightly more subtle adjustment.
As a music playback device, the JBL Cinema SB190 turned out to be quite good — even better than expected. There's no need to talk about the soundstage and other such things here, but the sound is clear, spacious, and easy to understand.
There is a lot of bass, sometimes even too much — fortunately, there are two levels of adjustment, and you can always turn down the low frequencies. The tone can also be adjusted using presets — they work well, and the sound responds adequately to attempts to change it.
When it came to video games, everything was great! I liked the sound effects, the roar of the engines in NFS Most Wanted sounded like the real thing, and the crashes and accidents no longer bothered my ears with their plastic notes. And the included subwoofer handles low-frequency effects with ease and without any delay. Great!
The long-awaited “wow!”
The first “wow” moment came when it was time to try out the much-praised Dolby Atmos, albeit in the Virtual version. There are videos on popular hosting sites that clearly demonstrate the superiority of Atmos over conventional stereo. And just as the special effects began to spread throughout the room, as if there were not one soundbar but at least three, that's when it hit me. And with it came the understanding of why soundbars are so popular.
Naturally, I was immediately drawn to movies, good and varied, but with as much action and special effects as possible. One of the most suitable was Cowboys & Aliens. The scene at the end of the film with the chase, explosions, and other cinematic delights had already been evaluated in a serious cinema system.
Of course, the JBL Cinema SB190 has practically nothing to counter with. But it holds its own! It creates an interesting soundstage, and the clever DSP implementation even attempts to simulate rear channels. First, this was unexpected, and second, it was quite entertaining. After all, it's hard to believe that this small soundbar is capable of such things.
So, if you've been choosing your first soundbar for a long time and wondering if it will be powerful enough, the JBL Cinema SB190 is a great option to put an end to your worries. It provides the obvious improvement in sound quality compared to TVs that you are looking for: voices become clearer, and movies become more immersive and vivid.
This model is not overloaded with settings and unnecessary features, making it ideal for easy connection and use. You get powerful and balanced sound right out of the box, without having to dig deep into the menu. It's a solution that just works.
All in all, the JBL SB190 is a confident and affordable step towards a home theater. It doesn't claim to be the best, but it honestly and efficiently fulfills its main task: it makes watching movies and TV shows much more enjoyable. With it, you can really stop hesitating and finally enjoy the sound.
