Creative Sound BlasterX Katana Soundbar (2016) vs JBL Bar 5.1 Soundbar (2019)

The Creative Sound BlasterX Katana Soundbar (2016) (51MF8245AA000) was loved by reviewers at SoundGuys, a highly trusted source that performs reliable in-depth testing. It did great in its "Best soundbars for PC and console gaming" roundup where it was named its "Ranked 2 out of 5", which, in itself, makes it a product worth considering.

As for the JBL Bar 5.1 Soundbar JBL2GBAR51IMBLKAM (2019), it wasn't able to earn a top spot in any roundups from trusted sources that conduct their own hands-on testing. Nevertheless, it managed to impress reviewers at PCmag, Popular Mechanics, and MakeUseOf enough to make it onto their respective shortlists.

We couldn't find any sources that tested both of these Soundbars, so we only analyzed how they performed in reviews from different sites.

We first examined which sources rated each of these best and found that the Creative Sound BlasterX Katana Soundbar (2016) (51MF8245AA000) got its highest, 9.5, rating from techaeris.com, while the JBL Bar 5.1 Soundbar JBL2GBAR51IMBLKAM (2019) earned its best, 7, score from PCmag.

Lastly, we averaged out all of their review ratings and observed that the Creative Sound BlasterX Katana Soundbar (2016) (51MF8245AA000), with its 8.5 average, performed considerably better than most Soundbars - the mean score for the product category being 7.6 out of 10 - while the JBL Bar 5.1 Soundbar JBL2GBAR51IMBLKAM (2019) managed an average of 7.0.

There's one caveat here - it might not be entirely justifiable to do a direct Creative Sound BlasterX Katana Soundbar (2016) (51MF8245AA000) vs. JBL Bar 5.1 Soundbar JBL2GBAR51IMBLKAM (2019) review average comparison since they aren't priced the same and more expensive products tend to get higher review scores from some sources.