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REVIEWED
REVIEWED: ADJ Jolt Bar FX
We’re back once again with a review on a product from a brand we all know and love – ADJ! Being an LED bar, this may seem a simple product, but the ADJ Jolt Bar FX is so much more: a multi-use fixture that’s a wash, strobe, blinder and eye-candy effect in a single unit.
Let’s start with the front of the Jolt Bar FX. On the top and bottom you’ll find rows of RGB SMD LEDs (672 in total) and in the centre is a single row of 112 cool-white SMD LEDs. These LEDs are split into zones, with 16 for each section of the fixture. (16 for the top row of RGB LEDS, 16 for the bottom row, and 16 for the middle row of cool-white LEDs.) This gives you a total of 48 different zones to play with, each of which you can control individually.
The LEDs are hidden behind a glass panel that spans the entire length of the unit’s front. The white LEDs in the centre also seem to have a clear curved lens around them, under the glass, which I assume boosts the beam angle of the white LEDs – the resulting output is insanely wide angle!
Thanks to the combination of these different LED banks, you have plenty of flexibility to create dazzling effects. But they’re also effective when used separately.
To say the Jolt Bar FX measures 1m long and just 10cm wide and 11cm high, it’s amazing what ADJ has packed into such a compact fixture. The 116-degree beam angle is huge and a whopping 15,000 lumen output means this thing is seriously bright, flooding the room if you need it to. And if bright isn’t your thing, the Jolt Bar FX can be dimmed – perfect for running those eye-candy effects straight into the audience without blinding them.
The unit comes with a pair of hanging brackets that also double up as floor stands and the brackets rotate 180 degrees to give you lots of flexibility when mounting. It's worth mentioning that the metal brackets can be removed to achieve an even lower profile – great if you want to use the fixture as an uplighter or ‘ground cyc’.
ADJ also includes a removable metal connection plate on the rear, which you can use to mount two fixtures together in a straight line to create a near-seamless finish between them.
Speaking of metal, ADJ offers us a robust all-metal construction that feels strong and sturdy while somehow managing to weigh in at less than 4kg! It certainly seems like it will stand the test of time.
Connection wise, the Jolt Bar FX features a PowerCon type connector for both the input and output (blue and grey).
Its data connections are solely XLR – both in and out are 5-pin only. This means you’ll need 5-3 pin and 3-5 pin adapters if you only use 3-pin XLR cabling (like most DJs probably do), but these are relatively cheap to buy these days anyway.
You can control the fixture via the display LCD on the rear of the unit – it’s fully digital, making everything easy to read. The display is accompanied by a four-button control system (up, down, enter and menu) for easy navigation and selection.
The menu automatically turns off the screen and locks the controls after around 10 minutes of inactivity – a handy feature in case someone presses a button by accident, although you can adjust this setting if you wish. The housing near the digital display is slightly recessed to allow a few millimetres between the floor surface and the menu system, meaning the fixture doesn’t sit on the menu buttons – great thinking, ADJ!
Whilst the control offered by the menu system is fine, it only allows you to operate the fixture as a whole. If you want to make the most of all those different LED zones I mentioned earlier, you need to use the DMX mode (and let’s be honest, it would be tedious to do manually anyway!). You’ll also need the DMX mode to trigger the programs and macros. So, if you want to get the most out of it, the Jolt Bar FX is best suited to DJs who already use or intend to use DMX.
Luckily, ADJ has blessed us with 11 DMX modes – yep, that’s quite a few! There isn’t room in this review to go through what each mode does, but the ADJ website does include a very handy DMX Traits PDF that explains what each can do.
As standard, the Jolt Bar FX is pre-set to the 18-channel mode, providing simple access to the macros and controls for both the RGB and white sections. The largest DMX mode is 127 channels and basically puts the Jolt bar FX into what we call ‘zone mode’ – you have individual control of every zone as well as access to the in-built macro effects for complete flexibility (as long as you have the DMX channels spare).
The Jolt Bar FX offers 25 programs for its RGB LEDs and nine for the white LEDs, and your options for control include dimming, colour, speed and effect selection. Via the menu system, you can also set the dimming curve. There are six pre-set modes to choose from – ideal if you want the Jolt Bar FX to match any halogen lighting in your rig. Although, in the DJ world, it’s unlikely most of us would touch this, opting for the default no-curve dimming setting instead. The Jolt Bar FX has 16-bit dimming, so the fades are smooth throughout the range, all the way down to 1%.
So, what can you do with the Jolt Bar FX? As it turns out, quite a lot!
We were given one unit to demo and we quickly connected it to a DMX controller and started playing. Within minutes we’d decided to order some, as they’ll match perfectly with our existing ADJ Jolt 300s.
We loved the zone control and the flexibility it provides, expanding our capacity to create those increasingly popular eye-candy effects. And by eye candy, I mean chasing effects and colours, rather than just an LED bar that can only do one colour across the entire fixture. The Jolt Bar FX creates much more excitement than that and provides the audience with unique visuals to gaze at and experience (ADJ has really pushed the boundaries by having three different lines of LEDs that can be controlled separately).
On the flip side, if you want to use the Jolt Bar FX as a wash with a single colour output, then it works for that too.
The other feature we loved is the central row of cool-white LEDs. Boy, are they bright! The output is huge and they can easily flood a space with intense white light. With the strobe rate ranging from 0.35Hz (0.35 flashes per second) right the way up to 25Hz, the Jolt Bar FX works fantastically as a strobe fixture, but also as a blinder because the strobe can be turned off. This can be useful if you need to illuminate an area or audience with white light.
If you’re looking for a compact yet punchy eye-candy LED bar, strobe, blinder or linear wash light, the Jolt Bar FX is a great choice for you. And with a respectable RRP of £519, you get plenty of capability for your money, not to mention a robust construction that feels built to last. Having put it through its paces, the ADJ Jolt Bar FX is certainly a fixture I can recommend.
Let’s start with the front of the Jolt Bar FX. On the top and bottom you’ll find rows of RGB SMD LEDs (672 in total) and in the centre is a single row of 112 cool-white SMD LEDs. These LEDs are split into zones, with 16 for each section of the fixture. (16 for the top row of RGB LEDS, 16 for the bottom row, and 16 for the middle row of cool-white LEDs.) This gives you a total of 48 different zones to play with, each of which you can control individually.
The LEDs are hidden behind a glass panel that spans the entire length of the unit’s front. The white LEDs in the centre also seem to have a clear curved lens around them, under the glass, which I assume boosts the beam angle of the white LEDs – the resulting output is insanely wide angle!
Thanks to the combination of these different LED banks, you have plenty of flexibility to create dazzling effects. But they’re also effective when used separately.
To say the Jolt Bar FX measures 1m long and just 10cm wide and 11cm high, it’s amazing what ADJ has packed into such a compact fixture. The 116-degree beam angle is huge and a whopping 15,000 lumen output means this thing is seriously bright, flooding the room if you need it to. And if bright isn’t your thing, the Jolt Bar FX can be dimmed – perfect for running those eye-candy effects straight into the audience without blinding them.
The unit comes with a pair of hanging brackets that also double up as floor stands and the brackets rotate 180 degrees to give you lots of flexibility when mounting. It's worth mentioning that the metal brackets can be removed to achieve an even lower profile – great if you want to use the fixture as an uplighter or ‘ground cyc’.
ADJ also includes a removable metal connection plate on the rear, which you can use to mount two fixtures together in a straight line to create a near-seamless finish between them.
Speaking of metal, ADJ offers us a robust all-metal construction that feels strong and sturdy while somehow managing to weigh in at less than 4kg! It certainly seems like it will stand the test of time.
Connection wise, the Jolt Bar FX features a PowerCon type connector for both the input and output (blue and grey).
Its data connections are solely XLR – both in and out are 5-pin only. This means you’ll need 5-3 pin and 3-5 pin adapters if you only use 3-pin XLR cabling (like most DJs probably do), but these are relatively cheap to buy these days anyway.
You can control the fixture via the display LCD on the rear of the unit – it’s fully digital, making everything easy to read. The display is accompanied by a four-button control system (up, down, enter and menu) for easy navigation and selection.
The menu automatically turns off the screen and locks the controls after around 10 minutes of inactivity – a handy feature in case someone presses a button by accident, although you can adjust this setting if you wish. The housing near the digital display is slightly recessed to allow a few millimetres between the floor surface and the menu system, meaning the fixture doesn’t sit on the menu buttons – great thinking, ADJ!
Whilst the control offered by the menu system is fine, it only allows you to operate the fixture as a whole. If you want to make the most of all those different LED zones I mentioned earlier, you need to use the DMX mode (and let’s be honest, it would be tedious to do manually anyway!). You’ll also need the DMX mode to trigger the programs and macros. So, if you want to get the most out of it, the Jolt Bar FX is best suited to DJs who already use or intend to use DMX.
Luckily, ADJ has blessed us with 11 DMX modes – yep, that’s quite a few! There isn’t room in this review to go through what each mode does, but the ADJ website does include a very handy DMX Traits PDF that explains what each can do.
As standard, the Jolt Bar FX is pre-set to the 18-channel mode, providing simple access to the macros and controls for both the RGB and white sections. The largest DMX mode is 127 channels and basically puts the Jolt bar FX into what we call ‘zone mode’ – you have individual control of every zone as well as access to the in-built macro effects for complete flexibility (as long as you have the DMX channels spare).
The Jolt Bar FX offers 25 programs for its RGB LEDs and nine for the white LEDs, and your options for control include dimming, colour, speed and effect selection. Via the menu system, you can also set the dimming curve. There are six pre-set modes to choose from – ideal if you want the Jolt Bar FX to match any halogen lighting in your rig. Although, in the DJ world, it’s unlikely most of us would touch this, opting for the default no-curve dimming setting instead. The Jolt Bar FX has 16-bit dimming, so the fades are smooth throughout the range, all the way down to 1%.
So, what can you do with the Jolt Bar FX? As it turns out, quite a lot!
We were given one unit to demo and we quickly connected it to a DMX controller and started playing. Within minutes we’d decided to order some, as they’ll match perfectly with our existing ADJ Jolt 300s.
We loved the zone control and the flexibility it provides, expanding our capacity to create those increasingly popular eye-candy effects. And by eye candy, I mean chasing effects and colours, rather than just an LED bar that can only do one colour across the entire fixture. The Jolt Bar FX creates much more excitement than that and provides the audience with unique visuals to gaze at and experience (ADJ has really pushed the boundaries by having three different lines of LEDs that can be controlled separately).
On the flip side, if you want to use the Jolt Bar FX as a wash with a single colour output, then it works for that too.
The other feature we loved is the central row of cool-white LEDs. Boy, are they bright! The output is huge and they can easily flood a space with intense white light. With the strobe rate ranging from 0.35Hz (0.35 flashes per second) right the way up to 25Hz, the Jolt Bar FX works fantastically as a strobe fixture, but also as a blinder because the strobe can be turned off. This can be useful if you need to illuminate an area or audience with white light.
If you’re looking for a compact yet punchy eye-candy LED bar, strobe, blinder or linear wash light, the Jolt Bar FX is a great choice for you. And with a respectable RRP of £519, you get plenty of capability for your money, not to mention a robust construction that feels built to last. Having put it through its paces, the ADJ Jolt Bar FX is certainly a fixture I can recommend.
The full review can be found in Pro Mobile Issue 115, Pages 74-76.
