Smarten up your old TV

Thomson Go CAST 150 is meant to be a simple and cheap TV upgrade for those who miss modern streaming options on their old TV. The dongle comes with cool features like Google TV, 4K picture and Dolby Atmos sound – plus loads of apps. What’s more, it’s small and portable, so you can take your streaming with you when you travel. As long as you have access to Wi-Fi, power and a TV with an HDMI port, just plug in the dongle and start streaming from your own user profile.

In terms of design, the Thomson Google TV Go CAST 150 (4K) is very compact and lightweight, and its rounded shape is reminiscent of the previous Google version. It fits easily in your pocket or backpack and is powered via USB-C. An included power adapter makes it possible to use it throughout Europe.

Setup takes only a few minutes, and the user interface is easy to become familiar with, regardless of whether you are already familiar with Google TV or not. The menus are clear and provide recommendations based on behaviour and preferences. Family members can also save their own user profiles.

The Google Play Store offers a wide selection of apps and streaming services, including Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and YouTube.

Sharp 4K image quality and good sound

Despite its small size, the Thomson Google TV Go CAST 150 (4K) has excellent specifications: 4K Ultra HD resolution at 60 frames per second and support for HDR10, but unfortunately no HDR10+ or Dolby Vision.

It also supports Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital+, but the sound must be connected via a soundbar that supports this. Thomson also supports the AV1 video codec, which is essential for maintaining good and stable image quality on slower internet connections. On the connectivity side, it makes do with Wi-Fi 5 instead of the 6 version and has no physical Ethernet input.

Under the hood is a quad-core Amlogic processor with 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage. It’s not an overwhelming amount of storage, but it should be enough for your favourite streaming services. In the worst case, you may have to delete some apps to add new ones.

The remote control has a built-in microphone and shortcut buttons for Netflix, YouTube, Disney+ and Prime Video – as well as a separate button for live TV. A programmable button lets you choose your own favourite app. The remote control also supports IR learning, so you can use it to control your TV and volume.

A good alternative to more expensive competitors

The Thomson Google TV Go CAST 150 (4K) is not intended as a direct competitor to more powerful stationary streaming boxes such as Apple TV or Thomson’s own Streaming Box Plus 270, nor is it intended as a gaming console. But as a Chromecast replacement that you can easily take with you on trips or from room to room, it works perfectly.

The image quality is good with 4K material, as long as your TV is capable of reproducing everything Thomson has to offer. The Thomson Google TV Go CAST 150 (4K) manages to communicate with the TV and select the optimal resolution and refresh rate (frames per second) for optimal reproduction. If not, you can go into the menu and override it.

Modern films and series are reproduced in HDR format (HDR10) if your old TV supports this. However, there is no support for the popular Dolby Vision format. But if you have an older TV, this may not be relevant anyway.

Downloading and navigating apps works excellently, and many will probably find that Thomson responds faster to commands than their old smart TV. After all, there have been incredible developments on the smart front over the last 5-6 years.

The sound will of course also depend on the type of system you have connected. If you have a soundbar with Dolby Atmos, you may have better luck connecting the Thomson to the soundbar first and then to the TV if it is an older model. If you already have a TV that you are happy with in terms of picture quality, it may actually be better to spend your money on a new sound system with Dolby Atmos.

Once upon a time – years before TV screens became big and flat – projectors were considered the only reliable way to see the big picture. A projector was something you would generally buy when you wanted to set up your own home cinema, host a sporting event or even give a computer presentation. Whilst much of that has changed today, the projector still stands as a worthy alternative to the big and bulky TV screens. Especially because technology now allows them to have a more practical and user-friendly form factor than before.

Thanks to an LED-based light source, the XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro manages to produce quite respectable brightness for its class (450 ISO lumens) and with built-in Wi-Fi, Google smart TV and automatic image adjustment (focus and keystone) it should be easy to set up. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a built-in battery, but XGIMI offers its own stand with battery pack (PowerBase stand), which we also tested.

So how well does it work? Let’s try it out!

XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro

<

>

XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro has a large USB-A input and a small (micro) HDMI input. (Photo: Audun Hage)

There’s no doubt which main competitor XGIMI has in mind with this model: the MoGo 3 Pro seems almost tailor-made to challenge Samsung The Freestyle. It has the same compact cylinder shape with a hinged base that makes it easy to move, swivel and angle it wherever you want.

Samsung has long been one of the most popular mini projectors thanks to its compact design and smart functionality. The XGIMI MoGo3 shares many similarities with its competitor, including built-in Wi-Fi and a smart user interface. But where Samsung uses its own Tizen interface, XGIMI has chosen Google TV, which offers many apps and streaming services.

When we unpack the XGIMI projector, our first impression is that it is a very compact projector with good build quality. The design seems well thought out with the power supply and speakers in the base, while the other electronics and light source are in the part that can be angled towards the wall. This makes the projector quite stable without being unnecessarily heavy.

When not in use, the lens end is rotated inwards to protect it from external influences. As a party trick, it can also be used as a Bluetooth speaker with disco lights.

When we first set up the projector, it goes through the usual procedures of Wi-Fi password and Google verification. After that, much of the process is automatic. All you need to do is place the projector on a stable surface and aim the image at a (roughly) straight surface and the image will automatically adjust in terms of geometry and focus.

It takes 5-10 seconds and repeats every time you move the projector. It may not be as fast as the fastest expensive smart projectors we’ve seen, but it’s on par with the likes of Samsung’s Freestyle.

We tried challenging the XGIMI projector with various ‘’impossible‘’ placements and were impressed by how well it managed to adapt the sharpness and image geometry to the conditions. Even with fairly sharp projection angles close to the wall, it performed well. If necessary, we could manually fine-tune if needed. Of course, you get the best results when it’s perpendicular with a good distance to the wall or screen.

However, we did notice a small challenge on our test sample, which may be due to a possible weakness in the design. Because the projector part is only held on with one arm, the weight seems to cause it to hang slightly askew. It’s not much, maybe only as little as half a degree, but still noticeable, and it apparently couldn’t be compensated for electronically.

Another thing we miss is more manual settings. For example, the MoGo 3 Pro lacks a zoom function on the lens and there is no way to control the image size electronically. The only way to adjust the image size is by changing the distance to the wall.

Ease of use and features

MoGo 3 Pro comes with the Google TV/Android 11 user interface for easy access to apps and streaming services. The menu overview is easy to recognise and offers plenty of content. A new feature in this Google version is that you can also choose to save different user profiles for you and your family members, which can be particularly useful on a portable device like this.

Most local and global streaming services are available, including Netflix and Disney+, which were conspicuous by their absence when we tested another XGIMI projector (Aura 2).
Format support is slightly more limited than on the Aura 2. For example, the MoGo 3 Pro doesn’t have Dolby Vision or HDR10+, only regular HDR10. That said, relatively weak projectors like this one will still have limited benefit from HDR signals.

On the connectivity side, the MoGo 3 seems a bit odd. Where has the HDMI connector gone? Well, it’s there, just a little smaller. In the form of a micro HDMI that requires a separate cable and/or adapter. We think that should have been included in the box. Instead, you have to go out and buy an extra cable.

When it comes to the built-in smart features, it’s undoubtedly convenient with Google TV and streaming services just a button press away. But after a bit of testing, we got the impression that all the subtleties and automatic adjustments could sometimes be a bit too much of a strain for the computer in the small projector. For example, opening an app at the same time as the autofocus started could sometimes cause an extra delay. XGIMI hasn’t managed to make the user interface as fast as a separate streaming box. So if you’re planning a semi-stationary setup, you might want to pair it with a Google Chromecast, Thomson Streaming Box, Apple TV or similar.

<

>

The remote control is small and neat, but with a projector that is clearly meant for dark environments, we think XGIMI could have used illuminated buttons. (Photo: Audun Hage)

Projector for dark environments

The brightness is specified at 450 ISO lumens. This is obviously nowhere near a full-fledged desktop home cinema projector with 1,500-2,000 lumens, but it’s quite respectable for a projector of this size. In comparison, Samsung The Freestyle has to make do with around 230 lumens – admittedly according to the somewhat stricter ANSI standard – but still significantly lower than XGIMI.

At the risk of repeating ourselves: When it comes to projectors, it’s important to be realistic about the expected image reproduction. A projector doesn’t come close to the contrast and brightness you can achieve with a modern TV, and it needs a dark environment to give a satisfactory result.

We’re talking about switched off ceiling lights, blackout curtains – the darker the better. The same applies if you have any ambitions of using the projector outdoors – it’s the evening darkness that counts. Especially for younger viewers who are more used to high-contrast mobile and tablet screens, this can be a good thing to keep in mind.

However, we found that the XGIMI’s 450 ISO lumens were enough to create a relatively usable bright image in practice, even at quite large distances (3-4 metres) from the wall, as long as we had control over the lighting elsewhere in the room.

Image quality

MoGo 3 Pro uses a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080p) DLP image chip combined with an LED-based light source. The projector is optimised for a medium throw length (1.2:1 throw ratio). In other words, it’s not a short throw UST projector, but rather a projector that needs a certain distance from the wall to create a large image.

XGIMI claims that the MoGo 3 Pro can create an image up to 200 inches, but this is probably optimistic at best! During our testing, we found that a more realistic and optimal screen size is around 90-100 inches.

Of course, the XGIMI’s compact shape means there’s no room for the very best optics, but we were still impressed with the image sharpness and clarity. Image sharpness is good, but of course it depends on what you choose to project on. The wall surface should have an even and smooth texture, so you’ll naturally get the best results with a customised screen. Although it’s not an absolute requirement in this case.

The main bright spot – literally – is that the XGIMI has that little extra brightness that we were previously missing from Samsung The Freestyle Gen 1 and Gen 2. It comes in handy when we want to project a large image onto the nearest wall. In our test room, it delivered an image with acceptable brightness right on the wall as long as the room lights were switched off.

Under the right conditions, it was impressively sharp and clear, even when we increased the image size to around 100 inches. Of course, it can’t compare to a premium home cinema projector, but for a budget portable projector, we have to say we’re pretty satisfied.

The colour reproduction is fine, although not as wide as, say, a laser projector with DLP, but the primary colours red, green and blue come through well.

Contrast is good enough thanks to good light output, but black levels are naturally limited. The slightest hint of daylight or artificial lighting made the image significantly paler and less viewable, so it’s best to forget about it.

The projector has good image processing with several good picture modes from the factory. The customised picture mode has good brightness. There is also a separate movie mode with relatively neutral colours. The XGIMI also has its own gaming mode, but it doesn’t seem very fast – we measured it at around 60ms, which is quite high.

Sound quality

Of course, the XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro also has built-in sound: the projector is equipped with some small 5 Watt Harman Kardon speakers at the opposite end of the cylinder. That said, the sound isn’t particularly engaging. The speakers do the necessary job of adding sound to what you’re watching, but the sound reproduction is quite weak, diffuse and limited. It doesn’t do much justice to films, series or music. But for TV news, it works fine.

If you have ambitions to involve your family or friends in the ‘home cinema’, we recommend that you connect a separate speaker instead. You can either do this with a soundbar via the HDMI output or – perhaps easier in this context – a wireless Bluetooth speaker. A small JBL Flip, Go or Sonos Roam would be a good alternative.

Powerbase stand

For those who wish, you can choose to buy a so-called Powerbase stand for the MoGo 3 Pro. It comes with a built-in battery pack, which should provide up to 2.5 hours of film viewing – in theory enough for a full-length feature film. However, when activated, the projector goes into a power-saving Eco mode with lower brightness. That’s worth noting. You can also use the mains to run the projector while charging the battery. We found the stand to be a very handy accessory in its own right as it made it easier for us to position the projector at the optimal distance from the wall.

Samsung The Premiere 9

From the outside, the Premiere 9 looks very similar to its little brother, the Premiere 7, and there’s no doubt that Samsung has the most living room-friendly design among the test participants. With rounded edges, a warm white color and light grey/beige speaker covers, this is a projector that easily blends into its surroundings.

Inside, the Premiere 9 uses a triple RGB laser light source, but this year’s model delivers higher brightness (3,450 ISO lumens) and an even wider color gamut (up to 154 percent of the DCI P3 standard) than its predecessor. The new model also benefits from Samsung’s latest advances in video processing, including AI upscaling.

Ease of use and features

The Premiere 9 comes with Tizen OS, which is Samsung’s own user interface. This means you don’t have to mess with a separate dongle to watch TV.

The menu system is easily recognizable from the TV models and offers a clear home screen with plenty of content. Here you’ll find a wide range of streaming services. Samsung also has its own TV service, Samsung TV+, which offers some free TV content with commercial breaks. On the connectivity side, the LPU9D has 3 HDMI inputs and the maximum screen frequency is 4K/60Hz.

The projector is easy to set up. The LPU9D only needs a few centimeters from the wall to create a 100-inch image. Then it’s a matter of finding the right angle in vertical and horizontal direction to ensure correct image geometry. The projector has electronic focus adjustment, which works well.

Image quality

The first impression is that Premiere 9 delivers a sharp and bright image. The image is among the sharpest in the test and retains good sharpness across the entire image area, which is a testament to good optics. The LPU9D is also among the brightest in the test with an image that works well in bright environments. If you use the right type of ALR screen and control the light levels, you can expect a picture with good contrast and not least an impressive richness of color!

In fact, at times it can almost be too much of a good thing, as Premiere 9 has a tendency to oversaturate the colors. The reds in particular are very intense and affect the overall color balance a bit. This is especially noticeable in comparison to the BenQ, which has a more color-neutral image. This is also the case in Filmmaker Mode, which you would expect to be the most accurate picture mode.

In other words, Samsung seems to have opted for a certain “ imponator” effect in the color layout, just as they did with their predecessor, the LSP9T. This picture aesthetic works well on a wide range of content, but we would have preferred an even more neutral movie mode.

Black levels never get really dark on a UST-type projector, but the Samsung has pretty good detail in dark areas thanks to efficient image processing. However, it can’t quite match (or rather beat) its BenQ competitor, which has even deeper blacks.

Overall, the image quality can be described as very good, but considering the price of the Samsung projector, we might have expected even better performance, not least because it’s a brand new 2024 model.

Sound quality

Samsung The Premiere 9 stands out on the audio side with an impressively powerful and sonorous speaker system. It has a 40W output power, 2.2.2 channels and is compatible with Dolby Atmos. There are apparently some “upward-facing” drivers under the hood that are new to this model.

The soundstage is wide and large and manages to fill the room better than the other projectors in the test. There’s also a good surround effect on some of the movie content. We also appreciate the clear voice reproduction, which improves the understanding of TV and entertainment programs. In other words, you get built-in audio that can (almost) do without external help.

Of course, if you want more sound, you can connect a soundbar via HDMI eARC. Another option is to connect wireless speakers (such as the Music Frame designer speaker) directly via the projector’s smart setup. It could certainly be a stylish home theater solution.

Conclusion

With a price tag of around €6,000, the Samsung Premiere 9 represents the upper tier of UST laser projectors, so naturally there are expectations of high performance and quality. And that’s exactly what you get, in terms of overall good image quality, good brightness and nuanced color reproduction.

Compared to the competition, it’s the brightness and sharpness in particular that stand out positively. On the other hand, the somewhat oversaturated color reproduction, which is less neutral than the very best, is a bit of a drawback.

However, the Samsung model is by far the best when it comes to smart features and sound. Another – and important – advantage for many will be the compact and neat form factor. So if you’re looking for a living room-friendly projector with minimal accessories, this model will be a good choice.

BenQ V501010i

The HDR effect on projectors is generally limited compared to TVs due to lower contrast and brightness. However, the V5010i supports multiple HDR formats, including HDR10 and HDR10+, and has adjustable HDR brightness to optimize the display of HDR content.

The V5010i is very wide and resembles a large soundbar. But it’s elegantly designed and fits nicely into most homes.

Ease of use and features

To equip the BenQ V5010i with smart TV features, a dongle is included with pre-installed Android TV. It plugs in and hides under a cover, and the projector’s remote control is paired with Bluetooth to use it. This means you only need one remote control here.

The remote control is also backlit, which means it can be easily operated in dark rooms. This is important for a projector that will always look its best when the lights are off.

The setup menu is user-friendly and provides access to extensive image adjustments. It includes advanced color settings, gamma adjustment, color temperature adjustment and full color calibration. The projector also has an Auto Screen Fit feature that automatically adjusts the image to fit the screen. In other words, if the image from the projector falls outside the frame of the screen, it is scaled down to fit. This happens during digital cropping and results in a poorer image resolution. We therefore recommend working with the placement until the image fits the screen.

Image quality

Quite remarkably, the projector delivers correctly calibrated images out of the box with a so-called delta E deviation of less than 2. In practice, this means that all colors look just right without the need for professional calibration.

The image appears rich and saturated right out of the box with impressive colors. There’s good depth and natural tones in all scenes, from faces to nature shots.

Contrast is also remarkably good for a UST projector. They haven’t specified the panel contrast, but we can guarantee that it’s better than the others in the field. Just don’t be fooled by the stated figure of 2.5 million, as this is dynamic contrast measured with the lamp at full brightness and then completely off. A number that means nothing.

But the V5010i shows more detail in dark areas of the image compared to many competitors, resulting in a more dynamic viewing experience. This is especially important in dark scenes, as Batman fans will confirm. However, it’s the black level that is the Achilles heel of UST projectors, and even this projector falls short compared to a true home theater projector. Images of a cave, a starry sky or the moonlight over the ocean horizon at night are not an ultra-close projector’s favorite.

In bright scenes, however, the projector retains good detail without overexposing, and compared to the competition, the BenQ V5010i stands out with the best balanced and most color-accurate image.

Sound quality

The sound quality of the BenQ V5010i is satisfactory for a built-in projector speaker. It delivers a good richness in dialog and has a slightly stronger bass than some of its competitors. However, it sounds a bit stuffy and woolly, so as usual, we recommend an external sound system for the best cinematic experience.

Conclusion

The BenQ V5010i is a projector that not only promises a lot, but delivers on most counts. Its impressive color performance and good contrast make it stand out from the crowd. The user experience is intuitive and the factory-calibrated image quality is a big advantage.

The projector balances high performance with good usability. The V5010i is therefore an attractive package for everyday use and also provides great experiences in a home theater context. The Android TV interface isn’t the fastest we’ve come across, so if you’re a very active user, it might be worth investing in a streamer on the side.

Laser

The light comes from a laser light source that lasts for 20,000 hours in normal mode and 30,000 hours in ECO mode, which equates to around 20 years if the projector is used 3 hours a day. This reduces costs over the lifetime of the projector, compared to having to change the lamp after 3-4 years on a projector with a traditional lamp.

The TK710 STi is closely related to another new projector launched at the same time, the TK710. The STi version stands out by being a short throw projector that can project a 100-inch image from just 1.5 meters. A great advantage for those who want a large image in a small space. The twin projector needs 2.5 meters to provide the same image.

Not only benefits

A distance as short as 1.5 meters requires a sharp curvature of the optics, which therefore almost looks like a hemisphere. This presents some challenges along with the benefits. Firstly, even small irregularities in a canvas can cast shadows on the image. In addition, you will experience so-called vignetting, where the image is less sharp at the edges than in the center.

Finally, it makes lens shifting difficult, if not impossible. Lens shift is usually done by moving the entire motor unit inside to project the image to the side of the center of the optics. With such curved optics, this becomes problematic.

That’s why the TK710 has lens shift, while the TK710 STi does not.

Connectivity and setup

When you unpack the projector, you notice how compact and lightweight it actually is. It can easily be moved from room to room, taken to the cottage or used at events (wedding?) where a large image is needed in a half-lit room. At the same time, there’s nothing about the exterior design that reminds you of something costing almost €2000. At first glance, I would have thought it cost half that.

The projector comes with a simple remote control. It works as it should, but unfortunately it’s not backlit, which makes it useless in the dark. They could have done better there.

On the back are two HDMI 2.0b ports that support 4K at 60Hz and 1080p at 120Hz. Since BenQ emphasizes the gaming features, it would have been nice to have 4K 120Hz, but it’s probably a cost issue.

One of the HDMI inputs supports eARC, which is a big plus for those who want to send audio to an external soundbar or receiver and get the maximum home theater experience.

<

>

BenQ TK710 STi has a built-in Android TV dongle. Photo: Geir Gråbein Nordby

The built-in Android TV system (via an included dongle) makes it easy to stream content directly to the projector. This greatly simplifies the user experience and works really well when the projector is connected to a network. If you already have Android TV or Google TV, you will immediately recognize the layout.

Setup is simple. Just make sure you have the projector on a table level with the bottom edge of the image to be projected or possibly mounted upside down on the ceiling. With no lens shift, you need to pay extra attention to the position of the projector. It does have vertical and horizontal keystone correction of ±40 degrees, which can straighten a skewed image, but at the expense of pixel resolution. So be careful with this feature.

Image quality

With a stated brightness of 3200 ANSI lumens, the TK710 STi delivers even in rooms with moderate daylight. The image is detailed and sharp, and I have no problems watching TV, movies or playing games in a moderately lit living room. It’s even better in the garage with the gate down and the lights off, and best of all in the dark test room at work with DreamScreen V6.

The color space coverage of 95% of Rec.709 is solid and generally provides natural and balanced colors. However, it’s worth noting that in the brightest mode (Bright), color accuracy is sacrificed to achieve maximum brightness. This is a stopgap solution if you need extra brightness in daylight. For the best color results, I recommend sticking to the “Cinema” or “User” modes and possibly adjusting from there. But “Cinema” looks neutral and good with both video content and test images from PC.

The TK710 STi handles motion well, thanks to the fast DLP technology. Motion is barely blurred and both sports broadcasts and fast action scenes in movies work fine. The rainbow effect or RGB flicker, an artifact of all 1-chip DLP projectors, is not particularly bothersome and hardly noticeable.

The 600,000:1 contrast, on the other hand, is not something I see much of. This is measured with only black image and dynamic iris fully tightened. However, images and video with both light and shadows appear with a rather gray black level. The high brightness partially compensates, but what is otherwise the strength of DLP technology – namely high ANSI contrast – I don’t see here. I suspect the 4K pixel shift is largely to blame.

4K with a 1080p panel

A picture panel with 4K resolution is still very expensive. BenQ is among those solving this with a 1080p panel that uses a special lens element to shift pixels alternately in both directions to project four times as many pixels onto the screen.

You actually do get true 4K resolution if you were to count every pixel on the screen. But this comes at the expense of sharpness and contrast. Pixels overlap and you get more stray light inside the projector compared to a projector that has 4K as its base resolution.

Limited HDR effect

The HDR effects on a projector will always be limited compared to a TV, and the BenQ TK710 STi doesn’t make a big deal about the extra brightness in HDR material either. There are other projectors that handle HDR significantly better than this one. For example, I remember the Epson EH-LS800 ultra-short throw projector as better in this discipline.

However, the benefit of the wider color space that comes with HDR is well taken advantage of by the BenQ projector, which still makes the image look more vibrant than with standard dynamic range (SDR) content.

Gaming

For gaming enthusiasts, delay in the HDMI signal (input lag) is a critical factor and here the TK710 STi impresses with just 16.7 ms at 4K and a blazing 4.2 ms at 1080p. This makes it one of the fastest projectors in its class and the reason why BenQ markets it as a gaming projector. In practice, this means that even competitive gamers will experience minimal lag.

I tested the projector with both the PS5 and a high-end gaming PC and the experience was consistently positive. Games like Forza Horizon 5 and Destiny 2 provided a good picture with fast response. The 120Hz support at 1080p is a big plus for those who prioritize fluidity over resolution, but it must be said that you need a pretty cool graphics card to handle more than 60 frames per second with 4K content.

Sound

Although the two built-in speakers of 5W each are excellent for their size, they are only a stopgap solution. They’re sufficient for the kids’ room or a quick soccer game with friends, but you should definitely have an external sound system to match the big picture. The eARC support makes it easy to send high-quality audio to a compatible soundbar or AV receiver.

Noise level

One area where the TK710 STi could have been better is the noise level. While the stated noise level is only 31 dB in normal mode and 28 dB in ECO mode, the high frequency makes it noticeable. Especially in quiet scenes. The short viewing distance also means that the projector often has to be quite close to the seat, which makes the fan extra audible. It’s not unbearable, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re sensitive to noise.

Conclusion

The BenQ TK710 STi is a great short throw projector that delivers on most fronts. It combines high brightness and 4K resolution in a compact format that fits perfectly into modern homes. The short throw distance gives flexibility in placement, while the low input lag makes it a great choice for gamers. Built-in Android TV is also a plus.

However, there are some compromises to be aware of. The HDR effect is not on par with TVs or high-end home theater projectors. The noise level can be distracting for some, and color accuracy suffers slightly in the brightest modes.

At €1800, this is not a cheap product, but given the performance and functionality, the TK710 STi is good value for money for those who want a flexible projector for movies, TV and gaming.

For those who have room for a projector with a longer throw distance, it may be worth considering the regular TK710 model, which can provide even slightly better image quality. But if you need to have the projector close to the wall – but not as close as an ultra-short throw projector – the TK710 STi is definitely a solid choice in its class.

The all-new Marantz Cinema 30 surround amplifier is the first true successor to the nearly eight-year-old SR8015. It’s about time! We’re at the high end, both in terms of price and quality. You get a full 11.4 amplifier channels and there’s room for two more if you have a spare power amplifier lying around.

Related to Denon

The Marantz amplifier is identically equipped as the Denon AVC-X6800H, only with an additional HDMI output (3 instead of 2). The two manufacturers are actually siblings, sharing the same platform and components. Both are Class AB amplifiers, where many competitors have switched to Class D. It’s more efficient, but often doesn’t sound as good. Both are rated at 140 watts per channel into 8 ohms, with two driven simultaneously in stereo.

However, there is a slight difference in the preamplifier stage, where Marantz uses more expensive HDAM preamplifier modules to achieve better dynamics and transient response.

Four subwoofers

A speciality of the Cinema 30 is that it can control up to four individual subwoofers and calibrate the sound individually for each of them. Four subwoofers may seem like a lot, but in addition to increasing sound pressure, it provides a more even bass distribution in the room with fewer dead zones. And with individual processing, the room correction system can do wonders for bass response.

One small question I have is that none of the subwoofer outputs are balanced. Here you often use long cables and with unbalanced RCA, my experience is that the subwoofer can sometimes sound weak, which is often eliminated with balanced XLR.

The test setup

In our test room we have a Procella 7.1 THX speaker system with a pair of Martin Logan SLMs mounted in the ceiling for the Atmos channels. To test with all channels in the Marantz amplifier, I temporarily set up an extra pair of ceiling speakers. A 7.1.4 setup, in other words, to test all 11 channels. However, we only have one subwoofer with two 15-inch drivers.

At home, I have an in-wall home cinema from M&K Sound with five IW-150As in the front, centre and ceiling and a pair of tripole IW-150Ts as surround speakers. Two compact IW28S subwoofers, each with two 8-inch drivers, are built under each of the front speakers. All speakers are in a sealed enclosure.

My 5.2.2 setup doesn’t utilise all channels of the Marantz amplifier, but here good room correction is even more important than in the office test room. Not least because the room is not acoustically treated, but simply set up in a normal way.

Dirac Live for adventurous and discerning ears

Speaking of room correction, the Cinema 30 uses Audyssey MultEQ XT32, which measures and calibrates for up to eight measurement points around the listening position. It works really well even when the speakers are placed behind a screen.

For the extra adventurous, Dirac Live is offered as an upgrade. A licence costs extra and you’ll also need to buy a separate microphone as the included Audyssey microphone doesn’t work with Dirac. In return, you get one of the most advanced room correction systems on the market, resulting in even more accurate sound.

Most recently, Dirac Live has added Bass Control for multiple individual subwoofers. The system uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to calculate correction for multiple subwoofers simultaneously. Cinema 30 is compatible with this, and yes, it makes a difference.

Dirac Live requires a PC or Mac and a lot of patience. The system uses measurements from as many as 17 microphone locations around the listening position!

Ease of use

The menu system should be familiar to users of Marantz or Denon over the last five or six years. The initial on-screen setup asks relevant questions about the number of speakers and subwoofers before the system suggests connections and makes the necessary settings. The audio is played alternately through each speaker channel so you can hear if the channels are addressed to the correct speaker.

Then the rest of the room correction work is left to Audyssey MultEQ XT32. Even if you want to use Dirac, you should use Audyssey first, as Dirac will take its bass processing and frequency division and add its own magic on top.

What you need to look out for

Not everything about usability makes sense once the product is set up. Firstly, if the amplifier is in a different room to the speakers, it will be natural to control it with the app. It works well, but is sometimes very slow. A better solution is an IR extender so you can use the original remote control from another room. But I find myself thinking: Why don’t these types of products come with Bluetooth remote control? Televisions have had it for a long time, so it’s about time it came to serious home cinema equipment.

For optimal sound and dynamics, you should also remember to deactivate the Loudness Management function, either via the app or the menu. It’s enabled by default, so remove it. The description says it only applies to Dolby TrueHD encoded audio tracks, but you can clearly hear that compressed Dolby audio from Netflix and other services also suffer from this feature. Essentially, it reduces the dynamics, but also the midrange. So you get fuller bass and more treble, but at the expense of sound pressure, resolution and especially voice reproduction.

If the amplifier is connected to the TV with HDMI eARC and you want to control the sound level with the TV’s remote control, you must activate HDMI Control yourself.

Cinema experience

Once everything is set up, it’s time for an immersive cinema experience. Cinema 30 delivers hugely immersive and detailed surround sound. Powerful guns and exploding shells thunder around the room with convincing dynamics and sound pressure. The ceiling channels create an airy, three-dimensional sense of space, and the detail and nuances are outstanding.

There’s a clear difference between compressed streaming audio from Netflix and lossless quality from Blu-ray. I would definitely consider purchasing the Oppenheimer film on 4K Blu-ray instead of a streaming service. Cinema 30 excels at both, but there’s clearly more dynamics and air from the uncompressed Blu-ray audio track.

Even better with Dirac

Many will be fine with the room correction from Audyssey. In my house, however, only Dirac really works. The passive subwoofers don’t have a built-in crossover and each need their own customised DSP amplifier. So far, I’ve skipped that in favour of using my own amplifiers.

Audyssey can’t get the subwoofers to sound right, even though I’ve set an upper crossover frequency in the processor. It becomes lifeless, but worse, they quickly sound jarring when things get busy. With Dirac, on the other hand, the bass is spot on! For me, it’s definitely worth the extra Bass Control licence in addition to the regular Dirac Live licence.

The vast majority of users have one or more active subwoofers with built-in DSP and therefore don’t share my problem. In our acoustically controlled test room with the Procella setup, the benefits of Dirac are minor. But they are there, in the form of a better integrated bass, but also a better coherence between channels than the Audyssey MultEQ XT32 manages. The sound is more airy and homogeneous, and the magic of the soundtrack comes out better.

Musical enjoyment

The Cinema 30 also excels with music, and it’s only with two-channel stereo music experiences that I realise the Cinema 30 is slightly better than the Denon AVC-6800H. The airiness and speed surpasses its sister model, making vocals and acoustic instruments seem more lifelike and engaging. The stereo image also grows big and airy.

Classical music in surround sounds exceptionally good. The 2L release Tuvayhun on Blu-ray in Dolby Atmos with the Trondheim Soloists and Nidarosdomens Jentekor and with sound by Grammy winner Morten Lindberg sounds simply amazing. All eleven channels work seamlessly together to provide a precise and resolved sound. Orchestral music in particular takes on a new dimension in the room.

Stereo error?

As mentioned, the Marantz Cinema 30 has 11 amplifier channels, but like its amplifier sister from Denon, it has 13 speaker outputs. This provides some additional configuration options. Unfortunately, the ability to connect an extra pair of front speakers is not one of them. If you have an extra pair of front speakers for stereo listening, you should be able to convert the extra speaker output to Speaker B. You can’t. The only way to do this is to reduce the number of amplifier channels in the surround from 11 to 9.

I think this is a mistake as you shouldn’t drive Speaker B simultaneously with the rest. The additional speaker output should therefore be able to be configured in this way if desired.

Is there enough power?

You can never have enough power and I would have liked even more at this price. At home it’s more than loud and powerful enough, but in the quieter test room at work, an additional power amplifier in the front could be useful.

The Cinema 30 is barely more powerful than its little brother, the Cinema 40, which costs 40 per cent less. The only practical difference is that its little brother has two fewer amplifier channels: 9 instead of 11.

If we go for the Denon AVC-X4800H at well under half the price of the Cinema 30, you get much of the same amplifier enjoyment.

However, if we look up to the flagship amplifier set AV10 and AMP10, the price is over three times higher, and in that respect, the Cinema 30’s price is fair enough if you want top-class Marantz sound.

Marantz Cinema 30: Conclusion

The Marantz Cinema 30 is a high-end amplifier for the discerning home cinema enthusiast. It delivers a wonderful combination of powerful surround sound, high resolution and advanced audio processing. The support for up to four subwoofers is particularly impressive, and together with Dirac Bass Correction, it delivers amazing bass integration in the room. Don’t worry, it also works great with two or just one subwoofer.

Compared to its sister model, the Denon AVC-X6800H, they have very similar performance. The Marantz has some slight advantages on the music front and also has a more playful look. The price makes it best suited to those who appreciate a premium aesthetic product.

The Marantz Cinema 30 is far from being cheap, but it provides a top-notch surround experience for people who really want to invest in a serious home cinema.

This amplifier has been hinted at for a while, but now it has finally been officially launched and can be expected in stores from March. The announcement comes just days after Denon launched their latest home cinema amplifier, the AVC-6800H.

Marantz Cinema 30

We’ve already had very positive experiences with the components in the Cinema series, and now comes the largest integrated model to date. The flagship model Cinema 30 is located under the separate amplifier sets AV 10 and AMP 10. It will be available in black or “silver gold” finish with the same design language as the rest of the series – but the performance will be unrivalled, according to Marantz!

The Marantz Cinema 30 has a sumptuous amplifier section consisting of 11 amplifier channels mounted on a separate circuit board. The amplifier is built with a multi-layered chassis with extensive use of copper. The amplifier section is said to have been carefully fine-tuned by the audio specialists at Marantz Sound Master in Shirakawa, Japan, to ensure the best possible sound quality.

The elegant front cover has optional side lighting and the buttons are hidden behind a fold-down panel. The remote control is also made of aluminium with backlighting to ensure ease of use in the darkness of the cinema.

From 11.4 to 13.4 (!) channels

The processor section of the Marantz amplifier also has the capacity for up to 13.4 channels of preamp outputs, so those who wish can expand with additional amplifiers.

All digital and analogue signals pass through the Marantz HDAM SA-2 preamplifier stage to ensure the characteristic warm Marantz sound. musicality expected from all Marantz audio products.

The processor section utilises a SHARC dual DSP chip connected to advanced 32-bit ESS Sabre D/A converters with dedicated jitter reduction. The digital platform handles everything from high-resolution stereo to immersive audio formats such as Dolby Atmos, IMAX Enhanced, DTS:X Pro and Auro 3D.

Audyssey room correction – plus Dirac

To ensure the best possible results with a wide range of speakers and listening rooms, Cinema 30 is equipped with Audyssey MultEQ XT32 room correction, which takes into account speaker sizes, speaker distances and level adjustment via the included microphone.

Cinema 30 also has the option of Dirac Live calibration, which is available via licence. This includes Dirac Live Bass Control, which allows you to integrate up to four independent subwoofers for the best possible bass reproduction in even the most challenging rooms.

On the connectivity side, the Cinema 30 has a total of 7 HDMI inputs with support for 8K/60 video, in addition to a range of digital and analogue inputs. Cinema 30 also supports the latest HEOS multi-room platform for access to a wide range of streaming services, as well as Spotify Connect, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth.

Price and availability

The Marantz Cinema 30 will be available from March 2024. The price is listed at 4,500 euros.

“The Cinema 30 represents a statement of excellence for Marantz in the AVR category and is one of the most sophisticated designs the team has created in its 70-year history. I can’t wait to hear how it is received by our loyal customers and specialised reviewers,” says Dave Sheen, President of Luxury Performance Audio Group, Masimo Consumer.

Marantz CCinema 30 – highlights

• 11.4 separately amplified channels
• 140 W per channel
• Class A/B amplifier design
• 13.4 channel pre-out
• Symmetrical monolithic amplifiers
• 7/3 HDMI inputs/outputs, all inputs support 8K/60Hz and 4K/120Hz passthrough.
• Modern high-resolution graphical user interface for 4K/8K TVs
• Dolby Atmos
• DTS:X Pro
• IMAX Enhanced
• Auro 3D
• Audyssey MultEQ XT32
• Dirac Live upgradeable, including bass control
• Pre-amp mode for each channel, allowing for better customisation
• Toroidal transformer
• Marantz HDAM design
• Manufactured at Shirakawa Audio Works, Japan

11.4 channels

With 11.4 channels of amplification and processing, the AVC-X6800H has the experience to create a credible and immersive 3D experience. Naturally, the amplifier supports all the latest 3D audio formats, including Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Auro 3D. IMAX Enhanced certification also gives the amplifier enhanced functionality with video content encoded in this format. This includes automatically activating DTS:X and disabling image processing to remain true to the filmmaker’s intent.

If the content has fewer channels than there are speakers in the room (this includes stereo content), the amplifier can mix the content into a larger soundstage.

On the video side, the AVC-X6800H supports 8K 60p video on all seven HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs. It also supports 4K 120p, as well as the latest HDR formats, including HLG and dynamic HDR formats such as Dolby Vision and HDR10+.

Dirac

The amplifier has built-in Audyssey MultEQ XT32 room correction, but you can also purchase a Dirac licence for even more advanced room customisation.

Four subwoofer outputs, all with separate processing, not only enable more bass, but also allow the bass response to be even better customised to the room. Which in turn delivers more distinct and resolved bass.

HEOS music streaming

The AVC-X6800H also features HEOS, which can stream music from most popular streaming services to both itself, but also to other HEOS-compatible devices in the home. HEOS recently received a long-awaited upgrade to its user interface.

Facts:

• 11.4 channels
• 205 watts per channel (1 channel, 1% THD)
• 140 watts per channel (2 channels, 0.05% THD)
• Support for 8K video
• Support for all the latest HDR formats
• Support for Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, IMAX Enhanced and Auro 3D
• Upmixing capabilities for legacy content
• HEOS inbuilt

AVC-X6800H: Price and availability

The AVC-X6800H home cinema amplifier will be available in February. The price is set at €3,500.

More info: denon.com

Auro-CX scales on demand

The new format scales word length (bit depth), sampling rate and the number of channels/objects in a single data stream. This means the decoder can extract exactly what it needs, whether it’s 48, 96 or a full 192 kHz. Only one stream is needed, regardless of the desired quality and number of channels at the other end.

This enables content providers to stream to everyone from discerning audiophiles with huge home theatres to ordinary users with simple TV speakers – without any additional coding. Just by downscaling the quality.

World-class 3D sound?

Additionally, Auro-CX handles the audio objects required for immersive surround sound in the same bitstream. They claim that competing formats (such as Dolby Atmos / DTS:X) have to extract the objects from a 7.1 base mix, and when adding height channels, the overall sound quality suffers. Especially in the height channels.

Auro does it differently by integrating the objects directly into a much larger 13.1 mix. This should result in much better sound quality when raising the height information by adding extra height channels to a 7.1 soundstage. The result is a much more accurate approximation of the sound creator’s intent.

In short, the Auro-CX sounds to deliver 3D audio in exactly the quality you need and want, customised for your system. Whether you’re a discerning enthusiast or a regular consumer. Whether the codec lives up to its promise remains to be seen.

More info: auro-3D.com

The CineBeam Qube (HU710PB) is one of the smallest 4K projectors the world has seen to date. Nevertheless, LG claims that the new 4K projector will be able to turn almost any indoor space into a movie theatre!

LG CineBeam Qube

Small and portable projectors are all the rage at the moment because they allow us to create a big picture in no time: Samsung, for example, has had some success with its portable The Freestyle.

LG’s version differs in that it uses mains power and is therefore more ‘stationary’ – but should be easy to move around when needed. The LG projector features Auto Screen Adjustment, which helps to adjust the focus, size and position of the image.

The CineBeam Qube is also a “smart” projector as it runs the LG webOS (6.0) user interface with menu options and in-built streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube, Disney+ and Prime Video (requires a subscription of course). The projector also has a kind of “standby mode” where it can display atmospheric backgrounds.

The LG Cinebeam Qube uses an RGB laser light source and LG’s own video processing. The manufacturer claims it has an impressive contrast ratio of 450,000:1 and a colour space of 154% of the DCI-P3 colour space.

You’ll probably need a fairly dark room and a relatively small viewing area to get anywhere near these figures. The brightness is listed at 500 ANSI Lumens (equivalent to just under 150 nits). But we’re still looking forward to testing it in practice.

The price of the LG CineBeam Qube has not yet been announced, but it will be presented in more detail at the CES show in Las Vegas next week. Watch this space!

<

>

(Photo: LG)

LG CineBeam Qube (HU710PB) – specifikationer

Dolby is a familiar name to anyone who reads L&B tech Reviews. Prominent audio/video formats such as Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision have almost become part of the everyday language of hi-fi and home cinema enthusiasts.

During our stay in London, we learnt more about the developments Dolby has been working on in recent years. A lot of the technology and concepts are already familiar to those of us who work a lot with image and sound – but here we had the chance to dig deeper and talk to the people behind it!

Dolby: from tape recorders to big business

These days, you can hardly avoid seeing the Dolby logo every time you turn on a streaming service or visit your local cinema. But did you know that the company’s roots go all the way back to England in the 1960s?

Ever since Englishman Ray Milton Dolby developed an ingenious way to reduce tape noise from tape recorders and cassette players (Dolby Type A and B noise reduction) and later emigrated to the US, the American company has played an important role in music, film and TV production.

Today, Dolby Laboratories is a global player deeply involved in the research and development of A/V signal processing, with patented techniques that go all the way from the studio to the consumer.

The company has also developed its own cinema standard – Dolby Cinema – which it promotes to the cinema industry around the world. It is based – unsurprisingly – on the use of Dolby Atmos-compatible speaker systems, in combination with an advanced dual projector solution that provides very high, HDR-capable contrast on large cinema screens.

In Las Vegas, you can find the Dolby Live concert venue, which has been upgraded with a giant 4K LED screen and – you guessed it – a Dolby Atmos-capable speaker system for live music.

Dolby Atmos – a sound standard for the future

If there was one message Dolby wanted to instil in us during the London trip, it was that Dolby Atmos is here to stay – and it’s only growing.

Thousands of films, series and documentaries have been mixed in Atmos, and are warmly embraced by both producers and sound engineers as a format they enjoy working with creatively.

Recently, the format has also made inroads in music. Streaming service Tidal offers music in Dolby Atmos, as does Apple Music, increasingly so. But podcasts, audiobooks and “radio plays” have also become more relevant.

Audiobook service Audible (owned by Amazon) is among the latest to embrace Atmos. Some productions can be quite extensive in terms of sound, and with famous actors and artists among the narrators, they can almost sound like feature films – minus the picture!

<

>

Oliver Twist and The Little Mermaid are among the audio plays reproduced in Dolby Atmos format (Photo: Audible/Dolby)

Atmos is also used for live sports broadcasts, within English football (Champions League and Premier League) on Sky and BT, but also to other countries. We saw examples of this, using the Dolby AC-4 codec to transmit Atmos sound at low bandwidth, while making it easier for broadcasters to switch between different commentary languages.

But what exactly is Dolby Atmos?

Dolby Atmos is referred to as an object-based audio format. This means that the sound is no longer mixed for a specific number of channels or speakers, but rather transmitted with associated metadata – X/Y/Z coordinates that indicate the location of each sound effect in a three-dimensional sound image.

With Atmos, it has also become possible to place speakers in the ceiling – so-called height channels – for an even more immersive soundscape. The classic sound of a helicopter can sound far more realistic when the sound actually passes physically over our heads.

During our trip to London, we got to talk to Nick Fry (Picture Shop), the sound producer behind the award-winning F1 documentary series Drive to Survive on Netflix. He showed us how the technology makes it possible to move the sound effects in a three-dimensional space on screen, between the many Genelec speakers in the studio, and how this can then be recreated in the listener’s home.

The system offers huge creative possibilities, with producers choosing to place you in the centre of the stands as the F1 cars zip past – or in the middle of the driver’s seat if they wish!

Perhaps the best thing about Atmos is that the system is scalable. With support for up to 128 channels and 64 individual speakers, the sound mix and panning effects from the studio can be faithfully recreated in small and large spaces, from tiny “bucket rooms” to huge cinema halls with hundreds of seats. Not only that, but the metadata can also be used to create a more realistic surround effect when listening with headphones (known as Dolby Atmos binaural mix).

It is important to note that Dolby Atmos in itself does not necessarily guarantee a good sound experience. The sound is created by the artists and creative minds in the studio. What Dolby provides are the tools to programme the sound, transport the signals and recreate the sound experience in your living room.

Now, this was a Dolby event, but let’s not forget that there are competing formats, including DTS:X from Digital Theatre Systems, that can achieve similar effects.

The point is that 3D audio formats such as Dolby Atmos offer great creative possibilities, which can be recreated in the listener’s home far more accurately or better than before, with the help of positional metadata.

Given the developments in AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality), we have probably only seen the beginning of what 3D audio can be used for!

Atmos for music (Dolby Atmos Music)

In the last couple of years, Dolby Atmos has also made a strong entry into music. During our visit to London, we visited Abbey Road Studios – where a large number of high-profile music productions are now being recorded, mixed and remixed in the Dolby Atmos format.

The legendary studio opened in 1931 as the first dedicated recording studio in the world, and has spawned a number of iconic bestsellers. The cover photo for the Beatles album ‘Abbey Road’ was snapped in the footpath just outside. The film scores for Indiana Jones and Star Wars were recorded here. Recordings of world-renowned artists are still held weekly, as well as film scores and lavish gaming productions. We could swear we saw some familiar faces during lunch…

In the studios, we got to see and hear how sound engineers work when mixing an Atmos soundtrack for music, film and TV. Feature films are usually mixed in a larger studio with up to 44 active Dynaudio monitor speakers, while it’s common to do a ‘near-field remix’ with B&W speakers before release to streaming services, TV and Blu-ray.

<

>

Abbey Road Studios - music mastering studio with ATC loudspeakers around the building (Photo: Dolby Europe Ltd)

Dolby Atmos – now also for your car

Perhaps the most exciting development is happening within Dolby Atmos for cars. Several car manufacturers, including Mercedes, Nio, Polestar and Volvo, have introduced Atmos-compatible sound systems for their cars. This comes after a long period of development by Dolby.

Andreas Ehret has been responsible for the project, and he showed us a Volvo XC60 project car, which they had modified with their own height speakers (7.1.4 setup) and associated sound processing.

When playing Atmos soundtracks in a car, it is important to not only recreate the sound from the studio, but also to be able to optimise and adapt the sound optimally for both driver and passengers. Otherwise, the sweet spot will be somewhere in the centre of the car, where the handbrake used to be!

In car audio systems, it has long been common to introduce some kind of virtual 3D surround effect – with varying degrees of success. But now that the 3D sound is already included in the Atmos-mastered recording, it’s a completely different story.

Rocket man at full blast

Inside the Volvo, we got to hear Elton John’s Rocket Man, one of the first songs to be officially remastered in Dolby Atmos format. And it sounds immediately inspiring! Elton’s vocals sound bigger up front, the chorus comes from all sides, the piano, drums and bass go deeper and fill the cabin in a completely different way – more “live” – than the traditional stereo recording, while the sound – the sound itself – is true to the original from 1972.

Some might still think that you shouldn’t tamper too much with classics like this. It was therefore just as interesting to hear new recordings such as Billie Eilish’s Oxytocin, which shows that the Atmos format has a lot to offer for music as well.

The Atmos format will play an important role in several upcoming car models, including the Mercedes EQE, Volvo EX90, Polestar 3, Nio ET7 and Lotus Eletre, so stay tuned for more sound tests in the near future!

Dolby Cinema: Bring out the popcorn!

The coolest picture experience came when we visited the public Cinema in the Power Station at Battersea outside London. This is a luxury, Dolby Cinema-certified cinema, which means it uses a custom projector setup consisting of dual Christie 4K laser projectors. Many of the film titles shown are mastered in Dolby Vision.

We were given a short demo taken from Top Gun: Maverick, where Tom Cruise does some breakneck aerial stunts in the Mojave Desert. And without exaggeration, this is probably the most raw picture quality yours truly has ever seen on a cinema screen!

With far greater contrast and deeper black levels than you’re used to seeing from regular cinema projectors, backed up by a thunderously brutal and crystal clear sound system, this was an adrenaline-filled experience. Certainly a worthy competitor to IMAX, and while the aspect ratio (at 2.40:1) may not be as immersive as the IMAX screens (at 1.90:1), it definitely added to the flavour. It would definitely be exciting if we could see a real Dolby cinema here in the Nordics too!

<

>

(Photo: Dolby Europe Ltd)

Soundbars created specifically for LG TV

The new soundbars will provide a number of synergies with LG TV models. Thanks to the WOW Orchestra feature, both the soundbar and the TV screen’s own speakers can be used in tandem.

The top models S95TR and SG10TY also feature WOWCAST wireless audio transfer, where sound can be sent from the TV without an HDMI cable (requires a compatible LG TV). All of the new soundbars also feature a common user interface that efficiently shares audio settings between the TV and the soundbar.

Of course, LG’s new soundbars support both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

The soundbars also feature improved room correction (LG Triple Level Spatial Sound and AI Room Calibration), which provides a more natural sound and a convincing sense of space in harmony with the room’s acoustics. New in 2024, Room Calibration will also be able to correct for the placement of the rear surround speakers, making them more flexible to install.

New top model: LG S95TR

The LG S95TR is LG’s new 2024 flagship soundbar, featuring a 9.1.5 configuration (15 speaker channels!) and powered by a total of 810 watts of amplifier power.

Five of the 15 channels are upward-facing height channels, including an additional top speaker for the centre channel. This is said to be angled to provide better coupling with on-screen dialogues.

LG also claims that the tweeters on the top model have been improved to provide clearer and more accurate sound, while a passive drone unit will provide extended bass in combination with the wireless subwoofer. With wireless rear speakers in addition (also with their own height channel), LG promises an “unrivalled” three-dimensional sound experience. It will be interesting to see if LG has managed to improve on the sound of its somewhat disappointing predecessor, the S95QR.

Flat design model: LG SG10TY

This flat model doesn’t boast as many channels, but is designed to be a stylish companion to LG’s slim OLED TV models. It can be wall-mounted with a special bracket and wirelessly connected to the screen above.

LG promises premium TV sound quality, and listeners can enjoy their favourite tracks from streaming services like Tidal and Spotify. The design is thoughtfully designed to match the width and frame colours of LG’s OLED TVs.

Affordable with high performance: LG S70TY

The S70TY soundbar model is said to be ideal for LG QNED TVs with its simple and compact design. Like the S95TR, this model features a top-mounted centre speaker for clearer speech. It also comes with a special bracket (optional) so you can mount the soundbar directly under a compatible QNED TV.

In addition to the three models mentioned above, we can expect more soundbar and speaker news from LG at the show.

LG Electronics product news, including the new OLED models C4 and G4, will be showcased during CES 2024 from 9-12 January. L&B Tech Reviews will be there to bring you more first-hand impressions at that time.

The rumours were brought to light by Mark Gurman of business media Bloomberg, who spoke with several anonymous sources at Sonos.

Sonos headphones with ANC

The headphones are the least expected news, as Sonos has presumably been working on such a product since 2019. Back in 2021, Sonos was at the forefront with a prototype that became known via leaked patent drawings.

However, this was later dropped, and the headphones that we’re likely to see in the spring of 2024 are a completely new design, codenamed Duke. According to Bloomberg, it will be an over-ear model that will compete directly with the Sony WH-1000XM5, Bose QuetComfort Ultra and Apple AirPods Max. Sonos will reportedly price the headphones between $400-$500. That’s closer in price to Sony than Apple.

The new noise-cancelling headphones will be unveiled in March 2024 and hit stores in April, according to Bloomberg sources.

A little later in 2024, or perhaps early 2025, Sonos should be ready with a streaming box for the TV. What used to be called a set-top box – back when TVs were deep enough to have something placed on top of them.

Apple TV competitor

The device, codenamed Pinewood (probably inspired by the famous Pinewood film studios in England), will of course stream video to TVs. Not surprisingly, the operating system will be built on Android. The success of such a device stands or falls on whether Sonos will be able to offer something new and useful to customers – something they don’t already have. Here, the box will face stiff competition from Apple, but also from the already built-in smart platforms in modern TVs, not least Android TV.

According to Bloomberg, Sonos is in the process of negotiating agreements with the various streaming providers, including of course Netflix, which has never said no to having its own button on a remote control anywhere. A possible trump card for the Pinewood box could be that it will also act as a central control unit for the household’s other Sonos devices. The box will support Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision.

There are also a number of less surprising innovations within Sonos’ existing product lines. In 2024, we can expect a new version of the Sonos Roam and a new subwoofer. We’d guess so; in fact, it would be a bigger surprise if these products weren’t in the pipeline. A new soundbar to replace Arc should also be on the way in 2024.

Installation

There should also be a slightly more expensive “professional” version of the Sonos Era 100 with a built-in Ethernet input. It will be intended for installation in stores and restaurants.

According to rumours, Sonos is also working on “a high-end amplifier for home cinema installations.” The term should be taken with a grain of salt, as Bloomberg is a business media and not a tech media – and therefore judges things by different standards. But a price tag of $3000-$4000 still sounds exciting. In-ceiling speakers are also an indication that Sonos sees the home theatre as more than just a TV and a soundbar.

Source: Bloomberg

<

>

XGIMI Horizon Ultra (Photo: XGIMI)

XGIMI Horizon Ultra

To achieve a decent viewing experience of High Dynamic Range (HDR) content with projectors, good brightness is essential. The projector market has long used either laser or LED-based light sources, but XGIMI claims that their new Dual Light system with both laser and LED will provide a good combination of wide colour gamut and high brightness. The Horizon Ultra achieves a brightness of up to 2300 lumens, which is comparable to Sony’s 4K projectors at a significantly higher price point. Of course, it remains to be seen what the image quality will be like in practice!

The projector has several smart features. For example, it can take into account the colour of your wall and correct the colour reproduction accordingly (although most people will probably prefer a real canvas). The projector also has features like Auto-Keystone and autofocus, which should make it easier to get the right image. This makes it suitable for both temporary setups and permanent installations. The projector has two HDMI inputs including eARC. It also has a smart user interface with Android 11, which provides access to a wide range of streaming services and apps. It also has a built-in speaker system from Harman Kardon. For gamers, it’s worth noting support for up to 4K/60Hz and an input lag of 18ms.

Price and availability

XGIMI Horizon Ultra is available now via XGIMI’s home page and authorised dealers. The price is 1899 euros.

The model name AN-1000 should sound familiar to Sony fans: it brings back memories of classic amplifiers like the TA-E-1000ESD, which was a milestone in its day. So Sony is definitely serious about this model.

<

>

The Sony TA-AN1000 has six HDMI 2.1 inputs and 2 out. But no multi-channel pre-out, it seems. (Photo: Sony)

An authentic home cinema experience

For those who want to take the step up to a real full-blown home cinema with separate speakers, you need a surround amplifier that’s up to the task. The Sony TA-AN1000 supports the latest surround sound formats, including Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and handles video at up to 8K/60 Hz and 4K/120 Hz in HDR format.

The amplifier section delivers 7 x 85 watts into 8 ohms (120 W per channel into 6 ohms), and can be configured for either 7.1 surround or 5.1.2 with height channels.

Perhaps most interestingly, the TA-AN1000 comes with Sony’s patented room correction – Digital Cinema Auto Calibration (D.C.A.C. IX) in combination with 360 Spatial Sound Mapping.

D.C.A.C. IX can correct the distance, angle, sound pressure, phase and frequency response of each speaker using the included calibration microphone. In this way, it can compensate for challenging speaker placement, delay or phase shifts.

Using the positional information measured by the microphone, the system can map the room in 3D, creating multiple “phantom speakers” and placing them around the room – all to create a more immersive sound experience.

We’ve heard the technology in action on the HT-A9 fully active wireless surround speakers, but now it’s possible to use it with your existing passive speakers. We’ll see if it works just as well.

Music in surround format

The TA-AN1000 is also very suitable for listening to music in surround. Sony’s own 360 Reality Audio sound format is of course included, and the TA-AN1000 also supports direct native playback of DSD (Direct Stream Digital) files, with no conversion involved, so DSD content can be fully enjoyed.

The TA-AN1000 supports Bluetooth, Spotify Connect, Chromecast and Apple Airplay 2 for easy music streaming from mobile devices. The Sony amplifier is also ‘Works with Sonos’ certified, so it can also be controlled remotely via the Sonos app in multiroom setups.

Prepared for high-quality video and gaming

Sony has assured that they’ve been focused on preserving the original picture quality when played through the TA-AN1000. The amplifier has HDMI inputs and outputs with passthrough for HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision, as well as 8K and IMAX Enhanced.

Gaming is also taken care of, with support for 4K120, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) in HDMI 2.1 for smoother and clearer motion during responsive gaming.

The TA-AN1000 also supports PS5 features Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode in combination with compatible Sony BRAVIA TVs.

Elegant interaction between Sony TVs and speakers

The Sony amplifier naturally benefits from being able to work in symbiosis with other products from the Sony lineup. In addition to powering regular passive speakers, the TA-AN1000 can also be connected wirelessly to Sony’s active speakers, including the wireless rear speakers SA-RS5 and SA-RS3S, as well as the subwoofers SA-SW5 and SA-SW3. This potentially avoids a lot of cable clutter in your home theatre.

When connected to a BRAVIA TV with Acoustic Centre Sync, the Sony amplifier can combine the sound from the TV with the sound from the centre speaker. The dialogue will then appear as if it’s coming directly from the people on the screen.

Price and availability

The Sony TA-AN1000 will be available from June 2023 and the price, which is yet to be finalised, should be just over €1000.

The miniDSP Flex HT features advanced bass management, parametric EQ, crossover, advanced filter programming, which miniDSP calls biquad, and there’s also the ability to adjust delay and gain between channels.

Multi-channel Dirac Live

The miniDSP Flex HT features upgradeable software, full frequency range multi-channel Dirac Live, which we can guarantee is one of the best room correction systems on the market right now.

The miniDSP promises that the eight analogue RCA outputs have very low noise and distortion. You get control of your entire AV system from your TV’s remote thanks to CEC over HDMI, so integrating the processor into your setup should be easy.

Not bitstream

Please note that Flex HT does not support bitstream formats such as Dolby and DTS. Therefore, the connected HDMI device must be capable of outputting Linear PCM (LPCM) to achieve multi-channel support via HDMI. This also applies to immersive formats such as Dolby Atmos. If you have a source that can transcode Dolby Atmos to PCM, you could in theory get 5.1.2 3D audio out of the Flex HT.

WISA support

Last but not least, the Flex HT miniDSP is the first product with wireless WiSA support. The acronym stands for Wireless Speaker and Audio Association and is specifically designed for multi-channel, low-latency audio. The WiSA transmitter is built into the Flex HT unit itself and can transmit all eight output channels to WiSA-compatible wireless speakers and subwoofers.

miniDSP Flex HT – availability and price

The processor will hit the market in Q2 2023. The price has not yet been announced, but the Flex Eight, which also has eight-channel processing but without HDMI, will cost $600. We expect the Flex HT to be somewhat more expensive, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up around €1000.

NOTE! To perform room calibration, you’ll also need a measurement microphone, such as the UMIK-1.

More info:  minidsp.com

Pioneer VSX-LX805

The new flagship VSX-LX805 from Pioneer has a whopping 11 speaker channels, and with two of them driven simultaneously in stereo, the behemoth offers 150 watts per channel.

The receiver has outputs for four subwoofers, while separate processing is limited to two subwoofers. This is therefore an 11.2 receiver, even though Pioneer says 11.4.

Dirac Live

On the other hand, it’s really cool that the Pioneer receiver has Dirac Live room correction with the option to purchase Dirac Live Bass Control for up to two individual subwoofers. Both correction systems use so-called artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to choose the best settings for the system in your listening room.

If, on the other hand, you’re happy with Pioneer’s own tried-and-tested MCACC calibration system, this is also built-in.

Class AB amplification

Pioneer promises “audiophile sound quality” from the VSX-LX805, and we expect the same in the high-end class. Among other things, it has two multi-channel ESS 32-bit Sabre HyperStream DACs. But even more interesting is that Pioneer has gone back to Class AB amplification. They haven’t used it since the old flagship VSA-AX10Ai in 2003, which remains one of the best we’ve heard. Take that, Class D!

Immersive and HDR

Both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive audio formats are of course built-in, and the receiver supports Dolby Atmos Music on Apple Music and Tidal. Auro3D should also be supported at launch in June.

With 11 channels, it can be configured for 7.4.2 or 9.2.2, for example, where the centre number describes the number of ceiling height channels and the last is the number of subwoofer channels.

HDR formats supported are Dolby Vision and HDR10+, and of course HDR10. HDMI 2.1 supports 4K 120 Hz and 8K 60 Hz.

Connections

The VSX-LX805 has seven HDMI inputs, three outputs and, of course, support for eARC (extended audio return). Other interesting connectors include two balanced XLR inputs and two balanced XLR outputs. Smart if you want to connect a balanced headphone amplifier, for example.

Streaming

Streaming features include Chromecast, AirPlay 2, Spotify, Tidal and Bluetooth with aptX for better sound. The receiver can be controlled with voice assistants such as Google, Alexa and Siri via smart speakers, and IP control is also possible.

Roon Ready certification is expected in September.

Onkyo TX-RZ70

We don’t give much space to the Onkyo TX-RZ70 receiver, which is virtually identical. Again, 11 channels, but with 10 watts less power per channel. This may be another way of stating the measurements; we suspect they are identical. In any case, you get class AB here too.

Likewise, you get the same seven HDMI inputs with support for 8K 60Hz and 4K 120Hz.

The same goes for the two 32-bit ESS Sabre DACs, Dirac room correction and bass control. Same voice control, same format support on the audio and video side. Including Roon Ready, coming in September.

Where the Onkyo receiver differs from the Pioneer is that it only has two subwoofer outputs, but with separate processing for both, this means that the actual subwoofer channels are the same. If you need four subs, you can buy two Y-splitter cables and get the same result.

Note, by the way, that the Onkyo receiver has no XLR in or out, so they’ve cut corners there.

Otherwise, we reckon you’ll get almost the same benefit from both amplifiers.

Pricing and availability

The Pioneer VSX-LX805 costs €3,499, while the Onkyo TX-RZ70 will be slightly cheaper: €3,299. Both will be available in June.

More information:

eu.pioneer-av.com

eu.onkyo.com

Sony is the only manufacturer other than JVC to offer home cinema projectors with true 4K panel resolution. This means you don’t have to resort to the tricks of an optical lens element that oscillates between two or four modes (pixel shift) to draw more pixels than are actually on the panel. An obvious advantage of true 4K panels is that all pixels hit the screen at exactly the same time, avoiding motion noise and image lag. In addition, you get the full dynamic range from the darkest dark to the brightest light, across the entire colour space and at all times. The result is a more realistic cinema image.

<

>

VPL-XW5000ES in white. (Photo: Sony)

Processing power

On the downside, 4K panels are expensive and require more processing power, which further increases the price and also increases cooling requirements. Which in turn increases the size of the housing. However, cost is the main reason why there aren’t more projectors with true 4K panels.

Sony VPL-XW5000ES

To bring the price of the projector down, it is not equipped with Sony’s most advanced optics, so you have to upgrade to the big brother XW7000, which costs over twice as much. But we’ve had plenty of experience with the ‘next best thing’, for example, we found that the VW590 with simpler optics was no match for the more advanced VW890, which is equipped with a lens as sophisticated as professional cameras.

The optics in today’s test object are nonetheless exclusive enough, with better control over light by maximising the potential of the laser light source. The result should be better colour saturation and shades, and better contrast – even in the brightest parts of the image.

Blue laser

Sony calls the laser the Z-Phosphor, which is a blue laser light. Specifically, a group of blue laser diodes that are passed through a yellow phosphor wheel to create white light. This gives the projector 25 per cent more brightness than the previous entry-level model VW290.

A colour filter then splits the light into the three primary colours of red, green and blue. As well as being more efficient than a conventional lamp, the colour balance remains stable regardless of brightness.

Whereas a conventional lamp projector takes a long time for the lamp to reach a stable working temperature, laser projectors can switch on almost as fast as a TV. However, that’s not quite the case with the VPL-XW5000ES. Here, you have to wait a little while for the image to appear. Not as long as with a regular lamp projector, but it hasn’t become any faster than previous Sony lasers, which tend to be a little slow.

Long life, high brightness

Another advantage of lasers is a significantly longer lifespan. Whereas you get around 4-6,000 lamp hours from a regular lamp, a laser projector will typically last for 20,000 hours before it starts to visibly degrade. If you use the projector for four hours every single day, it will still last over 13 years! The downside is that the laser mechanics cannot be replaced once it eventually dies.

The projector has a brightness of 2000 lumens and with dynamic iris, Sony claims that contrast is virtually infinite. In other words, it’s the room that determines the actual contrast level.

Missing important automation

One gripe I have with the projector is the same as I’ve had with all of Sony’s entry-level models: Namely, that the optics are not motorised. This means you can’t use the remote control to set important functions like focus, zoom, and lens shift.

This has nothing to do with being lazy. Because if the optics were motorised, it could be combined with a lens memory where the settings could be stored in two memories. So you could make one setting for 16:9 content and one for 2.35:1. Widescreen users should think twice before buying a projector without this option, as the lack of motorisation means you have to adjust the optics every time you switch to different aspect ratio content.

What you can do with the Sony projector is to crop the edges of the image (blanking) to ensure that none of the content ends up outside the screen.

Dynamic tone mapping

A major benefit of newer 4K projectors is the increased dynamic range you get in light and colour. HDR provides a greater difference between light and dark, giving more power to sunlight, flames and lanterns on the screen – and also more detail in the shadows. The larger DCI-P3 colour space also gives significantly more depth and life to colours.

HDR on TVs is possible thanks to dynamic backlighting, allowing the TV to concentrate the energy in the image where it is needed at any given moment. Projectors, on the other hand, cannot do this and have somewhat limited HDR functionality.

One solution could be to dim the overall brightness to allow for the bright HDR effects. This will require the room to be completely dark, but the image can still be somewhat pale if the projector is not extremely bright and still has a very dark black level.

The second method is by using so-called tone-mapping. This means increasing the overall brightness of the image, while reducing the HDR effects. They won’t be as spectacular, but at least you get the detail back – and the projector can also take advantage of the wide colour space (DCI-P3) that comes with HDR.

X1 processor

With its projector version of the X1 Ultimate image processor, Sony takes things a step further. It has analysed an image bank with many, many thousands of different scenarios and uses machine learning to understand how it should process the HDR information at any given time. A kind of dynamic tone mapping to ensure stronger HDR effects while preserving the brightness and perceived black level of the image.

Reality Creation

Another feature is what Sony calls Reality Creation. Again, the giant image bank comes into its own when Sony takes an HD image and upscales it to 4K. Again, machine learning is used to recognise patterns in objects from the image bank, which are transferred to the image to be scaled up. The result is – in theory – higher resolution than with regular upscaling, and with fewer artefacts.

Phenomenal picture

When I tested the VW290 back in the day, I was blown away by the picture quality. It had an exquisite balance between shadows and highlights, and great noise reduction that removes noise without blurring the smallest details.

With the VPL-XW5000ES, the price has gone up, with the addition of a laser lamp and generally improved technology.

The brightness has been increased from 1,500 to 2,000 lumens, and you can tell there’s more power to the light here. On a par with the now discontinued VW790 at twice the price. There are all-round projectors with higher brightness, and the tested projector is still for the enthusiast with a dedicated cinema room rather than a regular living room. But under the right conditions, it delivers some of the best results I’ve seen.

Should be calibrated

Before calibration, the Sony projector has an average grey scale delta deviation of 3, which is good but not great. The same goes for the colour space, with a deviation of 2.4. That’s OK, but we want to get down towards 1, preferably below. In practice, this means that the colours are not completely neutral and the colour space will vary somewhat with the brightness of the lamp. Whether you notice it is another matter, but in this price range we want a completely neutral and truthful image and a calibration is necessary.

We send for our external calibration expert Gorm Sørensen, who brings his suitcase of measuring instruments and waves his magic wand.

The cool thing about Sony is that they support ProCal’s auto-calibration, which means that the operation takes less time and the result is better than if everything had to be done manually.

After calibration, the delta deviation had dropped to 0.6 in the grey scale and 0.7 in the colour space. This is so low that the deviations are not visible to the naked eye. In other words, the image can be considered completely neutral.

<

>

Earth Moods. (Photo: Geir Gråbein Nordby)

Post-calibration: marvellous!

The animated Netflix series Arcane is dark much of the time, but with extensive use of HDR lighting. At its best, it looks absolutely stunning with the Sony projector. The detail in the shadows is almost flawless and there’s no stray light on the screen.

Colours are dazzlingly deep and realistic, and the nature documentary Earth Moods on Disney+ looks downright fairytale-like.

We’ve enabled the Reality Creation feature and set the resolution to 30 on a scale of 0-100. Higher on the scale gives a sharper image, but it also looks more digital and artificial.

The projector has so-called MotionFlow, which also works with 4K material. It gives smoother motion, but with the True Cinema MotionFlow setting, it stays true to the original frame rate. Usually, it’s 24 fps on film. Each frame is corrected to the correct time in case there is a timecode error in the source material. Personally, I have never experienced or thought about such artefacts, but of course it is good to be on the safe side.

<

>

HDR contrast = 45. The white crack in the lower right corner of the glacier is clearly visible. (Photo: Geir Gråbein Nordby)

HDR: A double-edged sword

When it comes to Sony’s handling of HDR content, it usually looks very good. You can’t expect the same power of light as on a good TV, but you still get a good impression of dynamics.

But there is a but. Sony’s tone mapping is not as good as advertised. Because if you want a normal brightness on HDR content, you will need to go up to 60 per cent in HDR contrast in the menu. This adjusts the brightness of HDR content, not the black level, as you might think. With the contrast set to 60, the picture is generally bright and most things look good. But the HDR effects burn out. The more the contrast is increased, the more it burns out the whites.

Not every scene shows this clearly, but for example, the glaciers on Earth Moods turn into white blobs on the screen instead of showing detail in the snow. This actually starts with the contrast set to 49, so I have to go down to 48 for it to be shown at its best.

When I then put on the dark The Batman, 48 is way too low again, here I actually have to go up to well over 60 to keep it from being too pale in the darkest scenes. A slightly cumbersome way to watch films, I must admit.

For Dolby Vision content, however, there are solutions, such as HDFury Vertex2, which can take LLDV Dolby Vision metadata from an Apple TV device and convert it to HDR10 frame by frame, sending dynamic HDR out to the projector. That way, the HDR light doesn’t burn out either, and the projector delivers an even more stunning image!

Photo: Sony

Upscaling

So far, all the content has been in 4K. But the projector does a fantastic job with Full HD material too. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is on HBO Max in Full HD. With the XW5000, it’s displayed with a razor-sharp image, thanks to RealityCreation. You can experiment a little with Resolution between 10 and 30, as good footage will tolerate 30, while poorer material should go down to 10 to avoid visible artefacts.

Sony VPL-XW5000ES: Conclusion

Sony has never made a bad projector, but with the VPL-XW5000ES they’re pushing the boundaries of how good an image you can get for under €15,000

Contrast is in a different league, thanks to exceptional black levels combined with an impressive brightness level made possible by laser light. Colours are extremely realistic after calibration (should be done by a professional) and the image is sharp as a tack.

The movements are smooth if you want them to be, or true to the material if you prefer. The picture is much better than what you get in most cinema theatres!

4K content with HDR looks, by and large, formidably good, with lighting effects standing out well from the shadows. One slightly unfortunate artefact is that the HDR light burns out in white if the contrast is set too high. This is sometimes necessary to prevent the image from becoming too dark and dead. It’s all about finding a good balance. There are others who are better at tone mapping (JVC and Epson, I’m looking at you!).

Perhaps a bigger caveat is that the optics are not motorised, so you have to manually switch back and forth between 16:9 and 2.35:1 content.

Marantz AMP 10: 15-channel processor

The AMP 10 processor has seven HDMI inputs, all of which support 8K video.

On the audio side, it has 15.4 channels of processing, where the 4 digit stands for the number of subwoofers, which can be individually calibrated and adjusted. The 15 channels can be configured as you wish; if you need as many ceiling mounted speakers as possible, the maximum amount is six, leaving you with nine channels to drive the speakers, which are positioned around the room at ear height (9.1.6 configuration).

If for some reason you want even more speakers on the floor, you can have up to eleven speakers there and reduce to four ceiling speakers instead (11.1.4). Quite flexible, in other words.

Advanced circuits

A serious processor needs serious digital processing. To convert as many as 19 channels simultaneously, all DACs must be perfectly synchronized with a very accurate clock generator. To do this, the AV 10 uses a very precise crystal crystal and employs a small buffer memory where any phase shifts are corrected before the signal is passed on.

The latest HDAM-SA3 transistor circuits should provide even lower noise floor than before, and the number of transistors has more than doubled since its predecessor.

You can choose to use balanced XLR outputs or standard unbalanced RCA.

Immersive audio formats

The Marantz AV 10 supports Dolby Atmos, of course, but also DTS:X. In this respect, it is also IMAX Enhanced compatible. This is arguably more of a special ‘digital handshake’ than a format, such to understand that if the movie you’re about to watch is encoded with IMAX Enhanced you’ll automatically get DTS:X audio, and the receiver also turns off all image processing. We haven’t quite decided if IMAX Enhanced is a gimmick or if it’s actually smart to have. It’s certainly not a necessity.

If you have music releases with the even stranger, but really good, Auro 3D sound format (movie releases are almost non-existent), the processor supports that too.

For everyday music listening, the AV 10 has streaming capabilities, including with the HEOS multi-room system, which can play wirelessly to other compatible networked products throughout the house. But AirPlay 2, Bluetooth and Spotify Connect are also supported.

Room correction – you choose!

The AV 10 has Audyssey MultEQ XT32 room correction, which works fine. If, however, you want the much heftier Dirac Live correction, which really offers great possibilities for adapting the sound to the room, a license can be purchased for this. Note that in this case you will need a separate measurement microphone for this. For example miniDSP UMIK-1.

Marantz AMP 10: Massive power for 16 speakers

The AMP 10 is a 16 x 200 watt power amplifier, measured with two channels driven simultaneously. This is claimed to double to 400 watts into 4 ohms. Marantz itself considers the AMP 10 to be their “most advanced and highest resolution amplifier” to date.

The 16 channels can be used individually or paired for bi-amping, giving each speaker two channels, with total separation between high and low frequencies. Alternatively, the amplifiers can be bridged if you need more power for each speaker instead.

Marantz AV 10 and AMP 10: Availability and prices

The AV 10 and AMP 10 amplifier sets are available now, and the price is 7000 euros – each!

More info: marantz.com

The size itself isn’t new, as LG launched 97-inch OLED last year. The big technological advance here lies in the wireless signal transmission.

Can send 4K/120 Hz video signals wirelessly

The LG OLED M3 is capable of transmitting 4K quality images from a separate switch box at the opposite end of the room, without the need for any cables. So the TV can stand freely in the room, or be mounted on the wall without a bundle of visible cables underneath.

This means… The TV still needs power; the point is that you don’t have a bunch of HDMI cables dangling from the screen, and the placement is freer.

External video sources like TV receiver and game consoles, Blu-ray player, etc., connect to the Zero Connect wireless box. This relatively compact device can transmit video signals up to 4K/120Hz and HDR quality directly to the TV screen. To achieve this, it uses “proprietary technology” from LG, which is claimed to be significantly faster than Wi-Fi 6.

LG states that the box can be placed up to 9 metres from the TV. And to ensure seamless transmission of data from the box to the TV, they have developed an algorithm that immediately identifies the optimal transmission path. It can adapt to changes in the room – like when someone moves between the box and the TV.

LG OLED97M3 in practice

We got to see the OLED97M3 in action – first inside a fashionable suite at Mandalay Bay, and later out on the show floor of Central Hall, Las Vegas Convention Center. And the technology seems to work. With a 4K Blu-ray player connected to the transmitter box, transmission of the signals was seemingly flawless, with no visible buffering, hitches or noise.

But as long as you still have to pull a power cable up to the screen, much of the benefit does disappear, we think. And once you’ve drilled a hole in the wall for power and hidden cabling, most of the work is already done.

Samsung has offered an alternative solution for their top models for a few years – the so-called One Connect box. This sends both power and video signals through the same cable, and can achieve something similar. The new QD-OLED model S95C, for example, comes with One Connect this year.

Also, many people have become used to using the TV’s own apps, streaming services and games, and so already don’t have many other video sources to connect – except Xbox and Playstation, of course!

This is precisely why we’re curious to see how well the video transmission works for gaming, given the input lag. We look forward to checking this out when the TV hits the test bench later this year!

Soundbars are usually a pretty simple affair – a handy speaker that you put under the TV to get something resembling proper sound. Throw in a subwoofer and a pair of rear speakers, and you might even have something resembling surround sound.

As usual, Bang & Olufsen has approached the task a little more sophisticatedly than most, the Danish company really taking the term ‘soundbar’ to a new level. Beosound Theatre is of course a feast for the eyes, but it’s more than just that. After spending a few days in the listening room with the soundbar speaker and an LG OLED TV, even the ears are impressed with what the Danish team has achieved.

Can a soundbar be true hi-fi?

Although soundbars have replaced many old stereos in living rooms, they’re still pretty unpopular with hi-fi enthusiasts. After all, everyone knows you need a decent pair of stereo speakers to listen to music…!

However, soundbars have become immensely popular and are an important part of the food chain, on a par with headphones and other modern audio products. This also means that some of the industry’s brightest ‘sound geeks’ are working hard to make them better and more useful, also for listening to music.

Beosound Theatre: Soundbar in the high-end class

The Danish manufacturer already has the Beosound Stage – a flat, neat and tidy soundbar – in its portfolio. Beosound Theatre is made of a completely different cloth, both in terms of size and performance.

With a dozen speaker drivers, including two powerful woofers, the Theatre is capable of moving mountains sonically. Plus, as usual, B&O has provided plenty of options, cosmetic changes and upgrade options so you can tailor the setup to suit your needs.

Much of the engineering is taken from the flagship Beolab 90 speaker, with an advanced DSP (B&O TrueImage) and several patented solutions (beamforming technology). The aim, as usual, is to control the dispersion of sound in the room. However, with one important difference – here much of the sound is directed away from the listening position, to provide a more spacious and distinct surround perspective.

7.1.4 channels , 12 drivers and 800 watts

Beosound Theatre has a so-called 7.1.4 configuration and supports Dolby Atmos 3D surround sound, but not DTS:X. There are 7 dedicated drivers for left, right, centre, surround side and rear, plus separate top-mounted speakers for height channels. The all-important centre channel uses a coaxial tweeter/midrange.

The Theatre is also equipped with two 6.5-inch woofers, ensuring that the soundbar is able to deliver ample amounts of bass (down to 28 Hz), even without a separate subwoofer. All powered by a 12-channel built-in amplifier totalling 800 watts.

Should you still want to upgrade or add more surround channels, there are plenty of options. The Theatre can send sound wirelessly to up to eight additional surround speakers, as well as eight more via cable (B&O Powerlink).

Also included is a measurement microphone, which can be used to optimise the sound for the room in which the soundbar will be placed and for several different listening positions. Everything is controlled remotely via the B&O app, which has great preset sound modes (TV, Movie, Music, Game etc) as well as a range of more advanced adjustment options.

Designed to integrate with the TV

Beosound Theater is designed to work in a variety of TV setups. Of course, you can place it on the table or hang it on the wall all by itself, but things only get really exciting when the TV and soundbar are put together.

That’s because B&O has designed a bracket that allows the soundbar and TV to be united as one. Next, you can choose whether to mount the solution on a wall, table or motorised floor stand. This gives a completely different visual and functional appearance.

Tailored for LG OLED – but can also be used with other TVs

Bang & Olufsen and LG have had a TV partnership for many years, with LG supplying the screens and B&O doing everything else. For example, Beovision Eclipse and Beovision Contour are both built around LG OLED TVs.

Beosound Theatre takes the concept a step further, but here it’s the sound part that matters. The soundbar is thus more flexible in terms of choice of TV model and brand.

TV and speaker can be bought separately, but B&O dealers can also offer complete, ready-to-assemble packages. Then the LG TV can also be controlled using B&O’s stylish aluminium Beoremote One.

Our Beosound Theatre test setup was paired with a 55-inch LG OLED G2 for the occasion, but you can also opt for a 65-inch OLED C2 or a 77-inch Z2, for example.

We also tested the solution with a motorised floor stand, which is something of a B&O speciality. This means that the TV screen can stand freely on the floor and be rotated in the desired direction on command.

One touch on the remote control or in the B&O app and the TV rotates to pre-programmed positions – for example the dining room, kitchen or sofa. The solution is both ergonomic, practical and visually appealing, like few other TV solutions out there.

Nice, but it costs …

And then there was the price. A Beosound Theatre alone costs 6490 euros, which is about 10 times more than what you pay for a normal soundbar. And that’s for the simplest version in silver and with fabric cover.

If you want a model like the one we tested, with gold plating and wooden slats, you’ll have to shell out a bit more. And that’s before you’ve ticked off the motorised floor stand. Then the price is almost doubled. And that’s before you add the TV itself.

The flexible part of the equation must therefore be that you can choose the TV yourself, change the screen size along the way and possibly upgrade little by little once the economy has recovered.

The sound of Beosound Theatre

And how does it sound? Well, after using Beosound Theatre in two different listening rooms over a long period of time, we can say that it sounds – like a soundbar, only bigger!

Firstly, Beosound Theatre has really good speech intelligibility from the all-important centre channel, which is the first litmus test for a soundbar.

Voice reproduction is clear, rich and direct from the speaker. Whether the lines are delivered by a gruff gangster voice or a feminine seductress, it sounds very believable and present. The Theatre will certainly have no problem acting as the centre channel in a larger set-up.

Lip sync up towards the LG TV also seems to be right on the mark. You’re drawn into the action and become more engaged by what’s happening on screen. With the first and most important patch test passed, we can sit back in the comfy chairs and enjoy the rest of the great sound.

Theatre also shows that it has full control over the other front and side channels. The soundbar creates a massive, wide and big soundstage that extends far beyond the speaker itself and the TV screen. When the Formula 1 cars whiz by on screen, it feels real!

The size and channel separation is sometimes so good, you’d think you were sitting in front of a full-blooded, separate speaker system! This tells us that Beosound Theatre is probably a good match for larger screens than the neat 55-inch B&O lent us for the occasion.

That said, we do occasionally miss a bit more sound from behind. The Theatre isn’t quite able to close the ‘sound bubble’ behind us, and we immediately think it could do with a little help from a pair of surround speakers to make the soundscape perfect.

Bass reproduction is excellent. We’re usually sceptical of soundbars with built-in ‘subwoofers’, but the two 6.5-inchers deliver, with a tactful and punchy bass that digs deep into the basement – enough to shake the walls of the test room.

It’s also fascinating to hear how the Theatre can change the scale of the soundstage from scene to scene, and how that affects the mood of different productions. The differences in sound between a cramped little cave to a wide open landscape in the Rings of Power become very apparent. Not to mention Jeffrey Dahmer’s dark, haunted apartment. Here you can really hear and appreciate how the sound producers have thought in the different scenes. The sound really IS half the experience!

At the same time, like most good speakers, Beosound Theatre is quite revealing of the less good productions. There were instances where we could sense a slight distortion in the dialogue, but it turned out to be in the recording itself rather than the speaker. Beosound Theatre can play loud and still maintain a clean focus without distortion.

What about music?

Soundbars aren’t exactly known for delivering good stereo sound, but of the ones we’ve heard, Beosound Theatre is probably the best yet. The soundstage is big, wide, with impressively accurate placement of instruments and vocals, helped along by deep, luscious and punchy bass.

The soundbar is set up with various music listening settings, which impressively manage to simulate the width and depth of a traditional stereo setup. Here you can sit in ‘the sweet spot’ and get the feeling of sitting between two stereo speakers, and not just ‘mono’ all over again!

Playing Aurora’s Stardust, the vocals stand out strongly from the centre of the soundbar, while the string accompaniment spreads out in fan form in front of us.

The good vocal delivery makes Future’s mumbling rap lines sound exceptionally strong and clear. The drums beat tight and precise, while the guitar riffs wail just as they should on Metallica’s Lux Æterna. And when we crank up 10:35 with Tiësto and Tate McRae at high volume, it’s not far to party time. In other words, the music repertoire is wide!

It doesn’t have to be limited to standard stereo either: more and more music is now also released in the Dolby Atmos format, available via streaming services like Tidal and Apple Music.

Taylor Swift and her All Too Well is an example of music that can be bigger and more engaging in Atmos format. Beosound Theatre supports this type of music file and can play it both through the soundbar or distribute it to a larger surround speaker setup.

Plenty of upgrade options

For those who choose a Beosound Theatre, there are also many options within the B&O ecosystem. A natural way forward would be to upgrade with a pair of surround speakers and a separate subwoofer, we think. But when we asked Bang & Olufsen what solution they recommended, they just sent us a pair of Beolab 28. To use as rear speakers, no less…!

Using Bang & Olufsen’s slim floorstanding speakers in the surround channels could possibly seem like overkill, not least considering the price, as they cost as much as the soundbar AND a TV. But the 28s are a smart choice so far, as they have a pair of powerful subwoofers at the bottom in addition to the tweeter and midrange.

That way they can act as surround speakers while contributing extra deep bass. The smart sound brain on board the Theatre will then mix and distribute the bass effects to the various speakers and correct the frequency response using the measurement microphone.

This proved to be an excellent solution in our 32 m2 listening room: the Beolab 28 helped to close the sound bubble behind us, and the sound experience took on whole new dimensions, even bigger and more powerful. It just goes to show what potential Theatre has when used as the brains of a larger setup.

Competitors?

As far as we know, there are no soundbars in this price range that bear comparison. The closest is the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar at around €4000.

The Ambeo soundbar also provides a very large, coherent and three-dimensional soundstage with very impressive surround effects both from behind and from the sides. But it’s bigger, more bulky and not nearly as elegant to look at.

The Ambeo also doesn’t offer as many integration and upgrade options as the Theatre and is probably more suited to dedicated TV rooms than a well-appointed living room.

Conclusion

Beosound Theatre costs far more than most would dream of paying for a soundbar – or for that matter a complete speaker set-up.

But those who have the money to invest in it have a lot to look forward to.

Design-wise, it oozes luxury, and build quality is impeccable, as we’ve come to expect from B&O. The sound is more powerful, clearer and fuller than any other soundbar on the market that we know of.

In our opinion, it’s when you go for “the full B&O treatment” and mount the Theatre with a TV that the solution makes the most sense. Then they go from being TV and soundbar, to becoming more like a piece of furniture. A high-end sound furniture.

Yes – it is expensive. But we can’t all have IKEA and Sonos …! 

The DALI Phantom K-60 LP is a built-in speaker for installations where installation depth is minimal. The circular speakers require only 3.8 centimetres in depth and they do not need a “backbox” – i.e. a cabinet to be mounted behind.

The speaker, which measures 22 centimetres in diameter, is a two-way construction, consisting of a 25 mm dome tweeter and a 6″ midwoofer unit with aluminium diaphragm. To make the design as low-profile as possible, the magnet system and voice coil on the midwoofer are located in the centre of the cone rather than behind it.

DALI promises that despite the almost non-existent cabinet volume, the Phantom K-60 LP has a reproduction “that can match or surpass traditional in-wall speakers.”

CEO Lars Worre of DALI explains to L&B Tech Reviews that the entire Phantom K-60 LP is designed and manufactured in-house by DALI. Which is not usual for such cheap in-wall speakers.

“We actually asked around to OEM subcontractors, but there was no one who could make such a compact magnet system that could still play well. So we had to make it ourselves,” says Lars Worre.

According to the data sheet, the DALI Phantom K-60 LP can reproduce a frequency range of 52-26,000 Hz (+/- 3 dB). If you want bass in no space, you have to sacrifice efficiency; this is dictated by Hoffman’s Iron Law, a ” fundamental law ” for loudspeakers. Still, the K-60 LP has a reasonable sensitivity of 84 dB.

The DALI Phantom K-60 LP has a unit price of EUR 399 including VAT.

There are many old TVs out there where the picture quality still holds up, but the smart TV services are either absent or outdated. Fortunately, there are affordable solutions that mean you don’t have to buy a new TV. The most well-known and popular are Apple TV and Google Chromecast.

With or without remote control – that’s where the question has been

Most people know Chromecast as a nifty little gadget that lets you open a streaming app on your phone and send audio and video to your TV over the wireless network by clicking an icon in the corner of your mobile screen.

Until now, Chromecast Ultra has been Google’s only product to offer 4K resolution and HDR, and also support the Dolby Atmos audio format. But it has been unavailable on the market for some time.

Apple TV, on the other hand, has been the choice if you wanted a separate app interface on the TV screen and used a remote to click around between the different apps. A more traditional smart TV interface, in other words. Apple TV 4K in the latest version is the one to choose for the highest picture resolution, Dolby Atmos and generally the best support.

Chromecast with Google TV … and remote

Google Chromecast finally has got a remote control. And also the Google TV interface that we know from Sony, Philips and TCL, among others. It’s a really good smart TV system where you can download a whole bunch of different streaming services and other Android apps, and then control them with the remote.

In its latest version, Chromecast thus approaches Apple TV by leaps and bounds and has become the obvious alternative for those who prefer Android’s interface to Apple’s, even when watching TV. It can simply turn any TV into an Android TV!

What’s more, the price is low. Google’s gadget costs just over a third of the Apple TV box. That’s almost ridiculously little considering what it can do.

The times you want to cast anyway, the new Chromecast can do that too. Apple has their alternative in the form of AirPlay, so the two are now more similar than ever.

Manageable smart TV

Google TV is a very smart and clear smart TV interface, where you’ll find pretty much everything you could need in terms of apps. Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+ and, in fact, Apple TV+ are all there, along with pretty much everything else. Also local TV services, local file playback via Plex, browsers, tools like network speed testing and network diagnostics plus much more.

If you like you can voice control the device with a button on the remote or use the arrow keys.

We note that clicking around with the remote is much quicker than on, say, my own Sony OLED TV, the A90J. The picture quality is equally uncompromising, and as the Chromecast supports both 4K, HDR and Dolby Vision, you can get movies and series in optimal quality.

If you have a good quality 4K TV or projector, you’ll get the full benefit of Chromecast. And since it also has Bluetooth connectivity for external audio, you can avoid long cable runs from the projector to a sound system.

Somewhat cumbersome login

What we miss compared to Apple TV 4K is easier first-time login in apps. Where Apple allows you to use your phone to enter passwords or even share logins directly from your phone, Chromecast requires you to use the arrow keys on the remote to type usernames and passwords on a virtual keyboard. It could have been more seamless.

The remote isn’t backlit either, but luckily the number of keys is small and you quickly get to know them. After that, using it in the dark is no problem.

Testing with an ageing Panasonic TV

In the lobby we have a Panasonic TV from 2018, which shows news and other content of interest to the L&B Tech Reviews staff on a daily basis. The picture quality was impressive for the price range back then, and it still provides a good TV picture, even if it’s not the brightest kind for HDR content. But it definitely works.

The problem is the TV’s rather outdated smart interface in the form of My Home Screen 3.0. We haven’t yet seen support for any apps disappear, but the manoeuvring is sluggish, the layout is old-fashioned and none of the apps support Dolby Atmos.

“You wouldn’t exactly call it modern,” Audun says, pointing out the obvious.

With the new Chromecast connected, not only do we get a much more slick and responsive interface; we also get Dolby Atmos out through the ARC jack on the TV. We had this confirmed with the Harman Kardon Citation MultiBeam 1100 soundbar, both from the TV’s ARC output and with the Chromecast connected directly to the soundbar’s HDMI input.

“This is something completely different! Now we can finally have proper sound in the lobby!” Audun says.

In fact, you don’t need the more modern eARC standard to get Atmos from streaming services, because it is then packaged as compressed Dolby Digital+ and not lossless TrueHD. Which requires more bandwidth and is also not relevant for streaming services.

Moreover, you can use both the TV and the Chromecast’s remote control thanks to a smart feature (CEC) in the HDMI connection.

“This works!” yours truly exclaims.

For gaming?

While Apple TV 4K is also quite a capable gaming console with a powerful processor and also 32-64 gigabytes of storage, Chromecast with Google TV is more limited in this field.

For one, it only has 8 gigabytes of total storage, which means just over 4 gigabytes available for app content. That includes offline movie and music storage, so essentially it should be considered a pure streaming device for content stored in the cloud.

There are, however, some games that can be downloaded on Google TV.

Resolution and frequency must be set manually

While we’re generally excited about the new Chromecast, as it can breathe new life into worn-out TVs, it does have one annoying annoyance. Namely, it doesn’t support automatic frame rate (AFR). This means you have to know the frame rate of the content you want to watch.

Most TV content you stream will be at 25 or 30 Hz, depending on whether it’s European or American produced, and Hollywood movies will usually be at 24 Hz. If you’re playing games, however, 50 or 60 Hz is the norm. The result is that you will often have to enter the menu and select the resolution and frame rate!

The easiest thing is just to set the box to 4K 25 fps and ignore the fact that a picture is cut or doubled here and there. But you want to see the content as it’s produced, and then it becomes a bit of a stumbling block! Hopefully, at some point, an update will come along that fixes the problem.

Conclusion

Chromecast with Google TV is the smart TV gadget Google should have made in the first place. Here you get full Google TV functionality in a small gadget with remote control and Ultra HD quality, which for a few hundred dollars renews your old TV. Or your projector.

It’s a pleasure to use, with a much smoother and more responsive interface than most TVs. It does fall a little short of Apple TV here, but at the price it’s easy to forgive.

The Sony model supports modern audio formats such as Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and, not least, Sony’s own 360 Audio format, promising intense surround sound for both movies and music. But how good is it? Let’s test!

Sony HT-A5000

The 120 centimetre wide Sony soundbar has a simple and discreet appearance. The design is solid and gives a good quality impression, with a matte black finish and perforated metal grille at the front. Behind the grille we can glimpse a number of speaker drivers, and a small LED screen that displays important information such as audio format, volume and the like.

The speaker setup is a so-called 5.1.2 configuration, but Sony may have been slightly imaginative in the way they count the number of channels.

There are separate drivers for the left/right and centre channels on the front, plus two on top. These share the task of reproducing sound effects for the height and surround channels. Advanced sound processing (360 Spatial Sound Mapping) should ensure a full surround sound image – at least in theory.

Sony has equipped the soundbar with two oval woofers, and therefore claims that it performs adequately without a subwoofer. There are plenty of upgrade options, however, and you can add both a subwoofer and wireless rear speakers if you wish (more on this later).

Ease of use and features

The HT-5000 scores highly when it comes to both features and connectivity. For the biggest and best TV sound experience, connect the TV to the soundbar via the HDMI eARC connector. That’s the best way to make the most of surround sound from apps and streaming services like Netflix, HBO Max and more.

The HT-A5000 also features a separate HDMI input so you can connect a video source (Blu-ray player, games console, Apple TV, etc.) and pass the video signal to the TV screen. You won’t find this option on the Sonos Arc, for example.

For those who want to listen to music via the HT-A5000, it also has built-in Wi-Fi and support for Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast, in addition to Bluetooth. So there are plenty of playback options here.

NOTE! If you connect the HT-A5000 to a newer Sony TV, they will synchronise the audio settings between them. It is also possible to use the TV screen speakers as the centre channel (Acoustic Centre Sync). We have described this subtlety in more detail in the review of the HT-A7000.

Sound quality

But what about the sound? Well, during the initial setup, some test signals are run through the speakers (sound field optimization) and we already notice that the HT-A5000 has an impressive surround effect. The sounds emitted from the soundbar in front are actually experienced as coming from above, from behind and from the sides of our listening room! The effect is at its best when we’re sitting in the sweet spot, i.e. on the sofa right in front of the soundbar.

The first impression actually lasts when we challenge the HT-A5000 with a lot of demanding movie and documentary soundtracks. The motorsport favourite Drive to Survive sounds crisp.

Dialogue from Mercedes and McLaren bosses comes through clearly, and speech intelligibility is exceptionally good. We can hear the lines from the racing pit clearly, even as the F1 cars whiz by. And the dynamics are fresh! Test pilots Geir and Audun nod appreciatively to each other.

“Sony’s sound engineers have really nailed the surround sound on this model,” exclaims Audun, and Geir agrees.

Even without physical rear speakers, Sony’s soundbar manages to create a clear and convincing sound bubble. When fireworks explode around Ryan Gosling in The Grey Man (Netflix, Dolby Atmos), we can hear the rockets whizzing over our heads. And we can crank up the volume with no sign of the soundbar sounding strained.

Our listening room is nearly 30 square metres, and requires a lot of volume before the experience is just right. But the HT-A5000 seems to have enough power.

Sound balance is good, and in addition to accurate detail at the top of the frequency range, the Sony HT-A5000 also delivers surprisingly rich bass. We wouldn’t say it makes the subwoofer redundant, but you can certainly get by fine for a transitional period without suffering any major bass absences.

Vs. Sony HT-A3000

During the test we also had the slightly cheaper HT-A3000 on the TV bench, and to our ears there’s no doubt: The HT-A5000 makes a clear step up from its little brother when it comes to overall sound experience and surround effect. It has a completely different ability to fill our listening space, with more realistic dynamics, size and precision in the sound image.

“Even with rear speakers, there is a big difference between the HT-A3000 and HT-A5000. A clear step up. I would have preferred the HT-A5000 on its own, rather than the HT-A3000 with extra rear speakers,” says Geir.

Vs. Sonos Arc

Naturally, we had to check how the HT-A5000 fared against the competition, so we compared it to the Sonos Arc, a well-known model in the same price range. And the Japanese has nothing to be embarrassed about: Our impression is that the Sony bar delivers a performance close to the American one – even better on some areas!

While the Sonos Arc can have a somewhat harsh and grainy treble in the centre channel, the Sony HT-A5000 is more refined and rounded at the top. And when it comes to the surround effect from the Dolby Atmos soundtrack, Sony manages to surround us with a soundstage that’s much more solid and detailed. This is reinforced by the fact that the HT-A5000 also has a slightly tighter and clearer bass response.

“In a normal home environment, I think the HT-A5000 performs even better than the Sonos Arc because the harmonics have better resolution while also being perceived as more muted from the Sony. By comparison, Sonos is a little overzealous at the top,” says Geir.

Can be upgraded with separate subwoofer and rear speakers

Sony also offers a number of upgrade options for the HT-A5000: you can get two different surround speakers – the SA-RS3S and SA-RS5. These are sold separately, but are also offered as a complete package from a number of Sony dealers.

If you want extra bass (and you certainly will!) it’s possible to add a wireless subwoofer. Here you can find the compact SA-SW3 with 6.5″ woofer and 200 watt amplifier, or the larger SA-SW5 with 7″ woofer, passive dron and 300 watts.

When you connect a set of surround speakers and/or subwoofer, the soundbar will make another room correction with the extra channels. Then you can also benefit from Sony’s own sound processing – called 360 Spatial Sound Mapping.

Sony lent us a pair of their smallest rear speakers and subwoofer for the test, and as expected, these give the sound experience a boost. Surround effects from behind are noticeably richer and clearer, and the soundstage takes on a whole new weight and foundation with the subwoofer connected. It simply filled the gaps – it’s that simple!

<

>

The Sony HT-A5000 soundbar works well as a standalone soundbar, but can also be expanded with, for example, the SA-SW3 subwoofer and SA-RS3 wireless rear speakers. (Photo: Sony)

Conclusion

The price range around a thousand euros is full of strong soundbars, but the Sony HT-A5000 stands out as one of the better ones we’ve heard. We’ve previously been impressed by the HT-A7000 big brother, but to our ears the little brother actually seems like an even better buy.

The HT-A5000 combines excellent sound quality with a wide range of features and upgrade options at an affordable price. The soundbar works well on its own, but can also be expanded with subwoofers and surround speakers. This gives you a very cool home cinema system!

The soundbar is quite compact, the length corresponds to the width of a 43-inch TV. It therefore fits into any TV corner without causing any visual disturbance.

Subwoofer with closed cabinet

A compact wireless subwoofer is also included. It houses a 13 cm (5.25″) bass unit in a sealed enclosure. A closed cabinet typically doesn’t have as much energy in the deepest bass range as a bass reflex, but on the other hand it often provides cleaner bass.

Audio Return

To deliver Dolby Atmos seamlessly from streaming services built into the TV, the soundbar is equipped with eARC, an audio return channel where e stands for enhanced. It sends the sound back through the HDMI cable that connects the soundbar to the TV, and the latest standard has greater bandwidth and expanded functionality with more and better audio formats.

In addition, the soundbar also has a pure HDMI input, with support for 4K Ultra HD at up to 60 Hz. No 8K or 4K 120 Hz, so if you have a newer games console, it needs to be connected to the TV with HDMI 2.1 and then pass the audio signal to the soundbar with eARC.

Only Bluetooth for music

Denon has chosen not to equip the soundbar with a network connection, which means you’ll need Bluetooth for music streaming. This makes sense, as soundbars in this price range rarely sound particularly great for music anyway; better to spend the budget on better components where it matters.

Brilliant movie sound

I have to admit that beforehand I was expecting a flat soundstage with mumbled dialogue and noticeable colouration of the sound. This is often the case in this price range. It was therefore a pleasant surprise that the sound turned out to be both balanced and beautiful.

The dialogue on “The Gray Man” was crisp and clean, with good fullness in the chest tones as well. The transition between soundbar and subwoofer was seamless. And there was none of the nasty turbulence or distortion from the subwoofer that it probably would have had if it had bass reflex ports. It comes at a cost in terms of the bass being less powerful, but the speaker had a quick response and it added that extra something to the soundscape that was needed to create entertainment in the living room.

Our previous favourite in this price range, the TCL TS8132, may be more impressive when it comes to bass, but the subwoofer isn’t as well integrated and the sound is generally more woolly. The Denon doesn’t have the same peak output, but overall it’s a better soundbar in my opinion.

“Formula 1: Drive to Survive” also benefits from clean dialogue, and the main complaint is that the sound level isn’t as loud as with the more expensive soundbars. Both the Harman Kardon Citation MultiBeam 1100 and especially the Samsung HW-Q995B have significantly higher sound pressure levels than the Denon soundbar, and also a much larger and more open soundstage. Although the Denon DHT-S517 has its own top speakers for Atmos sound, it’s limited in how much it manages to open up the soundstage so you get the sensation of true surround.

Again, I’m delighted with how quickly and clearly the subwoofer plays, because when playing a movie with a more normal sound level, there are no obvious flaws or annoyances with this soundbar.

The sound quality is miles the sound of any TV, and much better than I expected beforehand.

Audun agrees:

“It sounds impressively balanced and beautiful,” he exclaims. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Limitations with music

Music sounds best here in Pure mode, without trying to extend the soundscape out, up and around us. Aurora’s bright, demanding voice reveals a slightly subdued treble interpretation on the quiet song “A Potion For Love,” which could just as easily have been sung by Susanne Sundfør.

The subwoofer performs well under both rhythms and deep, long bass tones, but lacks a little grandeur and dynamics. In other words, it works fine, but at the same time sounds rather anonymous.

Rammstein are known for their guitar sound, which is stretched out into a wall of sound. But here it becomes a bit tame. The guitars on “Zick Zack” appear a bit timid in the midrange, the sound doesn’t bite properly. You can switch to Music sound mode and set Dialog Enhancer to Medium, which gives more kick to both the guitars and Till Lindemann’s voice. This makes the guitars stand out better in the midrange and the stereo sound a little wider. Still, there are better choices for music; in this price range, that means ditching the soundbar altogether and going for a pair of active speakers instead. Here you get better sound on music in stereo, but in return lose the centred dialogue on movies, the bass effects from the subwoofer and the illusion of surround sound. That’s because the Denon soundbar opens up more, both upwards and backwards, than a pair of speakers does.

Denon DHT-S517: Conclusion

The Denon DHT-S517 is a compact soundbar that fits into any environment, but still manages to fit its own Atmos speakers on top. Together with the compact subwoofer, it delivers an impressively good and balanced sound for movies, and the soundstage extends nicely both up and over, with clean and believable dialogue – it’s got a lot to offer when it comes to movie sound, all in all. We simply have a new favourite in this price range.

Music in stereo sounds a little tame, but that’s to be expected.

If the goal is to recreate exactly the sound the filmmaker intended in the home cinema, then we’re literally talking about bringing the entire cinema sound into the home. An amplifier then has to be able to supply enough power for all channels, with plenty of current surplus to cope with the massive dynamics.

Musical Fidelity claims to be able to do just that with the M6x 250.7 – a proper beast of a power amp.

Class AB

We’re not talking about Class D or digital amplification here; instead, we have two powerful but “super-quiet” toroidal transformers driving all the channels in traditional Class AB. This practice is becoming less common because the technique is not as efficient as Class D, because a considerable amount of power is lost as heat. But it’s necessary to create “an abnormally wide dynamic range at high volume,” Musical Fidelity says.

No fans

Although the amp can get hot, Musical Fidelity dislikes fans like the plague, and uses plenty of heat sinks instead. This method requires more material, and makes the amp heavy. In this case, we’re talking about a combat weight of 32.5 kg!

To achieve the lowest possible noise floor, the M6x 250.7 has balanced XLR inputs on all channels. If your processor doesn’t have that, you can use the gold-plated RCA connectors instead.

The speaker terminals support both spade and banana plugs, and of course you can use stripped cable ends.

Need even more power?

If for some reason you still feel you need more power than the M6x 250.7 can give you, each channel also has an RCA output so you can connect additional power amps. This can be handy if you want to biamp the speakers, for example.

Musical Fidelity M6x 250.7: Price and availability

The Musical Fidelity M6x 250.7 is available to order now, and costs €3,490.

Where Sonos and others use proprietary multi-room technology, Harman Kardon’s Citation speakers simply use Google Home and AirPlay 2, meaning they can be used with many other brands that support the same systems. That makes it easier to deal with – not least because you can pick products based on sound quality, ease of use and appearance, rather than being forced to stick with the same brand.

Many in the class – including the MultiBeam 1100 – also have built-in voice control for both themselves and the smarthome, giving them the same functionality as a Google Nest speaker or Apple HomePod.

When it comes to soundbars, the Citation family has been lacking a proper flagship to rival the best from Sonos, Samsung, Sony and Bose, not to mention sister company JBL. The Citation MultiBeam 700 is good at €349, but far from being impressive.

First from HK with Dolby Atmos

That’s all about to change with the new top-of-the-range Citation MultiBeam 1100. A handsome soundbar, exclusively fabric-covered like its family members, and barely three centimetres shorter than its arch-rival Sonos Arc.

Harman Kardon, like everyone else, has seen the need for a soundbar with Dolby Atmos support, and the new flagship is equipped with a total of eleven drivers, two of which are pointed upwards to reproduce Atmos sound effects from above. This should create a more three-dimensional soundscape that wraps around the listener. This is achieved by speakers pointing in all directions, reflecting the sound around the room and back to the listener, who should feel that there are speakers all around. This is done with clever computational power in the on-board processor.

To get the most out of Dolby Atmos from movie and streaming services, connect the soundbar’s HDMI output to the TV’s HDMI input labeled eARC. Then you can also use the TV’s remote to control the sound on the MultiBeam 1100 if you don’t want to use the included remote.

MultiBeam = room correction

The name MultiBeam comes from Harman Kardon’s (and JBL’s) room correction technology. When the soundbar is set up for the first time, you are prompted to activate MultiBeam. Test sounds are emitted from the speakers and picked up again by a built-in microphone in the soundbar itself. This continues for a while with thuds and whirrs before it says all is well. Your only job is to keep quiet during the calibration.

Google Home

Setting up the soundbar is very easy if you have a Google account. Then you just open the Google Home app on your phone, it finds the speaker in the list, and you then tap through, step by step.

If you have a pair of Citation Surround back speakers and a Citation Sub, these can be paired with the soundbar via the touchscreen – which unfortunately sits on top, not the front of the soundbar. Swipe to Settings and Speaker Setup, and tap Pairing. Then select sub and surround. Once this is done, you should recalibrate the room correction.

The sound of the Citation MultiBeam 1100

The opening scene of Gray Man is rendered with clear dialogue. The voices of Ryan Gosling and Billy Bob Thornton are very clear, and the soundbar does a fine job of dispersing the sound image far out to the sides. You get a good sense of the reverberation, even from above. The dialogue could probably have used a little more weight in the midrange and bass, which are a little thin. Both compared to the Sonos Arc and – especially – if you compare to soundbars where a subwoofer is included. For example, the Samsung HW-Q995B.

The clear but somewhat thin sound is echoed in Formula 1: Drive to Survive, where the surround sound doesn’t manage to envelop us quite as well as we’d like either. Granted, the sound is fine, but I expected more from a soundbar this expensive.

“It’s a bit bland, isn’t it?” So goes the comment from my colleague, Audun Hage.

Subwoofer and rear speakers

The soundbar is good enough, but I would say that if you spend that much money on a soundbar, you want something extraordinary. And on its own, the MultiBeam 1100 is no match for the best.

However, something special happens when we connect it with the Citation Surround wireless rear speakers and the Citation Sub subwoofer. Together, the price may be doubled, but it’s still no more expensive than a Sonos Arc, Sub and a pair of One SLs.

For one thing, there’s obviously a lot more bass with the Citation Sub handling the low frequencies. But what’s special is how good and controlled it sounds. The sound is significantly tighter than with the subwoofer that comes with Samsung’s top-of-the-range model, and more linear and natural, too. The sub latches onto the soundbar seamlessly, adding real depth and weight to dialogue.

The film’s first action scene, when Gosling’s character is sent to liquidate a former colleague, features both gunfire and explosive fireworks. It smacks of great believability, while the dialogue is even cleaner and clearer than when the soundbar was supposed to reproduce it alone. The rear speakers extend the soundscape behind us, so that it now completely envelops us. At the same time, the soundboard’s Atmos speakers manage to reproduce sound from above via the ceiling, so we’re completely enveloped in the soundscape.

The dynamics are really good, overall it’s excellent!

By comparison, the Samsung HW-995B can play a little louder at maximum level, and dialogue is a little richer. But the subwoofer blasts more and is nowhere near as restrained as the Harman Kardons. It’s noticeably slower and not entirely linear either. The sound appears more swollen in some frequencies and thinner in others.

Music

When it comes to stereo music, the soundstage is necessarily narrower with a soundbar than with a pair of Hi-Fi speakers. The sound doesn’t extend beyond the physical width of the soundbar unless you use any of the surround settings. Then it gets bigger, but also more artificial, and I prefer pure stereo.

Apart from the somewhat narrow stereo width, the Citation 1100 sounds surprisingly good in stereo in the company of the subwoofer. Where it gets too narrow on its own, the sound is now high-contrast and powerful, with ample detail in voices and instruments. This is where the otherwise restrained subwoofer really comes into its own, and Harman Kardon suddenly beats Samsung’s soundbar by several lengths. The price of the Citation soundbar and sub is somewhat higher than Samsung charges for its, but if you play a lot of music, it’s worth the extra money in my opinion.

The Citation Sub also seems more powerful than the Sonos Sub, and I rate the Harman system even better than the Sonos package. The Sonos Arc alone sounds better than the MultiBeam 1100 alone, but that changes when both are expanded to surround sound. Mostly because of the Citation Sub.

Conclusion

The Harman Kardon Citation MultiBeam 1100 is a good soundbar in its own right. It’s easy to connect, you can voice control it with Google or Apple’s multi-room system, and it has built-in room correction to compensate for poor acoustics.

Dialogue in particular sounds clean and tidy, and there’s quite a good dynamic range here. But it’s only when the soundbar is joined by the Citation Sub and Surround that it becomes truly convincing. Suddenly the system goes from being a bit anonymous to filling the room with clear and powerful sound. It sounds especially good for movies, but music works surprisingly well too. Not least because of the good subwoofer.

As a system, we can’t recommend this package highly enough.

Nor should we forget the small but potent Phantom speakers, which defy the laws of physics in terms of what they can deliver in terms of sound pressure and deep bass. With such a track record, it was really only a matter of time before Devialet ventured into the world of soundbars, and now the Dione is finally here!

Devialet Dione: designer soundbar with Atmos surround sound

17 speaker units, 950 watts of amplifier power and up to 101 decibels of volume. Those are the hard facts about Devialet’s first soundbar that plays entirely on its own, without any extra subwoofer or rear speakers.

All the speakers are built into the soundbar itself, and at 120 centimetres, it’s a sizeable beast. Definitely one of the bigger soundbars we’ve had in the test room, but also one of the best looking!

The Dione looks both good, while the quality is solid and trustworthy. The sleek and futuristic lines, as well as the absence of extra cabinets, will probably attract many interior-conscious sound enthusiasts. But good taste costs!

Eight sound channels – including Dolby Atmos

The Devial Dione uses a so-called 5.1.2 configuration, which means it has dedicated drivers for both right, left and centre channels, woofers and surround and top channels for 3D sound. To accommodate so many speakers in a compact unit, Devialet has used high-efficiency full-range drivers with neodymium magnets. The speakers then change “role” depending on whether you choose to mount your soundbar on the wall or have it on the table.

<

>

Devialet Dione contains 17 speaker units, eight woofers and nine full-range units (Graphic: Devialet)

A full 8 of the 17 drivers are dedicated to reproducing deep bass. Devialet therefore claims that the soundbar will do without an external subwoofer. Of course, it would be exciting if the Dione could be expanded with a subwoofer or rear speakers – but at first glance it doesn’t seem that Devialet has any plans in that direction.

Usability and features

Minimalism also comes through when it comes to the other equipment. There’s no remote control with the Dione, nor is it equipped with an info screen. Instead, it can be controlled via the Devialet app from tablet or mobile. Volume is easily controlled via the TV’s remote (via HDMI CEC). In addition, there are volume and play/pause buttons on top of the soundbar.

Dione connects to the TV sound via HDMI eARC, and it also supports Bluetooth, Airplay 2 and Spotify Connect. It can be part of a larger multi-room system of Devialet products, and you can control music playback via the Devialet app. However, there are no additional HDMI inputs for connecting external A/V sources.

The Dione otherwise supports popular modern surround sound formats like Dolby Atmos (but no DTS:X). It can also upscale other audio formats and reproduce virtual surround sound (Devialet SPACE). In addition, it uses automatic room correction to adapt the sound reproduction to the surroundings – this is easily done at setup.

Sound quality

The Devialet Dione costs about twice as much (or more!) than other common high-quality soundbars – including popular test winners from Samsung and Sonos. That means you can expect exceptional sound quality, too. And thankfully, you get it!

The first impression is that the Dione paints up a big, accurate soundstage that extends far beyond the physical dimensions of the speaker. This is undoubtedly a soundbar that you can easily connect to the largest TV screens. The 65-inch TV we hooked up suddenly feels very small, and we feel more inclined to put the projector on instead …

When we play favourite scenes from the Formula 1 documentary Drive to Survive, there’s no doubt that the Devialet platter has plenty of juice and power. Dione can certainly play loud and clean! Dialogue is crisp, clear and rich and we can both hear and feel the sound effects of the F1 cars whizzing past. You also get a distinct impression of ambient sound.

During the action scenes in the Netflix movie The Gray Man, there is nothing to put off the explosive qualities. The Dione easily fills our test room with powerful sound. Even at high volume, the overall sound quality is very credible, with plenty of excess and dynamics, and there’s no sign of noise, clatter or distortion.

The Devial soundbar also manages to deliver an impressively wide surround sound image, but there are of course limits to what you can expect from a standalone speaker. Although the sound image extends well to the sides, it doesn’t quite manage to replace the feel of physical rear speakers in the room. Here, a complete setup like the Samsung HW-Q995B or Sonos Arc/Sub/SL with its external surround speakers clearly has an advantage. But here we are probably over in a slightly different target group.

Rock solid bass response

As mentioned, the Dione comes without an external subwoofer – Devialet claims that the soundbar performs very well without one. It’s not the first time we’ve heard that claim from a first manufacturer, but here the claim actually holds true! The Dione delivers a very rich and potent bass response that is both hard hitting and deep in frequency.

“What an impressively clear and deep bass! The clear dialogues also have a lot of substance,” says an enthusiastic Geir Nordby. 

However, it’s clear that the soundbar deserves a solid base: the potent bass can be too much of a good thing if the table is unstable or has a lot of resonances. We haven’t tested mounting the Dione on the wall, but think it can be an advantage in many contexts.

Superb soundbar for music

When it comes to music playback, we were very impressed with the Dione. This soundbar actually manages to provide a pretty believable stereo sound image! Aurora’s voice on Stardust comes out clearly and distinctly from the soundbar’s centre, while the musical instruments fan out around her. The midrange is warm and delicious, the overtones distinct, and it’s all supported by a solid, tactful bass foundation. Geir and Audun agree: Here we can hear a depth and stereo perspective that far exceeds what we’re used to with soundbars.

Conclusion

A soundbar for audiophiles? Yes, it does exist. As well as delivering magnificent and engaging surround sound for movies and TV shows, the Devialet Dione is also great for music – a claim we rarely venture when it comes to soundbars. Thanks to a solid array of speaker units and generous amplifier power, it also has very convincing bass response. Not quite on a par with the best separate solutions, but still very impressive for its size. The Dione costs a fair bit more than the competition, but if you’re in the market for a potent soundbar that simply MUST be without extra speakers, you’re unlikely to be disappointed.

Home Piano is the name of the most affordable product from Lemus. It’s not the smallest thing though, that’ s Home Artistic. The reason Artistic is more expensive is that it has a more expensive speaker solution with woofers and tweeters placed in pairs on each side – like a pair of floorstanding speakers mounted inside a piece of furniture.

Home Piano, on the other hand, has one driver on each side, reproducing both tweeter and midwoofer. On the underside is a large eight-inch woofer, which uses the volume inside the cabinet to create a rich, big bass.

For wall or floor

Home Piano can be hung on the wall as a soundbar, wooden wall brackets are included. But then it protrudes no less than 36 cm from the wall, which is too much in my opinion.

So I think it’s better to invest in a black lacquered frame, which adds less than 10% to the overall price. It looks much better and turns the sound furniture into a TV bench where you can easily place a 55-inch on top – or mount it on the wall above the Home Piano.

The frame is minimalist and beautiful, the whole product exuding minimalist Scandinavian design. Lovely.

The product I received for testing is in a muted shade of green, which looks much better in real life than on pictures, if you ask me.

Made for Google Home

The Lemus Home Piano can be connected to your TV with an HDMI cable, significantly improving the sound. In addition, the audio furniture can stream music from your mobile phone without any problems.

You do this by connecting the Lemus to the wireless network through the Google Home app on your phone, then you can easily stream uncompressed music via Chromecast or AirPlay 2. If you’re using Spotify, your phone connects wirelessly using the Connect feature. During testing, I found Spotify behaved more steadily than, say, Tidal via Chromecast, which occasionally dropped off between songs.

If you want to use Home Piano without a network, you can also just use Bluetooth. But then you miss an important trick, namely room correction. More on that in a moment.

HDMI

When connecting the Home Piano to the TV, it is important to use the input marked ARC or eARC. The sound will then be sent backwards from the TV to the soundbar. This also saves you from being annoyed by the Home Piano’s complete lack of remote control – you can then adjust the volume using the TV’s remote control.

Note, however, that the Lemus Home Piano does not support any of the Dolby or DTS movie sound formats. You therefore need to go into the TV menu and set the output signal to PCM. In other words, just stereo.

Room correction

Now for the room correction. No two speakers behave the same in different rooms, which is why Lemus has equipped its products with room correction via DSP. It adjusts the character of the sound in the room and also ensures that the very deep bass response, which extends down to 20 Hz at normal sound pressure, is adjusted and does not become too boomy and dominant.

Both the audio furniture and an iPhone need to be connected to the same network, and you need to download and open the Lemus Home app. The microphone in your phone measures pink noise, coming from the speakers during the process. You must move around the room with your phone while the process is in progress. Then a quad-core DSP corrects for distortions in the frequency range. The sound can now be adjusted to your taste with a three-band tone control in the same app.

The sound of Lemus Home Piano

Even straight out of the box, without room correction, the sound from TV and movies is characterised by rich dialogues with great emphasis. The sound is miles better – and much bigger – than what you get from any TV. It just had to be! You can also forget about getting this bass response from any soundbar without a separate subwoofer. A good example is the Sonos Arc, which sounds much thinner by comparison if you don’t connect it to a subwoofer. The reason is both the 8-inch subwoofer on the underside of the Piano, but also the large cabinet volume that the subwoofer can use to create solid bass tones.

However, it’s not the most linear sound you’ll hear here. The midrange is slightly thin and restrained, and the treble lacks air. The bass doesn’t feel tight enough either, and it suffers from coloration and swells here and there. The stereo width is narrow. When I crank up the sound, I also wish the dynamics were better; it sounds a bit flat.

The same is true when listening to music in stereo. It gets a bit boring, and quite far from true Hi-Fi.

Room correction makes all the difference

All in all, I was a little disappointed, as I was expecting a significantly better sound. But then I remembered the room correction.

In with the app and away we go.

After walking around the room and measuring pink noise for a few minutes, the speaker calibrated itself. The difference was dramatic.

For one thing, the soundstage is much wider now. Suddenly, effects spread beyond the width of the soundstage itself. It’s not surround sound, but movie sounds that with a surround system would come from behind the listener, here spread well out to the sides.

Dialogue is much cleaner, and bass and midrange sound considerably more in tune. The chest sound is still superb, but now there’s weight up the soundstage too. Consonants are clearer, treble airier. Everything is better.

The movie experience is impressive, here you just have to immerse yourself in the action. And you don’t have to find room for a subwoofer! Lovely.

Musical in stereo

Music is a dream with Spotify Connect, and probably sounds even better in high definition from Apple Music or Tidal via AirPlay or Chromecast. With Tidal, however, I sometimes found that my phone disconnected from the sound system, so when I started the next song, it played over the mobile speaker instead. The solution then is to open the Google Home app, cancel casting and then switch songs in the Tidal app. This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this with Tidal, so the issue is hardly with Lemus.

Acoustic music of the quiet kind sounds really good through Home Piano. The bass guitar is big and rich, both female and male vocals come through loud and clear, and the stereo width is impressively large.

Hard rock with prominent electric guitars bites well, not least thanks to the clear midrange, which is suitably brash. Still, it becomes a compromise that treble and midrange are reproduced by the same unit, for there’s a bit of dynamics and excess missing from the guitars, while the treble doesn’t sound as airy as in quieter music.

Also the woofer sometimes gets overworked when playing loud; in my opinion you could put in an even more powerful amplifier if you want full dynamics when playing loud. There is a lack of headroom, both when it comes to rock and party music.

But my goodness, what a splendid compromise!

Competitors?

It’s hard to find competitors and measure them against Lemus Home Piano. If you want to find one that can do the same, you’ll have to go with a separate subwoofer, which can both lead to placement problems and the risk that it won’t integrate as well into the soundscape as the Home Piano.

If I’m going to give it a try anyway, the Sonos Arc along with the Sonos Sub is a worthy candidate. It’s not as warm and rich for music, but it has a much bigger soundstage for movies, thanks to many more speaker elements, advanced DSP and Dolby Atmos. Also, the Samsung HW-Q995B has significantly more power and provides a much bigger cinema feel for movies. But Samsung also has to give in when it comes to music in stereo.

If music in stereo is the most important thing, Lemus is perhaps its own biggest competitor with the Home Artistic model. This one is actually smaller, although slightly more expensive, and it doesn’t have a subwoofer. Instead, it has two speaker channels, each with separate tweeter and midwoofer. It sounds even better and cleaner in stereo, I think. The trade-off is a slightly less harsh bass, although on paper it goes just as impressively deep (20 Hz).

Conclusion

The Lemus Home Piano is a piece of sound furniture that will trample any soundbar underfoot. The sound is big and rich, and it reproduces both dialogue and sound effects in movies with conviction. It’s also much more musical than most soundbars, and it reaches impressively deep into the bass – even without a separate subwoofer.

You don’t get surround sound, but it’s a trade-off worth considering to get sound as good as this.

Remember to turn on room correction, though, or it will sound too coloured in the bass and midrange to be really good.

McIntosh’s new XCS1.5K centre speaker is simply a beast! It’s far from their first centre speaker, but definitely the most hard-hitting. It is said to be able to handle a full 1500 watts of power. Paired with a pair of floorstanding XRT2.1K or XRT1.1K front and rear, you’re sure to be able to make a brutally good home theatre system out of it.

The 43 drivers are divided into twenty-five 3/4-inch tweeters, fourteen 2.5-inch midrange drivers as shown in the image above, and behind the ‘bridge’ on which the 39 drivers are placed are four 8-inch (20 cm) woofers.

Did someone say excessive?

The speaker is equipped with three sturdy tri-wiring binding posts at the rear, and the cabinet can be tilted in five different angles so that the sound reaches the listening position better.

The XCS1.5K cabinet is finished in seven coats of gloss black lacquer and comes with a fabric grille covering the front midrange and tweeters.

If you really, really want an XCS1.5K for your home theater, wait until October and make sure to save up. The price is as hefty as the speaker: $40,000.