DALI LITERALLY SETS THE BAR HIGH WITH THIS ONE...
View online review whf.cm/KatchOne
£549
This stylish soundbar from Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries certainly makes a statement with its looks. The Katch One is intended to be a hub for all your living room audio needs, with five different possible audio inputs, three ways to mount it and ten drivers all pulling together to fill your space with sound. But there is a catch to the Katch One – one that’s apparent immediately upon unboxing the soundbar: it’s too tall.
The company has crammed four 9cm aluminium mid/bass drivers and four 11.5cm steel passive radiators inside the soundbar, and there are also two 21mm soft-dome high-frequency units here too.
That bodes well for its audio capabilities, certainly, but it also means that the 17cm-tall glass fibre-reinforced ABS cabinet gets in the way of your television screen and consequently your TV’s remote sensor. While most soundbars try to be as unobtrusive as possible by staying well out of the way of your picture, the Katch One is, to say the least, a bit of a departure from the norm.
One solution, of course, is to wall mount the Katch One. There are some attractive leather straps included for that purpose, with some hidden fixings at the back if you prefer. On the plus side, if you do wall-mount it, the rear-firing drivers will end up positioned just right to make the most out of the bass generated. Another option is to wall mount your TV and use little wooden brackets for the Dali, again included in the package.
Height aside, the Katch One is a good looking soundbar. It’s oblong with rounded ends and it comes in a tastefully Scandinavian-looking choice of Iron Black, Ivory White or Mountain White. The physical buttons for power, volume and source are all out of sight on the top. The ports are recessed on the rear to keep the cables as hidden as possible.
PURE AUDIO
There are no network connectivity or apps with the Katch One – this is pure audio – so HDMI ARC is likely to be your method of connection. This takes the audio straight from your TV and supports CEC so that you can still use your TV’s remote to change the volume. There’s a small Dali remote included in the box for more functionality.
Around the back, there are two optical ins should you wish to connect to your TV or add a music player. There’s also a 3.5mm aux-in and, although the USB port is for service only, it will support Google Chromecast Audio if you insert the dongle. Lastly, there is Bluetooth 4.0 with apt
