Big-screen TVs look great, but to really bring films to life you need quality sound too. These soundbars have it
Few TV fans would dispute the fact that the key ingredient for enjoying film nights in is a nice, big screen. Almost as important though – and an area too often overlooked – is great sound.
Unfortunately, the sound on most flatscreen TVs is at best passable and sometimes plain awful. What’s more, the multiple-speaker home cinema packages that can solve that problem are often prohibitively expensive or impractical.
So, some clever people invented soundbars. These long, flat, compact speaker enclosures sit directly below your screen and take over its audio duties, thereby transforming the quality of your sound without costing the earth or cluttering your living room with separate speakers.
Today’s soundbars are sophisticated affairs, packed with small drive units and clever tech. You will get more than just great sound too, as many come close to mimicking the surround-sound effects produced by full-scale speaker packages. And now that many have Bluetooth and/or wi-fi capability, they can also serve as your hi-fi system for music.
Just check that your chosen soundbar doesn’t obscure the bottom of your screen, and is not wider that the TV itself (that just looks weird).
Since it was launched three years ago, the Sonos Arc has been king of the mid-price soundbars, but it now has challengers in the shape of models from Harman Kardon, Philips and Sony. Can the Arc withstand this flood of rivals? We have the answer.
CONTENTS
Harman Kardon Citation Multibeam 1100 (Page 56) Philips Fidelio FB1 (Page 58) Sonos Arc (Page 60) Sony HT-A5000 (Page 62)
View online review whf.cm/CitationMultiBeam Harman Kardon Citation Multibeam 1100
Like the adage of judging a book by its cover, trying to guess what a soundbar sounds like from its appearance would likely prove an unsuccessful endeavour, mainly because the vast majority of these linear home cinema speakers all look pretty much the same.
But after clapping eyes and ears on the elegantly built but cumbersomely named Harman Kardon Citation Multibeam 1100 Dolby Atmos soundbar for the first time, we can’t help but have a small Catchphrase Roy Walker epiphany of, “Say what you see!” after we realise that this streamlined, minimal and tasteful speaker sounds just as it looks.
The Harmon Kardon Citation Multibeam 1100 costs £799, skirting just below the formidable Sonos Arc, which costs £899 but can frequently be found for less. Both soundbars can be expanded to a 5.1.2 s
