I think a massive TV like
this with a huge picture deserves equally big sound.
And I may have found just a soundbar for the job.
Welcome back, everyone.
I'm Caleb Denison, and today I'm reviewing the Klipsch Cinema
1200 Dolby Atmos Soundbar surround system.
Now, let's not mince words here.
This thing is almost comically huge, except the soundbar means business.
And I don't mean funny business.
I mean, this soundbar is in the business of bringing the party.
Yes, everything about it is huge, including the price.
But does it sound as big as it looks? Will it impact
your living room as powerfully as it will impact your pocketbook?
Can it bring Dolby Atmos into your home in a way that a smaller, less expensive
soundbar can't?
Also, at what point
should you just get a receiver and speakers and deal with some speaker wire?
We're going to find out.
Before we jump into it, though.
How do you feel about soundbars trying to replace full on home theater systems?
Does it make sense?
Why or why not? Let me know about that
down in the comments so we can talk about it.
And while you're down there, please smash like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video
so we can continue to grow this channel
and bring you even better, more beautiful content.
Thanks, as always. I really appreciate you. OK, let's get into this thing.
There is just no getting
around it, this soundbar is huge. But if you think that's big,
get a load of this 12 inch subwoofer.
Clearly, there is nothing soundbar-ish
about this system, not in the conventional sense anyway.
And I think that's the point.
And frankly, I would expect nothing less from Klipsch, even though Klipsch
has been dabbling in the more conventional soundbar game for some time now.
This soundbar system to me seems to be trying to bridge
the gap between a conventional multi-speaker, home theater system
and more conventional compact soundbar systems.
The subwoofer is a perfect example of that.
It's built with rigid wood, not plastic.
It has a robust 12 inch driver, which is unheard of in the soundbar space.
You can feel the weight of the magnet when you pick this thing up.
And it's got a very powerful digital amplifier.
This is very much a standard Klipsch subwoofer.
There's nothing soundbar-like about it.
And as such, I expect it to exhibit a commanding performance.
But we'll get back to this bad boy in a minute.
Then there's the soundbar itself.
It's wide, it's deep, and it is fairly tall,
although its height seems to be the least outlandish dimension.
It's got three horn loaded tweeters, one on each side and one in the middle.
Then it has six composite woofers, two on the left, two on the right,
and two in the middle.
And then it has to angled up firing drivers on top
to handle half of the Dolby Atmos channels.
The soundbar has this massive
LED display, which, yeah, it's garish, but at least you can read it.
I hate it when sound use like a series of LED dots
and force you to guess what the hell is happening.
There is no question what this thing is saying.
And yes, thankfully, you can dim it or turn it off.
The end caps can be swapped out with wood panels, which is a nice thought,
but I'm not sure how many folks are going to see those.
There are two 8K friendly HDMI inputs which will in fact, pass Dolby Vision video,
e-ARC support is, of course, here.
So I consider this a next-gen console friendly soundbar.
There's also a subwoofer output
if you wanted to add your own subwoofer, which isn't as crazy as it sounds
if you're an audiophile, but I digress.
Then we have the surround speakers.
These are a little lighter than I'd hoped, actually.
They are constructed of wood, though.
And you get the composite woofer firing out and another one
firing up to complete the 5.1.4 Dolby Atmos system.
Total system power is 1200 watts peak, which is kind of nuts
because Klipsch speakers
are known for being very sensitive and not at all power hungry.
And yet here we are
with 1200 glorious watts peak of digital amplification.
Now, if I'm a Klipsch fan, by the specs alone, I'm buying the soundbar,
especially if my domestic partner is griping about my huge ass speakers
and speaker wire
taking up too much space in the house and generally making things messy.
Funny enough, though, this is not the space saving setup
that soundbars usually are.
Like I said, it's trying to bridge the gap.
And let's face it, its a really long bridge.
Anyway, the remote control is pretty great as it's backlit and it offers
you most of the control
that you need to get the right balance from each of the system's channels.
One exception I must point out, is the subwoofer trim and boost.
I want more control here.
Now, if you've seen my friend Andrew Robinson's review of this soundbar,
then you already know he had some serious gripes about the subwoofer.
He and his lovely wife and producer, Kristi, told me they literally
had to put the sub in another room because it was so overwhelmingly loud.
I fortunately did not have that problem.
I think something was up with the unit or units that they got, because this sub,
while certainly very assertive, is not that out of control for me.
However, I would like more fine control of the sub.
I get minus six trim on this thing and I could use a little more.
And I would like the adjustments to be more incremental too.
Bass is a very funky thing and the more control you have, the better.
And while we're at it, I wish the subwoofer
amplifier had a volume control of its own.
So I didn't have to rely on adjusting just the signal level.
There is a Klipsch app for this soundbar, and it's not very useful.
There are supposed to be EQ controls eventually, but right now there aren't,
and there aren't any built into the soundbar either.
And while I like the way the soundbar is tuned for most of the content
I listen to, I know others want EQ control. It's not here
and that's going to be a problem for some folks.
Klipsch, I love you.
Please fix this app.
Right, enough about the app.
How does this insane soundbar sound?
Well, it sounds insane-ly good.
Although honestly, I think it could sound even better without a ton more work.
Let's start with the subwoofer.
As I mentioned, it is not wildly out of control for me.
I actually like it.
It is assertive. You know it is doing its work.
The extreme low frequencies are very well represented. In the Zack Snyder
cut of Justice League, where the bad guys are shooting at Wonder Woman
about 20 minutes in.
Every gun shot has a quick immediate thump to it that was very well articulated.
It starts and stops very well.
Also, all very deep, sustained musical notes were fantastic,
but the mic bass doesn't get up into the 80 to 100 hertz
range as linearly, and so I feel like there's
a bit of a disconnect between the soundbar and the sub.
Not much of one,
but if I get a soundbar this expensive, I want it to be as seamless as possible.
Other things I don't care for,
the grill cloth is loose and kind of bunching up in spots.
I'd like to see the finished be a little tighter.
But one thing that is really bothering me is the apparent
lack of center channel control from the soundbar’s remote.
The center channel level from movie to movie and show to show varies wildly.
And being able to control the center channel is crucial.
Now, maybe that's something you can do with the app or will eventually be able to do.
But I can't even get the app to work anymore since it disconnected,
so who knows? I'll pin an update comment to the top of this post
if things change.
But for now, the lack of center channel control is kind of a big issue.
Aside from that, I'm pretty thrilled.
This system is so bombastic.
It absolutely takes over this room
we have here, and I think it could handle slightly larger rooms as well.
Dialog is clear.
High frequency effects sparkle, but they're not too strident.
Another way of saying that is that there's good clarity
but the system isn't harsh.
The sound stage has depth as well as vertical presence.
and it is dynamic.
It handles soft moments as well as it does loud moments and pivots on a dime.
If this soundbar was a car, it would have the muscle of a Dodge Charger Hellcat
but the agility of an Audi TT. Dolby Atmos effects are extremely effective,
probably the best represented I've heard, challenged only by Samsung's
Q950A soundbar. Which since I brought up the Q950A
that's really the only soundbar I feel like can stand toe to toe
with the Klipsch Cinema 1200.
And if I'm continuing my car analogy,
the Samsung Q950A is like a Tesla in this situation.
Very high tech, very impressive, very sleek.
One of the best soundbar systems you can buy.
But it isn't the Klipsch.
Klipsch just has this something going for it.
If you're a Klipschfan, you know what I mean.
It isn't the right thing for every occasion.
It isn't something you would take home to mom.
You might do things with it
on the first date that you wouldn't normally do.
It's just, it's Klipsch.
It's a bad ass and a leather jacket with piercings
who also has a Ph.D.
and could kick your ass at Jeopardy.
That's what this soundbar is. Should you buy it?
I don't know. It's super expensive.
I would say this if you can't fit a full on home theater
system in your home with a receiver and the wires and everything else,
the Cinema 1200 is the next best thing.
Thanks, as always, for watching, everybody.
What do you think of the Klipsch Cinema 1200? A little bit overboard?
Leave me a comment about that down below.
Don't forget to like and subscribe and here’s two other videos I think you'll like.