hey this is Jake from GearlyReviews.com - with many requests coming our way from
soundbar enthusiasts to give our take on the best Atmos Soundbars and being in
the center of the ever-growing best Atmos Soundbars heated debates we finally
decided to sort things out and crowned this year's best dolby atmos sound bar
after all dolby atmos is one of the best surround sound technologies combined a
beautiful picture with a Dolby Atmos sound system and you'll get much closer
to bringing a real movie theater experience into your home to build this
list we've tested nine of the best dolby atmos sound bars from the likes of Sony
LG Samsung Vizio nakamichi and many more this video is all about the four that
came out on top because they sound the best and deliver the best value for
their price the picking process wasn't easy with so many good sound bars out
there that we had to choose from perhaps it's a long shot
but this video should help clear up the debate about what is the best still be
out in the sound bar and if not hey at least we tried starting our list at
number four is the LG SL 10 yg sound bar the SL 10 yg offers both Dolby Atmos and
DTS X support using its main up firing speaker
it delivers a resounding 570 watts of power from the main speaker and 220
watts from the front firing wireless subwoofer paired with the optional
wireless rear speakers the system offers up to five point one point two channels
in an immersive movie watching experience
LG's ongoing partnership with British sound specialist Meridian Audio upgrades
this bar with some impressive audio performance we like the whole wide
soundstage and the discernible dialog and effects meridians bass and space
technology improves the soundstage and had us really enjoying the rich and
uncompromising sound effects accompanied by strong and accurate lows the casing
is fairly large but well built with metal speaker grilles in the familiar
brushed finish LG has used over the past few years we're a bit disappointed
though that LG I chosen to keep the same concept in materials as with its
previous models which is far from perfect to begin with it's not to say
that the design is flawed in any way it's just that the repeated brushed
metallic styling is getting a bit outdated and uninspiring another
downside is the sound bars above average dimensions unless you have a matching
led LG TV you do better off the TV larger than 55 inches and with a large
enough media cabinet the house today if you're in the Google assistant ecosystem
like we are you'll be glad to know that you can hey Google your soundbar to
request songs control the sound bars functions operate your smartphone
devices or simply ask for the weather in our opinion the LG SL 10 yg is best
suited for movies and games played on a large TV screen and less for music
playback overall the sidebar does a great job in providing an immersive
experience with movies and it's DTS X and hatma support combined with having
Meridian audio onboard provides the best in class and we'll be watching
experience and a noticeable upgrade over LG's previous offers in third place we
have the Sennheiser AM Bo sound bar Sennheiser's headphones and mics are
held in high esteem by consumers and audio pros alike but let's get this
right the company is a newbie when it comes to building home theater speakers
Sennheiser's ambient sound bar delivers virtual surround sound in a five-point
1.4 configuration that's the five speaker and subwoofer from a normal 5.1
surround sound system plus four additional speakers in each corner of
the Ring now here's the kicker the Ambu sandbar unit includes no less than 13
premium drivers all in the unit itself all on ones in low bar the drivers
includes six four inch woofers five one-inch tweeters in two three and a
half inch two firing speakers the Ambu supports Dolby Atmos and DTS X
virtualization which we found to handle extremely well with the very supported
titles and genres this sound bar is an all-in-one surround system which does
not compromise and that's essentially its biggest selling point when you look
at the full array of 13 speakers across the bar in multiple directions you can't
help but notice its futuristic techy appearance we found the sound bar unit
manages very well to deliver spatial experience of a full five point one
point four system and powerful enough bass without the need for additional
speakers or a separate subwoofer and the manages to deliver state-of-the-art bass
response at 30 Hertz without the need for a separate subwoofer
there are also downsides that hold the sound bar in third place although we
were very impressed with a clear audio and basic Evening Sun high as it shows
with the sound bar it's still limited by the lack of physical surround speakers
the bar is also quite bulky and large so easy placement can be an issue we're
also not quite sure why Sennheiser didn't include the latest Bluetooth 5.0
for music streaming the future-proofed the sounder and that
top it off is a hefty price tag of around $2,500 which makes us ask is it
really worth it for the value it provides overall it does a great job of
providing an immersive and surrounding audio experience with a wide soundstage
powerful loads and vocals and convincing DTS X and atom separation that being
said Sennheiser may have dropped the ball when it comes to other
considerations we can't help but feel that with it what it brings in sound
it lacks and features and value for its high price time if you're set on having
a one piece at a system that does not compromise as far as audio clarity and
soundstage bill the am bo is a great choice that's worth looking into the
ambience and bar marks Sennheiser's first attempt at the high-end sound bar
market with Sennheiser building on the experience that gained with it we find
ourselves already looking forward to its successor that should most likely be a
worthy contender in the high-end sound bar space now before moving to runner up
we have to make a confession awarding second overall was a very hard decision
we had to decide through numerous recurring tests between the top two
excellent atlas sound bars out on the market following countless listening
sessions and deliberations we've decided to award the second place
to the nakamichi shock wave nine point two point four ultra SSE why did we have
such a hard time with deciding between second in first place if you've heard
the shock wave ultra SSE you must have been pleasantly surprised like we were
with how great the system sounds this sound of our system reflects Mac amici
standards of excellence with its impressive 16 driver array that provides
no less than nine point two point four channel surround audio in addition to
Dolby Atmos the sound bar supports Dolby vision and incorporates nakamichi
spatial surround the elevation technology or in short SS II which
utilizes three processing engines to deliver a lifelike surround sound
experience and our tests we found the soundstage and object separation to work
extremely well Dolby Atmos and DTS X effects are well implemented and sound
very punchy and immersive with well-balanced and prominent sound
separation across our entire larger than average sound room
now let's talk about another feature in the sound bar system the dual 10 inch
subwoofers the dual sub concept and execution balances base across the
entire watching experience Nakamichi is one of the first companies to bring this
tech to the living room and the results are surprisingly great even in small
spaces the dual sub you first deliver smooth bound space across the room and
really made us feel right in the center of the action
bass is deep in accurate dialogue is clear and dominant as we like and
there's no shortage in custom adjustments available to those of us who
want to further tweak the sound installation writer the box is plug and
play simple and quick we also like the sound bars unique shape that helps
differentiate it from most rectangular sound bars out there there are a few
downsides that we have noticed though the system includes a 52 key back Lee
remote control which we found to be kind of annoying in points we found ourselves
pointing it directly at the unit and getting real close to the system for it
to register commands another issue with it was the volume adjustment increments
are a little too big when using it the shockwave ultra SSE includes three HDMI
inputs two optical audio inputs and one USB input there's also one HDMI AARC
output it supports pass-through Doby vision and
4k content via HDMI with hdcp 2.2 Nakamichi also did not skimp on
Bluetooth with Qualcomm zap 2x which replicates the entire frequency of the
audio and reproduces the best audio possible when streaming with Bluetooth
if you're in the market for complete Dolby Atmos system that provides the
closest experience to a real movie theater this system proves to be one of
the best choices provided that you have the space to correctly place the entire
speaker setup now before moving to our number 1 here are a few honorable
mentions for hatma sound bars that didn't make it to our list the Samsung
hwn 950 7.1 point for sound bar with Dolby Atmos Vizio SB 365 one four five
point one point for home theater system Sony SP five thousand seven point one
point two dolby atmos of DTS x amber the review of for the Samsung hwn 950
can be found in our previous videos you can find out much more about all the
products we mentioned here including specs features and pricing just hop on
in the description of this video below if you have any soundbars you'd like us
to test and review please drop us a comment below and we try our best
accommodate we have a lot more comprehensive tech reviews and
recommendations in our fold in many coming up soon so feel free to join our
family and subscribe to our channel below to get notified about future
videos our top Dolby Atmos sound bar pick is the Samsung hwq 9dr
the q 9 dr replaces last year samsung and 950 soundbar and at first glance
they both look identical the new model is the same seven-point 1.4 channel
layout with a main speaker that sports 3 front to upward and to side firing
drivers there's also a pair of wireless rear speakers built-in upward firing
drivers we're here mainly for sound and sound wise there are major upgrades to
the new hwq 9 vr it includes an updated wireless active subwoofer that uses a
rear ported bass reflex design we've built an amplification and a side firing
eight-inch driver that is designed to complement the main sound bar and rear
speakers the new sub has been developed to deliver more effective and accurate
bass response over to create Assessor and indeed we found it to be the case we
found that the bass sounds clean loud and perfectly in sync with movie effects
now many people have asked us about the Harman Kardon integration on the q9 dr
the integration of Samsung's bar with the Harman Kardon sound tuning is first
in foremost designed to improve music playback we've tried to listen to stereo
music side-by-side as older Samsung speakers before the Harman Kardon
collaboration era and the difference is noticeable music playback with Harman
Kardon tuning has a clear advantage with clarity and focus harding carmen has
done its job in terms of tuning the sound bar to deliver performance that
would please even the most demanding music fans the stereo imaging is
impressive with clarity and the vocals and precise placement of instruments we
really feel samsung finally got the music playback part locked with a Q 9dr
design-wise were pleased that Samsung kept the same sum of construction the
sound bar retains the same rectangular shape and minimalist appearance with
metal grills on the top front and sides it also boasts many of the same
important features found on last year's hwn 950 including the ability to decode
Dolby Atmos and DTS X we get the usual 4k pastor only now with HDR 10 support
we were hoping for the bar also supports Bluetooth
music streaming in the standard one optical and two HDMI ports thankfully
the HDMI output this year involves EARC allowing lossless audio to be passed
from a compatible TV the price for the entire system is still on the higher end
of the spectrum but when taking a closer look at the complete set up we get and
the alternative constant full Atmos system it seems to be within the
acceptable range the Samsung q 9 TR proves we would have the most complete
feature rich and powerful sound bar systems out there for who seek to enjoy
a full Antonis experience and have the room sized screen size and budget sizes
supported sleek looking powerful and engaging soundstage plenty of smarts
updated connections with wide ecosystem Atlas V TSX support with full array of
physical speakers all of this is included in Samsung's flagship model
this is the Samsung hwq 9dr not perfect but still a well deserved winner for its
overall sound features and value did you agree with our list any of your personal
favorites you would like to see included let us know in the comments below thanks
for watching and we'll catch you guys next time