Bigger drivers generally distort less as they push into the lower frequencies and try and play loud. I say generally because it isn't a golden rule, the design of the driver from the voice coil, the material for the cone, the magnet size, crossover network and amplificafion all plays a role.

Not only are soundbars mediocre, the people selling them are even more stupid.

Walked pass a Klipsch roadshow today, they were demo'ing the RSB-14 soundbar. Decided to stop and take a listen to hear if Klipsch has done anything proper with their take on soundbars. The promoter came up and instantly said; "this soundbar uses optical connection!" as a marketing term.

Like... just, wtf?

Using optical connection is supposed to be groundbreaking or something? Optical has been in use since the late 90s....

Just to entertain the promoter;

Me - "so can play lossless audio?".
Promoter - "can play dolby digital and DTS"
Me - "oh, so lossy audio then..."
Promoter - "yes, but it's dolby digital and DTS!"
Me - *laughs and walk away while SMH*


Sigh. The world of mainstream audio these days.

Yes, yes. Promoters these days aren't actually the experts and they're probably some part-timer who just finished their SPM and is trying to earn some pocket money. But imagine not taking 5 minutes to read up on simple foundation facts.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Nov 30 2019, 10:17 PM

That's not how wattage works.

Speakers are measured in sensitivity (dB) x wattage @ voltage x distance. Without going into maths and explaining your experience in layman terms, the reason you hear a "higher wattage" system sounding "louder" at lower volumes (measured in dBfs) is because the speaker's impedance and sensitivity at that low input volume is lower (for the impedance) and higher (for the sensitivity).

I don't blame you, I blame manufacturers for playing the power marketing game. 99% of the population seems to believe that higher wattage = better sound. That isn't even remotely true, which is good news for big brand manufacturers.


No brands are honest about specs because the entire market would simply cease to function.

Normal humans don't understand - sensitivity (dB) x wattage @ voltage x distance. It's easier to say "1000w total output" with no THD+N distortion value than say "1watt 95db @ 1.23v - 1meter 0.01% THD+N". Meaning it's also trivial to come up with bullshit numbers to bullshit potential non-savvy customers (which is the biggest portion of the AV industry market).

You won't find the info in majority of reviews either because most reviewers are/were not engineers.

This is right now the world's best sound bar, even then it sounds like shit:

I don't see your problem.

If your TV has no eARC, just use ARC then?

Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD will be encoded into lossy Dolby Digital and DTS since ARC does not have the bandwidth to support anything higher. Dolby Atmos isn't a sound format, it's just metadata for 3D sound objects on top of the core track (that core track being Dolby Digital+). That said, you won't even get the benefits of Atmos on a soundbar anyways, so the point of supporting it or not is moot.

Sounds good, on paper.

Quad subs, but they are puny subs. While multi subs is a solution for even bass across multiple seats, it requires good placement. Most people don't even know how to place a single sub, now you give them 4... lol.

And I also have doubts about the Nakamichi's room correction system. Is it going to be able to determine the correct delay (distance) and level match the entire system properly?


EDIT - wait hold up, I just watched the Digital Trends video and he said it is FOUR sub drivers in TWO enclosures. Lmao. That's not QUAD subs, that's just DUAL. Nice bullshit! Why did I even give the soundbar market a second look.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Jan 10 2023, 03:40 PM