Oscar season may be behind us, but the blockbuster season is right around the corner, and it starts with OTT. From Apple TV+ to Zee5, every platform has a fresh churn of shows that promise to keep you on the edge of your seat. But it’s only possible to stay on that edge if the sound of your entertainment system supports it. Since televisions are on a relentless diet program, they’ve all but lost the appetite for immersive sound, and that’s where this selection of elite soundbars comes in. Capable of tuning into the dense Dolby Atmos (or DTS:X) mixes of modern content, these soundbars are as much about Saving Private Ryan as they are about Ted Lasso.
Clearly, the disruptor in this group of elites, Klipsch, has gone all-in on performance-per-rupee with the Flexus Core 300, and it shows. You get a proper Atmos setup with dedicated up-firing drivers, and it’s the world’s first soundbar with Dirac Live room correction built in. It uses a 0.75-inch horn-loaded tweeter to ensure high-frequency efficiency and vocal clarity, a Klipsch signature. On F1 (Apple TV+), this thing feels alive. The attack on engine notes is sharp, and the Dirac Live integration is the cheat code for difficult Indian living rooms with marble floors. It eliminates boomy reflections and hardness associated with reflective surfaces, allowing the F1 gear-shift "thwack" to hit with surgical timing. Surround effects are surprisingly convincing for the price, and there’s a sense of scale that punches above its weight.
Although on its own, the Flexus Core 300 is 5.1.2 capable, you could still add physical wireless surrounds and a subwoofer for absolute performance.
Sonos has always been about refinement and ease of use over brute force, and the Arc Ultra leans into that philosophy. It’s a 9.1.4-channel design with upgraded upward-firing drivers that do a noticeably better job of creating verticality than the older Arc. It also uses "Sound Motion," a new transducer technology that allows for maximum excursion from the small drivers to enhance bass response and overall dynamics.
Dolby Atmos is handled with a kind of restraint that feels almost audiophile. On Something Very Bad is Going to Happen (Netflix), the atmospheric mix is reproduced with delicacy and precision steering in the sound. Sounds move cleanly across the soundstage without that smeared, DSP-heavy feel some soundbars suffer from. Dialogue remains locked in, even when the mix gets chaotic.
For all its slimness and domestic profile, it does give up deep bass, and the Sonos Sub is highly recommended for a richer, full-bandwidth experience. Of course, being wireless, it is easy to integrate as a retrofit whenever the mood and budget allow. Expect a clean, spatially immersive, and controlled sound from the Arc Ultra.
One of the earlier proponents of heavy-DSP use (along with Yamaha), the Sennheiser Ambeo Max is unapologetically over-engineered with 13 drivers and enough amplifier power to light up a small village. It doesn’t care about minimalism and goes for an all-out attack from a single box, leaving no room for a subwoofer. Thankfully, it has the grunt to playback War Machine (Netflix) with the requisite heft and impact during the large-scale chase sequences between the Rangers and the alien robot. Every giant footstep of the alien bot will send shockwaves through your room, or at least it should, if set up correctly. With customisable surround effects and height virtualisation, the Ambeo Max is all about bringing German accuracy and precision to sound, and it delivers in spades.
While it may not require a subwoofer, it does include a wired output for those wanting to hit 20Hz. It’s been around a few years, but it is still one of the finest examples of make-believe surround sound from a single box.
Trust the French to be the odd ones out. The Devialet Dione is slim, sculptural, and hides 17 drivers inside a chassis that looks more like a piece of modern art than a soundbar. But the shape is more about function than just form. Technically, it’s a 5.1.2 system, but Devialet’s signal processing does some serious heavy lifting, and thanks to the rotating ORB centre channel, dialogue stays anchored whether the bar is wall-mounted or placed flat. Devialet’s SPACE algorithm is the highlight, upmixing stereo signals into a believable surround sound sphere and making it an effective music machine.
On One Battle After Another (Jio Hotstar), the Dione excels at maintaining consistent tonal balance as the sound pans left to right on the percussive score during the final chase scene. There is a polish to the sound that makes extended viewing or listening sessions easy, but the bass may prove to be too polite for some, and there is no option for an external subwoofer. But, unless you watch King Kong thumping his chest on repeat, it won’t bother you, so go ahead and revel in its musicality.