Are you ready for a new soundbar? Better yet, are you ready for a new Dolby Atmos soundbar? Then you’re in luck, because there are plenty of very exciting looking models coming in 2023.
If you have a decent TV, one of the best ways to upgrade your movie, TV show, and gaming experience is to stop using those TV speakers for the sound. The almost always small speakers of a modern TV are simply not up to the task of delivering full, exciting or captivating audio.
If you want the full home theater experience, an AV amp and speaker package is obviously the way to go, but for many people that kind of setup just isn’t an option. That’s where the Dolby Atmos soundbar comes in.
Convinced? You can easily choose a current model from our list of the best soundbars currently available. After all, each model has been carefully selected after extensive comparative testing in our special laboratories.
But what if there’s something even better on the horizon? Is it worth waiting? We can’t pass judgment on a new soundbar until it’s been fully tested, but it’s fair to say that some very interesting new models have already been announced for release soon, so read on to find out all about the coolest Dolby Atmos soundbars from 2023.. .
Why choose a Dolby Atmos soundbar?
Even the very best TV speakers are invariably less sonically capable than a decent soundbar, and most TV speakers – even those built into fairly premium TVs – are passable at best. Adding a soundbar is almost always a quick, easy, and substantial upgrade. It’s pretty cost-effective in many cases too, although you could spend a lot on a soundbar if you wanted to.
The big feature to look out for if you’re looking for a cinema sound experience is Dolby Atmos. This is a form of 3D audio (also known as spatial audio) that basically tries to fill your room with sound and place sound effects right within this three-dimensional soundstage.
To fill your room with sound, Atmos soundbars often fire audio forward, sideways and upwards, but some also come with satellite speakers that can be placed to the sides or behind the seating position for a more enveloping experience. Some also come with a subwoofer for extra bass or one can be added.
There are other forms of spatial audio, but right now Dolby Atmos is the most popular, most common implementation of spatial audio. Based on our extensive experience reviewing products with the technology, we can confirm that Dolby Atmos can revolutionize the experience whether you’re gaming or watching a movie.
So if you’re in the soundbar market, it’s often a good idea to get one that supports Atmos. And that brings us to our roundup of the Dolby Atmos soundbars to look forward to in 2023.
Nakamichi dragon
Long ago Nakamichi made one of the most iconic hi-fi products ever, the Dragon cassette deck, and today the brand is calling back to that legacy with this wild 21-channel Dragon soundbar.
This soundbar is somewhere between a traditional soundbar and a full-fledged speaker system. That’s because the Dragon isn’t only a soundbar: It’s basically a huge soundbar, a pair of surround back speakers and two subwoofers.
In all, the Dragon features 31 different drivers delivering 21 channels of audio in an 11.4.6 configuration that naturally supports Dolby Atmos in addition to DTS:X Pro. According to Nakamichi, this is the first plug-and-play soundbar to support the Atmos code designed to enable support for more than 7.1.4 channels.
We were treated to a demonstration of the dragon’s power at CES 2023 and described it in our hands-on as “a plug-and-play beast that can make a goddamn roar,” though we won’t be giving full judgment on it system until we’ve had it in our test labs for a full review.
Of course, a system this size and so technically isn’t cheap, and the Dragon will cost $3500 (around £2830 / AU$5000) at launch later this year. If that price tag doesn’t scare you, you can go the Nakamichi site to sign up to be notified (opens in new tab) when the Dragon becomes available for purchase. However, we recommend that you wait until we have fully tested it before transferring money.
JBL Bar 1300
If you like audio kit, you are well aware of the name JBL. This is a brand with a reputation for seriously high-end audio kit, from the L100 Classic speakers to the Synthesis SDR-35 AV amplifier, but also produces a wide range of more affordable devices such as headphones, wireless speakers and soundbars.
It’s soundbars we’re interested in here, of course, and the newly announced JBL Bar 1300 has caught our eye.
The Bar 1300 is the latest in a soundbar subgenre with wireless speakers that can be attached to the main bar or detached and placed on the sides or back of the seating position for a more enveloping experience. It also comes with a wireless subwoofer and has a total of 15 audio channels.
Inside the Bar 1300 are six upward-firing drivers, JBL’s MultiBeam technology, and the detachable speakers house rechargeable batteries alongside Bluetooth for wireless pairing. It supports Dolby Atmos, of course, but also DTS:X. AirPlay 2, Alexa Multi-Room Music and Chromecast are all on board.
It’s similar to the JBL Bar 9.1, which also had detachable speakers, but the Bar 1300 has more audio channels than ever before. Hopefully it sounds better too, because the Bar 9.1 received a somewhat disappointing 3-star rating after extensive testing.
We will give our verdict on the JBL Bar 1300 once it has undergone its own full test in our dedicated labs. Only then can we conclude whether it’s worth the £1300 / $1555 / AU$2300 price tag.
LG SC9
LG’s C-series TVs are comfortably the most popular OLED TVs out there, but it’s fair to say they don’t sound great. In our comprehensive C2 review, we stated that the TV “while sounds decent, could be upgraded more easily [by a soundbar] than might be expected from a TV that costs this much”.
LG would naturally prefer those adding a soundbar to do so with one of its own models, and to that end has created the new SC9 model, which is designed to be the perfect aesthetic and sonic partner for the C2 and the new C3.
Supplied with a bespoke bracket, the SC9 mounts directly to the TV, effectively replacing the TV’s original base for placement on top of a TV cabinet or hanging neatly underneath when wall mounted. In fact, the bracket is designed to perfectly position the soundbar so that sound from the three upward-firing drivers isn’t blocked by the TV’s bottom lip.
Dolby Atmos is of course on board, but so is DTS:X. And if you pair the SC9 with a new LG TV, you can also take advantage of a feature called Wow Orchestra, which synchronizes the soundbar’s drivers with those of the TV for potentially bigger, more spacious sound. This feature is very similar to Samsung’s Q-Symphony, and it’ll be interesting to test it thoroughly and see if it delivers actual improvements over using the soundbar’s speakers alone.
Another nice bit of symbiosis allows the SC9 to connect to some of LG’s TVs using a feature called Wowcast, which is essentially a wireless transfer of audio. While a soundbar is usually placed very close to a TV, we can imagine that some people will appreciate the option of omitting the cable between the two. Those who are less cable averse can of course use HDMI eARC instead.
Pricing and availability have not yet been announced for the SC9, but we see it becoming popular with LG OLED owners, of which there are many. I hope LG put as much thought into the sound as they did into the design and feature set. Of course, we’ll wait until we can test the soundbar fully and relatively before passing judgment.
Samsung HW-Q990C
Samsung’s new flagship soundbar, the HW-990C, offers up to 11.1.4 channels of sound in addition to Samsung’s Q-Symphony 3.0 technology, which is designed to “precisely direct individual audio elements” through the soundbar and speakers. your Samsung TV. With both TV speakers and the soundbar in play, Samsung says Q-Symphony can handle up to 22 audio channels in total.
With the Q990C itself, you get the bar, a pair of surround speakers and a wireless subwoofer. Dolby Atmos is supported (the bar wouldn’t be on this list if it wasn’t), and the system can be controlled over Wi-Fi, which really isn’t short of what you’d expect from a Samsung flagship.
Pricing and availability details are unconfirmed so far, but expect news soon. We will, as always, conduct a full comparative test before passing judgment.
LAKE:
Here’s our list of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars out there
As well as our list of the best soundbars available right now
And these are ours favorite products from CES 2023