Never Miss a Word of Dialog
Dual center channels bring incredible clarity to move dialog and music lyrics. Front row listening experience, every time.
Wider Soundstage Listening Area
Our outward-firing surround effects tweeters create a 35% wider soundstage than conventional soundbars, replicating the wide soundstage that matches the screen size of a cinema.
Unlock Hidden Surround Details
Each rear surround speaker houses a high-frequency tweeter to produce crystal clear ambient effects and a full-range driver for extra-accurate directional sound. You will unlock surround details you have never heard before.
Next Generation Video Formats
Dolby Vision and 4K HDR video pass-through allows you to not just hear, but see every cinematic detail in perfect clarity.
Enjoy Wired Quality Sound – Wirelessly
With Bluetooth aptX, stream your favorite music wirelessly from all of your portable electronics including your phone, tablet and smart home devices.
Advanced Connectivity
Enjoy seamless connectivity with multiple devices. Receive Dolby Atmos surround via TV’s eARC when streaming with TV’s smart apps like Netflix (Note: not all TVs can output Atmos. Refer to your TV brand’s audio output specs).
J. ReiterJ. Reiter –
If you want anything better than this, don’t get a sound bar.Who is this for?- Movie watchers who enjoy being “enveloped” in the movie at close to theater level loudness,- Mixed content consumers (Youtube, hulu etc.)- Casual music listeners- Gamers who want explosions to rattle themWho is this not for:- Anyone who lives in an apartment (Unless you’re in VERY good with the neighbors)- Audio purists, Serious music listenersSpeaker System reviews are highly subjective and audio listening experience varies drastically on several factors including environment ( a room and all objects in the room have resonate and reflective frequencies just like different materials reflect different colors of light), sound signature preferences and source material. I’m just stating my personal opinion and experience.Overall Rating A- ( For the purpose )Sub-woofers: Overall rating: B+Sub-bass 0-50hz: C ( Usually low rumbling or just shaking, often not even audible, thuds, explosion aftershock )Bass: A+ (Drum beats, explosion rattle )Mid Bass: C ( Low end of male vocals usually, deep non bass instruments)Let’s start off with bass first since most people looking to buy this product probably want to know about this most (especially with the two sub-woofers). I purposely chose the dual 8 inch sub model because I thought that it would help round off the listening experience versus the 10inch model and it’s less expensive as a bonus. Most sound bars suffer from mid bass drop off due to the driver size in the sound bar. The sound bars typically have less than 4″ drivers, while Mid bass drivers sound best around 5.5″ to 6.5″. To me there is a “Golden sound” to speaker systems and it does involve a significant amount of mid bass. This is the type of sound signature that really shines in tracks like 1979 by the smashing pumpkins and Everlong by Foo Fighers. While the sub drivers to kind of help with the mid bass issue, it’s not a cure-all, it can cause a confusing sound stage having part of the vocals come from one area and the rest from another. Mid bass is tricky to get perfect. Listening on quality studio or standing floor speakers to the tracks “Lucille” by Kenny Rogers or the Contrabass saxophone in “Have a Lucky Day” or “Cure for Pain” by Morphine is not even comparable to the synthesized sub bass on these speakers. What I’m trying to say is real mid-bass is magical when properly balanced (unbalanced makes vocals sound muddy). These subs are great for movie watchers and upbeat music. The subs pack good a punch, you can get a slight back massage or move medium size items in the room, but it’s not earth shattering/head rattling like high powered 15/12 inch subs that makes it seem like the apocalypse. I would say these are perfectly suited for drum kick bass and explosions. For being ported, these subs do a good job of staying tonal and agile but there is noticeable “port hum” which caused by the resonate frequency and size of box port. It’s not specific to this speaker system, all ported boxes suffer from this flaw. Although because it does such a great job of still being tonal I don’t ding it any points and the engineers made the right choice because ported boxes generally output at-least 1.5x more sound than sealed boxes but at the expense of the port distortion. You literally get more “bang” for your buck with a ported sub-woofer. With the 8″ sub woofer there is no sub-bass unfortunately. One track I used to test this was “Ritz107″ by Fischerspooner. At 3:20ish the whole room should be shaking but I could tell the low end cutoff was set high for these subs (Possible around 25-35hz) as those frequencies were completely missing. That’s not surprising considering they’re just 8” woofers on a digital crossover but a little disappointing. At first I was a little worried about having two sub-woofers due to phase interference but it wasn’t an issue. If anyone has issues try changing the angle of the sub or move it a few feet and you’re good.Side speakers: AI’m glad that these speakers are beefier than most side speakers and think they sound great. Positioning can be tricky as with any surround speakerRemote: AHigh quality back lit remote with lots of features and memorization.Vocal tonal balance and fidelity: BI want to give an “A” but due to the lack of mid bass which haunts most sound bars I cannot, However the vocals are extremely well balanced for this setup. You’ll be able to crank up the volume on this sound system without the fear of sharp vowel sounds from “A”s and “E”s and enjoy listening even more at high volumes rather than shreaking. I appreciate the engineers choice in acoustic cone and cabinet material as well as digital processing which are the primary reason for this balance. This is why I say it’s great for multi content consumption because its subdued enough to where it’s not going to annoy your ears or cause fatigue. But they are slightly too subdued for my taste. My favorite tweeter dome material has to be silk, but these sound more like a Mylar or composite plastic (haven’t checked what they are). If they are silk dome then the “E”s and “S” are extremely subdued and something is wrong.Frequency Response, Power curve: AFrequency response is a tricky question. A power curve is the amplification level map per frequency for a given volume setting. Humans don’t perceive audio linearly, this is why Fletcher Munson curves exist that are supposed to map perceived loudness to frequency and SPL. Also lower frequencies take exponentially more power to produce the same perceived loudness as higher frequencies. These speakers have a great power curve for average listeners and starts to really fill room out after 30. If you’re listening below 30 and want a fuller sound, the “stereo” and “night” modes should help outSound Processing, Sound Stage: A-Good amount of options for sound buffs, could be tricky for noobs but the simple “Game”, “Movie” buttons help out a lot. It’s good that there’s an option to disable sound processing altogether. The noise floor is almost non-existent compared to other speaker systems. I feel like that to achieve such a low noise floor there must have been some sound processing algorithm applied that also impedes vocal fidelity as a consequence. That’s just my hunch. Sound stage is great for movies and good for music. During movies my wife was looking around when bullets flew by and when listening to songs it sound like you’re in a medium size cafe about 15 feet from a 30 foot wide stage.How I would improve this product: Increase the surface area on the center drivers to compensate for the driver size and help fill the mid bass gap, then remove the 8″ sub line and only sell 10″ subs because the 8″ frequency range has too much crossover with low end vocals which convolutes the sound stage. Possibly add a sealed sub alternative option.I graded my listening experience for a few songs:”Heart of Gold” – Neil Young : B”Under the Milky Way Tonight” – The Church : A”The Killing Moon” – Echo and the Bunnymen : B (Stereo mode, bass @ 2)”Lifes Been Good” – Joe Walsh : B”Piano Man” – Billy Joel : B”Rocket Man” – Elton John : A+”Hotel California” The Eagles A”Safety Dance” – Men Without Hats : B-“Walk Like an Egyptian” – The Bangles : CThe biggest drawback for music is the port hum (not noticeable for people who don’t know to listen for it) due to the ported design, but it’s better for movies. Hopefully this review helps someone!
NV –
— 4 month update –Added a Xbox One and have tried multiple Bluerays with DTS-MA, DTS-X and Dolby Atmos tracks. The Xbox is connected directly to the soundbar, I found that my Samsung TV does not pass DTS through. This may be stating the obvious, but you do notice that sound has much more presence and clarity and the system truly shines with these higher end audio sources. Also found out that the Spotify app on the Xbox sounds better than Spotify on the TV. The TV app only seems to output PCM whereas the Xbox version does bitstream.Overall, I continue to be very happy with the system. Now the main question is when I should recycle the humongous box this thing came in.If anyone from Nakamichi is reading:I will repeat my earlier comment about wanting to configure one sub and side speakers as front surrounds. If Nakamichi can enable this through a firmware update, it will add more presence and mid range up front. Not essential for movies, but I suspect it will help for music centric tracks and is a good option to have.Another request is to recalibrate the Bass output levels. I rarely set the subs above 2 and depending on audio source sometimes 1 may be too much. I know it’s possible to turn on Clear Voice and reduce Bass further, but it would be nice not to do that and affect other settings. The problem sources are typically older, lower quality recordings. No issues with newer tracks. The subs are sitting on a hardwood floor, I am going to see if floating them makes a difference.One surprising observation – 4 months in, there are very few professional reviews of this system. Media coverage seems to be very biased towards the big brands.– original review –I got the ultra 9.2 just a couple of days ago and am still testing but I figure people will be interested in another data point for this new product. I am also including some suggestions for Nakamichi, as it looks like their reps do check out feedback. I have already had one phenomenal experience with their customer service.About Me – Technically savvy and very discerning about the tech stuff I buy. Drives my wife nuts even while she appreciates the results. Specifically for audio, I do notice subtle quality differences and will pay up for quality but I hesitate to classify myself as a “total and complete audiophile” because I will let other pragmatic considerations direct my decision.My comparison criteria – Looking for a wireless true surround solution for our family room, preferably one not reliant on reflections. Listened to a number of soundbar and discrete AVR solutions at local stores to get a sense of what is possible, ideally under 2K.Comparing audio systems in stores is a crapshoot, but my conclusion was that none of them met all of the criteria. Sonos – decent sound but nothing special and the playbar is plain outdated for 2017 (No HDMI, nothing above DD 5.1). The Bose SoundTouch 300 package (soundbar + sub + rears) sounded better to my ears than the Sonos, but there are well known ARC/CEC compatibility issues between it and Samsung TVs. The Sony HT-ST5000 w/Atmos is impressive but no rears. The thing is heavy, so installing it on a wall is another challenge. Went to two different Best Buys to try the Samsung HW-K950 w/ Atmos, but it wasn’t working. If I was looking for an audio only solution, my money would be on the BlueSound Pulse. Their NAD heritage shows in the warmth and depth of sound. Also looked at the Denon Heos, the Klipsch 20B and a few lower end bard. None of them have a rear speaker solution or the base is too wimpy. On the discrete side, I would have paid up for the Klipsch Reference HD wireless system if the center channel was in a slimmer sound bar form factor. The current solution does not work for a TV mounted over a fireplace.My setup for now is very simple – 2016 Samsung KS8000 series 65″ 4K/HDR TV connected via HDMI ARC to the Nakamichi 9.2 and direct Ethernet to the home router. Comcast x1 still connected to the TV which is supposed to do 5.1 pass-thru. Will add a Blueray player soon.My current testing is mostly with the native Amazon, Netflix and Spotify apps on the TV which will do Dolby Digital 5.1 but none of the higher quality standards. The TV is set to output DD. It also has an option called DTS Neo 2:5, which I tried but noticed a loss of quality. The LED display on the Nakamichi confirms source format is DD or DTS. I also tried a number of Dolby and DTS test files off the net. These were loaded on a network drive accessible to the TV and played using the native media browser app. It’s not able to play the Atmos content, but was able to play DTS-HD and DTS-HD MA files. I am not sure if its downsampling them down to DD 5.1 or doing a pass-thru (very likely the former). Hope to test higher quality media soon.Room Configuration – This system is set up in my family room, with the 9.2 currently sitting raised up on a box in front of the TV. The room is not a proper rectangle, but there are walls on the left and right for reflections and the ceiling is a flat 10’. The size is around 16’ x 22’. The Nakamichi remote has an option to select room size between small, medium and large. I went with medium. The family room is slightly sunken and the far end opposite the TV connects to the kitchen which is at a higher level, so a large portion of the back wall is open. Flooring is wood with a concrete subfloor. I have the rears in a dipole config for now about 6′ behind a sofa which is about 12’ from the TV.Packaging – I was pleasantly surprised by the packaging. Clear instructions on how to open the box and everything nicely laid out. Includes cables and installation hardware.Build Quality – Very nice, looks and feels premium. The LED display on the front of the bar is very helpful in comparison to other sound bars which often have minimal feedback. The display can be dimmed, which is a nice touch. A minor nit is that reading the acronyms on the display through the metal grille can be hard at times. My suggestion to Nakamichi would be to move it outside the grille and go to a higher res dot matrix display in a future device.Remote – Feature rich remote and its nicely backlit. I had no issues with distance or lag, works from over 14’. The remote is somewhat directional, have to figure out the correct vertical angle (pitch in aeronautical terms) for it to work. Suggestion to Nakamichi, the buttons could be larger with a larger font.HDMI ARC/CEC worked seamlessly between the Samsung TV and 9.2 for power on/off and volume. I didn’t have to do anything special to get it working. After all the gripes I had heard about CEC and especially the Bose 300, using CEC was a non event.For Movies & TV -The short conclusion is that the system sounds Exceptional. Even my wife commented – it feels like we are in a real theater! The MOVIE EQ preset is a very good starting point. My preference was to disable Pure Direct (which keeps neural:X enabled but disables other processing). Center channel dialogue is very clear. Wide front sound stage with very good separation. The surrounds add an immersion that should handily beat all of the simulated products out there. The final battle scenes in Star Trek: Beyond, the fight scenes in Avengers or Civil War are alive. Watching The Hunt for Red October made me feel I was inside the sub. Even non-action films with a mellow background track like Amazon’s The only living boy in NY city feel immersive at low volumes. (Yeah, Kate is cute, but that movie is far from 5 stars.) The dual 10″ subs make their presence felt in many ways – from the obvious loud crash bang sounds to adding ambience for sound tracks. The base setting stayed at 3 or lower, there wasn’t a need to go higher.My room layout is not amenable for a true 9.2 configuration but can’t wait to try it out, especially with higher quality tracks.For Music Playback -The system is good but less capable for music and this is partly due to its speaker configuration. I listen to a lot of acoustic tracks and the sound stage feels off if you are in the middle of the room. All of the full range speakers on the soundbar are 2.5” while the surrounds are 3” and closer to the 10” subs. So the the higher frequencies tend to be apparent in the front of the room with the lows in the rear. This 7.2 or 9.2 configuration works fine for movies, but not what you expect for music. The MUSIC EQ setting helps, but not completely. The bar by itself is not designed to handle a wider range as would be the case for one that relies on simulated surround and has a broad range of drivers up front (for instance the Bose, Sony, DefTec or BlueSound), so turning down the surrounds or going to stereo is inadequate. On the other hand, the sound feels much more balanced if I am in the kitchen listening in from the outside as it takes away some of this directionality. So capable system, but layout is better suited for movies.If anyone from Nakamichi is reading this, I have a suggestion that could possibly be implemented with a firmware upgrade. There will be many people who can’t take advantage of a 9.2 layout and will either go for the 7.2 system or use the 9.2 in a dipole config. An alternative 7.2 layout for the 9.2 system would be to put one sub and its surrounds up front and keep one at the back of the room. The front surrounds can be repurposed as front left and right channels and the rear as surround left+rear and right+rear. The surround performance for movies should be similar to that of the 7.2 system (or better because of the 10” subs), but with a much more capable front sound stage. This is something that could be supported as a different EQ mode. If you can do this, it will give music fans a crazy good reason to upgrade to the Ultra 9.2.It’s the holiday season, so one can hope right?So in summary, I am super happy I went with this system. My current testing is limited to average sound sources (DD 5.1) but that’s the bulk of streaming content out there. Can’t wait to try out higher quality tracks.If anyone is looking for an easy to install and very capable home theater solution, the Nakamichi 9.2 deserves serious serious consideration. It’s a kick ass true surround system at a very good price point. To find anything better as of today (Nov 2017), you/we will likely have to upgrade to a discrete AVR system in a higher price range. And deal with the installation, cabling and setup.
Casey PflugradtCasey Pflugradt –
Hello everybody…PLEASE READ!.. —This is a Review update after Dolby Atmos Firmware Upgrade (MUST READ) and includes my original review below as well. Also, I’m still absolutely loving the system and the my set up—A year ago I chose the Nakamichi 9.2 over the Samsung HWK950 Atmos, Sony HTST5000 Atmos and multiple Vizios and I have not regretted my decision since. A few months ago, Nakamichi announced they would be adding Dolby Atmos, Vision and SSE technology via a free firmware upgrade to all of its 2018 Shockwafe DTSX soundbars (9.2, 7.2 and 7.1 models) So I have used the new Atmos firmware on my 9.2 for a few weeks and this is what I have to say. If I were to assign a number, the new firmware gives the system about 2x the performance of what was already the best soundbar system by far! The difference is a very very nice and substantial upgrade putting the 9.2 system in a whole new league in terms of sound quality. Hearing Atmos played from all of the system’s speakers (soundbar, 4 surround speakers and 2 10” subwoofers) is like being inside of the actual movie scene itself!.. No other soundbar system I have listened to can offer an Atmos experience that can even come close to the Nakamichi period(Especially not the simulated sound bars that don’t even actually come with true speakers to place around your room). I watched Unbroken and the opening bombing scene was so intense with the gunfire, missiles and explosions coming from all directions including above, behind and beneath. All I can say is I am amazed! The sounds during movies were already all around you during the film but now there is so much more elevation in the sound as well. The new firmware also improved the performance of bluetooth audio meaningfully. To answer a few possible questions. The new firmware comes with a new SSE technology which enables every speaker located around you to produce height effects. So rather than tiny, dedicated upfiring speakers found in other systems, you will actually hear height effects from all the speakers in this system resulting in more natural and realistic sounding Atmos quality surround sound. The new firmware also gives new speaker placement options allowing the surround speakers to be placed on their side due to their trapezoidal shape so that the speakers are angled upwards, thus becoming upfiring speakers. You will also get the best of both worlds when it comes to upmixing normal mainstream content. Now, PCM and Dolby content will be upmixed into 9.2 channels using the Dolby Surround upmixing engine while DTS content will be upmixed using DTS NeuralX. So each type of content will be upmixed using its most suitable upmixer for you to take full advantage of the system’s 9.2.4 configuration. I’m really happy about this new firmware and it definitely puts Nakamichi as the top soundbar choice 2019 for sound and performance. Nothing comes close especially after looking at what the other manufacturers will be launching this year. The firmware for the 7.2 will be coming soon and I can’t wait! To see my original review please scroll down…—ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW—I have had experience with multiple sound bars including multiple vizios, Samsung HWK950 Atmos, Sony HTST5000 Atmos and both the 7.2 and 9.2 Nakamichi!I will try to make this simple but I returned the Sony 5000 and the Samsung and the Vizio for the Nakamichi. So, after experiencing all of those this is what I have to say.I will say that the Nakamichi blows the rest out of the water but let’s just start with the sound bar itself not including all of the other things that the Nakamichi comes with that the other sound bars do not. Just solely speaking of the sound bar itself the Nakamichi sound bar easily sounded the best including clarity, bass, depth, and height. Not to make comparisons but just the sound bar itself reminded me of first time I ever heard Bose stereo years ago. That’s the impression of the quality in the sound bar. Now, let’s talk about all of the other things that this surround sound system comes with – 2 subwoofers instead of one and 4 surround sound speakers instead of two or instead of zero. Also, all of the surround sound speakers have tweeters in them…none of the other systems have that either.Let me mention a few other answers that might be possible questions. The surround sound speakers are true surround sound and not simulated and from my experience with the Sony 5000 simulated surround sound did not impress me. The surround sound speakers are totally concealable or you can have them out in the open because they look very nice and stylish. If anybody was wondering about the soundbar not being the generic rectangular shape of every other sound bar, Trust me when I say this, it really compliments my TV stand that it’s not just another rectangle and it has a little bit of silver accents on each end and on the nameplate to also set it off. If you are wondering about the 7.2 and the 9.2 , I would say it’s all about what kind of person you are and where you live according to how much bass that you would like and that’s about it. It’s about how much bass you want to go for, do you want two 8’s or two 10″ subwoofers. The soundbar is the same for both units and the extra surround sound speakers are nice but that is a non-factor imo its all about the subwoofers and bass that you want. Also not to mention that all of the other sound bars only come with one subwoofer and with this system you get 2 subs and trust me the base is so much more well balanced because you have 1 on each side of the Room instead of just 1 on 1 side of the Room . Lastly, I just got Terminator 2 remastered in 4k And I wanted to mention that me and my girlfriend were laying on the couch and we thought there was a dog barking outside of my house(it was in the movie in the background of a scene barking). Not to mention the motorcycle driving by and you could hear it left to right explosions sounded like they were in perfect positions above, beside, and behind. And then we watched Blade Runner 4K and it was raining in the movie and It sounded like it was raining inside of my house but then the character in the movie went inside of a building where the rain was still on the outside and I actually thought it was raining up on my roof outside of my house!..I would be glad to help anybody with any questions about anything and I will be leaving my information feel free to hit me up I love this sound bar and I’m so happy that I came across it and the customer service has been absolutely spectacular! My e mail. Capflugradt at G mail .com
Sefanzed –
UPDATE 11-15-19After having the system up and running for a few months I have to say that I’m very happy with my purchase. I’ve had many surround systems over the years (and I’m also an audio professional) and the 9.2.4 CH is the most natural sounding configuration I’ve ever owned. Considering the size of my room, which includes very untypical features such as an 20′ high ceiling and wall breaks in odd places, this system sounds excellent. If I have any criticism it’s that I’d like to see a mobile app to access some of the settings more easily… However, that’s a minor drawback. Overall, this soundbar has put all of my previous discrete surround systems to shame! Not only will you be happy with the sound, but as I mentioned below, their personalized support is remarkable in my opinion.INITIALLY: I just purchased this and when it was delivered, I received a notice to update the Soundbar—which I did. I also followed their directions on how to connect components. Bottom line was, my BluRay player shows no picture when connected to the Soundbar.UPDATE: The service from this company is unparalleled in my entire experience as a customer. They have been in constant contact with me, bending over backwards (metaphor) to make things work. I can’t say enough good things about their willingness and enthusiasm to ensure that I am satisfied with their product… And they have succeeded!With the help of Nakamichi’s engineers and tech guys, I have acquired a thorough understanding of the system. First off, the sound quality of the system is excellent. Clear dialogue center channel, dramatic surround, and a well integrated low end. Several comments and observations: if you have a large room like mine—400sq feet 20′ high ceiling—I recommend setting the volume of the surround speakers up and adjust the center channel to suit. I’ve configured the surround speakers in Dipole arrays (combining the back and surrounds on the same speaker stands), making it easier to place the speakers in the room. I’m very happy with the results.Still working on the issue with my 8 year old Panasonic BluRay player, but the Nakamichi Team is still on the case!If you’re on the fence about going with this system, take the leap. You won’t regret it.
ChandruChandru –
*** Nov 16, 2018 update ***I have been having a great experience with this system since early June 2018 when I purchased it on amazon. This is in spite of the remote control issues that everyone has mentioned. Since I use a logitech harmony ultimate, this is not an issue for me, but definitely something that Nakamichi must work on.The biggest reason I am writing this today, is the news I saw just today morning about Nakamichi supporting dolby atmos & vision via firmware update that will be available next month on the shockwafe 9.2 system 2018 model!!! They are calling is SSE (spatial surround elevation) technology. There have been many including me that were constantly giving feedback atmos & vision support to them… this once again goes on to show Nakamichi is indeed listening to customer feedback & their overall wonderful customer support!!! Go Nakamichi…. I can’t wait for SSE firmware release to test it out to feel how much of a difference this will make to my June 2018 model to extend it to “9.2.4” atmos & vision compatible system. Thank you Nakamichi![btw, I didn’t see 9.2 shockwafe listed yet on dolby’s website under atmos soundbar category… assuming it will go up there soon after Nakamichi’s SSE firmware official release next month?]*******************************First impressions after using it for couple days (more detailed review to follow soon after I test it more esp. music): This IS the product I have been looking for – a hands-down, clear winner, worth every penny considering not just the no. of speakers/drivers, dual subs, but more importantly the well-balanced performance – audiophile grade!. So far I have tested this “beast” in the following set-up: Nakamichi surrounds in dipole config coz of space limitations in my room – btw, they came with surrounds joined together out of the box for dipole, felt like Nakamichi knew I was going to use it in that config (ha ha ha!), Samsung UN65KS8000F 65″ 4K TV, Sony UBP-X800 4K player, Xfinity 4K box, PS4, media streamers (Roku 4K, Amazon fire TV), 4K titles – Battleship – DTS-X, Atomic Blonde – DTS-X, Blade Runner 2049 – Atmos; 1080p titles: Master and Commander – The Far Side of the World – DTS HD-MA, Knight and Day – DTS HD-MA.Summary:PROS:Bottom-line: I made the right decision to replace the bose ST300 with this “beast” – Nakamichi is a clear winner without a doubt, hands-down!Audio performance:- excellent theater-type sound stage, superb sound clarity, crispness & channel separation; well-balanced & deep bass (dual subs are well sync’d)… I am really amazed by its channel separation & sound clarity capabilites. Having used the bose ST300 for over 6 months now, I thought that’s the best one could get from a soundbar… beware Bose – you have lots to catch up on!Unboxing & set-up: Solid packaging… set-up was straight-forward & simple (read ahead/plan/follow the steps); I also did firmware update coz the system came with an older version – very simple & quick (I initially thought it might be complicated, but was pleasantly surprised here too!)CONS (mostly minor but, Nakamichi, pls listen…am fairly sure you are):Remote: keys are small, backlight is not sufficiently bright for me to read all the keys in dark environment; some keys are not back-lit up anyways; importantly, as others have said, it is a challenge to point the remote at the soundbar for commands to work.Soundbar display menu: not good at all – very cryptic, given only a few characters available & importantly, very difficult to read what’s being shown unless I am up close. Nakamichi, don’t cut corners here – incorporate better resolution display (not the very poor dot-matrix type you have now) incl. audio format logo to be displayed as it would be a nice touch… and, more importantly, as others have suggested, have the set up screen menu displayed on TV over hdmi!Audio: It takes about 9 to 10 seconds of “deafening silence” before sound comes on esp. when I switch sources or pause & play movie scenes. Not sure why… also, seems to fall back to ARC most of the time, which means I have to hit the hdmi-2 (or -3 or -4 as the case may be) again & againInter-operability over CEC: Running into challenges currently; Nakamichi does not switch to the correct hdmi port & play sound based on source I select. I have followed instructions outlined in the manual/on-line resources, etc. My current set-up: Nakamichi & TV connected over hdmi – arc; audio only hdmi port from Sony X800 4k player connected to hdmi-2 on Nakamichi & video/audio hdmi port connected to TV & Sony 4K player config settings according to steps outlined by Nakamichi; xfinity 4k box & amazon fire tv box connected to TV over hdmi. Roku 4k box & PS4 connected over hdmi to Nakamchi’s hdmi ports 3 & 4.Kodi 17.6 krypton running on fire tv (I suppose this is not a Nakamichi problem): “Audio output device” greyed out & therefore not able to select Nakamichi (all other Kodi system settings are in line with what I could find online – not sure if Kodi has withdrawn this feature in v17.6)Dolby Atmos, True-HD & Vision support: Lacks all these currently. My feedback is this: given it’s increasing popularity & adoption (iTunes has lots of content that supports DV already & increasing further, and Apple have announced that ATV 4K will support Atmos this fall with tvOS 12 release!!! And TV brands like LG, Sony, Vizio, etc have it already & apps like Vudu, Netflix (in a limited way) etc, support it! From Atmos standpoint, I do understand that a pair upfiring speakers in the soundbar is more of marketing than true experience & requires hardware changes, but Nakamichi could consider coming out with optional Atmos-enabled in-ceiling speakers to further complement shockwafe 7.2/9.2 systems in a 7.2.2 or 9.2.2 (*.*.4 might be two too many!!!). On the other hand, I believe dolby vision is a firmware implementation and so Nakamichi must be able to quickly implement support in a near-future firmware release in a such a way that DV signal is passed thru to TV without compromise. Till such time, only workaround is to connect 4k player like Sony X800 that supports DV directly to TV & use the second audio-only port to Nakamichi over another hdmi…. but what if I have more than one source that supports DV & I have more such sources to connect than my TV’s hdmi ports (in which case, I will have to use hdmi ports on Nakamichi & I don’t want to invest in a separate hdmi switcher)… why no Dolby True-HD? Licensing cost issue? Lossless format is always better… but if 4k players & streamers can bit-stream out this format to Nakamichi, then fine, otherwise, hmmm… I got to check :-)Overall BEST product (for the price-point & boy, the VALUE), but I guess to make it TRULY GREAT, Nakamichi should fix the CONS soon! Thank you Nakamichi!
Sandip B.Sandip B. –
Let me preface this review by saying that I’m a huge home theater guy for many years. I’ve used Polk, Focal, Paradigm and now in my current setup I have a full SVS Ultra Tower setup with SVS 13 Ultra Subs. Not saying I’ve heard the “Best” out there but I do have a pretty critical basis as I paid nearly 6 times what this sound bar costs in speakers alone not including the Marantz pre processor and Emotiva amps!I wanted a living room setup as my dedicated theater is nice but overkill for watching some things. I hated the Samsung built-in TV Speakers (Obviously) but didn’t want to spend the money on another 7.2.2 sound system. I brought a JBL soundbar, returned it. It sucked! It was better then the TV but I needed something better. All my research brought me to this soundbar.So big question will this soundbar keep with the big boys? The answer is *drumroll*….. surprisingly yes!!! With some caveats.Sound quality out of the box in my opinion was completely horrible, the subs were muddy, too loud and overbearing. While this may be favorable for some I found it horrific and was automatically putting my return hat on. However with most sound/video equipment out of the box does not show it’s full potential espically when it comes to personal preference. I found out the “Movie” mode was on, which in my opinion was very overbearing and trying to hard to be a almost IMAX like theater experience. Besides the basd, the main soundbar voices sounded way to high and hollow/boxy like the mids were turned up all the way! Long story short I messed around with the remote and found DSP Off. Once it was off hooray! A nice flat sound stage. SVS Sound stage? No. but nonetheless quite impressive!The overall sound is good and especially the surround speakers have great imaging that engulf you in a little sound bubble. A horizontal bubble I might add because Atmos… yeah I don’t hear anything above me. Maybe I’m spoiled because I have dedicated atmos speakers in my theater but at no point did a helicopter fly over me and find myself saying “wow”. Don’t buy this with the idea that Atmos is just magically going to work. It’s not. But in my opinion for what this overall soundbar is and how it performs for the cost it’s hardly a deal breaker.Also not a knock on Nakamichi because I’m sure they had to cut some corners to get the price point. But the tweeters/high end can be quite fatiguting at higher volumes. I can run my SVS Speakers at full blast no distortion and my ears are fine. I find when pushing the Nakamichi at high volumes when watching something like Avengers my ears seem to have the “after a concert” feeling. I’m being a little nit picky here but this is something I would have like to known during my research period.I’ll sum it up here:Pros:Excellent sound to cost ratioHas a premium look unlike many other soundbarsExcellent connectivity options with the HDMI inputs all running HDMI 2.2.Easy installation! Comes with everything you need including speaker brackets.Absolutely solid wireless connection between the main bar and subs. Literally no lag or dropouts.Cons:Compared to my SVS system, this one sounds a little boxy with resonance. Probably would help put extra sound deadening material in each component.When starting a show or media the system plays the sounds. Stops for 1-2 seconds then the system will resume sound. More annoying then anything after that initial hiccup after starting every show or movie it works great.The menu system sucks! I guess I’m spoiled with great receivers I use that have great interfaces that let you control the sound. This one is ALL LCD which can be frustrating as some things are abbreviated. Please in your next soundbar try to implement the menu system on the TV itself.Since the Left Center Right are stuffed into one unit it’s nearly impossible to get a true sound stage experience. Nakamichi was smart on placing the outward tweeters to give the effect of this but still, this does not replace a true front LCR setup.With all that said I would buy this again and again especially for those who don’t have a dedicated theater space.Great job Nakamichi! Can’t wait for your next generation of products!
jjnbos –
Update 24 DEC 2019:– All is basically forgiven, the sound is that good –It’s sorta of complex to get perfect sound, but this thing can make great sound; see long discussion of what I did to get that sound at the end…At this time I can say this thing sounds awesome. Like it brings me joy to listen to this soundbar. However was a pain to get to this point. Nakamichi service, Alberto, was extremely professional and efficient.In retrospect it was all clear. One of the two HDMI inputs the soundbar that supports Dolby Atmos (must use either #2 or #3) was broken. In particular it was intermittent. This was infuriating and really hard to debug. It also has an aggravating quirk (when soundbar is reset, the two memories get set at super loud, you will be shocked how loud it is when you accidentally hit “M1” or “M2”)– but All is basically forgiven, sound is that good –Nakamichi Makes great sound, but you’ll be need to be an enthusiast to realistically be able to get it all set up. Or just spend a $100 and have a “geek squad” person install it.=== Getting rid of the no sound problemsI was also real disappointed like some reviewers, however after a lot of debugging it turned out the constant rebooting came from several things related to it takes the sound bar about 10 second to sync up with the input signal. Any glitches (e.g. change channels, Netflix buffers) cause some failure and then no sound. So have reported changing the volume while waiting for the sound to come back will reliably cause the problemI did several things to make “no sound” largely a thing of the past. Key was getting the Netflix streaming device (Apple TV 4K) on a wired ethernet connection. That keeps the time buffering way way less, and sound bar is now rock solid streaming. Yes that was a pain because I had to get room wired. Try it and see with a long ethernet cable…Secondly I moved the old TiVO DVR from the sound bar input to the 2019 LG C9 tv, which appears to give the sound bar a solid signal, even when changing channels on TiVo and so on. In the end I have the Apple TV and a Blu-ray directly connected to sound bar, and the DVR connected directly to the TV. That is in the manual BTWThird I found that when the now rare glitches does happen, and no sound happens, rather than reboot I j switch the soundbar input to something else, e.g. optical or other input for a second, and then immediately back to the desired input. Works every time. Yes that is a pain, but after fixing the first two things, its so rare I do not care.=== Getting amazing sound? Here’s what I did.As far as poor quality sound/music I was also disappointed at first. Here are some of the things that fixed that. I love the sound now.The most important is that the sound quality is hugely impacted by the placement of the speakers.Boviously. Way more sensitive to small changes than I expected. I’m talking about a few inches. Height makes a surprisingly big difference. I placed these their sides, but which side, etc. It all matters a lot. I was casual about this, but just for fun/desperate I followed the placement suggestions on the large setup guide EXACTLY.First make sure all 4 surrounds are exactly ear height. I initially had the Backs on a shelf at wrong height and place. === Height really matters! == I finally used a tape measure, sounds silly, was a big deal.Next I use all 4 speakers, 2 back 2 front. No dipole. I have them on their side in what Nakamichi calls “Elevation”. This means all four are on their side and the speakers are pointing up towards the ceiling at a 45 degree angle. Key to great surround sound. Trust me.Location matters. A lot. In particular I moved the surrounds to exactly 2m (6.5 feet) away from center of FRONT of couch, pointing exactly down the front edge of couch. Exactly as it says on the huge folded setup guide, but they don’t make it emphatic that –you really need to do this–. The backs and the surrounds all point to the center of the front edge of the middle of sofa. The surrounds need to lined up along the front edge of couch and backs at 135 angle from front edge. The backs are also 2m/6.5 feet from the front edge of couch. Use a tape measure. It matters.–> Suddenly great spatial effects.–> Great music.Sounds silly; try it and see! Keep everything at ear height 6 feet from center of couch. I think you will be amazed.Next part of this puzzle, use the demo disk “Helicopter” sound track to adjust the volume of the surround and back and center speakers until the helicopter sound is at constant volume and therefore sounds like helicopter is always a constant distance away. It should sound like a helicopter circling you at a constant speed and distance.I needed to fiddle with the location of the back speakers to get constant speed from helicopter sound.I needed +8 on the back and +7 on surround and +4 on center to get constant volume. Obviously you’ll need to fiddle for yourselves, but “Helicopter” really shows what this thing can do when adjusted just right.Almost done and this is easy. Make sure all the DSP stuff is OFF. No stereo, no night, not native, not game, not music, SSE is off; get rid of it all. No easy way to do that. Just cycle thru “info” on remote and see what is turned on. Then get rid of it.You want ONLY “movie” and “dolby surround”. Now the fun! Fiddle with room size and SSE. SSE has 4 choices (0-3), and size has 3; try all 12 combs (easy). I find small room SSE 2 or 3 works WONDERFUL for TV and music. You might prefer SSE 0 for music.SSE makes it seem, for example like the saxophone player is standing up, and it changes how tall he is. It also changes the sensation of how far apart sideways the musicians are. Makes the stage seem bigger. When I got it just right? I can stare with my eyes at the sound bar and it still sounds exactly like Coltrane is 6 feet tall and about 6 feet from the piano. My sound bar is 24″ off the floor. I find most of “stereo imaging” stuff like this doesn’t work if my eyes are open. This sound bar does this wonderfully using my Apple TV 4K to play music.Lastly I fiddled with the subs. I was amazed how critical it is to get them at the right place and pointing in the correct direction. Other wise I got nothing but room resonance or “boom”. This makes bass guitar sound like a thud; you know loud but cheap stereo in a car. I moved, and turned and fiddled with the subs while listening to John Coltrane music; key is prominent acoustic bass on a quality recording. Try his song “I Want to Talk About You”. That sort of music usually causes a sub to resonate with the room making bass sound like drum; it “booms”. I tried moving the subs out of the corner, into the corner, away from the walls, point the port on the back towards corner, towards side wall, or the back wall. etc etc.Hint: turn the volume way down and the bass up to say 8 and move the sub around. At very low volume you know the sub is not distorting from lack of power and so on. You may or may not like booming bass, some do, (but you’ll know it when you get what you like).Slowly but surely I got clean, deep bass with little booming. In my particular case the ports point away from the couch, the subs are near the couch but a foot away, and the couch is about 2′ from wall. That was to get the back surrounds in right place. I expected very low “spouse approval” for subs in room, but we have small end tables. And sounds so amazing, this is not a factor.Sound really is almost perfect. Last key step, the sub crossover frequency on setup menus needed, in my case, to be turned down from 180 to 110.Hint: while fiddling with this crossover setting, nothing happens till you exit the setup menu, and there is a few second delay when you change it; etc. $%&# , but try it and see if the boom goes away.Whew. Watch something with clean sound on Amazon that I thought had bad sound; I found “Seal Team” dialog amazingly clear. A first! Explosions do NOT boom! Music? Bass sound like a bass, not a drum. Listen to some techno and you’ll see most techno is all drum, no bass! And so on. Clear Clear Sound. And when the people down stairs are away; crank this bad boy up. Lots of clean power + clean sound = wow.I’m telling you this thing started like a nightmare and now makes sound so clean, it brings me joy. Obviously you going to have to fiddle with your subs location and orientation and the couch’s position for the back surrounds, and so on; but keep all the surrounds and back at the exact same ear height, and at the correct distance from a very unlikely place, (aka center front edge of couch), and I think you will have awesome sound too.
Geoffrey S. Erickson –
This is my first soundbar, so I can’t compare to others. I previously had a yamaha 5.1 receiver, I purchased the 7.1 DTS:X version.When I first received my soundbar, I immediately loved it. It was easy to set up (although not very configurable until you update the firmware), sounded GREAT, and worked perfectly. Well, almost perfectly.I kept hearing audio pops in the rear surround speakers (blurays were particularly loud), every minute or so. Thought it might be due to interference (the subwoofer is wireless and the rear speakers connect to it, and it uses some of the same frequencies as wifi), but wasn’t able to identify any source. Unable to get the popping sounds to stop, I contacted customer support.Nakamichi’s customer support is INCREDIBLE. Within a few hours I got an email with some steps I could take, but still I was unable to stop the popping sound. I took a recording of it and sent it to them.They identified the issue as a faulty unit. I sent it back (amazon had UPS pick the defective unit from my house, very little effort), and the replacement unit works PERFECTLY, no audio pops any more.The sound quality is excellent, much better than my yamaha receiver (which I thought was pretty decent). Supports 4k, BT works with everything I’ve tried it with. My favorite feature is the clear voice mode, hearing voices over action was always an issue with my old receiver and the soundbar does MUCH better. Subwoofer does a great job pumping out the bass, although you can turn that down if needed. Sound field is great.But the star of the show is the customer support. They really care that you are happy with their product, and will make sure of it. Could not be happier with my purchase.
Paul –
Just got it today installed was easy, but it sounded like it was in a tin can very tinny .. I am using the ARC in port . Adjusted TV to Bitstream , everything was set to on surround sound. Still not right . Everytime I would switch source to cable on bar I would see PCM then HDMI. After thinking about it for a few I went into my cable box setting found audio set to PCM. Changed it Dolby and poof fixed instantly sound is incredible now on all channels including Netflix which is accessed theu the cable box, and HDD movies .. Check audio settings of anything your pluging into the sound bar HDMI ports and change it out of PCM mode. Use bitstream Dolby DTS, DTS 2.5 ect anythimg but PCM which is usally the default setting. If anything changes will update this post.
John C. GettlerJohn C. Gettler –
I am loving my Nakamichi Shockwafe 9.2! But instead of trying to pile on to what has already been said about the soundbar, features and audio quality, let me instead give you a high recommendation for which speaker stands to pair it with. And also give you some interesting additional information I have gathered from communications with Nakamichi customer service (Ray) that I have never found elsewhere:I did a ton of research of speaker stands. One of my primary requirements along with being height adjustable, was the the RCA cables from Nakamichi fit down through the support tube, in order to not have the cord dangling/taped/zipped tied all the way down. I highly highly recommend the “Atlantic Satellite 77305018 Speaker Stands” that Nakamichi also frequently recommends. At this link:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000289DC6/Here are the reasons why they work well:1. The *straight* RCA plug on the subwoofer side of the cable *will fit* down the support tube. The right angle plug that is intended for the back of the speaker won’t go through, but the straight end will go through, then you can pull the entire length of cable through the tube.2. The stand comes with the two different sized vertical “L” wire brackets. Your first instinct will be to use the taller one, since it can reach the highest of two support screws on the speaker. But this taller one is also shallower, and forces the speaker to sit too far forward on the stand, therefor making it a bit more tippy. You should use the shorter L bracket, which is also deeper, and lets the center of the speaker sit back more centered on the stand, and make the overall balance much better. In fact, as long as your use the shorter L bracket, these stands will also support the double speakers in dipole mode.3. These stands will also support using the speakers in “elevation” mode why they lay of their side, and the speakers face at a 45 degree upward angle. You just rotate them, and secure using standard shorter L bracket.4. They don’t come with “carpet spikes” but as long as you use the shorter L bracket, there is no danger of tipping at all on carpet.5. You can use the screws that come with the speakers to attach the L bracket. If you want, you can also add a washer that comes with the speaker.6. Great price (currently at $42) for 2 stands in one box. So if you plan to use the 9.2 speaker separately, just buy qty 2 of these pairs to get 4 stands.7. Adjustable height allows for aligning the speaker at ear level to the listener.8. Good quality build with high end appearance, and quality black matte finish.Also here are a few interesting tidbits I have received from Nakamichi customer service that I could not find elsewhere:A. As to the future Dolby Atmos/Dolby Vision passthrough firmware upgrade timing it looks like they are planning to have it out for the 9.2 by Dec 31st 2018: Ray at Nakamichi said “Although we already received Dolby’s certification for Atmos and Vision, we still need to do tons of testing because every tv manufacturer, streaming box maker and app developer is doing their own thing when it comes to output. It will not be ready until late Dec, providing that stability testing goes smoothly.”B. I suggest you consider buying the new 2019 SSE remote for $30 if your Nakamichi came with the 2017/2018 DTS:X labelled remote, due to my positive review of it found here:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JXS1QRH/C. If your volume goes up by 2 each time you press it, then you have new enough firmware, to sit and wait for the new Atmos firmware.D. When you make any change in the Setup mode, you need to hit ENTER again after making your selection with the left right buttons, for it to remember your choice.E. Here is the difference between DIMO and DIM3 settings:”Dim 0 = After 10 to 15s of not pressing any function on the remote, the LED display will turn off completely until the next function is pressed. Use Dim 0 if you want your whole entertainment experience to be completely dark with no LED display. Dim 3 = Brightest LED display. The display will always be on and will not dim out.”F. Both subs in the 7.2 and 9.2 configs “both play the same mono signal” and not unique left and right bass sounds, so they always combine to create a room filling uniform thump.