This content comes from @What's worth buying APP, and the views only represent the author himself | author: tomato stew tomato
Speaking of the echo wall, everyone must feel strange.
This thing is highly recognizable: the shape of the strip can be sandwiched between the TV cabinet and the TV set, or it can be directly mounted without the help of the TV cabinet wall, which is used with the TV set not only saves space, but also the space visual effect is very ideal.
It is precisely because of this that as soon as the echo wall appears, it has a relatively large impact on the sales of traditional TV speakers.
But if you compare the traditional 2.0/2.1 speaker and the echo wall at the same price, the former must be better than the latter in terms of sound quality. Therefore, there are also many people who ridicule the echo wall can only "listen to a ring".
Ridicule to ridicule, friends who have used the echo wall know that even the cheapest echo wall still has a qualitative improvement compared to the TV sound - even if you use a Sony TV that uses the screen to make sound, you can create a spatial sound field.
At present, the price of consumer-grade echo walls on the market is mostly concentrated in 1-3,000 yuan. A thousand yuan has just started, and I personally think that the sound quality of products in this price segment is much the same; There may be surprises at 2-3,000 yuan, and each family will have one or two main models, but the overall is still in a relatively elementary stage. If you want to advance, I think 3,000 yuan is a threshold.
So what is the echo wall of more than 3,000 yuan? Which ones are worth buying?
In this article, I will take you to appreciate the "advanced road" of the echo wall. The recommended products start with the 3,000 yuan polk and gradually increase in price, and the last most expensive Jacob Jensen Jacob Jensen sells for more than 20,000.
1. POLK TSIII 5.1
Although this is the cheapest echo wall to recommend in this article, it is already the "ceiling" for many people.
It is not difficult to see from the name that the biggest feature of this Plea Sound POLK TSIII 5.1 is multi-channel. The whole set of products is based on the conventional soundbar + subwoofer, adding two speakers, left rear and right rear.
When using, the two speakers are connected to the power supply, and then placed on the left and right sides behind the viewer. Both the rear speaker and subwoofer are paired with wireless technology and a soundbar, and the whole process does not require user operation, and the connection is automatically completed, which is very convenient to use.
This set of products is very friendly to those who do not have a pre-embedded line in the early stage, but want to create a home theater in the later stage.
As for the shocking effect brought by surround sound, I won't repeat it here, you can recall the feeling that the sound comes from all directions when watching a movie in the cinema, and you can even feel the sound of horses' hooves slowly from near and far, that sense of presence is really addictive (the source also supports multi-channel).
There are not many input interfaces, only analog signal input interface, HDMI interface (support ARC) and optical fiber interface, but these three interfaces contain new and old three generations of technology, compatible with almost all devices on the market.
2、SONOS Beam Gen2
If you don't usually pay attention to audio products, I guess many people have not even heard of the brand SONOS.
The brand is relatively niche and younger. It was founded in 2002 in Santa Barbara, California, USA, and the brand name "SONOS" comes from Latin, which means "sound". The style of SONOS products is close to BlueSound, another domestic that is not very mainstream but has great sound quality, giving people a solid but "stupid" feeling.
For example, this Beam Gen2, the slightly clumsy shape can be said to have nothing to do with the smooth lines of the echo wall that many people imagine ▲
This Beam Gen2 is an upgrade from the previous generation of Beam, mainly with the addition of Dolby Atmos and NFC functions, and the appearance of materials has also been optimized. In addition, in the invisible place, the brand has also upgraded the chip ▲
In terms of hearing, SONOS gives me the feeling that the sound is very full and majestic, and even without an independent subwoofer, the performance of the low-frequency part is very deep.
The biggest feature of SONOS products is that they support streaming and playback, which is very suitable for creating a whole house background sound system with zero wiring, which will continue to expand when introducing Denon below. If you want to talk about the shortcomings, I think the shape is not delicate and flexible enough, and it looks a little "wooden" in the home environment
3. Jamo HCSB5
As an imported audio brand focusing on the field of speakers for 55 years, this HCSB5 launched by Zunbao Jamo is also "promising", and is said to be "the strongest in the same class", although it does not sound modest, but it is not exaggerated at all.
Products include a stand-alone subwoofer + a slender soundbar. Among them, the subwoofer has a volume of up to 8 inches; The soundbar is directly equipped with 13 sound drivers, which is the real 5.1.2-channel panoramic sound effect in the same price range.
Compared with the shortness of SONOS above, this echo wall of Zunbao can be said to be the other extreme, with a length of 1240mm, which is particularly eye-catching among all competitors and is more friendly to large TV users.
The 13 drivers on the echo wall are all aviation rare earth permanent magnets, which are more sensitive and produce more powerful sound.
Unlike the usual soundbar, the Jamo HCSB5 has a horn with an opening facing up at each end, which looks very strange at first glance. But it's this patented sound orientation technology called Sky Channel Reflection Horn that precisely controls the direction and energy range of sound emission to create a stronger stereo sound.
Under the premise of not adding two additional physical speakers, left and right, it is the best sound field creation product among all competitors in its class.
Zumbao's HCSB5 has also made great efforts in terms of appearance: in addition to the regular black and gold, it also provides rare silver gray and solid wood veneer black gray to add more differentiated options to users, and each one has a strong sense of home and excellent texture ▲
The interfaces are very rich: backward compatible with AUX input, of the three HDMI interfaces, the first HDMI OUT supports eARC, and the other two are "full blood" version of HDMI 2.1 with peak bandwidth of up to 48 Gbps. In addition, USB, OPT and LINK interfaces are readily available
There are no worries at all when it comes to expansiveness.
4. Samsung SAMSUNG HWQ930B
Samsung's 930B can be called a regular customer on the site. Also featuring surround sound effects, compared to the above treasures, it has two more rear physical sound units like the first polk.
The machine consists of 17 speakers, including 9 horizontal channels + 4 sky sound channels + 2 rear speakers + 1 subwoofer. It is worth mentioning that the two rear speakers use wireless technology and host connection, and also have a sky channel, which further strengthens the surround sound field effect ▲
In terms of connection method, in addition to the mainstream eARC input, this Samsung 930B can also be synchronized with the TV through WiFi and Bluetooth, and it also supports Dolby sound and Atmos in wireless mode - but unfortunately, WiFi transmission only supports Samsung's 2022 QLED TV and above, and ordinary users cannot enjoy the convenience brought by this technology.
In addition, Samsung TV users can still control it with the TV remote control, which is a superb in terms of creating an ecosystem.
At the same time, the machine also supports AirPlay streaming, which is more stable than Bluetooth connection and is not limited by space
5. Sony HT-A7000
Since it comes to the ecology between it and the TV, Sony has to mention it. I don't recommend the low-priced entry-level Sony Echo Bar, and I directly recommend this flagship A-7000 here.
The soundbar claims to have 7.1.2 channels, with 5 front-mounted full-range speakers, 2 upward sounding full-range speakers, 2 beam tweeters and 2 subwoofers - yes, its subwoofer is also built-in, and the price is only included in this soundbar ▲
I won't say much about Sony's achievements in acoustics, and surround sound technology has always been used in its TV products. The reason why this A7000 can achieve a surround sound field mainly relies on two upward sounding speakers, and with the blessing of Sony's vertical surround engine technology, a three-dimensional surround effect is created
In terms of ecology, when used with Sony Z9J, A90J, A80J, X95J, X90K series (visually the latest A95K is also supported), the soundbar directly becomes the center channel of the home theater system, and the audio and video matching will be more accurate and shocking.
If you have a budget, it can also be equipped with a separate subwoofer and rear speakers to truly achieve physical space surrounding
6, DENON HOME 5.1
This set of HOME 5.1 of Tianlong has been posted by many friends. It is not difficult to see from the word "HOME" in the name that it is positioned to create a whole house sound system, and the whole set of equipment does not only include this 5.1 soundbar system.
The styling style is closer to the SONOS introduced in the second one, and it has a cute feeling. The rounded chamfers, coupled with the use of fabric wrapping, the product design completely erases the sense of power of digital products, and visually has a strong sense of home
In terms of configuration, the soundwall has built-in 4 2-inch full-range speakers, 2 0.75-inch independent soft dome tweeters and 3 passive radiators; Each rear speaker contains a 3.5-inch subwoofer and a 1-inch dome tweeter – the only one of the six recommended products so far to use a separate high-frequency speaker
In addition to strong hardware support, an important selling point of Denon's HOME series products is WiFi streaming technology and super simple home theater expansion installation.
HOME 350
In addition to the 5.1 system seen above, it also has HOME 250 and HOME 350 speakers (different sizes and the same shape) that can be optionally equipped ▲
These optional speakers can be placed at the bedside, desk, and anywhere else you need in each room. When using it, just stream through the home WiFi system, and the whole house will play the same content synchronously, and the atmosphere is bursting.
And it is worth mentioning that in addition to the familiar AirPlay, it also supports QPlay streaming, which is very friendly to Android mobile phone users! Of course, this look has to add money~
Jacob Jensen Jacob Jensen S7
In terms of function and sound quality alone, the echo wall has a price of 10,000 yuan, and the hardware is already the top level that ordinary non-audiophiles can access. So the question is: what can the echo wall at the price of 20,000 yuan be interpreted by manufacturers?
The Jacob Jensen brand is so niche that if you search Chinese the Internet, you can only find this old Danish man named Jacob Jensen ▲
One of the greatest industrial design histories of the 20th century, Jacob Jensen and his studio have created so many revolutionary products that he himself was the chief designer of B&O, another famous Danish HIFI brand, for 20 years. And this echo bar is named after him - at the same time, the S series is also the only audio product that Jacob Jensen can buy directly in China.
In terms of product attributes, it is not just a "tool", but has been given the attribute of luxury goods and crafts.
The machine box adopts pure wooden structure to ensure that the output sound quality is more mellow and warm; The silver-white circle around the fuselage is an aluminum frame that is extruded in one piece; The mesh part adopts a combination of metal + fabric, and the touch of the fabric part is very close to the wool material, and the materials and processing technology are extremely luxurious and exquisite. And the product design style is unique and has a super recognition - and this is the differentiated selling point that high-end users need
But even with the best industrial design, it has to return to the essence of tools.
In terms of hardware, this Jacob Jensen S7 has a total of 18 speaker units, of which the echo bar part has 13: 2 2-inch speakers on the left, center and right, a total of 6; 1 1-inch soft top speaker on the left, center and right, for a total of 3; 1 high-mounted 2.5-inch speaker on the left and right, a total of 2; 1 2.5-inch surround speaker on the left and right, a total of 2 ▲
Minimalist Nordic style
Soundbar + (8") subwoofer + a set of rear satellite speakers together form a 7.1.4 channel system. With a total power of 500W, it can bring users an incomparably shocking immersive viewing experience ▲
The interfaces are also very rich, with 4 HDMI ports, the last one supports ARC/eARC input, and also supports fiber, analog and Bluetooth 5.0 input. The aforementioned streaming function that can create a whole house background sound system It also has it, and not only supports AirPlay, but also supports QPlay, Android mobile phone download QQ Music APP can achieve streaming playback, there is no slot in terms of scalability ▲
Whenever this happens, I can't help but sigh: it's good to be rich!
summary
As with any product, the sound quality and functionality of the echo bar follow the principle of "you get what you pay for" within a certain price range. The echo wall priced at 3000+ has a real improvement compared to one or two thousand products in terms of overall experience. Even if you continue to advance, until it is more than 10,000, every time the price increases, the product experience brought by it has a qualitative change.
Therefore, a good echo wall is definitely not just about "listening to a ring".
Of course, the higher the price of the product, the so-called "premium" must be more, which is also determined by the laws of the market economy. For example, taking the last Jacob Jensen S7 recommended in this article as an example, the price is close to 23,000 yuan, compared with the Zumbao HCSB5 priced at more than 4,000 pieces, it will definitely not produce an experience gap of up to 6 times. But on the other hand, Jacob Jensen's target users definitely do not look at Zunbao HCSB5.
Therefore, each product actually has its precise target users, everyone can do what they can when choosing, and they can buy according to their needs!
Insist on evaluating with attitude and producing content with temperature. I'm Tomato, we'll see you next ~
The author declares that this article has no interest, and welcomes rational communication and harmonious discussion among friends