Gadgetory

in-built TV speakers are usually pretty lackluster they don't provide the hit in the base for movies the cloudy for TV or the world balanced sound a music listening as such many people opt to pick up a speaker system whether it be a two point one set of speakers a sound bar or a surround setup many people will opt towards a sound bar to minimize visual intrusion that conventional speaker system might bring and while you get this more seamless integration you lose the flexibility of speakers and often because of the smaller drivers in a sound bar the sound suffers as well today we're looking at what Nakamichi is offering with the shockwave Pro 7.1 sound bar system priced at 399 this set comprises of a 45 inch sound bar and eight-inch wireless sub and two satellite speakers so let's take a look at what Nakamichi has to offer now I'll preface by saying that I haven't had very much experience with sound bars I've mainly used speakers to get an idea for where this system is most suited I tested it in two environments of different sizes to identify how it performed in each and I'll assess both usability and sound but before we get into that let's take a look at each section of the shockwave Pro the centerpiece is the sound bar with NAT amici touting its 45 inch length and its 11 speaker drivers housed within it the front has a plastic mesh finish and a small Nakamichi logo as well as the IR receiver on the top you have five clicky buttons to control power source demo playback and volume controls on the back you have a brushed plastic finish with a wide selection of ports we have the non removable AC cable for 110 volt power only meaning without a step-down transformer this can only be used in countries with 110 volts which is unfortunate and I would have liked to see multiple voltages even if it is mainly aimed at the US market there's a USB port for firmware updates optical digital and aux for audio as well as two HDMI inputs and one pass through this is a great selection of inputs accommodating for all sorts of setups really great stuff here on the bottom are two rubber feet for grip and on the sides you have these silver accents aesthetically this is a mixed bag for me while I like the black and silver color palette the design is a two angular and just a bit bold for my preference a more subtle design would have been a benefit however the same can't be said for the accompanying 8 inch wireless subwoofer I love the design here the silver looks great and while it has those angular hints it ties together nicely I love the concept and the execution of this subwoofer having the wireless functionality means you can hide the subwoofer and rear speaker cables and connecting the woofer and sound bar happens immediately and seamlessly on the rear are the connections for the accompanying satellite speakers and the power switch the only thing is because of the wireless nature you can't use this subwoofer with any other system which is unfortunate I would have loved to see the option to use the sub in a wired mode to allow for more system expandability the only other nitpick is that the sub doesn't seem to have a proper smart sleep mode so when you've turned off the sound bar the sub will still have a light flashing at the back overall though I like the execution of the woofer and finally you have the true satellite speakers these are pretty simple they aren't very large or exceptional but match well with the design of the system and have a pretty small footprint the cable they use isn't the standard speaker wire which could be annoying if you plan on using pre-existing cable runs for these however the cables are extremely long so they'll fit in even very large areas and the last thing is the accessories packing in here you have all the needed cables with aux optical and a short HDMI cable included nice the only complaint is the HDMI cable is very short so your source device will have to be very close to the sound bar you also have velcro wraps for cable management and mounting materials so that you can wall mount the sound bar and the satellite speakers pretty solid accessories nice stuff nakamichi so how's the system in use and does it offer any advantages over a set of speakers well first we'll look at one of the features I found most enjoyable and that is Bluetooth you can connect any Bluetooth capable device and use the shock wave pro with it and I found myself using this way more than I thought I would it's great to be able to sit down on the couch and play some music easily or has some improved audio and watching something on your phone or your laptop I really love having Blu truth in a system like this and if I was looking at spending my cash on a speaker system Bluetooth would certainly be on my list now the only drawback is that the audio quality is understandably degraded compared to hate to my and I did encounter some breaking up of the signal occasionally although hopefully that can be revised in firmware nakamichi also includes their own remote which is interesting to say the least they've attempted to enter by changing the angle the remote is used at intending for it to be used in a more vertical position for me I found that using it at this raised angle felt weird at first and even once I got used to it I didn't feel it provided an advantage over the traditional design however that wasn't the main issue that I had with this remote the biggest thing was that the remote was inconsistent and unreliable while it would mostly work if the sensor was directly lined up with the soundbar sensor even at just a slight angle from sitting on another couch it meant that the signal was just often not recognized the only reason this was manageable was that you can see if the command is registered by the LEDs on the soundbar however the remote made the entire system seemed clunky having an inconsistent remote is something which is a really big issue when it's the primary means of interaction and hopefully Nakamichi can fix it as otherwise it two tracks from the experience otherwise when there are remote functions it's pretty decent but not particularly exceptional you have the basic controls as well as EQ presets and you can also program the remote to control basic TV power and channel switching which is nice one of the big advantages I see for some users that might sell a sound bar over a set of speakers is the inputs the shockwave Pro has the ability to pass video and audio through so in my case I can connect my computer via HDMI to the sound bar and then also connect the projector to the sound bar it will then pass the video through the PC through the sound bar and to the projector which isn't something most speaker systems have the ability to perform but many this might not matter but it will be very useful for those who need it so that covers most of the user experience leaving only the sound as always this is the most subjective and the most difficult part to cover and similar to the rest of the shockwave Pro this is once again a mixed bag before we start there are a couple of big things to take into account firstly you have to think about where you're going to be using this I used this in both a small living room and a much larger and more open space in order to get an idea of how it suits different areas most of my reflections will be in regards to the large environment as Nakamichi recommends their system for use in a medium to large open room with a distance of about three and a half meters between you and the sound bar and I do tend to agree so I'll first look at some positives I did quite a bit of movie watching with the shockwave Pro in my large setting and overall I was very impressed the samples were performed very well providing plenty of Rumble which was great in movies for immersiveness and managed to fill even a very large space well in the smaller space the Sabbath got loud to the point of being overpowering especially in bass centric movies with the movie EQ preset the rest of the system sounded pretty good as well and the sound was pretty balanced between verticals and atmosphere and overall it was a pretty enjoyable and full sound which I found myself pretty satisfied with for watching most casual content I found that especially in the larger environment it was more than satisfactory and volume was overall adequate Nakamichi advertises up to 105 DB and I believe for almost all content I kept my volume at around 60 out of 150 and even in a large room 150 was ear-shattering ly loud so you'll have no issues with cranking the volume up the shockwave Pro is also one of 25.1 systems to offer both the Dolby 5.1 DTS however I found that to my ears I didn't hear much of a discernible difference even using supported content of which there is only a very select amount while it is nice to see it's not a feature which would sway me once we move past movies and TV and start to critically examine the sound we start to hear some of the flaws however the mid and high range the paths that stand out most clearly to me as they need quite some work on the music EQ setting I found that the high range was extremely piercing and harsh not only leading to a more tinny sound but also making high strings and vocals extremely fatiguing whether this is the fault of the speaker or the EQ preset is unbeknownst to me as when I switch the movie preset this was less of an issue except that the high range thus became really muddy and lost clarity it might be that with additional EQ tweaking these issues can be resolved but currently for music listening I found that even in the larger environment it was just too harsh and while certain sections could sound great the weak sections really killed it the last notes are on the surround sound and the environments that you should use this in using it in a small living room I just found it wasn't suited for that type of space the shockwave Pro really needs a larger space to excel and in that smaller room the sound bar overpowered the sound and the balance was just off that's not to say that it was perfect in a larger room either though while the sound certainly opened up with space I found that the rear speakers still didn't add that much the sound and I didn't get that surround effect with the subwoofer and the sound bar bearing the grunt of the work now for conclusions the Nakamichi shockwave Pro shows promise with some great features and decent hardware and the use of a wireless subwoofer is really great having the features of a sound bar is certainly appealing and the system would work well for a large TV room where you don't want the front speakers visible however it's the small things where the shock wave falls flat the remote needs an overhaul and the sound definitely needs some tweaking it shows promise and with more work the shockwave Pro could be a very solid contender but as it is more refinement is needed so thank you for watching if you enjoyed this review make sure to leave a like and comment if you have any questions or feedback I'm Aidan with Hardware canucks make sure to subscribe for more similar content and we'll see you in the next one