Received wisdom for fitting your home with cinema sound states that the more speakers you get, the better off you’ll be.
Not only do more speakers let you generate more sound – which, let’s face it, is part of the fun – they can also produce more directionality. And directionality means a more convincing surround effect.
But multiple speakers can occupy a lot of space. Considering how squeezed most of us are these days, that’s a problem. And even if you have the room, lots of speakers will mean lots of wires.
The solution? The Philips Fidelio B1 – a compact soundbar that produces full home cinema sound. Watch the video below to find out how.
The Fidelio B1 might be tiny, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be able to produce a living-room-spanning soundstage.
It’s all down to Microbeam technology. The Fidelio B1 is fitted out with four full-range speakers together with two angled tweeter arrays, plus two tweeter wave-guides on top of the unit to further distribute the sound. The drivers are precisely positioned to bounce sound off your walls, and clever internal digital processing marshals exactly where and when that sound is fired. That’s a lot of driver tech inside something that measures just 5.4cm high and 41cm long.
Philips’ focus on keeping things small in form (but not sound) extends to the subwoofer. The Fidelio B1 works in tandem with an ultra-slim wireless sub that’s been designed to give maximum heft to your movies and TV shows without adding physical heft to your living space.
The whole system is designed to conjure the effect of a room-wide 180-degree soundstage, with a large sweet-spot. And that means it won’t just be you who’s immersed in sound – everyone else in the room will be, too.
Going big on home cinema sound by going small on hardware? That’s a clutter-free future we can get on board with.
