Nakamichi Shockwafe Ultra 9.2.4 Channel Dolby Atmos/DTS:X Soundbar with Dual 10" Subwoofers (Wireless), 4 Rear Surround Effects Speakers, eARC and SSE Max Technology (Flagship)

-- 6 year update --TL; DR -- Yes, I still have the system and it's awesome! Hard to believe I am updating a review for a tech product after 6 years.Firmware updates enabled Dolby Atmos a few years ago. My primary input source is now a 4K Apple TV connected to one of the HDMI ports on the sound bar. The TV is now a Dolby Vision capable Sony connected via HDMI Arc. The TV supports HDMI eArc but it's not supported by the (original 2017) sound bar, this setup enables both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Biggest change is that I replaced the extra long chicken wire that came with the system for connecting surround speakers to the subs with better quality, thicker and shorter RCA cables. These are average quality not high end in any way, but they have made an appreciable difference to the surround audio levels and clarity.After listening to other sound bars, what continues to strikes me is the clarity of the vocal track and the separation that you get with the sound bar. The comments below still hold. Yes, there are things I could be improved, the mid range could be better, the system could be better for music and so on. But its also clear the alternatives won't be in the same price range, nor will they offer the same convenience. This sound bar has worked extremely well for its main purpose, enable a very capable entertainment setup with the least cabling headaches.The system has worked well for the past 6 years and I don't see a reason to change it. Happy to see that Nakamichi is continuing to push the envelope with the Dragon. Perhaps a discounted Dragon will come calling this holiday season? :-)-- 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.

Setup:BedroomLG OLED65C6PSamsung UBD K8500When looking for a sound bar, I had a few requirements.1. It had to have 4K and HDR options2. It had to have something better than basic Dolby/DTS processing3. It had to fit the space requirementsInitially, I was going to just get a sound bar without surround, but I grew to like the sound from my LG OLED. It wasn't bad. However, my C6P has fantastic 3D, while my home theater tv has crosstalk issues that make it unwatchable to me. This left me having to choose between watching a movie in 3D or watching it with 7.1 surround. So I decided to look for a sound bar with 5.1 to 7.1. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of options in that group that have 4K, HDR, Atmos or DTSX.. Well, there are if you want simulated surround.Originally, I had listed the Nakamichi Shockwafe 7.1 as one of two sound bars I was interested in. So when I started looking again, the Ultra 9.2 was listed... Certainly there was a catch! No, there's no catch. 1000W system, 4K HDR passthrough, Dolby processing and DTS:X. Checked the measurements to be sure I could fit this all in the bedroom... Requirements met!While in transit, I noticed the lack of Atmos/TrueHD and the lack of Dolby Vision. An oversight on my part. Perhaps I'm used to home theater receivers... When I recently bought an Onkyo RZ920, the flagship model, there was no question about HDR, Dolby Vision, Atmos or DTS:X. A flagship audio component should be be just that... The model that does it all, no questions asked. So, when purchasing the Nakamichi Shockwafe Ultra 9.2, I assumed no questions asked. After all, this is Nakamichi, a brand that years back was considered one of the great audiophile brands. Still, having read posts on AVSForum, it appears these things (7.1 TrueHD decoding and Dolby Vision passthrough) can be added via firmware updates, should Nakamichi decide to do so. Not likely though seems to be the general feeling as sound bars take sides in the Dolby vs DTS war.One other thing of note is that this system is intended to have the subwoofers at the rear since the rear speakers also plug into them with RCA plugs. You can place them at the front and run the included cables, but they're about 16ft long. The cables are also about the same thickness of the cable to your phone's wired earbuds. I replaced mine with heavier 25ft RCA cables.No regrets though. Despite the lack of native 7.1 TrueHD or Dolby Vision, I would still be searching for something if I wanted everything. That's just the way sound bars are.Setup was simple enough. Unpack, plug in the HDMI cables and power cords. Connect the rear speakers to the subwoofers (be sure to connect left rears to the left subwoofer and right rears to the right subwoofer) and turn it all on. The subwoofers automatically pair (via bluetooth) to the sound bar.First impressions were not what I expected. I played Guardians of the Galaxy 2 via the LG Netflix app. It seemed muddled. Turns out there were a few things going on, but after tweaking the settings and sitting a little further back, everything was good!My primary movie settings are...DSP: Off (Movie setting adds more bass, but the clarity of the sound gets taken out back)Pure: Off (enables DTS Neural:X processing/upmixing)Bass: 7 (after a lot of testing with Passengers, 6 or 7 seems to be about the highest setting before voices were affected)Treble: 7 (just to match the Bass setting)Center: 10 (helps with the voice clarity)SR: 7 (I noticed almost no change between 1 to 10 while watching movies, but while listening to music, it was night and day)SB: 7 (I noticed almost no change between 1 to 10 while watching movies, but while listening to music, it was night and day)Now, you might be wondering, what do I compare this to.Well, that's not easy or fair to answer... My home theater system is an LG 86UH9500 tv, Onkyo RZ920 receiver, Oppo UDP 203 4k player, with Klipsch Forte speakers (front), Klipsch KSC-C1 (center), Klipsch WB14 speakers (surround), Acoustic Research M1 speakers (rear), and a Velodyne subwoofer. This is like comparing a soccer mom's mini van to a Porsche 911, and thus not a fair comparison. What would be fair though is perhaps to compare to the Logitech Z906 system I have connected to the computer.The Logitech Z906 is a true 5.1 surround system that at full price will cost you $400. Now, the Z906 has flaws. It hasn't been updated in years, and it doesn't have HDMI inputs, so it's not a good option for a home theater setup unless you don't mind using optical/coax and being limited to basic Dolby and DTS processing. Despite all that, used it for years to watch movies on the computer in the bedroom. That being said, if Logitech had ever updated it with HDMI and 4K HDR passthrough, I would have bought that without a second thought since I'm familiar with it.Coming back to the Ultra 9.2, the sound quality is good. I'm not going to spend hours comparing apples and oranges, but with years of the Z906, I'd say the sound quality of the speakers here are just as good, but technologically, there's more of them, and they do a lot more with DTS:X and Neural:X supporting it. I've spent a bit of time with it watching the first 2 Hunger Games movies in 4K (as well as testing a bunch of movies while setting up the audio) and I've been pleased with the results.The only real weakness I find is the subwoofers. There's 2 of them, and I expected a lot more room shaking punch. They're really about the same as the subwoofer that comes with the Z906, except they're downward firing while the Logitech is front firing. The impact is right about the same when I gave it the Jurassic Park test. T-Rex won't scare anyone or anything with either. Safe to say, the home theater Velodyne makes things fall down, but again, that's not a fair comparison. Also the placement could be a factor. Firmware updates since the original release also make them a bit heavier sounding.I have experienced some odd issues since setting up the Nakamichi. The UHD player sometimes appears to have a stroke and believes it no longer has an HDCP 2.2 connection and reverts to 1080p. Twice now has my TV had a stroke and just starts turning 3D on and off for no reason. And a few times now my Roku 4 picture looks like it was put through a blender and reprocessed in 8bit pixelated gaming Minecraft blocks, and the issue appears to be with HDCP 2.2 going AWOL. The last issue is related to startup. I use a Logitech Harmony remote, and when turning everything on, the Nakamichi input will change as intended, but then it will for no reason decide it wants to be on ARC (HDMI 1) and switch back. This is an issue after starting up, and it doesn't always happen. It seems I need to wait at least 15 seconds before changing the input, otherwise it will always go right back to ARC or won't change at all. I'm hoping this gets worked out with firmware.Lastly, I mentioned a lack of Dolby Vision and 7.1 TrueHD. Dolby Vision isn't on a lot of components. If you happen to have an LG TV and an Oppo player, you can simply use the HDMI audio out of the player to plug into the player, and leave the HDMI video to the TV. In the case of 7.1 TrueHD, you can set your UHD player to PCM instead of bitstream to maintain lossless audio, as suggested on AVSForum. However, you'll want to change it back for DTS:X audio. Personally, I say just leave it on bitstream, and disable Pure mode so that Neural:X can just do its thing. Yes, it's lossy audio then, but I'd be amazed if anyone could tell the difference on a sound bar system. Just the same way 192 bitrate MP3s work fine on your phone with earbuds, but you'll notice it if you play that same MP3 on a high end audio system.So let's end this. The Nakamichi Ultra 9.2 is a one of a kind. It's a real 7.2/9.2 surround system with DTS:X, and 4K HDR passthrough. In the sound bar market, there's nothing else like it. It achieves what it set out to do, and Nakamichi should be proud of it. Yes, there's room for improvement, and I'm sure Nakamichi knows this, but only time will tell what comes next.I would probably give this 4 out of 5 because of the lack of lossless TrueHD and Dolby Vision since this is the flagship, and it is Nakamichi. However, I'm going to let it slide because you can work arounds stated above. There's the issues I've run into as well, but I'm confident firmware updates will resolve it. A few interactions with support have left me feeling Nakamichi really wants to be liked the same way they were long ago. It's under warranty, so I have time if firmware fixes are not an option. For what this is, a 7.2/9.2 sound bar surround system, there's currently no equal.UPDATE: November 12, 2018Nakamichi has announced an update that will now include Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. This update will be available for those of us who already own the system via firmware. This is a big deal! Nakamichi already had a superior soundbar system here, but now it's going to even better.I've lived with this system for nearly a year now, and the Shockwafe 9.2 has remained everything I hoped for as a bedroom system. I stand firm in that if you can afford a real surround system that includes an A/V receiver, and stand alone speakers, and the technical knowledge to set it up, that THAT is a far superior experience. However, for ease of use, space saving, and lower cost, THIS will obliterate whatever speakers your TV has, and give you a home theater experience from a soundbar system that no other can provide.UPDATE: February 2, 2019Nakamichi for the last month has been providing owners of the 9.2 with the firmware upgrade. After the announcement, I purchased a Panasonic DP-UB820 4K player since Oppo went out of business, and I wanted a good player with Dolby Vision.With the Nakamichi 3.0/3.1 firmware, it does indeed let you use Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision now, however there's problems, and it's a problem with ARC, Roku, and 4K discs.With the new Dolby enabled firmware, there's a 5~7 second audio delay. I've also had issues with audio suddenly sounding like it's coming out of a tin can. Nakamichi has stated there could be random audio drop outs as well, and users on AVS Forum have complained about it.That said, I downgraded back to the 1.0c firmware, the last update before the Dolby upgrade. If Nakamichi fixes the issues, I'll return to it. With or without the Dolby Atmos/Vision update, I still say the best soundbar you can get, and the best you can do without getting a real home theater system.