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 them

Who is this not for:
- Anyone who lives in an apartment (Unless you're in VERY good with the neighbors)
- Audio purists, Serious music listeners

Speaker 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: A
I'm glad that these speakers are beefier than most side speakers and think they sound great. Positioning can be tricky as with any surround speaker

Remote: A
High quality back lit remote with lots of features and memorization.

Vocal tonal balance and fidelity: B
I 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: A
Frequency 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 out

Sound 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 : C

The 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!

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 problems

I 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 problem

I 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 BTW

Third 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.

I've only had this sound bar a day and have mixed feelings about this. Here's the short story... it is a complicated device that requires lots of fiddling with to get the sound you want. Fortunately the company provides half decent documentation that explains how to access and change the settings though ends just short of telling how the changes affect the way the system performance changes. They give recommended settings for configuration except don't tell why I should use them other than it gives the best performance. My old vizio unit was full configuration through the app which allowed me to change from 2 presets (movie/music) and surround/no surround. I could also change the bass/treble of the bar while also separately changing the sub level and also the rear speaker level to compensate for how close they sit to my head near the couch. this shockwafe unit lets you do all the same things except through a complicated remote design pushing buttons while watching the bar closely to make sure you have to right options set and then confirm the change. some changes cause the sound to drop out for 3 to 5 seconds while they take effect which is annoying but reminds me of my old onkyo receiver. I've found the best settings so far for myself is to use NATIVE mode which allows the system to decode all formats directly without any special upmixing of the content. I really encourage anyone to go through all the different settings with multiple sources to find the one you like best. I might end up changing my settings later on. Also DSP I disable which are the preset EQ configs like music/movie/game/clear voice. I find these to cause the audio to sound un-natural and less clear/crisp.

Most important thing to do is the firmware upgrade before connecting the bar to your tv/components.
My unit came with a USB drive with files already on it however they were not the most recent files available on the website. Just download the firmware zip file from their support page and replace the files on the flash drive and follow the instruction page.

I chose to wall-mount this bar because my old vizio bar was also mounted up on the wall. I got lucky and was able to line up the brackets to allow the cables to bend and come thru the access hole I have in the wall while keeping everything well hidden, see pictures. Look at how the plugs are setup on the bar and compare that to how many components you want to have directly attached to the bar vs. what you want going to your TV.

I have a nvidia shield going into hdmi-4 port right next to the ARC port that way both cables can go straight into the wall. the power adaptor plug cable has to go all the way over to the opposite side of the bar so some people might want to drill a separate hole in the wall just to hide this wire... I have mine tucked floating behind the bar and run it through the same cut out for the hdmi cables.

CEC power and volume control works great regardless of whether I'm using the TV remote control or my shield's remote.

mounting the rear speakers is a chore because they technically should have both mounting plates used to hold them to the wall, at the moment I'm only using one because of trial and error for placement.
my couch sits right up against the wall in a section recessed against windows so the speakers are literally a foot away from our ears. manual recommends mounting these AT head level for best sound however I might end up mounting these higher and either angled down at us or up for ceiling reflection effect because even at the lowest volume level they are still a little too loud for my listening pleasure at times.

finally keep in mind that the sub and rear speakers talk to the sound bar wirelessly over a 5ghz channel which has the potential to interfere with a WiFi router and cause audio drop out at times. this sound bar has a setting to enable a direct frequency (DF) to help alleviate this issue. because routers are also equally complicated to configure the average home user may get frustrated to not end trying to fix this, just contact their tech support. I have a google router which doesn't allow you to change the channel because it auto senses interference from competing channels. their help page will walk you thru difference solutions for this type of setup. you can use the wifiman app by ubiquiti which shows lots of detailed info about your home network and networks around you.

so far this sound bar has recognized all formats I've thrown at it both from my sony bravia's built in apps over the ARC and from the nvidia shield pro running kodi. each time new content starts the bar will display which codec it is playing and you can hit the info button for verification. this is awesome for me because other sound bars will simply either not tell you this information or flat out refuse to decode it leaving you in silence.

good news is despite the settings being a little on the complex side, it does allow you to save your preferences to memory.

I purchased the 9.2 system during black Friday weekend of 2020. I wanted to wait to review the item until using it for at least a full month. I opened the box and completed the set-up on Jan 3rd, 2021. Hoping to make this review a bit more comprehensive and helpful, I am providing star ratings and splitting the review into the 5 individual sections identified in CAP LOCKS below:

1 "“ PACKAGING (5 Stars)
The sound system came well packed and protected. The box was the perfect fit and included well written and comprehensive instructions to setup the sound system and troubleshoot it. All cables needed to make the sound system work are included. It also provides links and references to online resources. Nakamichi has nothing to envy from larger companies/brands on this topic. Well done!!!

2 "“ SETUP (3 Stars)
I am reviewing this based on the expectations from must people that expect to have a Plug & Play system that will work flawlessly out of the box. Although Nakamichi provides very clear setup instructions that include images/photos, this sound system is NOT Plug & Play. After completing the set-up following the easy-to-follow steps, I noticed that speakers were not working correctly; specifically, the sound coming out of the speakers was intermittent and not constant. There were also cracking random sounds. In addition, my Wi-Fi home network basically stopped working causing my internet speed to drop from 700 Mbps to less than 100 Mbps. Upon further research, I discovered that the sound system required a firmware update (which requires to have or purchase an USB drive with certain specifications) to troubleshoot this issue and potentially resolve it. Then, made the update but issues kept going. Then, realized that I had to activate a new "dedicated frequency" mode that was supposed to resolve the issue. It certainly helped but was still affecting the Wi-Fi home network. As a last resort, I decided to reset the sound system which seemed to work. When placing the soundbar in front of my 65 inch LG OLED TV, the soundbar was too high and was blocking about 1.5 inch of my TV, which required me to buy a stand to make my TV higher (not good since I believe this could be prevented at the product design phase). Well, it took me about 4 days to complete the setup and perform all the troubleshooting steps that finally allowed me to use and test the sound system.

3 "“ FIRST 45 DAYS OF USE (4 Stars)
When working correctly and without the Wi-Fi interference, this sound system battles pretty well with Bose and Sony sound systems that I owed before. When watching Dolby Atmos content, the 2 rear speakers tend to completely loose audio for seconds sporadically which ruins the experience a bit (I believe this has to do with the conflict of the 5Ghz Wi-Fi network issue I mentioned within the setup section above). Other content, other than Atmos (Dolby Digital, DTS, etc.) works pretty well and sound quality is very good. I also tested the Bluetooth mode which I am not a big fan of since it basically utilizes the soundbar and it does not take good advantage of the other satellite 4 speakers. Initially I connected a PlayStation and a cable box to the HDMI ports of the soundbar but later decided to connect these devices directly to the TV because I had to turn on the sound system every single time, I wanted to use the connected devices but there were occasions when I did not want to use the sound system.

4 "“ QUALITY OF SOUND AND HARDWARE (4 Stars)
I believe that the sound quality is 5 stars when working correctly without the WiFi signal issues mentioned above. The display of the soundbar could certainly be better, perhaps a small touchscreen display may be installed into the soundbar instead of the small led indicators. The remote control is okay but, in my opinion, it could be simpler or have an option of a mobile app to use as a remote for advance functions. The satellite speakers need stands, I purchased the Atlantic Satellite Speaker Stands 27"- 48" which seem fine for them. The built of the speakers seem to be good quality but the subwoofers are the star of the show. The subwoofers are well built and gives you outstanding bass (sad for me I am unable to take full advantage of the bass power due to living in an apartment and having close by neighbors). If considering a redesign for a future model, Nakamichi should consider not making the sound bar that tall and maybe come up with a flatter design.

5 "“ FUTURE USAGE (3 Stars)
I wrote this review after watching the movie "Judas and the Black Messiah" that has Dolby Atmos sound and is a recently released movie. As of today (Feb 21), the sound from the rear satellite speakers was still intermittent and not constant in various occasions of the movie. I wish this was not the case and that I could simply enjoy of constant Dolby Atmos sound. However, it still a better experience than watching the movie and using your TV's speakers. I hope that Nakamichi comes up with software update that finally resolves this intermittent sound loss from the rear satellite speakers and completely fixed the conflict of 5Ghz WiFi signals between the wireless speakers and your 5Ghz WiFi home network. Because I have to learn to live with these ongoing issues that diminish the user experience, I had to rate this section 3 stars.

-- 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.