Danish speaker maker Dynaudio is at CEDIA 2024 previewing a “concept” soundbar called the Symphony Opus One. According to the company, the 22-speaker soundbar is a “groundbreaking hardware and software platform designed to deliver an unparalleled immersive sound experience from a single device,” and instead of just making empty claims they are doing continuous demonstrations of the Symphony Opus One to prove its prowess.
The 73-inch wide concept soundbar is sized to match an 83-inch TV, though future versions could be scaled down to a more compact size. A total of 22 speakers are contained in a single enclosure, including three woofers and two subwoofers that use a vibration-canceling double-sided design that emerged from the company’s research in automotive audio systems. Like the best Dolby Atmos soundbars, it also includes up-firing speakers for height effects and side-firing ones for a more expansive soundstage.
Some of these features are found on other premium soundbars like the Sonos Arc and Sennheiser Ambeo, both of which also aim to deliver nearly full-range sound from a single box. Like both those bars, the Symphony Opus One also features a form of room correction Dynaudio calls Room Adapt that uses a mic built into the remote control for calibration.
What’s different about Dynaudio’s concept soundbar is the company’s custom DSP used to expand the soundstage and create a “wraparound” spatial effect similar to an HRTF in headphones. In Dynaudio’s presentation, the Symphony Opus One was also characterized as “hi-fi meets immersive” due to an emphasis in the design on a natural presentation of stereo recordings.
Hi-fi meets immersive
Music was a big part of Dynaudio’s CEDIA demo, with Sade’s Hang On to Your Love kicking things off. Sade’s vocals had a very natural and, yes, hi-fi-like presentation that’s rarely heard on soundbars, and the bass was impressively full and deep. But the next track played, Roxy Music’s Avalon, is the one that really grabbed my attention.
I own a by now well out-of-print multichannel SACD release of Roxy Music’s Avalon album and it’s always been my go-to disc for confirming the viability of music in surround sound. Mixed in 5.1 channels by Avalon’s original engineer, Bob Clearmountain, the entire album sounds lively and subtly adventurous, with instruments and even vocals consistently wrapping around into the rear speakers without being distracting.
Hearing a two-channel version of Avalon played on the Symphony Opus One, I experienced a good deal of the same wraparound effect, but this time with the soundbar’s DSP rather than rear speakers creating the surround sound. It wasn’t the same experience, but given my deep familiarity with Avalon in 5.1 surround, it was spookily close.
Moving beyond music and surround sound playback, the Symphony Opus One has a beautiful Scandanavian-inspired design featuring an aluminum alloy cabinet and “72 vertical wooden fins crafted from premium oak finished in a matte lacquered white stain.” As you can see from the pictures, it’s a gorgeous design, if a bit on the large side, so let’s hope Dynaudio does scale things down if and when the Symphony Opus One comes to market.
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