Dragon 11.4.6-Ch Surround System w Dolby Atmos/DTS:X Pro (Pro Cinema Engine), HiFi AMTs, Dual-Opposing 8" Subs, Bipolar Surr, 6 Discrete Height Ch, 3000 Watts Max Output. AVR-Grade Soundbar

The Nakamichi Dragon doesn't get featured in many soundbar showdowns because at its quality, performance and price it has no peers. It's more expensive, but it still offers great value. I acquired Nakamichi mounts for the soundbar and the surround speakers. The soundbar mount has versatile mount points, and once mounted there's still some lateral flexibility to center the soundbar. The mount is discrete and feels solid with the heavy soundbar in place. I mention all of this here because it's also the best wall mounting solution for a soundbar I've seen. Make sure that the HDMI cables you get (for any soundbar) support 48Gbps and have smaller terminators because they need to start bending close to the HDMI ports on the soundbar. The mounts for the surround speakers feel solid and are discrete, but the surround speakers are heavy enough that I recommend hitting a stud. I mounted them on the side walls. The mounts are very easy to use and provide routing for the power cable. The vertical speakers in the surround speakers are angled to reflect off of the ceiling and rotate so they can be aimed at the primary seating area, providing flexibility in where they can be mounted. The room I set this up in has an 8 foot ceiling, the speakers are mounted at seated ear height, and this is the only environment I can speak to. Connecting the surround speakers and subwoofers required pressing one button, and there have been zero connectivity issues. Audio sync has been flawless. (The TV must be plugged in the HDMI port one and whatever port the TV uses for its HDMI ARC/eARC port.) The system doesn't have an automatic calibration feature, but the on-screen menu is easy to use. Just pick the matching physical configuration of the speakers and enter the distance from each speaker to the primary seating area. Sitting off center still provides amazing sound effects' localisation. Some of the setups I've experienced can't maintain this, but the Dragon's speakers and processing shine here. I had to move the subwoofers a few extra inches away from the wall to eliminate some boominess. It eliminated the reflected sounds bad timing and sharpened the bass. There's enough power to drive all of the speakers and maintain clarity throughout the entire frequency range at all volumes, so you don't have to turn it up if you don't want to. But you'll want to. I adjusted the subwoofers' crossover frequency for my preference, but I liked the default levels and settings of all of the other speakers after calibrating for distance. I switch between the Music and Movie modes based on what the source material. I use an Oppo UDP 205 Blu-ray player, Apple TV 4k, PS5 and Nvidia Shield Pro (through the Oppo HDMI IN) as sources. DTS X Pro through the Dragon is amazing, and is currently much, much more expensive to get any other way. Dolby Atmos positioning is so smooth and clear that my dog spins while looking up and around in time with birds circling. Music in surround sound, including Dolby Atmos depends on the quality of the remixing. Sometimes it's more natural sounding or broadens the sound stage wonderfully. Sometimes the positioning of instruments and sounds feel like the artist's intention. Some mixes are distracting in ways that I don't prefer, but this should get better as the industry gains experience with it. When it's done right you feel right there. (The Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense, Taylor Swift - The Eras Tour.) Metallica's Black album is better in stereo in my opinion. Upmixing of movies and music is done really well by the Dragon. It can play and handle anything, and everyone you know will hit their limit before it even gets close to its own. My unit came with the latest firmware, so I never experienced the lower bass mentioned in some reviews. I love it. I love how easy it is was to setup and calibrate. I love how well it handles the variety of sources I throw at it. Most of all I love how it sounds. There's one thing that I wish it did better, which is transition from source to source with less delay before the audio starts. It's definitely not a deal breaker for me. I don't channel surf or constantly switch sources, but I notice the delay when I do. I tried to find comparable setups using separates or soundbars, and they simply don't exist. If this is reasonable for your budget then you can buy it knowing that you can't find anything that can compete with all that it can do so well for anything close to its price.

Nakamichi support personally reached out to see how things were going and if there was anything I need. I had one of their prior systems and they have always had very good and friendly support. Below is my response. “The system has been absolutely amazing. I have it paired with my Valerion VisionMaster Pro 2 projector with a 120in screen and it makes for an absolutely phenomenal theater like experience. Haven't gotten an opportunity to use it for gaming or music (except for music in movies) but I imagine it would do just wonderful. I haven't had any major issues; initially the update was being a little finicky but I got it to work. The ui is a little cumbersome but I appreciate all the options for adjustments.” Pros: Sound is out of this world Appears to be of great quality Amazing service if you need them Wide range of support that will keep it relevant for quite a while. The remote. Might be one of my favorite remotes. Cons: The UI does leave a little desire for something more user friendly but does have plenty of adjustment options. The companion app for your phone is slightly unreliable and doesn’t give the better adjustment options so I kind of just avoid it. Price, but worth it, specially on sale like I did. If you really want a top end sound system and can spend the 2-3k to get a proper modern theater sound system I’d recommend this unless they come out with something even better in this price point, which I imagine will be a few years or so.

Arrived as promised. This shouldn’t be called a sound bar, this is an avr that is the shape of a sound bar. First setup. Easy to install as long as you have two people.(this thing is heavy). Get the optional mounting hardware with this. If you’re planning to mount the sound bar on the wall you will definitely need these. This thing is basically plug and play, so once you place it in the spot you want then just turn it on and enjoy. POWERFUL.. This thing can get loud. Volume control goes to 100, I can listen to it above 15 at the most. I usually have it set to 11 or 12. SOUNDS. Fantastic, everything is clear and sound is heard from all over the room. I have this setup in a dedicated media room with a 120 inch ust projector. It’s a blast to watch a movie with this . EXPENSIVE. Yes it is, and worth every penny. You basically have a dedicated AVR with the hassle of running speaker wires and the hours of setup. For a decent AVR setup with speakers it’s will come in at the same price without the hassle. CUSTOMER SERVICE. They are on point, I have called for them to ask a question and they are very responsive and even sent me out a flash drive with updated software to load on it. NO WIFI. This is the only issue I have with this unit. You have to load a thumb drive with updates and then plug it in. Which generally is not that big of deal unless the soundbar is mounted on the wall. It sits pretty flush and will have to be removed to plug in the thump drive. Since it’s very heavy, 2 people should be used to do this. In short I have no problem recommending this product to my friends or anyone else who is interested in a top of the line sound system.