Nakamichi Dragon 11.4.6 - Full Review

[Music] yes it's about dang time the Nakamichi Dragon 11.46 full review it's been a journey hope you brought snacks the Nakamichi dragon has dominated the Soundbar system discussion since its dizzying reveal at CES 2023 personal anecdote a video of me removing Dragon parts from a box resulted in the most single day views and subscribers my channel has ever witnessed anyway Nakamichi saw an opening to be the go-to for those grasping for the most epic home theater in a box plug-and-play audio system money can buy their execution strategy make each component a total freak in size weight Watts Channel count driver count numerosity and or some combination thereof along with the inclusion of Highly desired HDMI Technologies and I suppose Technologies we didn't even realize we were missing any one of these things would make an otherwise Normie Soundbar system a standout the dragon said yes to all of it and well you get the idea so Nakamichi has bought itself a dedicated goldplated seat at the Soundbar system Big Boy table and with that a rais possibly impossibly high expectations with its $3,900 price tag it is easily four times as expensive as the reigning Never Enough Tech anointed king sound maker the 990 b/c which makes the task of convincing any one customer that 4,000 is the right price for a soundbar system stressful I am aware of the chatter but my aim here is to give you a blank slate innocent pure peer pressure-free Snow White yet seasoned take on the many facets of the system and close with some discussion on what kind of customer would be best served by the dragon here is the video rundown let's jump jump in setup if you were hoping for some unboxing action I got you but come back we'll be watching as Grand as this system is to get your dragon up and running requires little more than plugging in your components and connecting the main unit to your TV or projector via the EC Port if you want to make sure all the channels survive the journey turn on the dragon and press the D for a demo which will take you through some Dolby Atmos Classics and a channel by Channel test test you can optionally connect the bar to the Dragon app for an always on you remote one of the benefits of addiction you can and should invest significant time making sound adjustments don't stress yourself out on day one full discussion on that in the sound adjustment chapter Nakamichi provides audio settings instructions on many of the popular set toop boxes to guarantee Your Dragon is getting the best signals from your Source components For Better or Worse you need not worry about getting this device connected to the internet as there is zero zip zilch worldwide web compatibility so no AirPlay chomecast integrated Music Services nor mechanism for overthe a firmware updates you got to go to the Nakamichi site get a compatible USB stick load it up and manually install and like it at the time of this review firmware version 2.1 is a available for download my advice install it in terms of component placement there are some suggestions that Nakamichi has that I think are worth passing on with the surrounds it is best if you can get the speakers behind you as shown here to stretch the bubble many rooms don't support that so Nakamichi suggests a sight of couch alternative which I consider a legitimate but lesser option they also say to try to keep the surrounds at ear level for the greatest effect also make sure the pointer on the perfect height mechanism is pointed at you Nakamichi wants your subs in front or at least between you and the main unit the back of the room or front and back is considered a lesser option if your subs are shoved in the corner of the room angle them 45° to get the best driver wall interaction this advice was shared with dragon owners over email keep in mind the subs are assigned left and right along with the rounds so at the very least let's try to get your components on their correct side design and build let's start with a little background on my main unit if you saw my unboxing video you know that the metal grill right out of the box was bent in multiple places the Nakamichi CEO Raymond Chung did proactively reach out to me after the release of my dramatic unboxing video to explain their shipping wos and how the weight of the Box along with shipping being handling sloppiness has contributed to Dragon injuries Raymond mentioned an acrylic board is being added somewhere in the packaging to offer greater main unit protection so they identified the problem found a solution Happy Ever After to make me a shiny happy person Nakamichi sent me a new main unit wrapped with I assume all the bubble wrap they could afford extra cardboard bumpers on the outside and a staggering amount of tape a bit of lingering Trauma from that unboxing anyway the damage on the replacement was way worse than on the original with far more significant folding and a huge gap between the metal casing and the back plastic casing I didn't appreciate how good I had it the first time this unfortunately is really telling because you can't blame it on the heavy Subs mid review breaking news so Nakamichi sent me another Original Dragon box I counted 25 caution stickers four cardboard bumpers wrapped with approximately a half mile of tape another set of accessories an acrylic board two CES dummy Subs invisible surrounds and a pristine main unit so credit where it's due some evidence that they figured it out my guess is that it was the 23rd warning sticker that made the difference though my understanding is that even those who don't have glamorous Soundbar Lifestyles like me are given solid replacement Solutions comment on your experience anyway the main unit's physicality is something to behold it simply dwarfs all my other Soundbars to the point of embarrassment except well the Sennheiser ambox which is taller and heavier the max is also quite nuts the main unit has a distinctive design a bird's eyee view yes has a lot in common with Samsung's q- line with its six sides but that's mostly where it ends a defining styling characteristic is the three air motion Transformer tweeters in the front which totally look like gold dragon scales the cascading edges separating the front and sides creates an illusion that the bottom is wider than the top resulting in an aggressive crouching dragon Hidden Tiger posture the main unit has a unibody stainless steel chassis making it feel quite rigid which is an incredibly important consideration when judging overall quality the casing well it's a mixture of metal Grill and matte plastic the plastic feels decent though not premium and the metal Grill is pedestrian thin lightweight dare I say flimsy I mean it literally folds Under Pressure I'm sure Nakamichi could defend this material choice but no doubt a thicker more unyielding Grill would make this component touch and feel more like $44,000 the main unit's display is embedded behind the grill and sits in between the center and right Tweeter in the front where people can see it it doesn't always play out that way the top of the main unit has angled grills pointing to this somewhat understated slightly protruded dragon logo directly under a black capacitive control touch bar the back exists purely for verification purposes the ports are underneath and off to the side and come with these removable gold colored rubber bands for wire management one port grouping is dedicated to HDMI ports and the other Legacy connections and power which I'll discuss more in the ports chapter keep in mind the main unit is powered via an adapter so a little extra chunk you may not have been planning for while we're down here you will notice four round rubber stopped mounting holes that by pure coincidence fits Nakamichi totally non-standard probably IP protected main unit Mount the main unit sits on four corpulent rubber skis that bestows heaps of stability and raises the bar significantly mercifully making it easier to grab and move around but more likely to block your TV and please be cautious around these paper shredding sharp Corners I'm quite confident they could cause serious injury Nakamichi really should have rounded them as they are around a natural grab position and this stonehinge piece is prone to mishandling the surrounds afraid of looking like squares added an extra side to become pentagons a familiar looking Grill connects the two noise making sides with an AMT Tweeter embedded above the top has the rot atable partial Dome perfect height mechanism that houses the go rotate it yourself upward firing driver power is connected in the back with these provided 10t L-shaped headed power cords the bottom has the Dual mounting holes compatible with dragon specific mounts and the rest is a rubber pad the weight and density of the surrounds is maybe a little less than you would expect given the size it feels a little under build the two subs each are 2 lb heavier than the main unit so Hefty though just one of them is actually not dimensionally way outside the bounds of what we're used to with I dare say a modest footprint their splendidness is in their height the front has a generous airport that feeds the two sidef firing woofers which fire through the same grill material as the main unit the power power port is in the back and you are provided with the same 10t power cord as the surrounds the subs housing is MDF and has a vertical brush effect the whole thing sits on four round legs I've seen lots of subwoofer legs these are like super model legs by comparison the dragon's build quality is good the main unit's unibody frame is unprecedented my beef is laser focused on the proliferated flimsy metal Grill I wish they aimed a little higher with that material Channel count and Driver array these details really got me excited because rightly or wrongly I sense all else being equal the more drivers the Richer and more effortless the sound will be and the less these audio companies need to lean on heavy-handed sound sullying DSP measures for 3D effects and fireworks as a rem reminder this is an 11.46 21 Channel system with 31 drivers both of those numbers are unprecedented on a soundbar system it has 3,000 watts of total Peak power 125 D SPL and an advertised overall frequency range of 20 HZ to 40,000 HZ let's start with the main unit it's a 7.0.4 channel system with 17 drivers and 7even amplifiers with each channnel given its own dedicated enclosure to optimize airflow three of these drivers are the 1.5 in recognizable AMT tweeters which I think is broadly accepted as more accurate and expensive than what is typically offered on a soundbar and Associated components the remaining drivers are all 3-in woofers the left Center and right channels are all comprised of the typical Flagship dual woofer TW twer Trio on the extremities of the front is what Nakamichi is calling the inner surround channels made of a single outward angled woer moving to the side past the cascading waterfall Edge are the outer surround channels sometimes called wi angle channels which are also each a single woofer so far this is the same number of drivers and channels as the Samsung q950t SLA and q990 b/c the Dragon Goes further however with the number of height drivers which are four not two the height drivers on the outside project the sound up but with a 20° angle it's useful to conceptualize it as Center Height though Nakamichi calls it outer Heights based on its location on the main unit and the interior height drivers are projected at a 10° angle so practically front height but termed inner height so less directed towards the listener the surrounds despite their shape and perfect height mechanism in terms of Channel count well it's an increasingly typical 2.0.1 Channel speaker however with an atypical number of supporting drivers five three woofers and two AMT tweeters where three woofers and no tweeters is the norm the two horizontal channels are termed surround side and Surround back surround side is intended to simulate speakers approximately at your periphery and Surround back is intended to simulate a speaker to your rear at approximately a 45° angle from your head both of the horizontal channels in the surround speakers are supported with a 1.5 in AMT Tweeter and 3.5 in woofer pairing the rotatable top 3in woofer is termed rear height and ideally is able to simulate speakers that are above to the to the side and behind the two subm modules add four channels to the system with two 8in woofers per sub advertised is having a 20 HZ floor ports going to drop some Kudos here we got a proper HDMI 2.1 E port supporting 4K 120 HZ 8K 30 HZ Dolby vision and hdr10 pass through which can only be fully utilized if we have some compatible 2.1 HDMI inputs which the dragon has three of them a refreshingly high count of Highly capable HDMI inputs connecting audio sources directly to the main unit is the shest way to maintain the Integrity of your audio signal and is the only way practically if your TV does not support EC I did have a reoccurring connection issue with my Apple TV where it would drop out for a second and come back the frequency at which it happened is unique to the Dag Dragon I found that a power reset to the Apple TV and the main unit can make it go away for extended periods of time but you may find that the issue creeps back in this happened with firmware version 2.1 the dragon also delivers on the Legacy side with analog and Optical in it's an expensive system so it might be worth adding a streamer record player CD player especially if they were just collecting dust the output I will admit didn't make immediate sense to me use the dragon to power a $25 Amazon speaker but I think headphones for nighttime viewing is a better explanation so you can plug directly into the 3.5mm Jack or go less tethered by connecting a Bluetooth transmitter and using Bluetooth headphones codec support though missing the new IMAX enhanced format let's just Round Up to everything Pro one of Nakamichi biggest brags and justifications for the $4,000 price is access to enhanced Atmos and dtsx decoders in the case of DTS dtsx Pro specifically which have historically been exclusive to high-end avrs that alone exceed the $4,000 price point by multiples so I have a sad story for you in your deplorable non-pro Soundbar system like the q990 C when you play Atmos or dtsx the built-in decoder can only distribute the metadata amongst 12 channels so let's say a 7.1.4 system when 3D object-based content is playing on the 13th 14th 15th so on channel these excess channels are brought into the mix via third party upmixing techniques so hackery the dragon does not have these limitations and can leverage all of its channels as Dolby or DTS would dictate so I get the draw of this enhancement when the channels are proliferated and laid out like this how much does the pro enhancement matter when channels are crammed into many fewer components well Nakamichi is giving customers a chance to figure it out I discuss this in the sound quality chapter sound adjustments okay let's start off by getting disappoint pointed that the dragon is bereft of any auto room tuning calibration super AI mind that is going to One-Stop shop fix all of your life's problems digging deeper the dragon is a bit different in that it separates Channel mixing and sound modes which typically come as a package amongst the channel configuration options are surround modes like Dolby Surround which up mixes all Dolby and PCM content to use all channels you got the same deal for DTS content with DTS neural X you also have separate native modes for Dolby PCM and DTS that will do no upmixing omitting channels not explicitly called for I mostly kept it on Dolby Surround but when playing DTS content DTS neural X was Auto selected avoiding an annoying manual step Nakamichi also cooked up a proprietary sound mode Studio meant to emphasize the front sound which groups the surround Channels with the left and right channels converting the main unit into a 3.0.4 speaker with let's say Uber left and right channels it functions with all audio codecs two stereo modes are available while these modes down miix all content to 2.1 numerous channels across the system contribute on the main unit in both stereo modes all the left channels play left and right play right the center channel plays mono with some special phasing sauce according to Nakamichi Engineers you can choose to have the surrounds join in or not with all Channel stereo or stereo mode respectively okay so the equalizer DSP modes there you go music and movie are unique in that they are bestowed with three levels of movie or music as the number increases you trade in fireworks for fundamentals loudness and punchiness for dynamic range maybe the best analogy is that Nakamichi virtually increases the resistance or ohms feel free to poo poo and improve my analogy music mode is described as getting pummeled because you got too close to the stage during a tay-tay concert huh movie mode is described as getting mortally injured because action scenes are egregiously dangerous and you're put right in the middle of it game has an emphasis on space and sound effects news dialogue with ultra Clarity Sports the spotlight is on the announcers layered on the venue atmospherics no doink stops that man DSP off if you're not a fan of any of it you can turn it off and I think this system has enough Hardware to give it a try night mode mainly neuters the base and there are three levels of neutering 50% 100% and an auto mode managed by Dolby that only works with Dolby content other manual controls adaptive height dispersion a proprietary Nakamichi technology this is advertised as adjusting the perceived height driver spray radius using DSP techniques not whatever that is it varies between off so height effects as the Director intended to Max which is the default for the most wide least missable Deluge of height effects the dragon has to offer the sub you can choose how many of the four you want to fire so that's one to four in terms of controlling levels you have a dedicated base and treble control that adjusts sub and Tweeter volume specifically you have level control for every channel to make One Direction louder than the other you can adjust balance for further customization you can communicate the size of your listening space there are small medium and large room templates to save you time or you can specify component by component and for the most Discerning of customers you have pink noise options to assist in SPL calibration which is what the room sizing option is trying to save you from and to take any remaining edges off the base response you have a frequency crossover adjustment that defaults to 200 HZ and access to the low frequency effects deciel level some Auto room tuning wouldn't hurt but you don't buy this system if you're a normal person so maybe most of you future buyers will embrace the journey I think I disclosed the most interesting stuff if you need every last morsel the manual is your boy Link in the description controls bar App Remote and onscreen display or OSD let's start easy with the bar touch panel when the dragon is in standby you have a single red illuminated power button when the dragon is on and the controls are evoked with a tap you will see Power input D for Dragon but it functions as a demo button and volume up down the D button is convenient if you need to quickly show off to friends and family what your toy can do and there's no time to rumage through your Blu-ray collection the remote it supports Bluetooth and IR connections which can be toggled underneath the battery cover it ships in Bluetooth mode that does not require line of sight and is pre paired with the bar from a design and physicality standpoint this thing is awesome huge and sturdy it's manufactured by the same folks that make Flagship Sony TV remotes confirmed by the Nakamichi CEO over email quite the email correspondence with Raymond I had when holding the dragon remote you are presented with an expanse of crisp chunky buttons with splashes of color the Grandeur feels like it's proportionate to what it's meant to control Nakamichi has a remote philosophy that every function should be immediately accessible the customer should not waste away in menus while using the remote so you have this perhaps disorienting yet glorious array of dedicated buttons to quickly make 70 perish of the adjustments I discussed though it is missing a heads scratching number of Channel level control options for the main unit I guess they ran out of space they should have made it even bigger it could would have been epic okay I have to talk about my beef with the remote along with the good stuff in Bluetooth mode I noticed I was having to press a button multiple times to get a bar response once I got that first response it acted normally but the delay in the first interaction which occurs after a minute or so of inactivity is extremely annoying I switched to ir and everything worked fine I don't know I tried three remotes and a delay was present to various degrees each time maybe I suck at pushing buttons the remote is backlit which is helpful for nighttime viewing but you have to press buttons to get the backlight there's a lot of buttons the app it's not subject to the same size restraints so it gives you full access to channel adjustments though the more advanced room calibration stuff and LF handoff is limited to the on-screen display in terms of layout the volume treble base adjustments along with surround mode EQ mode and Source are ever present unless you go to settings there are three tabs down here all worth calling out the audio tab is dedicated to channel level adjustments quad sub setup where you can manually choose any combination you wish and ahd settings the remote slome tab is for music playback over Bluetooth so track control along with a physical remote style subc configurator it made sense to me why they included that control after playing around with various music sources third the info tab that gives you a smattering of information that I largely like but wish it was more thought out as much of what is shown is everpresent information like volume input and Surround mode I suggest they just show everything and separate info into a readable manner they should support exporting and saving settings into favorites and I think they could probably find a way to support more than two favorite settings if they really wanted to okay the onscreen display or OSD it's Soundbar system nerdvana with the Retro interface and full access to all settings and calibrations you can pull up the OSD quickly on the remote by pressing the home button or on the Home tab of the app which has a dedicated OSD button the main unit display it's a fairly standard do Matrix lowres LED display that distinguishes Itself by being able to show two lines of text it provides all the info you would expect as you make sound adjustments change inputs and switch codex and it's readable from across the room for the most part again kudos for being placed where a user can see it and they put the codec status indicators on top too there are no display bright brightness controls and unfortunately there is no way to turn it off wireless playback as mentioned there is no internet connectivity so just Bluetooth with Apex HD for high-res playback but that format is not supported on iOS or Samsung phones which I suspect makes up the vast majority of phones Dragon users own sound quality all cut to it this system unquestionably raises the bar for an all-in-one box system and all sound considered the dragon is the new King in the space so again big sound picture total sound package the combination of fidelity detail power fundamentals Integrity it's unmatched so when getting to knowah system I often pull out my Blade Runner 2049 Dolby Atmos Blu Ray right out of the gate while the Warner Brothers logo was still spinning around it gave me a bang I was not physically prepared for it shook the of me in a good way like dude pay attention this is going to be different like that wall of sound when the eye opens moving beyond the immediate visceral reactions when this system first gives you the business I think what's really going to catch your attention are these AMT tweeters they are sharp and take detail to let's say an uncommon level the hisses shattering feet shuffling screeches whipping will be more super ultra highdea than what you're accustomed to I expect right out of the box the Tweeter sound quality change may be disconcerting or overly noticeable though I'm quite confident you will appreciate the heightened Fidelity more with increased exposure and the tweeters will mature over the first 24 hours of use I played Storm sounds all night to speed up the process anyway once they've had a chance to stretch you adjust the trouble level your ears habituate I think you're going to start to truly appreciate how these AMT tweeters elevates the sound the next thing you'll notice is how full the sound is it's a loaded potato a feast the full flavor palette if you have seven of these AMT tweeters you need a proper counterweight and well amongst the 18 woofers and four Subs the dragon succeeds just an unmatched amount of that satisfying fill and resonance that gives the engine revs heart racing energy Grunt and satisfaction the cavernous spaces their tremendous volume the helicopter blades their kinetic contoured massaging thump for a crash course in the dragon's abundance I recommend the Blade Runner sapper Morton punch them out scene starting around 5 minutes and 20 seconds into the film it goes on for about 5 minutes and showcases how thick the sound can be with vocals punches and gunshots and the Batman starting around 57 minutes and 30 seconds for the next 6 minutes it spans a lovely orchestral number satisfying dialogue layered on energetic City noises and a Showcase of how this system renders cavernous spaces and what it sounds like when a vehicle crashes through it all of it sounding expensive the subs I am aware of the chatter that they don't meet their 20 HZ mandate disclaimer I am not a lab with a perfect space and don't have professional equipment for making quality quantitative generalized assessments I sense there is a futility in trying to compete with ratings.com for instance I have my spicy personality and my soundbar truth however I know emotions are running high so here is what I did which I know is going to make things even worse I set the dragon to a quarter volume which is quite loud activated all four Subs raised the base to its highest setting and played various frequencies along with its General decibel level I did the same thing with the q990 c which is not the best hardware comparison but probably the single most probable soundar you will buy if you skip the [Music] [Laughter] Dragon okay my feelings about the subs well they largely disappear because I mostly heard them as graceful extensions to the main unit the cooperation is quite strong successfully continuing that satisfying fullness to the lower registers my take is that I don't want to think about the base units that much because it's usually caused by the bass playing an ill-fitting solo bringing too much attention to itself in an unflattering manner but when called on in the context of a movie and not just sitting there like an idiot playing a single frequency they delivered a deep responsive focused resonance that mercifully did didn't evolve into an undifferentiated sloppy floppy mess for a solid demonstration I suggest watching Transformers 5 near the end of the submarine scene When approaching the sunken night ship starting at 1 hour 38 minutes and 45 seconds and spanning 10 seconds my take is the menacing drone pushed the subs below 30 HZ resulting in a deep tight low distortion show off look at me base response that helps to frame what this system is capable of I appreciated the four sidef firing woofers I think they did to some degree push out the Sonic walls in a manner that felt novel are there more powerful sounding Subs out there yes if you want those go build your own system system it's probably cheaper and you'll feel really good about yourself are these a nice fit with this Hefty bar and surrounds yes are they a tragic weak link not based on my experience you may have noticed that there is no systemwide dialogue mode that's because Nakamichi I suspect is confident enough in the center channel to deem it unnecessary I don't think I've heard such intelligible speech while maintaining what I want to call full sound Integrity with a generous dose of lower mids and based resonance which with lesser systems would likely lead to muddiness the dialogue performance really contributed to a convincing high-end theater cinematic experience three-dimensional audio performance was quite good even in my technically completely unoptimized listening space I had had no issue identifying sounds as height effects and tracking them between front and rear the dragon gives you an elevated 3D audio experience and you will hear sounds coming from many different directions however I do predict and I'm going to dig into this more intensely in my next video that in an imperfect space you will still notice a significant 3D accuracy gain with separates up front like the A9 and here is where I issue my first official dragon sound disc I believe the Sonos Arc with the 300s sure let's give it the dual subs and that would make it the same form factor largely just talking 3D audio effects has higher highs the era 300s are just a GameChanger for spatial audio where the dragon surrounds aren't so the dragon 3D audio effects are quite good but it's an area where it's not necessarily dominant or let's say clobbering the field Dragon owned we got some beef so here's my take on the more Pro Atmos and dtsx it's really hard to disentangle enhanced decoding with the enhanced sound makinging Hardware whatever the case the hardware software combo sounds great but the 3D performance was not beyond what I've experienced previously for some solid 3D audio hits check out Jurassic Park Fallen Kingdom while the crew makes their way down the hill it delivers a satisfying pallet of falling Earth and dinosaur mischief and if you have the disc you can finally experience dtsx Pro another strong showing the six underground yacht kitchen knife flying scene very sharp convincing directional effects flying overhead and so violent and you really need to check this scene out in extraction 2 when the helicopter is machine gunning into the building the excessive Unapologetic whipping whizzing and glass breaking is oddly yet undeniably satisfying and I would be remiss not to recommend madmax just pick a span during the entire first road scene all the way through the dust storm the dragon somehow makes that ride even Wilder so when I first heard about the dragon I was excited but had this giant knot in my stomach that it was going to be just an unrelenting dose of Brun and its aim would be to just Club me into submission like a more intense Cinema 1200 which I sense lacks artfulness it's just a bit too blocky and heavy-handed that worry and I was so delighted did not play out this system has Grace warmth and tenderness when it's called for it has tremendous range which is kind of low-key its greatest strength music the good news continues I typically conditionalize my statements like this system complements this genre more due to various compromises and coloring blah blah blah not here every genre was given its due but you will want to be sensitive to Source this has been pretty steady advice if you really want your killer movie Soundbar machine to deliver music with confidence cohesion delight and a sense of wow play music coded like a movie the best Atmos music delivery system is Apple music via Apple TV feel free to fight me on that one put the dragon in music mode choose Atmos tracks and you will get your wow it's not high-end stereo wow it's a different yet completely legit wow and this wow that I've been discussing for a while now absolutely has the space for four Subs Caleb I'll admit I've gotten a bit grumpy about modern music over the last few years as more and more it appears to be merely some form of twerking on top of a smoldering pile of rubble that was once civilization nonetheless these sassy kids filtered through Atmos Apple TV and the dragon often won me over sounding irresistibly clean with sparkling Top Hat beats and affectations full-bodied vocals all balanced with a responsive yet deep contoured and tight based response I particularly enjoyed the track Young Guns featuring John bellan by Tory Kelly how it matures from sparing to intri kit the disciplined yet Artful use of vocal ornamentation overlaid on an innocent relatable emotion which was refreshing the satisfying beats of the inexplicably weird vulnerable yet Pitch Perfect pop from Oliver tree the atmosphere instrumental layering and the multiplicity in vocal registers and texture delivered by Matt buringer and Justin Vernon in the track weird Goodbye by the so when not listening to Atmos music the conservative move is just go stereo and turn DSP off but I found that sounded a little constrained and a bit too forward and mono so I tended to include the rear surrounds to introduce more of a stereo effect to widen the Sound Stage and throw a bit more atmosphere and lift into the mix I also typically settled somewhere in music mode Dolby upmixing of stereo tracks often led to the best sometimes stunning results with the audio sounding a little less centralized a little more in the air I suggest listening to homeless by Paul Simon in this mode but when listening to a more percussive track I would often get distracted by odd rear speaker playback that just didn't quite fit which seemed to be more more of an issue with the more classic tracks anyway to avoid desecrating Rubber Soul or whatever I would often mosy back to all Channel stereo and reduce the active woer count by one or two as the four can come across a little too angular in Stereo I think Nakamichi totally understands that when playing music you're going to fiddle with the subs a bit more sound adjustments if you're a professional calibrator I think you know what to do for those that are the traditional Soundbar customer and expect things to be done for you well too bad in this case but maybe it's not as overwhelming as you might think you know at the very least enter your approximate room size get to your preferred EQ preset break the system in let it run overnight with some sounds your wife can tolerate get your favorite Blu-ray discs out and play with the levels find a profile you like save it and make adjustments as necessary over time I think you can get the 80% benefit with 20% effort and short [Music] order and now I am become death destroyer of world I'm check this page yeah why am I the only one who left in the rain with no to hold on to why am I the only one who's feeling this pain when there should be [Music] to [Music] [Applause] no doubt you'll send the chaos in the streets we must make an example our France will fall what would you do if this assignment of defense was transferred to you I promise you go in successes my name is Mario Brena I uh 40 years old I a professional photographer I work in advertising and fashion but the market has gone crazy for society work everyone wants pictures of celebrities pictures that show famous people they are no different Alexander Isaiah Joe and hog The Most Dangerous Ones gy looking looking Hog's got it turns fires he hit it he was on the line though I think he might have been on the line [Music] [Music] if you could just look up in to the left please a [Music] wrap-up so we got ourselves a serious problem the whole value proposition would be much easier if either the system sound or price was not a standout I think in those cases it would be an easy skip or buy respectively but this is not our situation so who is this system for necessarily keeping price in mind well first off it's for those that can use it who can take full advantage so people in houses that are not attached to other houses or sharing walls even better if you live on a compound if you buy this and have to keep the volume at 5% in night mode to keep the cops away well that's too tragic to even talk about anymore if you are are a big Sennheiser ambo Max fan but you're steaming that they didn't take the max ethos and bestow it onto surround and sub offerings if you hate Samsung to your core and really want to stick it to them by giving all your money to Nakamichi if you're really underwhelmed with the Sonos Arc and you don't think the era 300's save it you want an audio system with 20 plus channels and you understand how expensive that is going the AVR route the rare fully compatible HDMI 2.1 EC port with three inputs is unbelievably appealing and if you know well and good you could have a pretty darn decent good old traditional component setup for the same price but you're not about that life bottom line if you don't want but need the all-around best most competent sounding plug-and-play system anyway as you can tell I'm very positive on the Dragon and this means a lot considering I'm not a super go-lucky shiny likable YouTube reviewer that sprays compliments everywhere he's not mean he's cranky this system was a big investment but I'm excited to keep it in my Arsenal and tell you more about it in future videos speaking of my next video is a four Flagship fight to dig deeper on the pros and cons of the most compelling Flagship systems I hope you might want to watch that I'm not an expert but I hear smashing the various things in this region makes missing my videos more difficult and will help me reach my 23,000 sub goal by 2024 24,000 Subs would be way cooler if you could somehow pull off that miracle thanks so much for watching catch you on the next [Music] one

Channel: NeverEnoughTech

Views: 47,995

Keywords: nakamichi dragon 11.4.6, nakamichi dragon 11.4.6 review, sonos arc, DTS:X Pro, samsung q990c soundbar

Id: aGGxA2xtDk8

Length: 50min 24sec (3024 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 30 2023