In terms of upgrading the sound of your TV, it’s often hard to do better than a soundbar, but they’re not always made for other parts of your home. Dali’s Katch One changes that.
While our spellcheck still has problems with the word “soundbar” (it’s not “sounder”), consumers and TVs seem to really appreciate them, packing a fair amount of sound technology into a relatively slim line package.
Instead of needing several speakers and an amplifier, you can merely get the one device, plug it into your TV, and just like that, you’ll have likely improved your TV’s sound dramatically. Whether the soundbar you use is a standard 2.1 or 3.1 front system, or one with a couple of rear speakers or maybe some Dolby Atmos sound bouncing to create a bubble of three-dimensional sound around you, soundbars can do the job multiple speakers normally required for making movies and games sound that much better.
But they don’t always have to be just TV speakers, even if their design almost always implies it. Products like the Sonos Beam and Playbar can be used as individual devices when the TV is off, as can many soundbars that include Bluetooth functionality, though they might look out of place when not under a TV.
Dali is looking to provide something that can sit in more locations and do double duty, though, building a soundbar made to sit under a screen, but also go anywhere else if you need a long speaker for your home.
The Danish audio company has built something it calls the Katch One, which is both a soundbar and a large speaker for the home.
Inside, four 4.5 inch woofers and four passive drivers, alongside two 21mm tweeters, plus four 50 watt digital Class D amplifiers. That should provide a decent amount of sound, and there’s support for both Amazon Alexa and Google Chromecast support.
While it appears primarily made for under the TV with support for HDMI and optical in, the Dali Katch One can also work as a long Bluetooth speaker, too, and comes with some approaches to mounting.
On the one hand, it can be mounted using leather straps to suspend the speaker from a wall or shelf. And yet on the other, Dali offers wooden feet that the speaker can sit on, making it good for a more traditional type of home theatre furniture.
At a cost of $1499, Dali’s Katch One isn’t an inexpensive soundbar, but also isn’t thoroughly expensive, either.
You won’t get Dolby Atmos here, though, so it’s a totally different soundbar from other big movie focused soundbars on the market. You’ll find it at specialists across Australia, though, available in black and two types of white.
