Dali Kubik One - No DTS/DD decoder?

[houmie]

Hi,

I came across the flawless review of Dali Kubik One on 'What HIFI' website and must say I'm quite surprised.

The device doesn't seem to have any internal decoder such as DTS/Dolby Digital. It seems more like a glorified stereo speaker. How did it get such high ratings or am I missing something?

Many Thanks,

H

 

[Frank Harvey]

Adding in specific sound formats means paying Dolby and DTS licences - soundbars and soundbases generally don't have these formats at the budget end of the market. No wireless speakers will have them. It's usually a case of setting the source output to PCM, if the speaker in question has digital inputs.

 

[houmie]

Thanks David for your reply.

But how about Yamaha YSP-2700 ? It's not cheap, but supports these formats via an internal DSP and it's also 4K (HDCP 2.2) compliant.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Thanks David for your reply.

But how about Yamaha YSP-2700 ? It's not cheap, but supports these formats via an internal DSP and it's also 4K (HDCP 2.2) compliant.

That's why it's not cheap

To support hi-res sound formats you need HDMI inputs, whereas cheaper soundbars and soundabases tend to just use analogue or optical inputs.

 

[houmie]

But David,

Dali Kubik One costs $1,395.00. (Only sound bar, no subwoofer)

Yamaha YSP-2700 costs $1,199.95. (sound bar plus subwoofer)

I'm just trying to get a feel for it but the pricing is really crazy. Kubik one costs so much and doesn't support those formats.

 

[Frank Harvey]

But David,

Dali Kubik One costs $1,395.00. (Only sound bar, no subwoofer)

Yamaha YSP-2700 costs $1,199.95. (sound bar plus subwoofer)

I'm just trying to get a feel for it but the pricing is really crazy. Kubik one costs so much and doesn't support those formats.

Soundbars are generally purchased by people wanting to keep things simple and relatively discreet. They're less worried about decoding specific sound formats, and more about just having a single optical cable running from their TV and keeping things simple - even decoding a limited bandwidth optical signal can give most people the quality they're looking for, and far better than the sound from any TV.

Dali are speaker manufacturers, whereas Yamaha are general electronics manufacturers, and are a far bigger company, so are able to offer better value for money with regards to features etc - Dali will concentrate on sound quality. I have heard the Kubik One at the Bristol Show, and it did sound really good.