Dali Katch One Soundbar, Iron Black

Summary:This product is one of the “wow” products that shocks me how good it is. I only have one single hiccup in the review which once figured out solved all my issues. It works great, sounds amazing and looks cool in any room!Pros:• Style• Sound quality• Size• Build quality• Ease of use• APT-X supportCons:• No included screws• Requires PCM to work with HDMI (more in review)Unboxing:The box is fitted well to the device and includes essentials. The speaker, wooden stand pegs, wall mounting hardware (minus screws), remote with batteries and instructions.Setup and use:I first tested it with my phone (Android S21 Ultra so I could test bluetooth APT-X support). After plugging it in, putting batteries in the remote and pairing it with my ... MoreSummary:This product is one of the “wow” products that shocks me how good it is. I only have one single hiccup in the review which once figured out solved all my issues. It works great, sounds amazing and looks cool in any room!Pros:• Style• Sound quality• Size• Build quality• Ease of use• APT-X supportCons:• No included screws• Requires PCM to work with HDMI (more in review)Unboxing:The box is fitted well to the device and includes essentials. The speaker, wooden stand pegs, wall mounting hardware (minus screws), remote with batteries and instructions.Setup and use:I first tested it with my phone (Android S21 Ultra so I could test bluetooth APT-X support). After plugging it in, putting batteries in the remote and pairing it with my phone, it was ready to go. I played “A Letter To Ashley” by Your Broken Hero and the Piano sounded crisp with great range across the board conveying all the good Emo vibes. I played with the wide and narrow sound settings which have their use cases. Wide sounds AMAZING for music and movies. Narrow is great for spoken word. Playing some EDM and classical I was impressed by the crispness and ability to fill a room. Vocals were clear, details were pronounced, and bass was above average (not room shaking).My initial setup was in a computer nook, so it was somewhat far from a wall which is not ideal as most of the bass relies on the rear fired woofers to use the wall to amplify the sound. Even in this setup, it sounded good, just not amazing on the low end.I then took it upstairs to use with my bedroom TV. I placed it closer to the wall and plugged it in via HDMI ARC. I did not get any sound. To see if the issue was the cable, I swapped it out to no avail. I then tried to use an optical cable with the same results. After digging into my TV settings, I changed “compressed audio” to “PCM” and it worked. So if you are expecting any compressed formats, Dolby, DTS or any other formats, you might have some issues depending on your TV. PCM worked great though so I switched back to HDMI and all was well.Playing some movies on Netflix was outstanding as well. Action movies had wide stereo with room filling sound. Documentaries were better in the narrow mode with more emphasis on voice.I have yet to wall mount the device on the wall as I need to get some anchors to better support the device as it weighs 8 lbs and I am in a rental unit, but you can mount it two ways; with a large nail hanging directly to the back of the unit or with the included leather straps which work with a smaller nail and looks very classy. For now, I am using the wooden pegs in the base of the unit which also look nice and are easily removable.Documentation:The device comes with a quick start guide which is mostly pictures of what needs to be done. If you lose it it can also be downloaded at their website. The guide better explains what each input symbol means as they use symbols more than words on the unit to label connections. The remote is clearly explained as well. Of most value is the mounting instructions which tells you what size scores you should use and how much clearance you would need for each option. It also explains options for routing cables if using wall mounted to better hide the cable.It is overall a useful quick set-up guide but nothing extraordinary. I would like to see a specifications page as well so I could better understand the product upon opening.

The 'woolly and flat' sound from the rear speakers of my (upstairs) Panasonic TV did not complement the excellent picture; not able to justify the cost of another AV Receiver and speakers and having had a pair of the excellent Dali Opticon 6's now for two years for my audio system, the Katch 1 seemed an economic option. After just two weeks I am highly delighted with the phenomenal improvement in clarity, depth and frequency range of the sound stage - as well as the expected benefit to spoken word! One small reservation is that so far the highest frequencies of orchestral and folk music are a tad 'bright' but this should improve with extended use.

This was bought as a replacement for a Sonos Beam Gen 2 that had a glitch. I'm glad the Sonos had a glitch now since I much prefer the Katch One. The soundstage is a little wider than the Beam and the sound in general is more detailed. Depending on the source, however, it does lack a little bottom end so you'll probably want to add a decent sub. But unlike the Beam the frequencies are better balanced and not all 'muddied' by trying to cram a rich, low and detailed bass sound into a unit that doesn't really have the size or capacity to produce one. In short, if you're happy with 2.0 and not looking for something that claims to do the whole virtual surround thing, I think the Katch One is a very detailed and musical soundbar, and paired with the right sub probably ... MoreThis was bought as a replacement for a Sonos Beam Gen 2 that had a glitch. I'm glad the Sonos had a glitch now since I much prefer the Katch One. The soundstage is a little wider than the Beam and the sound in general is more detailed. Depending on the source, however, it does lack a little bottom end so you'll probably want to add a decent sub. But unlike the Beam the frequencies are better balanced and not all 'muddied' by trying to cram a rich, low and detailed bass sound into a unit that doesn't really have the size or capacity to produce one. In short, if you're happy with 2.0 and not looking for something that claims to do the whole virtual surround thing, I think the Katch One is a very detailed and musical soundbar, and paired with the right sub probably sounds awesome! Though I have yet to add one. The Beam was more impressive 'out of the box' but was trying a little too hard to impress with the low end which left the whole thing for me feeling a little closed and too crammed full of frequencies. That said, for the money it is still a very nice bar! And it's small which I know appeals to many. That ending up being more of a comparison than a review! The Dali wins for me :-)