Orbitsound M9 review

In addition, Orbitsound has replace the amplifiers inside the soundbar with all-new digital ones. The side-facing speakers, which give you the spatial audio, have also been tweaked using hi- and low-pass filters, so that they only output the frequencies that give you positional audio.

All-new digital amplifiers and filters make the spatial stereo better than ever

That’s the theory behind the product, but it’s the final sound that we were most interested in. We’re pleased to say that the M9 sounds even more fantastic than its predecessor. Audio tweaks mean that the M9 is slightly less harsh than the T9, generally sounding smoother.

It’s exceptionally well balanced, too, with the subwoofer perfectly matched to the soundbar, so that your bass doesn’t drown out the quieter parts of your music. Detail is excellent in all of the tracks we listened to, no matter the genre, with fine detail picked out in everything we listened to. You can hear every instrument and subtle sound in each track, but there’s also room-filling thumping tones that will make the most out of any upbeat track.

Spatial stereo again shows its worth, ditching that sweet spot and letting you place the soundbar anywhere, filling up a room with sound. It’s impressive what it does. Just listen to the Foo Fighter’s Enough Space, and you get the feeling of being surrounded by swirling guitars. Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, which starts with radio and rhythm guitar in the right channel before the lead guitar kicks in on the left, sound sublime.

Our one concern was that as the M9 only uses A2DP, rather than with an advanced codec, such as Apt-X, Bluetooth quality was going to let the system down. However, after testing it by switching the inputs on our phone between Bluetooth and the headphone output, we were hard-pushed to tell the difference. Besides, there are comparatively-few devices that support Apt-X, anyway and the iPhone is one model that doesn’t. Given the convenience of still being able to still use your phone to choose tracks and even use it to browse the web and read email, we’d take Bluetooth over a dock any day.

Bluetooth pairing is pretty clever and works by ‘grabbing’ your phone when it’s needed. That is, when you walk in the door your phone doesn’t automatically pair, so that every sound is sent to the M9; instead, you hit play on the remote control or hit the Bluetooth button on the soundbar and only then is your phone connected.