Orbitsound M9 review

We also connected a TV to the optical input, so that we could test the M9’s audio prowess out on films. Spatial audio isn’t virtual surround-sound, but more a technology for taking stereo and making it fill a room. In that respect, you lose some of the detail in a 5.1 sound track, such as positional rear audio, but the M9 makes the most of the stereo making it feel like it’s coming from all round you. Testing with the opening scene in Star Trek, where a young Kirk is driving in a convertible, while being chased by a cop, we thought it sounded fantastic.

That extra oomph from the subwoofer and the clean detailed audio from the soundbar, really brought the scene to life. Switching to a scene with more talking, the audio track was much clearer and cleaner than using TV speakers alone.

We still think that a 5.1 system will give you the best movie experience, particularly as you’ll get the full lossless Blu-ray audio that you can only get over HDMI, but if you don’t want to go down this route and want something more compact to give you high

Control over the sound comes down to bass and treble controls, which are all you really need. However, as the subwoofer is active, you’ve actually got a bit more control over bass with this model. To start with you’ve got an analogue-style control on the back of the subwoofer, which lets you set its master volume; you can then tweak the bass using the controls on the remote, which really equate to a gain control.

There’s all the control over audio that you need, via the buttons on top of the soundbar

In general, the controls have been improved over previous Orbitsound products. Solid-state memory now means that your settings are saved, so you don’t lose your finely-tweaked sound in the event that you unplug the M9 or have a power-cut.

The entire system has also been fine-tuned and everything just feels that bit more polished. So, switching inputs, for example, fades your current input out and fades the new one in. It also has intelligent volume control with an anti-party mode. So, if you’ve been listening to your music really loud the night before, in the morning the volume resets itself to a quieter volume, saving your ears, which is particularly useful if you’re nursing a hangover.

The remote is the same used on previous Orbitsound products, but that’s no bad thing

Orbitsound has kept the same remote it has been using for a while. It’s got all the controls you could need, including playback, track skip, volume, bass and treble, and input select. However, if you’re primarily using Bluetooth, you’ll find that you don’t need the remote very often and its primary purpose is for switching inputs and, when you’re using it with TV, changing volume.

The Orbitsound M9 is an improvement in terms of sound quality and flexibility over its predecessor, the T9. Our fears over Bluetooth were proved largely to be irrelevant and the flexibility it gives you is a worth any minor loss in audio quality. With room-filling sound, high-quality sound and its amazing spatial stereo technology, this remains the best mini soundbar you can buy.