RS5 Wireless Atmos rear speakers review (?!)
I’ve finally got hold of the RS5 Atmos rear speakers for my HT-A7000 soundbar. If this means nothing to you, I’m not surprised. While I was really excited to try these out, in hindsight it’s probably way too niche to share.
However this is what I’ve been getting up to this week and that’s the video I‘ve made.
I do like my new speakers - but every now and again I can forget that I'm supposed to be attracting an audience too. One day I'll try and get the hang of this.
Have a nice week and take care.
Comments (51)
Hmm... 180 watts... and the power adapters are 12V 3.8A, that's 45W and a bit. Where are the extra 90W coming from? Free energy from magnets under the sofa?
My wife isn’t happy. I’ve sold my Sonos system and bought the Sony set up based on your recommendation. She’ll be in touch no doubt! Great channel. Tom
I should get a soundbar, possibly one that plays nicely with our older Samsung TV. But for some reason, you can either get something inexpensive and not quite what I want, or something fully-featured for a price that I'm not quite prepared to pay. Very little middle ground there.
Hmm, quite interesting. I've been thinking about converting my TV room to a bedroom / TV room combo (really hot upstairs). And having two big loudspeakers for sound isn't ideal. This might actually fit the bill very nicely.. But how much did it all cost in the end Mat?
I haven't added it up - but I paid full retail price, so to buy the same things costs whatever it does where you are - I don't have any money saving tips for this one unfortunately.
If you're looking for more Atmos music to listen to on the system check out Tidal, they've been adding lots of older titles recently including ones that have never had a surround mix https://listen.tidal.com/view/pages/dolby_atmos
Cool. Didn't know that. And I've used Tidal for a while now... Thanks!
It's always good to hear about finding the perfect sound set, been searching for too long and I'll always run across tinny center channel or crackling sounds, even annoying vibration inside the speaker box, at least this way I enjoy with you from watching your story, thanks
I have a Samsung sound bar with a sub-woofer. I guess it's technically 3.1 but it has a brilliant 3D setting that seems to expand its reach to 5.1. My brother would probably say "that's not surround," but in our space, it seem ideal. The sub is at its lowest setting and the simulated side/rears really do pop out of nowhere. I'm often surprised and pleased to hear my bar come alive this way.
Mat, you carry on making videos about things that interest YOU! I have no interest in the sort of sound system you enjoy. As you say, it's your hobby so we'd expect you to be super keen on having the latest and best. Personally, the speakers at the back of my 4K LG TV will do me fine, but you'd be screaming in agony. It's a world which will be (intentionally) forever closed to me. However - that didn't stop me from being interested in what you like and what you have in your living room. I'm delighted you're delighted with it. :-)
In case you missed the announcement, there was an error on the Blu-Ray disc in the Madman box set where the track with Mick Ronson on guitar was replaced with the normal album version. They are offering a replacement disc if you send them an email. See their Twitter announcement: https://twitter.com/UMCtweets/status/1534940418554617860
I had no idea there was a problem, so many thanks for that…I’ve put in a request. If nothing else, it’s good to have a spare disc.
I noticed you have an Xbox Series X tucked away by your TV stand - have you tried any video games with the sound setup? No idea if the Xbox has support for dolby 7.1, but could be worth checking.
I used it and the PS5 with the previous surrounds - but I’ve yet to have a go with the new ones. They’re both terrible UHD Blu-ray players (due to the interfaces and weird support/lack of it for various HDR and audio standards)…but as far as the games go they can both throw sound around properly.
Mat thanks for the video. I am really glad your system works for you. Best wishes.
I am reminded of an old lillagubbenism that I made up some years ago: "When I was young, I had super hearing, and I could hear the difference between a good stereo and a bad one, but I could not afford a good stereo. Now I am old and I can finally afford a good stereo, but I can no longer hear the difference." However, I can still localize sound. And I can still remember that big cat jumping out from behind me and over my head before appearing on the Cinerama screen in front of me during the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'm sure these speakers would be great for some of the scenes in Star Wars and Close Encounters as well. Oh dear... Is my age showing?...
Those are on my top noteworthy list; do not feel dated by them. I mean it, though; the last feature film I watched was released in 2015. Prior, I was a big film buff and always won at film trivia games. I used to have an IMDB catalog (before I had easy access to the 'net) and I pored through it to learn which films to watch from all eras. I am disenchanted with the film industry these days. My favorite viewing is YouTube and documentaries on discovery+.
didn't the ht7000 got a firmware update recently to allow for room calibration? or was it always there?
It’s always had auto calibration - perhaps you’re thinking of the 360 mapping thingy mentioned at 03:10 - if you freeze frame there you can read a bit more.
I'm super tempted to go out and pick up this soundbar today. Back when the original video came out, I was in the middle of this publicly funded job training/gtf back to work course and pretending to survive on what little they gave me. Well I've been working since December and had the opposite problem: now that I have this income, I have very little to spend it on. 99% of my things kept working and were fine enough. (M2 MacBook Air is on its way to replace a hand me down windows laptop and complement the Mac mini 2012 I use as my main computer.. and my iPhone SE1 will probably get 13 mini'd when the price drop at the 14 happens.. So it would be an expensive year, but again - wouldn't know what else that money would be for..) One thing I did splurge on was a Sony PS-LX310BT turntable and I found it funny it had bluetooth. Well this could retroactively justify that feature and I'd have to rearrange a room (or two since I'd probably first set it up on the main floor for summer to stay cooler with no AC) to take advantage of it which involves a lot of cleaning that I've perpetually put off.. Will spending money change my life that damn much to fix everything ever? Probably not, but it might give me something I could make use of and enjoy (the "enjoy" part has been severely lacking of late.. well.. far too long). I probably won't manage to get a PS-F9, but if they swapped out that FM output for bluetooth - damn :P tl;dr: Thanks for the video and more importantly thanks for being you.
While I’d never be one to suggest to someone else how to spend their money - I’ve been feeling rather similar to yourself recently. There’s no new tech I’m really looking forward to. ..and that’s very odd for me. It feels like all my adult life there’s been a long list of ‘things I’d like to get one day’ - but what with ‘the event’ and the subsequent global supply shortages - it seems like most manufacturers have halted development of any potential cool new stuff because they’re having enough trouble making the old stuff. Which definitely makes things less interesting when you’re into new tech.
Wireless appeals to me, it's exactly what I need. Thanks for this!
This is an excellent video, niche or not. Funny thing is that I've been wanting to take another look at your initial soundbar video, but haven't found the time, so now I definitively have to. Those demos of the system are pretty awesome just in themselves, but let me tell you something sonny: All you young whippersnappers nowadays can have your fancy sound systems with your up-firing, cross-beam sound domes, but they can't hold a candle to a good ol' RCA stereo cassette demo where you can hear steamship whistles, bowling balls rolling down an alley and June Foray talking about how the speakers were no larger than a woman's vanity case (I may be mixing up a couple of different videos you've done here, but hopefully the humo[u]r is understood).
That’s a nice TV, do you mind telling me what it is? I think I’d like an LG because they’re the only manufacturer that puts 4 HDMI inputs in. Thank you for making an excellent video, as always.
It’s a OLED77C14LB (at least that’s the U.K. model name).
I actually bought the A7000 and 200w sub for my new condo based on your initial review but I didn’t pick up the original rears because of the fact that they required power and my space doesn’t lend itself to rear speaker powering. Now that there is are better rears WITH batteries, I’ll definitely be filling out my system… that said, could you possibly include some investigation into the actual battery charge/play time as well as if there is any sound quality degradation while operating on battery power? Thanks
I’m certain the sound quality will be the same - it’s just like a phone being plugged in, the performance shouldn’t change so I wouldn’t worry about that. The 10hr battery life would be very difficult for me to verify as I don’t watch TV for that long in a go, so I’d have to use a stop watch every time it went on and off and log the times, perhaps across a few days. But there’s the issue of the Mrs using the TV when I’m not, and she wouldn’t be keen on keeping tally of the on and off times …then there’s the volume the speakers are being driven at, also whether the audio is Atmos or just using the forward firer (so using less internal amplifiers). The distance from the soundbar might also have an effect. I think there are too many variables to get a good measurement. With stuff like this I just trust the manufacturer and if they were to lie - I’d take the speakers back and say they weren’t working as advertised and get my money back.
Maybe try toggling the 'SIMPLINK' option in the settings for the power on annoyance? Had my LG CX for a while and couldn't figure why it wouldn't power on with my Switch. Toggling it off and on fixed it completely it seems.
At the darkest moments I went as far as a full factory reset of the TV and started again from scratch - but yes at other times every option had been toggled on and off with more frequency than a morse code telegraph key without success.
You worry too much, Mat. Niche content is better than no content.
I'm also continuously impressed with Netflix's sound mixing. Their [actually] original series (Shadow and Bone, Stranger Things, Umbrella Academy, Haunting of Hill House etc) all have amazing Dolby Atmos sound quality that really lets a high-end home setup shine.
What I get out of this video is the progression of your home theater setup over time. Your television fits almost perfectly in that alcove; and no longer will you have to use projector screens or buttkickers. I also got a laugh out of many bits in this video production "this is what video looked like in 2021" and "they can actually shut their face this time" had me rolling. Also the closing was great. Your lighting and framing looked exceptional as well - am I the only one who thinks the sequence from 12:30 - 14:30 required multiple camera moves for audio continuity? Did your inserts hide that? Great job. Miss the purple sofa though 😉.
You're very much like me in how you notice the way things are made - I'm a devil for spotting things on TV like this e.g. where they clearly only have one camera but pretend they're shooting things as they're happening from multiple angles. Anyway yes this video was fun to make because it's a game to me to try and make it look smooth when really it just starts off as a messy load of nonsense. The inserts cover the joins and I move audio around - cut bits of conversation out. This is why I don't do livestreams - most of what I appear to be is in the editing.
I must say the battery powered speakers would definitely appeal to me, the layout of my room means all the power sockets are on one side so if I wanted to add rear speakers I'd need to run power cables around the skirting board. Which I am tempted to do, but maybe I'll wait until I don't have a 6 year old running around and climbing the walls first.
Mat, you know how 50% of a good movie is the sound? Your personality is the “sound” of your videos. I’m entertained even if the subject doesn’t buzz me.
(This one buzzed me. :)
I recently bought a Bose soundbar and am looking into an upgrade with surround speakers so however niche this is, it's useful to me. And of course, I tend to like all your videos no matter the subject.
180 W power output, when there's less than 50 W coming in? Yeah right... There's always the thing: what do you want to spend? What do you already have... I'm always thinking: the first extra spendings you do are a big improvement, the more you pay, the less the improvement gets, also with technical improvements: mono -> stereo is huge, stereo -> Dolby Surround Pro Logic -> still clear, but already a bit less than mono -> stereo, Surround Pro Logic -> Discrete 5.1: some improvement, but not as impressive anymore as before, 5.1 -> everything more: just little improvements. And yes, the "clean big room with television and couch in the centre" is something I know already for decades... Almost nobody has that space. I knew some people that had large spaces in anti-squad lofts (I used to live anti-squad myself, it gave you a lot of space as a student for very little money, but never had a big loft room) and they could do that, one friend even put cinema chairs in his room ;-). But yes, most of us just have to cramp everything in the tiny space we have...
It makes you wonder if they set the "room" up in a film studio. I have also noticed the kitchen adverts on TV always seem to show a kitchen the size of a Tennis Court. One of the few companies that don't do that is Ikea who will a have display showing how to fit a kitchen diner into a 60 square foot room.
Love the video and especially the editing on this one, great work
you almost convinced me to buy a sound bar even though I have no use for it 😄
Techmoan made me imagine Atmos in my living room (with a slanted vaulted ceiling), even though I rarely watch movies 🤣
I recently came in to possession of a Sony TV from someone who was upgrading theirs. I've always had Samsung and LG TVs before this one and the big improvement with the Sony over those is definitely the sound quality. I still find myself surprised by the quality of it from time to time.
Nice video as usual. If you decide to update your flooring, I’d recommend putting a conduit in, just to future proof it. However if you’ve got a concrete floor it might be tough.
Yes it’s pitch - so I can’t mess with it. Turns out ‘pitch’ isn’t a term for floor surface…so it’s ‘hard black tar concrete type stuff’.
As long as it is something you wanted to do and then that is fine with me.
Whatever you put out on the channel I find interesting, however niche
Funny: You are wearing almost the same shirt as you did in the video 7 months ago.
I’ve got a very small wardrobe …and not many clothes.
Niche is fine for me :)
Sunday night and it’s Techmoan time!