Soundbar fetish?
Soundbars are getting popular for their all-in-one solution – plug a DVD player and a subwoofer and you have an ‘almost’ home cinema setup. I said 'almost' for the fact there is no rear speakers and what you get is some pseudo surround effect. Not good. Soundbars to be slim and svelte means teeny weeny drive units that have limited excursion and loudness capability – and they distort all too readily. Not good too.
Quad’s new L-ite plus Soundbar is to satisfy videophiles with slim envy – the new LCR is slim enough (about 10cm depth) that you can wall-mount conveniently below your flatscreen TVs. You have three sets of speakers in the soundbar – left channel, center channel and right channel – the metre long soundbar-like speaker gives you three full discrete speakers as if they were in separate enclosures.
The left and right channel are two-way speakers while the center channel is a dual midbass flanking the tweeter – using the same drive units as Quad’s popular Quad L-lite which comes in separate enclosures for each of the speakers. So now you have a choice – L-lite plus as Soundbar + 2 rear speakers and subwoofer or L-lite with 5 discrete speaker cabinets and subwoofer.
Both are passive speakers, meaning you need an AV amplifier or receiver which means these systems can sound more powerful and dynamic without distortion compared to any all-in-one Soundbar. An inexpensive AV receiver with either L-lite or L-lite plus would cost no more than a good quality all-in-one Soundbar anyway and sounds wayyyy better! Whether you choose the L-lite plus of the L-lite, either is definitely a better bang for the buck!
The Quad L-lite 5.1 system is available now at the eSHOP, the L-lite plus is available mid March 2010.
