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Philips Fidelio SoundQuake B8/12 sound bar review: 400W of audio power

By Marcus Wong - 9 Feb 2018
Launch SRP: S$1899

Performance findings, Conclusion

Testing (Music)

In our testing, we thought the B8 played like a sound bar that’s tuned more for movie watching, as the center channel (which handles dialogue) easily overwhelmed everything else. That aside, the accompanying subwoofer also seemed to suffer from poor bass performance.

With our formal test tracks, we thought the sound bar performed best with Adele’s Melt My heart to Stone. This piece featured more heavily in the highs, and the sound bar’s emphasis on vocals helped to keep the attention largely on Adele. However we do think sibilance could have been handled better.

Next up was Hotel California by The Eagles, and we thought the piece highlighted how lower mids and bass were lacking with the speaker, as we barely felt the bass in the piece and there wasn't enough body overall. Lack of dynamics also meant the piece didn't move us as much as it should.

With Tiesto’s Elements of Life, we thought the sound bar brought good energy and pace to the piece, and even a fairly forceful bass beat to go with the track. However, some of the highs in the piece sounded sharp and slightly screechy. Disappointing; given that highs seemed to be its strengths.

Ending our audio testing with Buckethead’s Sail on Soothsayer, we felt that the sound bar managed to provide good clarity on the solo and backed that with just enough bass to move the piece.

Audio Performance Summary
MP3 Testing Score
Hotel California - The Eagles 6.5
Sail on Soothsayer - Buckethead 6.5
Elements of Life - Tiesto 6.5
Melt My Heart to Stone - Adele 6.5

 

Testing (Movies)

Moving next to our movie testing, we used clips from the Dolby Atmos Blu-Ray demo disc to get an idea of how the sound bar performs. The disc has both movie trailers and sound effects clips, as well as the actual Dolby Atmos trailers you see in the cinemas.

On the sample track from Game of Thrones, we thought the sound effects in the clip weren't as crisp as we’d heard from other sound bars. Vocals again took center stage, overwhelming the soundtrack and some of the sound effects.

Next up was a clip from Unbroken, which featured a dogfight between warplanes. Here, we felt that sound effects like the various bits of the plane shaking when it was flying and the boom of explosions during the battle weren't as realistic 

The Amaze trailer gave us our first experience of the Atmos effect. This clip featured sound effects of an incoming storm mixed with instrumental music as well as nature sounds (like birds chirping), and we thought the sound bar did a good job with the naturalness of all the sound effects, even if the surround effect was mostly coming from just the front.

Rounding off our testing with a clip from the Star Wars: Battlefront game, we thought the sound bar managed to pull off a decent degree of the Atmos effect, as we got a good sense of the tie-fighters flying overhead. However, we thought the accompanying sound track lacked dynamism so it wasn't as epic as it should have been.

Video Performance Summary
MP3 Testing Score
Amaze 7.0
Game of Thrones 6.5
Star Wars: Battlefront 6.5
Unbroken 6.5

 

Conclusion

When it comes to sound bars that boast Dolby Atmos capabilities, we generally have to taper expectations as there is obviously a limit to how much they can replicate actual physical speakers. The Philips Fidelio SoundQuake B8/12 did reasonably in that aspect, providing a good sense of positioning for the clips that we played. However, it struggled with separation between audio elements; for example, the vocals almost always overwhelmed everything else.

With a name like “SoundQuake” and boasting 400W of continuous audio power, we expected the sound bar to be capable of huge, rumbling sound, but what we eventually got was a rather lean bass that didn't move us. Worse, it produced screechy highs, which means its sole strength is in the midrange. And that simply isn't enough for a home theater sound bar system, especially when its overall presence and surround effect was not strong enough in our opinion. Of course, the sound bar is an upgrade over most built-in TV speakers (Sony's OLED TVs with Accoustic Surface are tough to beat), but at S$1,899 we really expected it to do much better.

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6.5
  • Design 8
  • Performance 6.5
  • Features 8
  • Value 6
The Good
Simple set up
Slim profile makes it easy to fit in any room
Offers Dolby Atmos support
The Bad
Bass is too lean
Highs can be screechy
Doesn't sound spacious
Performance doesn't match price
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