With my upstairs audiophile grade setup I always equated soundbars with those "home theater in a box" products.
So, initially I thought to myself with a smirk "Yeah right, a sound-bar that will pass the ear test".
The Dali Katch One QUICKLY removed the smirk from my face.
Before we get into the nitty gritty, I love options. I love connection options, sound options, placement options. The Dali pretty much, except for one passes all of these tests.
The majority of this review was performed using the Dali connected via HDMI ARC to my wall mounted TV. However, Optical (TV, and aud), Aux and Bluetooth are also available. See? There's one of the options checked off already!
I seemed to get ahead of myself there. The aesthetics of the Dali can be summed up as: simply elegant but unassuming. The white on white (grill, nice touch!) fits in with pretty much every decor. More so than the usual black/black bars that are in abundance.
Dali also gives you options when it comes to placement. You can either mount directly to the wall with a leather strap type hanger. Or, you can mount the included "feet" to use as a free standing soundbar. Another option checked off!
I went with the foot mount, and the process was very simple.
Now, onto the sound. It's obvious what Dali had in mind. They wanted to offer great sound without a million options to achieve it --- uh-oh (sort of!).
There are basically two sound modes. One, and Two. One (Focus) being tuned more for movies and dialogue, and Two (Wide) being more for music.
I tested mode one with a 4K Blu-Ray Disk of a recent production. Dialogue was crisp, and clear without being shrill. Not lost on me though, was a degree of "atmosphere" still present even in the more focused, dialogue driven mode. Surprisingly, explosions (sorry neighbors) were very life like due to the 4 woofers present.
While watching I kept grabbing for the remote to tweak the sound (which you can't do). The remote is fairly simple with input selections being the predominant use.
I tested Mode two with a Blu-ray hi-res copy of a release from a certain band known for an album depicting a prism (not mentioned due to possible copyright).
This mode definitely opened up the sound quite considerably. Highs again were crisp but not shrill, lows a bit more "boomy". But the atmosphere to this reviewer seemed to allow ample space for each instrument without the sound being cluttered. To me, this is a major MAJOR plus. ESPECIALLY for a sound-bar. In fact, I've never experienced a soundbar that would reproduce music in the manner that the Dali does. So giant kudos to Dali for this achievement!
Bluetooth was very simple to pair with my smart phone. It appears aptx and AAC are supported. It also quickly paired to my laptop and desktop via Bluetooth. I love the ability to just leisurely play tunes while I'm downstairs. Or stream online content sound.
Before ending this review I must mention:
Me being a sound nerd who loves a million options to tweak should certainly not be reason for one to be put off from the Katch One. I am extremely OCD when it comes to sound and I like to personalize/tweak every aspect of the sound-field. I would imagine that my level of "sound OCD" (as my wife calls it) puts me at the .001% of the marketplace. If you are like me, you can utilize this great soundbar in your non-dedicated sound room.
Or, if you are like the almost 100% of the rest of the population, the Dali Katch One is THE leading soundbar on the market in my opinion. In both aesthetics and functionality. With that said, get it! You can't go wrong!