Copied from a reply to another post:-
I picked this up yesterday for bedroom, where my old soundbase didn’t support the HD digital formats. I would have been happy with the 700 at £499, but the 900 has been reduced to £599 in some places, and the local Panny store had stock and price-matched. There isn’t much info on these as so new, there is a German review but not very technical or detailed albeit positive. You get more power/output and Technics tuning on the 900, otherwise the 700 seems identical.
The first issue when buying is to accept that whist it is marketed as an Atmos soundbar, it really only means it can decode and pass the format, it doesn’t have additional upcoming speakers for bouncing the overhead sound on the ceiling. What it does have is some clever directional aspect to the normal speakers, such that sound comes out of the top and front grilles. It is only a 3.1 channel soundbar, but it does have a separate wireless subwoofer, but no ability to add wireless rears. It therefore relies on clever software combined with the speaker engineering to create room-filling surround effects.
So knowing all this, why did I buy it, particularly as it is a higher price than Yamaha and Sony equivalents are currently, mainly because it’s new versus established older models.
1. Matching and compatibility with my 55EZ952 OLED
2. Obvious build-quality and sturdiness
3. It is slightly more compact than certain other Atmos models, 1050mm versus 1100-1200mm, and less height. I am restricted by a 800mm TV cabinet, but because it has very slight stabiliser feet, the centre and middle feet are stable on the cabinet, no wobble or anything on the overhang, as it’s pretty hefty. The sub is relatively compact too, given I have limited space to seat next to the Cabinet.
4. It’s clearly being positioned as a premium offering, and Panasonic stuff recently has been good to me.
5. It ticks most of the sound format boxes, and is well thought out, with the extra HDMI input and the option of the rear IR blaster, which I thought I might need, but didn’t ultimately.
Now I haven’t really put it through any paces yet, but it sounds very clear and crisp, and does not muffle or distort on higher volumes. For me, the issue with all the soundbars/bases I have owned or experienced is that muffling of speech, sound effects, background music into one sound projection. The major thing I notice on everyday TV shows watching is crystal clear and distinct dialog, and sound effects. I played some music via Bluetooth from my Amazon echo, and it was also very crisp. With music I cranked it up, but found it didn’t go really loud, but it lost no clarity either. It might be a Bluetooth/stereo thing because with other inputs it does go really loud, volume is 1-100 and I haven’t been listening to broadcast TV or YouTube higher than 35. I watched a bit of Dark Crystal on Netflix and I was definitely getting a bubble-surround effect in as much as I was on the bed hard against one wall, with TV/soundbar on the opposite, so directionally it was obviously coming from the TV area but was also filling the room as it travelled towards me. I haven’t watched a UHD Atmos disc yet.
Inputs are Sky-Mini/TV via optical, and AppleTV4K and UB900 UHD via HDMI.
I will say that given the price, I was disappointed there is no on-screen display/menu onto the TV, it just relies on an LED on the front of soundbar, behind the grill, and there is very limited configuration, albeit it still has a few multi-channel sound options to try. It does however integrate with the Panasonic TV, auto on/off, volume, etc, via the TV rather than a separate control for basic functions. Any music streaming stuff is only possible by using an Android chromecast app, so quite limited, and thus app is the only way to connect it to wireless to get firmware updates, etc.