Nakamichi DRAGON Soundbar Review

The Nakamichi DRAGON stands out from other bars due to its large size. It's bulky, even when compared to the Nakamichi Shockwafe Pro 7.1 SSE, and finished in a monochromatic black colorway. The entire body is made of metal, which is perforated along the top, sides, and front of the unit. The perforation on the front is broken up by three large, exposed tweeters that give the bar a vintage hi-fi look. A large DRAGON logo is embossed on the top, with a gloss plastic control interface just below it. There's a dot-matrix display on the front that's used to display any parameters that have changed. The whole bar is supported by four large feet that distribute its weight evenly.

Our unit came with two large, modern subwoofers, each featuring two side-firing drivers. Each has a port on the front. The sub is mostly metal, and the speaker grilles are also thin metal.

The satellite speakers feature a similar design aesthetic to the subwoofers with the same metal construction. The exposed tweeters you see on the bar itself are also present on the satellites, as is the perforated metal grille.

The Nakamichi DRAGON is among the largest soundbars we've tested. It won't fit between the legs of many TVs, and you'll have to ensure your TV stand is both large and sturdy enough to accommodate it. It's also quite tall compared to other soundbars, so you'll need to ensure your TV stand is at a suitable height so that the bar doesn't block your view. 

The subwoofer is quite large—around the size of an average PC tower. The base configuration of the DRAGON ships with two of these subwoofers, but there's also the option to upgrade to two, or even four, 12-inch subs.

The satellite speakers are a little larger than those that come with the Nakamichi Shockwafe Pro 7.1 SSE. They're similar in size to many bookshelf speakers, though.

Both the bar and the satellites are easily mounted to the wall or on speaker stands. However, hardware isn't provided but can be purchased from the manufacturer separately.

As with other Nakamichi products, the DRAGON exudes a premium quality. Its all-metal construction, with perforated grilles, is broken up only by the exposed tweeters. The sheer amount of metal used in its design means that the drivers are well-protected but also that the bar alone weighs quite a bit more than other soundbars. All ports and connections can be found underneath the bar, with some convenient rubber cable management bands.

• Quick Start Guide
• Manual
• Leather document pouch
• Remote (Batteries Included)
• 4x power cables (Surround/Subs) 10ft / 3m
• Main unit power cable 5ft / 1.5m
• Main unit power adapter 5ft /1.5m
• HDMI cable 6.5ft / 2m
   

The Nakamichi DRAGON has a very good stereo frequency response. With its dual subwoofers, it has a bass-heavy sound that reproduces sub-bass rumbles, such as dub-step basslines or on-screen earthquakes, with intensity. A slight dip between the low and mid-bass means that there's a lack of thump, though, so bass guitars sound a little muted in comparison to booming kick drums. The mid-range is mostly balanced, too, but slightly over-emphasizes the lower part of this range, adding weight to chugging rhythm guitars. The treble range is slightly veiled, so some of the detail in vocals and speech is liable to be drowned out by the powerful bass range.

We tested this bar using the 'Music 1' EQ setting. While we initially carried out stereo testing in 'Stereo' mode, we've since retested using 'All Channel Stereo' after consulting the Nakamichi Concierge service. While we wouldn't necessarily recommend this mode for users who want to enjoy stereo content, we found that the results aligned more closely with user expectations. We also made sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions when it came to the placement of the sub and surrounds, following the VIP guide published online. Furthermore, we adjusted the subwoofer crossover point from 200Hz to 120Hz so as to reduce the over-emphasized high-bass. Finally, you adjust the bass and treble levels using the remote or select a different EQ preset (we found 'Movie 2' to be the most bass-heavy).

It's worth noting that we broke with our usual testing protocol for this soundbar. Our testing process usually focuses on out-of-the-box performance with minimal calibration. However, it's clear that the DRAGON is catered to users who are happy to invest time in the setup process and take advantage of its deep customization possibilities. As a result, we made an exception and revisited several sound tests with the input of the manufacturer. While this did result in increases to the performance scores, the caveat is that these scores are not representative of the DRAGON's out-of-the-box performance.

We recommend keeping the bass at the default '5' and turning the treble up to '10' to get the most balanced sound. During calibration, we found that the Nakamichi DRAGON retains an overall bass-heavy sound. We found that these settings tamed the overemphasized bass somewhat while boosting treble response. If you wish to reduce the bass further, it's also possible to disable the number of active subwoofer drivers, though we didn't gather any measurements this way.

This Nakamichi DRAGON 11.4.6 has a great stereo soundstage performance. The bar is already physically very wide, and the soundstage extends even further beyond its edges. We used the 'All Channel Stereo' mode for testing, which increases the soundstage's width. Even with such an expansive soundstage, focus is excellent, with solid tracking across the width of the bar.

The Nakamichi DRAGON has an outstanding dynamics performance. It can get loud while preserving dynamic subtleties, though there's some bass-range compression at max volume. However, we couldn't achieve the 125dB max volume advertised by the manufacturer. While there's no function to increase dynamic range compression, you can use the 'Night' DSP to allow for low level listening. That said, we don't expect users to purchase this setup if they're concerned about bothering neighbors.

The center channel's performance is excellent. The discrete center channel excels at reproducing clear, natural-sounding dialogue that can easily be located within the soundstage. As per the manufacturer's recommendation, our measurements were taken with 'Dolby Surround' mode enabled and the equalizer set to 'Movie 2.'

The Nakamichi DRAGON's surrounds performance is amazing. Using the 'Dolby Surround' surround setting, this unit can create a wide, immersive sound with great tracking of fast-moving objects within the soundstage.

This Nakamichi DRAGON 11.4.6 features six up-firing drivers (four in the bar and one in each satellite), which help create a solid impression of height in Dolby Atmos content. These drivers bounce sound from the ceiling to create the impression of height. Testing was carried out with Adaptive Height Dispersion set to 'Max,' which is the default.

The overall Atmos experience is immersive and captivating, with great bass range rumble and thump and smooth tracking of dialogue and vertical movements. While it suffers slightly from a lack of focus at the front (due to the width of the bar itself), there's still clear delineation between different audio objects, even within a very dense mix. There's some slight roll-off in the treble range that can strip some of the brilliance from metallic sound effects.

The Nakamichi DRAGON has quite a few sound enhancement features that can adjust the performance to your liking or use case. Firstly, there's a room calibration function that can optimize audio reproduction to the acoustics of your space. Instead of calculating the dimensions via a test tone, you can input the distance between the bar and your walls or choose from three preset room sizes. You can then use the dedicated buttons on the remote to choose between 'Stereo' and 'All Channel Stereo' options for stereo content or 'Native,' 'Studio,' and 'Dolby Atmos' for surround sound content. 

There's a range of DSP presets to toggle between, including 'Music 1', 'Music 2', 'Music 3', 'Movie 1', 'Movie 2', 'Movie 3', 'Game', 'News', and 'Sports'. Additionally, 'Night' mode (which has a dedicated button) can be used to compress the dynamic range and reduce the level of loud sounds. There are adjustments for height, rear, surround, and subwoofer level adjustments, as well as the ability to adjust the bass and treble levels. You can also toggle between a few Adaptive Height Dispersion (AHD) settings, which the manufacturer claims can alter the immersiveness of Atmos height content, depending on the acoustics of your room. Subjectively, we found that this made little difference to height performance.

For those who wish to tweak even more parameters, this bar has an On Screen Display (OSD) feature. The OSD allows you to configure every aspect of the soundbar—including but not limited to—all controls that exist on the remote, broadcasting power (for communication with its modules), room configuration, lip sync latency, upscaling, and more. That said, the interface is quite unresponsive and takes a second or two to recognize commands.

The Nakamichi DRAGON has a plethora of inputs, including three full HDMI In ports, an HDMI eARC port, an optical port, as well as a 3.5mm input so you can connect devices via an aux cord. It supports HDMI 2.1, so you can pass higher-resolution video signals with more bandwidth. While there's a USB port, it's for firmware upgrades only.

This bar has outstanding format support, as it's able to playback just about every common audio format, as well as a few more specialized formats. There's support for Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos, as well as all variants of DTS. It's one of the first soundbars to support DTS:X Pro.

The Nakamichi DRAGON supports an incredible number of formats via HDMI In. The bar supports common formats like Dolby Digital and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. It can even upscale 1080p native content to 4k, though it won't be able to do this with lower resolution signals than 1080p.

The Nakamichi DRAGON supports both Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound formats if you use the optical connection.

Audio latency via the eARC connection is very good. Some apps and devices compensate for latency differently, though. While you're unlikely to run into any sync issues between your audio and video, you can always use the 'Lip Sync Adjustments' option when OSD is active to adjust the delay by up to 200ms.

Using the HDMI In port, this soundbar has a good latency performance. You're unlikely to experience lip sync issues between your audio and video, but different apps and devices compensate for latency differently. You can always adjust this manually via the OSD 'Lip Sync Adjustments' option.

Latency via an optical connection is amazing. While different apps and devices compensate for latency differently, you're very unlikely to encounter sync issues with this connection type.

This soundbar supports HDMI 2.1 with 4k video passthrough up to 120hz at 10 bits. Its ability to passthrough such high bandwidth signals and multiple HDMI In ports makes it a great option for those who want to use it as a hub between multiple consoles and a display.

In terms of wireless playback, this soundbar is limited to just Bluetooth. That said, there's support for Bluetooth 5.0 and the aptX HD codec, in addition to the default SBC. If features like Wi-Fi and Apple AirPlay are important to you, it's worth taking a look at the Samsung HW-Q990D instead.

The front of the bar features a detailed dot-matrix display that shows relevant information such as volume adjustment settings, bass/treble adjustment settings, and input type.

There's a plastic panel on the top of the bar that acts as a tactile control interface. The main buttons allow you to power on/off, cycle through inputs, access demo mode, and adjust the volume up/down.

The Nakamichi DRAGON comes with a large remote that allows you to access and tweak a broad range of features and parameters. There's also a dedicated app, which requires you to make an account before use. Unfortunately, we encountered issues in the verification process and were unable to get the app to function during testing.

While this soundbar doesn't have built-in voice assistant capabilities, you can pair it with a third-party Alexa or Google Assistant-compatible device to control it with your voice. If you're looking for built-in support, you'll want to take a look at the Sonos Arc Ultra instead, which offers integrated Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.