One of the dear thing about CES is seeing and hearing products that are still month or even years away from launch . This year , atCES 2025 , I had a fortune to listen to Dynaudio ’s firstsoundbar , the Symphony Opus One . You ca n’t corrupt one yet , but the company expect the Leontyne Price to be around $ 20,000 when it ’s ready — possibly later on in 2025 , but more likely in 2026 .
That ’s a helluva price tag . But like so many other iconic audio products from Dynaudio ’s native Denmark , you ’re paying as much for design as for performance .
The huge , 73 - inch - wide , 1,500 - watt talker looks more like an gentle wind register from a top-notch racing yacht than a soundbar , thanks to the aluminum chassis , fabric panel , and a serial of 72 oscillating wooden louvre that make up its front face . Perhaps not coincidentally , they remind me of the vertical wooden slats used by the legendary Danish pattern team at Bang & Olufsen on itsBeolab 8,Beolab 28 , andBeosound Theatre .
They ’re singly carve from a species of Japanese oak . Unlike B&O ’s fin , though — which purportedly take on a role in directing phone — Dynaudio ’s slats are mostly ornamental .
Instead of keeping the Opus One ’s array of 24 drivers hide from view with a fabric grille ( the way almost every other speaker company does ) , Dynaudio prefer to fit the locker with louvered louver that stay unopen when the soundbar is turn off and rotate 45 degrees when the verbalizer is in use . At launch , there will be two main tail fin and framework colour schemes .
Included with the Opus One is a baton - mold aluminum remote controller . It has so much passel , it feels like you ’re wielding a lightsaber hilt . It ’s dominated by an outsized volume telephone dial that spin with a resistance you ’d expect from a high - end amplifier . If you stomach from an irrational need to hold the remote while watching idiot box , you wo n’t be able to put this one down .
The marble pedestal you see in these accompanying photo is n’t included with the Opus One , but Dynaudio suppose it will be an optional add - on .
The Symphony Opus One is still undergoing some platform tweaks ( the troupe has n’t settled on the final complement of stimulant , or how it will support stream music service , for example ) , but Dynaudio felt convinced enough in the acoustics that they were willing to audition the speaker for CES attender .
Our demo include a section of Lady Gaga’sClose To You , and a scene fromMission : unsufferable – Fallout — the one where Tom Cruise commandeers a whirlybird and then contend to keep it from becoming part of the landscape painting .
What I hear was brawny , precise , full - frequency strait that redeem both melodic and dialogue clarity , with deal of cinematic , down - remnant punch . As with any soundbar , you ’ll still ask a consecrated subwoofer if you need to excite your home base ’s foundations , but the Symphony Opus One has no trouble swing out you up in its enthralling and immersive strait , complete with ponder height communication channel effect and surround transmission channel fills .
The demo also included something I ’ve never heard before — on any home house soundbar . Dynaudio call it “ deep dive ” mode , and it can direct strait toward the hearer ’s position such that they ’d bank they ’re hear to a individual set of 5.1 - epithelial duct speakers , float around their foreland at a distance of a few feet . The feature was demo’d via Lavern’sHold Me , and it was nothing short of awing .
The event is created using beamforming techniques from the Opus One ’s numerous tweeters and mid - deep machine driver , combined with a generic HRTF profile . HRTF tolerate for head - colligate transfer function — a calculation that predicts how your heading affects the timing of sounds to each ear .
Normally , HRTFs are used when companies want to reproduce spatial audio recording via headphones : It ’s the best way we have of copy a full accompaniment of dwelling theater speakers from a two - communication channel leave / good set of headphones . We have anin - depth looking at at the fine art and science of biaural renderingif you ’re funny about how it works .
So the habit of HRTFs in a speaker unit — even one with the considerable environment strait chop of the Symphony Opus One — is unusual . Unusual , but not unique . Audioscenic ’s Amphi Hi - D engineering ( which I also heard while at CES ) acquire a very similar outcome through products like theRazer Leviathan V2 ProandDell Plus 32 4 K QD - OLED monitor . The difference is that those are dear - field of view speaker arrays designed to work over distances measured in inch . In my demo , the Opus One did it at a distance of 8 - 10 feet .
Even more impressive was the spirit level of restraint . I sat in the middle of three seats in the first of two rows . Behind me was a 2d row of two seats . As the demo progressed , the Opus One selectively place each seat with a deep dive soundscape . People in non - point seats could still find out the audio , but only the soul in the deep dive fanny got the witching , immersive experience . Each localization needs to be calibrated using the remote , and a spokesperson told me that these “ positions ” may be lay in for later recall .
For now , abstruse nosedive is just a flex — there ’s no immediate practical intention give that only one listening location can be target at a time . patently , Dynaudio is still work through the possible scenario . Moreover , I did n’t have time during the short , 15- to 20 - second deep dive sample distribution to get over my initial thrill . Would I have need to watch a whole movie that way , instead of the more established whole - room sound ? I ’m not certain . But it was unbelievable to find out it .
Dynaudio enounce that the Symphony Opus One ’s utmost 73 - inch breadth is part of the reasonableness it can place so many hearing positions with its deep - dive mood . But I could easily see the ship’s company selling a less - expensive narrower adaptation limit to a single , centered deep - dive positioning .
It ’s hard to defend the Symphony Opus One ’s price purely based on what I saw and take heed at CES , but let ’s put the question of money aside for the moment . For now , it ’s simply exciting to see a raw thespian in the soundbar place — especially one with a hullo - fi legacy like Dynaudio — and even more exciting to see that player trying new thing like deep dive .
Whether the final product is worth the investment funds is a head for the future , but I trust we get to answer it sooner than later .
