The soundbar is one of the fastest-growing market segments in recent years, and that’s no surprise. As consumer demand grows for ultra-thin TVs with virtually zero bezel, display manufacturers are in the quandary of where to put the built-in speakers. The answer for most has been placing shallow speakers behind the screen, firing away from listeners. Obviously, these sonic compromises make it increasingly difficult to understand dialogue—let alone actually enjoy the wider dynamics of movies or music—and the simple solution is adding a soundbar.
Soundbars are veering off in two directions: They’re either low-end, sub-$350 models, designed merely as TV sound improvement products, or high-end, $1,000-plus models, designed to be viable alternatives to traditional 5.1-channel surround systems. The soundbar middle class, if you will, has been getting pushed out.
Definitive Technology’s new W Studio Micro fits into this mid-market pricing segment—and it does so with aplomb by including Play-Fi, making it far more than a simple, one-trickpony TV audio replacement. In fact, playing TV audio isn’t even the coolest part of what the W Studio Micro is all about. Instead, Definitive Technology has delivered a new pony with three distinct tricks.
Play What?
Play-Fi has been in the market for more than a year now, so it’s likely you’ve heard of it. In short, it’s a wireless, multiroom music streaming platform developed by Phorus, a company founded by a former tech executive at Harman International and acquired in 2012 by DTS (yes, the same DTS you know from surround sound).
Play-Fi uses a home’s existing wired and Wi-Fi network to distribute music to a variety of equipped devices without applying any additional data reduction or compression. One of Play-Fi’s biggest appeals is that unlike Sonos, Bluesound, or Heos, it’s an open platform that can be licensed by any manufacturer, meaning you can buy your favorite brands of Play-Fi-enabled speaker, amplifier, and soundbar and have them all work together.
In addition to Definitive Technology, companies that have either released product or announced plans to embrace the Play-Fi ecosystem include Polk Audio, Paradigm, MartinLogan, Anthem, Fusion Research, McIntosh, Sonus Faber, Arcam, and Wadia.
New Bar, Three Tricks
The W Studio Micro soundbar-and-subwoofer system makes the sixth product in Definitive’s Play-Fi lineup, or Wireless Collection. I’ve previously reviewed the entire series up to this point—W7 and W9 tabletop speakers, W Amp stereo amplifier, W Adapt non-amplified source component, and W Studio soundbar system. Much as I wrote about the W Studio, the Micro will likely be Definitive’s Trojan horse for Play-Fi; people will probably buy it just because it’s a great soundbar with an ultra-thin form factor. But on top of significantly improving your TV- and movie-watching experience, the Micro is also a full-blown music streamer, and it provides the ability to become part of a full housewide audio streaming system—all of which makes this bar an off-the-charts value proposition.
Regular readers may recall from my earlier review that I complimented the sound quality of all the products but couldn’t really embrace the Play-Fi user interface. The first thing I can say is how much has changed and improved over the past 10 months! It’s clear that DTS hasn’t been resting on their Play-Fi development laurels, as the iOS app has been completely overhauled, with many new services and features supported. To be honest, my initial experience with the Play-Fi iOS app during my prior review felt like I was looking at a product still in beta: It had a basic, boring design with many rough edges. Now the totally redesigned app—launched literally days after I received the Micro—feels finished, slick, and ready for prime time.
Before, the iOS version of the app was so throttled back, I constantly felt like I was fighting with the system instead of enjoying it. No more. Now the apps—versions for both iPhone and iPad—are not only feature rich, they look as good as they work.
Moreover, numerous streaming services have been added, so that Play-Fi now supports Deezer, Rdio, SiriusXM, Internet Radio, Pandora, Songza, Spotify Connect, Tidal, and KKBox (not currently available in the U.S.), with Rhapsody expected by the time you read this. You can also stream any content stored locally on your iOS device and any music on drives on the network (though with some issues I’ll describe later). That means you should never want for any listening options, and you can have confidence that Play-Fi will continue adding services.
Besides iOS, Play-Fi offers free apps for Android and Kindle Fire. I didn’t try either during my review, but the Android app was slated to receive the same facelift and may be available by the time you read this. A free Windows control app for PCs is available with very basic control, but Definitive provides a code to install the full, licensed version of the app—“Play-Fi HD,” usually $14.95—at no charge to customers who register their systems. Currently, there’s no Mac version.
Setup
First, don’t be alarmed by the fairly huge, L-shaped box the Micro arrives in, which is also one of the more challenging boxes I’ve ever opened—a bit like deconstructing an origami creation. Once you free the soundbar from its packaging, you’ll be startled by how thin, lightweight, and micro the Micro truly is.
Indeed, at 1.75 inches high, the Micro definitely earns its moniker. One of the terrific things about being so thin is the bar can sit in front of virtually any stand-mounted TV without blocking the picture. With TV manufacturers making their tabletop stands shorter and shorter, many bars end up infringing on the bottom of the screen. Not to worry here.
The bar is so lightweight, I was honestly a bit concerned about how much sound it would be able to produce. Fortunately, these fears proved to be unfounded. Part of why it’s so lightweight is because Definitive has removed the power supply, instead using an external “brick” to power the bar, so depending on how you install the Micro, finding a way to conceal the brick might be an issue. With the power supply off-loaded, the Micro runs incredibly cool; even after a full day of TV and movie use, the top of the bar never got even warm to the touch.
While Definitive describes the Micro’s anodized-aluminum top panel as having a “brushed-black” look, I’d call it more of a blackgraphite, Stealth Bomber appearance. I mean, I’ve never seen the B-2 Spirit in person, but this bar looks and feels like I imagine it does. The front and edges are wrapped in black cloth, and the bar definitely looks modern. The bar has two keyholes for wall mounting, which is how I installed it. At 3.25 inches deep, the bar might extend slightly further off the wall than some current TVs, but its thin profile helps it call little attention to itself.
As a good part of the Micro’s life will be integrating with a TV, Definitive includes two Toslink optical digital inputs and one minijack input for an analog audio connection. There’s a nice cavity that makes it more ergonomic to connect and access the wiring. The typical install will likely involve all sources connected to the TV via HDMI and then a single optical digital audio cable to the bar. Keep in mind, though, that many TVs will downconvert Dolby Digital and DTS bitstreams presented to their HDMI inputs to PCM stereo for their optical audio output, which would bypass the Micro’s onboard Dolby Digital and DTS converters. You might enjoy better sound quality with a direct optical connection of both your set-top box and Blu-ray player unless your TV can be set up to pass these signals.
While the Micro comes with a remote control, even handier is its ability to learn commands from another IR remote, such as the one for your TV, cable, or satellite box. The feature lets you power it on, change inputs, adjust volume, and more from a single remote. Definitive also provides discrete IR codes to use with third-party control systems—something that custom installers love, I assure you. The Micro can also repeat IR commands through an included IR flasher, in the (unlikely) event that it does block your display’s IR receiver, and it has a rear-panel IR input for direct connection to a control system.
Visually, the supplied down-firing subwoofer is your basic black cube, with a single, discreet “D” logo on the front. Installing the sub is simplicity itself: I plugged it in, and it immediately paired with the bar—and that was it. In fact, the only thing on the sub to mess with is a power rocker switch. If the sub happens to lose sync with the bar—which never happened during my review—a Sync button on the bar lets you re-establish the connection. The sub has an estimated 30-foot transmission range to the bar and can be hard-wired if need be.
To use the Micro’s Play-Fi features, you must connect to your Wi-Fi network. (An optional USB-to-Ethernet adapter is available.) Wi-Fi setup via iOS app involves simply going to your Wi-Fi connections tab and linking to the Micro, which appears with a name like “PlayFi2-Device008922.” Then, you use the Definitive app to connect the Micro to your home’s Wi-Fi network and enter the password.
Should you ever need to make a change—say, use a new router or change a Wi-Fi password—a setup button puts the Micro back into setup/discovery mode.
(Not So) Micro Movies and Music
Considering that the Micro has so little real estate to work with, I wasn’t sure how much sound it could produce. The folks at Definitive claim they have overcome the inherent acoustic limitations by using multiple oval-shaped drivers with neodymium magnets to increase bass response and driver output. The Micro includes four 1 x 3-inch oval woofers and three 1-inch aluminum-dome tweeters. To improve dialogue intelligibility, two of the woofers are tasked to center-channel duties, and bass notes are shared equally among all four of them.
The end result is far more and fuller output than a bar/sub combo this size would be expected to produce, with solid, deep bass and quite detailed highs. I found the blending with the 8-inch sub to be mostly terrific; only occasionally did I need to grab the remote to use the Bass button to make tweaks. For example, while watching the DVD of the Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Revisited performance, I noticed that Alan Anton’s bass work was just a shade boomy, and a couple of clicks down dialed it back in line.
As noted, the bar supports both Dolby Digital and DTS surround formats and has two DSP modes labeled Music and Movie. It smartly switches to Music when receiving a Play-Fi signal or Movie when you select one of the three inputs. (You can also manually select whichever mode you prefer for any source or input.) The Music mode delivers a far more restrained soundfield, with a very straightforward and not-toowide upfront presentation like you might get with two closely spaced stereo speakers. Definitive describes Music mode as having “a wider frequency response with added clarity and accuracy for faithful reproduction of your favorite artist.” The Movie mode adds a ton of ambience, with the perceived location of sounds greatly increased in both the height and width planes.
I definitely preferred the simulated surround from the Movie mode while watching movies and TV. Often, while listening to music that featured very little processing, such as classic jazz, I found that the Movie mode added spaciousness to the presentation that I also preferred. I do wish there was a way to tweak the level of processing on both modes, as some program material can have so much recorded ambience that it makes dialogue difficult to understand when additional processing is applied. For example, when I watched the Presidents Cup golf tournament, there was so much crowd and atmospheric audio being processed that the dialogue was getting drowned out. Yes, there’s a button for raising and lowering the volume of the center channel, but switching over to the Music mode immediately fixed that problem.
The surprise-attack scene from Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is one of my favorite scenes for evaluating not only the spaciousness of the presentation but also the intelligibility of dialogue amidst the near constant bombast of cannon fire and explosions. The Micro kept dialogue well clear and lifted above the cacophony while still filling my room with splintering wood—and it did a very nice job of lifting the audio space well above the bar to give the illusion of height, with running footsteps and billowing sails coming from high above the screen.
An episode of Fox’s Scream Queens has a scene where the killer is stalking a victim in a trailer, walking around and knocking on different windows, walls, and parts of the ceiling. While my reference 9.2-channel home theater system distinctly placed these sounds in a complete 360-degree arc around the room, the Micro was more confined to locating sounds in the front half of the room. Still, it convincingly threw sounds well outside its width, making the direction of the audio cues obvious.
Another scene that showed off the Micro’s surround strengths is near the end of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. When the characters are walking through the halls of the Lonely Mountain, there’s a wonderful spaciousness to the cavernous interior. Smaug lurks overhead, and coins drop off his body to the ground below; here, the Micro really delivered the difference in height.
While the subwoofer looks nearly identical to the model included with the pricier W Studio, it’s powered by a mere 50-watt amplifier, compared with the Studio sub’s 200 watts. Still, I never felt that bass was lacking, in output, depth, or (once levels were dialed in) detail. The sub easily delivered the massive bass note that starts Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Downtown,” and it had no problem plumbing the depths of the Crystal Method’s “High Roller.” The sub also had the finesse to detail the different textures of Pierre Michelot’s bass work on Miles Davis’ soundtrack to the Louis Malle film Ascenseur pour l’échafaud, a wonderfully moody and atmospheric album that sounded terrific streamed through Tidal.
Another very cool feature that arrived via update just days before my review was due was a new Video Mode for the Play-Fi HD PC app. Previously, when streaming content from the PC to a Play-Fi speaker, there would be a significant (more than a second) delay, making the app completely unusable with any video. With the Video Mode enabled, audio and video are now in perfect sync. This is a feature that will be a huge benefit to anyone who watches YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, or whatever on their computer but wants a much better sound system to enjoy the action.
Raising the Bar
It’s amazing how much the Play-Fi system has been fixed in the past year, addressing and resolving most of my initial complaints. Highresolution audio streaming? Check. Synchronized audio and video with the Play-Fi HD app? Check. Tons of streaming options and a modern-looking app? Check. But there are still a few things that DTS should keep on their to-do list, primarily related to the streaming of your own audio library from a networked share.
For example, there’s still no way to search for or jump to a letter—like “J” or “M” for John Mayer when you’re browsing content on a networked drive. Rather, you have to swipe through pages of stored music—sorted by album, artist, genre, etc., depending on the media server—until you find what you want to hear. There’s also no way to queue or create a playlist via the app; instead, selecting something new wipes out whatever you had been listening to. Last, the system still adds a very noticeable delay between tracks, which is really disjointed when you play gapless albums like The Dark Side of the Moon or listen to live concerts. However, after seeing how far DTS has come, I imagine they’ll continue tweaking the system and will resolve these issues as well in future firmware updates.
Conclusion
There is a lot to like about the W Studio Micro. It produces terrific sound for TV, movies, and music and has a really slim profile that works either on or off the wall. Also, Definitive Technology says that the W Studio Micro is outfitted with the appropriate hardware and processing to add wireless Play-Fi surround speakers at some point in the future when the software to support this is made available. Couple the Micro’s sonic performance with all of its Play-Fi features, as well as the clear growth path for incorporating it as part of a housewide audio system, and you have a product that comes highly recommended.
VERDICT
The W Studio Micro’s strong performance and tons of streaming music features make it an easy recommendation.
SPECS
Soundbar: 1 x 3 in woofer (4), 1 in aluminumdome tweeter (3); 96 watts total; 43.39 x 1.78 x 3.25 in (WxHxD); 5.1 lb
Subwoofer: 8 in woofer; vented; 50-watt amplifier; 12.54 x 14 x 12.54 in (WxHxD); 19.9 lb
Inputs: Toslink optical digital (2), 3.5mm analog, USB-A (for firmware updates or optional Ethernet adapter), 3.5mm IR
Outputs: 3.5mm IR emitter, 3.5mm subwoofer connection
System Audio Formats: MP3, M4A, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, WAV; Dolby Digital and DTS surround formats
Music Services Supported: Internet Radio, Rdio, Songza, Pandora, Deezer, SiriusXM, Spotify Connect, Tidal, KKBox (Asian markets only)