Canadian audio brand Bluesound has taken the wraps off a pair of new feature-packed soundbars designed to look as good as they sound regardless of whether you use them lying flat under your TV or hanging up on a wall.
The Pulse Cinema is the more premium model of Bluesound’s new soundbar duo, boasting headline features of 3.2.2-channel Dolby Atmos support delivered by 500W of power and 16 speaker drivers that include up-firers to deliver Atmos’s height/overhead effects. All these channels and drivers are contained in a single 47-inch long soundbar enclosure designed to partner TVs of 55 inches and more.
The Pulse Cinema Mini is much more compact, as its name suggests, coming in at 33 inches long and delivering 280W of total system power into a 2.1-channel system of angled drivers and dual four-inch woofers. As you would expect, this model is targeted at smaller rooms and TVs.
Both models have been designed to easily adapt to wall or desktop placement courtesy of automatic DSP-powered orientation detection, saving you the trouble of manually tuning the soundbar yourself to account for its horizontal or vertical configuration. This sort of multi-position flexibility is turning into quite a soundbar trend at the moment, with the new Bluesounds joining other recently launched similarly flexible soundbars from Samsung (the QS700F) and KEF (the XIO).
Both of Bluesound’s new bars are powered by the award-winning BluOS multi-room streaming platform. This supports more than 20 streaming services, including Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora and Deezer, and can deliver high resolution audio file formats up to 24-bit/192kHz in resolution. BluOS also enables users to connect and stream their own digital music libraries, listen to internet radio stations, and sync audio seamlessly across multiple rooms with other Bluesound speakers or BluOS-enabled products.
BluOS has its own control app for iOS, Android, MacOS and Windows, too, so that you can always easily keep track of what’s being played where on your speaker network. Plus there’s integrated support for the Control4 and Crestron multi-room control systems.
The Pulse Cinema and Pulse Cinema Mini can be configured to partner up with other Bluesound speakers to create a true multi-channel surround sound speaker system. Adding the Pulse Sub+ subwoofer will inject more bass power and depth into movie soundtracks, while you could use one of Bluesound’s wireless stereo speaker solutions for rear speaker duties. All without needing to add a traditional AV receiver to your setup.
Connectivity on both soundbars includes an eARC HDMI port so that you can take sound in (including lossless Dolby Atmos tracks) from an eARC-capable TV, along with optical and analog inputs.
The full key details of each new Bluesound soundbar look like this:
Pulse Cinema
- 47” multi-room streaming soundbar built for TVs 55” and larger
- 500 watts of total system power and a 16-driver array that includes a center channel, dual 4” woofers, and dedicated upfiring speakers
- Dolby Atmos® decoding
- Wall-mount bracket included; Smart DSP with automatic orientation sensing
- HDMI eARC, optical, analog RCA inputs, two-way Bluetooth and Airplay 2
- Subwoofer output for wired or wireless bass extension
- Seamless multi-room streaming with BluOS™ app-based controls and access to thousands of internet radio stations, local music libraries, and 20+ natively integrated streaming services including Spotify Connect, Tidal, and Qobuz
- Wireless surround sound when grouped with one of Bluesound’s stereo solutions as rears and the SUB+
- Movie, Music, and Late Night listening modes
- High-res audio and MQA playback support
- Works with Control4, Crestron, RTI, and more
- Available in black finish with dark grey fabric grille
Pulse Cinema Mini
- 33” multi-room streaming soundbar
- 280 watts of total system power with angled drivers and dual 4” woofers
- 2.1 channel Dolby Atmos® processing with virtualized height effects
- Wall-mount bracket included
- Wall-mount bracket included; Smart DSP with automatic orientation sensing
- HDMI eARC, optical, and analog RCA inputs, two-way Bluetooth and Airplay 2
- Subwoofer output for wired or wireless bass expansion
- Seamless multi-room streaming with BluOS™ app-based controls and access to thousands of internet radio stations, local music libraries, and 20+ natively integrated streaming services including Spotify Connect, Tidal, and Qobuz
- Wireless surround sound when grouped with one of Bluesound’s stereo solutions as rears and the SUB+
- Movie, Music, and Late Night listening modes
- High-resolution audio and MQA playback support
- Works with Control4, Crestron, RTI, and more
- Available in black finish with dark grey fabric grille, or white finish with tan fabric grille
Both new Bluesound soundbars will be available for pre-order on your local Bluesound website from September 24, ahead of a planned shipping date of October 24. The Pulse Cinema will be priced at $1,499 U.S., $1,699 Canadian, £1,149 in the U.K. and €1,299 in Europe, while the Pulse Cinema Mini will be $999 U.S., $1,099 Canadian, £799, and €899.
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