In practice there’s a decent sense of width and openess to the sound – you can hear it trying to fling sound effects far and wide. But, as with many processing technologies, don’t be fooled into thinking the M9 is any kind of substitute for proper surround sound. There is HDMI ARC and HDMI eARC. The former is supported by practically every TV on the market; the latter not as much. You can read more about ARC here, and get your head around eARC over here. External sources (4K Blu-ray player etc) support Optical digital, and you can plug the cable there if you choose. However, that means the soundbar will only receive sound from that source, and when you switch to the TV, it will rely on its own speakers.

You generally have two options when it comes to soundbar placement: wall-mounting it, or placing in below your TV on your TV cabinet. If your soundbar is quite tall, wall-mounting may be the best option, as it could obscure the IR receiver on your TV, rendering your remote control useless. To counter this and keep real-time audio, Orbitsound has installed hi-gain antennas in the soundbar and subwoofer, which has allowed it to reduce the size of the digital transmit and receive buffers. The result is that sound is delayed by less than 10ms, so there are no problems with lip sync. To the left of the centre speaker is a row of controls, including power, volume, Bluetooth, learning and input selection. The right side houses a volume meter (which also shows the bass and treble levels when adjusted), the current input and a ‘Sub’ icon that helpfully lights up when the subwoofer isn’t connected.

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The final way of connecting the soundbar to the TV is Bluetooth. The convenience is that it’s cable-free, but the sound quality won’t be as good, and there’s the possibility the connection may suffer from interference. Not every TV supports Bluetooth either. However, airSOUND is a more of an acquired taste when playing music. The side drivers tend to over-emphasise treble, which makes percussive instruments like hi-hats and tambourines a little too prominent – and you can’t turn it off either.

Play audio through the soundbar and make sure it sounds good to your ears. If not, now’s the time to tweak the placement or fiddle with EQ settings/modes. The best way to connect a soundbar to your TV is with an HDMI cable. You'll need to make sure you have an HDMI port on your soundbar and an HDMI ARC port on your TV. This allows you to use a cable to connect them. How it works is by mixing the audio produced by the drivers with spatial loudspeakers positioned at 90 degrees to them and 180 degrees from one another – in the case of a soundbar that means they are at the ends. Their interaction primarily takes place in the mid frequency band and is reduced at higher frequencies to ensure sound fidelity. When combined with a separate subwoofer the effects can be startling and with the T9 they most certainly are. By now you’ve found a good placement and an optimal connection. Now you need to make sure it works. With a number of TVs supporting HDMI-CEC, you can control the volume level with the TV remote. Any specific features you need (subwoofer levels, display dimmer), consult the soundbar zapper.Absolutely. Even if you don't consider yourself a hardcore cinephile, the best soundbars make a world of difference to your TV watching experience—even the built-in speakers that come with the best TVs just don't do your favorite films, TV shows, and games justice. How much should I spend on a soundbar?