The A70 is more expensive than your average soundbar but justifies the price with an accomplished performance, elegant design and luxurious build quality. If you’ve got this sort of cash to splash on a soundbar then the A70 is a great choice.

The main soundbar unit features five drivers: three fire outwards, including one 20mm tweeter, while two 5cm units fire sideways. These side speakers combine with sound processing, to produce Orbitsound’s SST (Spacial Sound Technology) which claims to help radiate sound all around your room. The overall effect is incredible. Standing to the side of the speakers produces clear audio and eliminates the need to stand in the ‘sweet spot’ in front of the speakers. In fact, you can see this in action, but turning off the side speakers using the switch on the rear and listening to the more muffled tone music takes when you’re not straight-on to the speakers. The side speakers are particularly good for parties, as you can easily fill a room with clear audio. 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. When you combine Bluetooth with NFC, streaming your music becomes easier than ever. Rather than having to pair your mobile device with the soundbar, you simply swipe it alongside. Once connected, you can stream music stored on your smartphone/tablet or stream your favourite music services, such as Spotify or Deezer. In terms of drivers, two 2-inch midrange drivers flank a tweeter behind the central speaker grille with side-firing neodymium drivers at each end delivering spatial detail. They’re driven by digital amplifiers with a hi-fi analogue crossover, offering a ‘best of both worlds’ scenario, according to Orbitsound. Power output is quoted as 300W.The A70 is a decent step above Orbitsound’s previous efforts. There are rivals such as Yamaha that offer a bigger and better surround sound, but the A70’s punchy dynamics, solid presentation and crisp way with voices is exciting. There’s a satisfyingly cohesive union between soundbar and subwoofer that puts some rivals to shame, and the presence of airSOUND makes it sound great regardless of placement or seating position. It would have been nice to have a display on the front to show the input/mode currently in use. There are telltale lights on the top of the unit, but you need to be very close to see which one is lit. Touch-sensitive controls on the left side of the unit light up when tapped, showing controls for power, volume, inputs, Bluetooth and NFC. All these controls are easy to adjust using the slim remote control, which is thankfully more substantial than credit card-style variants. The A70 eschews the rectangular shape of previous Orbitsound bars with a curvier design that emphasises the presence of airSOUND technology. The rounded aluminium grilles at the ends of the cabinet draw attention to the side-firing drivers, while the front speakers are hidden behind a pill-shaped grille.

Spin some music over Bluetooth or through the auxiliary input and the speakers display a fine sense of rhythm and timing. Rihanna’s Don’t Stop the Music flows with pace and a decent sense of panache. Don’t be fooled by the A70’s diminutive size – its vast, room-filling sound belies its compact dimensions, investing movies with the sort of scale and excitement that most TVs can only dream of. The included Orbitsound remote is stylish and easy to use, but for even more convenient control of volume, the BAR A70 has the ability to learn the volume control from your TV's remote. This means you can control the soundbar volume without putting down your normal TV remote. As for airSOUND, its effect is subtle most of the time but as promised it does widen the listening area considerably – you can walk around the room with very little drop in treble clarity. But the technology works best during scenes with lots of surround information. As the dwarves make their way through the woods in a downpour, for example, the hissing rain feels like it’s falling around you, spreading far and wide into the room. It’s no match for true surround sound but does provide a more immersive listening experience than most soundbars.The buttons are responsive, and you can also tweak the bass and treble levels of the A70. Small dots on the right side of the bar show just how far up or down the tonal controls go. The display also shows which input you’re using (in very small letters). Setup is easy. Just place the soundbar on your TV stand, hook up the optical cable and away you go – just make sure your TV’s SPDIF output is set to ‘PCM’ and not bitstream. Setting up the A70 couldn’t be easier, one of the benefits of a single-cable optical connection. The bar nestles nicely in front of our 55in set, although the size difference did look a little odd – aesthetically, it’s better suited to TVs between 32 and 42in.