According to Philips, there’s a growing demand for smaller soundbars, as everything from consoles to media players fight for space beneath the average TV.
But can the £450 (around $570, AU$760) B1 defy the laws of physics and produce crowd-pleasing sound from something not much larger than a burrito?
In short: it certainly can. Philips, under the auspices of Gibson Innovations, has done a remarkable job compacting the average soundbar.
Design
The B1 measures just 41cm (or about 16.14 inches), meaning it wouldn’t look out of place beneath a modest 30-/40-inch screen. Speaking in the most general of terms, though, build quality and design are great, reflecting the upper mid-range pricing.
The main body of the soundbar is protected by a rolled aluminium grille, while the end panels are black fabric. A quartet of shiny on-body controls (power, input and volume) function do as they’re told, while connections are recessed to the rear.
Speaking of inputs, there's an HDMI-In plus an HDMI ARC output. You can also hook-up via a 3.5mm minijack, USB or optical digital input. It’s worth noting that the HDMIs on the B1 do not support 4K HDCP 2.2, just in case you had hopes of routing your Sky Q set-top box through to a UHD TV. Wireless connectivity comes via Bluetooth apt-X with NFC pairing.
The system ships with an appropriately compact remote control (so expect to lose it behind the cushions), which covers input selection plus volume and bass/treble adjustment.
Performance
Now, this compact design might make you a little skeptical when unboxing the B1, but sonic performance warrants at least one thumb up. There’s more than enough volume here to fill the average small room, and the front soundstage is surprisingly wide. The secret to this success is a brace of microbeaming speaker drivers.
Four drivers (two at the sides and two centered) are arranged in a cross-firing configuration, to create a wide sweet spot. There’s a pair of additional soft dome tweeters in the top of the unit, each used with an 18 hole waveguide that effectively produces a virtual speaker array to heighten the soundstage.
Each driver has its own amplifier module, which Philips totals at 120W. (Philips, by the way, quotes a total output power of 320W for the system, but we’d take this with a pinch of salt.)
The partnering wireless subwoofer is a front ported enclosure made from everyday MDF. It has reassuring weight and comes with a helpful plastic stand which makes it easy to position vertically. With a depth of just 86mm (or 3.3 inches), you’ll also be able to slide it horizontally beneath the sofa.
A frequency sweep confirms that the soundbar expends most of its energy at 200Hz and above, leaving the sub to fill in below. Consequently, the bass is quite directional. If located too far from the soundbar it becomes somewhat divorced and a little bit unruly.
Vocal presentation benefits from a clean mid-range, and the sub moves a fair amount of air. Indeed, with action-orientated TV shows the surplus of grunty low-bass can become a bit overbearing. By dialling it back a tad, the balance quickly becomes rather more agreeable. Duly balanced, Mad Max Fury Road is delivered with all the ferocity you might rightly expect.
The B1 ostensibly handles a 5.1 bitstream, but at no point were we under the illusion that we were listening to any kind of faux multichannel. Soundbar, sure, but home cinema this is not. That said, the B1 also makes for an entertaining gaming sound system – Battlefield 1 sounds suitably chaotic and visceral.
Of course, the modern soundbar needs to do more than add slam to movies and games. Increasingly it's the prime loudspeaker in a living room, and how it handles music is paramount, whether streamed over Bluetooth or played direct from a connected source.
Here some of the limitations of the B1’s design become more apparent. With two channel music, that sub localisation can become hard to ignore. A dedicated Music mode helps, as this smoothes out the presentation, removing the mid-range lift which serves movie dialogue so well. The result is a more enjoyable listen.
Overall, Philips Nano soundbar system is tub-thumping success. It does a solid job of delivering big audio from the confines of a compact design. We particularly like its vocal clarity and the unbridled enthusiasm of the slimline subwoofer – just don’t expect it to do pseudo surround.
Where the B1 falls flat is with its musical presentation. A lack of cohesion between the sub and that microbeaming mainstage limits its appeal to those that want to stream tunes from their mobiles. Outside of Bluetooth, there’s no wireless multiroom expandability, either.
Still, if you want large scale TV audio from a compact speaker, the B1 is well worth shortlisting.
We liked
There’s no doubting the real-world appeal of the cute Fidelio B1. With a turf war raging beneath the average flatscreen, adopting an ultra-compact soundbar makes a lot of sense. Remarkably, Philips has done a great job delivering a wide, dynamic soundstage from the small enclosure.
We disliked
It’s perhaps odd that this modernistic soundbar isn’t ready for 4K HDCP2.2 sources, like 4K UHD Blu-ray or even the 4K Amazon Fire TV box. It rather limits your connection opportunities. And while the B1 does a credible job with movie and TV content, it’s a good deal less successful with music…
Final verdict
With its compact design, space-saving subwoofer, and better-than-you-might-imagine audio clarity, the B1 provides a credible alternative to soundbar systems that occupy twice the space. It may have its limitations – we wouldn’t want to listen to music on it for any length of time – but for TV, movies and gaming, it produces an agreeable wall of sound.
