Wireless Surround vs $6000 Speakers

Can you get a home theater audio experience that’s wider and more immersive than a soundbar without spending hours crawling around in your attic running speaker cables?

Today I’ve got three wireless surround sound-in-a-box setups from Hisense, Valerion, and Sony and I’m going to be comparing them to my higher end 5.1.4 ELAC and Marantz setup to see which one is the best. I’m going to show you why these might be a great option for you, especially if you use a projector.

Hisense HT Saturn Overview

Starting with the least expensive option in this video, the Hisense HT Saturn retails for $999 and comes with two wireless front speakers and two identical wireless rears each with a woofer tweeter combo for the horizontal front and rear channels, and then a smaller upward firing woofer for height effects. But instead of making a 4.1.4 system, the front and rear speakers on each side combine their upward firing channel into a single height channel, making it just 4.1.2. The HT Saturn also comes with a single wireless 6.5” ported subwoofer and everything connects via a single box, which is part of the magic for projector users, since you can put this right next to your projector and connect it with a single short HDMI cable directly to the eARC port. In addition to eARC, the Hisense also has optical in for older systems and an HDMI 2.0 input for video passthrough. The HT Saturn also supports Bluetooth 5.3 input.

Valerion Thunderbeat Overview

Next, also for $999 for the base system is the Valerion ThunderBeat 4.1.2 system that shares a lot in common with the Hisense. The Valerion ThunderBeat has four identical wireless speakers, two for the front and two for the rear, each with a woofer and tweeter combo for the horizontal channel and a single woofer for the height. Also, like the Hisense, the Valerion ThunderBeat combines the front and rear speakers into a single height channel making it a 4.1.2 system.

The ThunderBeat has a long skinny ported subwoofer with a cloth mesh that would suggest you’re getting a large 10-inch driver, but in reality, it’s just the same 6.5” driver as the Hisense. However, unlike the Hisense, the Valerion also has an optional wireless center channel available for $299 that makes it a more traditional 5.1.2 system. For reasons I’ll cover later, I don’t think the center channel is optional, so the actual price of this system is $1298.

Also different from the Hisense, the Valerion ThunderBeat uses a more dongle style wireless receiver with a built-in HDMI cable to attach to your projector or TV’s eARC port. The only other ports are a 3.5mm aux-in port and a 2.5mm output for connecting your own third party wired and powered center channel, but I didn’t test that since I think it defeats the purpose of these wireless speaker systems. Again, like the Hisense, the Valerion also supports Bluetooth 5.3 input.

Sony Bravia Quad Overview

The most expensive wireless option in this video is the $2698 Sony Bravia Quad surround system that doesn’t come with a subwoofer at all. So, if you want decent bass, you’re all but required to buy either the Sony SW3 or SW5 separately. To give it the best possible sound I paired it with the SW5 for $698, making this system more than three times more expensive than the others at $3396 total. For that price you get four identical wireless speakers, each with four drivers, three that support the horizontal channels and one upward firing driver for the height channel. But unlike the other two systems, Sony doesn’t really disclose whether they are trying to emulate a 4.1.2 system or a 4.1.4, instead focusing on their 360-degree sound field that relies on digital sound processing and room correction that you complete using the Bravia Connect app and your phone’s microphone. The optional SW5 subwoofer is substantially larger than the Hisense and Valerion subwoofers but has a similar sized front facing driver measuring about 7 inches. Instead of using a ported enclosure, the SW5 has a passive driver on the bottom which doesn’t generate sound on its own but is sometimes referred to as a bass reflex driver. The Bravia Quad’s connection box is also quite a bit bigger than its two competitors and includes an eARC port, a wired ethernet connection, an HDMI 2.1 input, and an S-channel out if you want to use your compatible Sony TV as a center channel.

Elac + Marantz Reference System

The system I’ll be comparing them to is my ELAC true 5.1.4 system, which costs $3367 for the speakers. I’m using a Marantz 7011 AVR that I picked up on Facebook marketplace for $200, but it retailed for over $2000 in 2017, so my reference system is quite a bit more expensive than even the Bravia Quad. It’s also worth noting that I’ve got a little over $100 in just speaker wire, and I spent about eight hours crawling through my attic and cutting holes in my ceiling and walls to install it. So, definitely not an apples-to-apples comparison with the ease of use of these wireless systems.

Ranking Criteria and Frequency Response

To judge each system, I’m going to play various test clips and actual movie scenes to rank each system for their vocal clarity, front sound stage width and separation, surround effects, height effects, and bass response to figure out which one is the best all-around wireless setup. I should mention that the scenes are a mix of Atmos, DTS:X, Dolby 7.1, and Dolby 5.1 which are all fully supported by all of the systems.

Before watching any content, I ran a volume normalized frequency response test for each system which looks like this. The key takeaways here are that the ELAC system is tuned with Audyssey to provide a flatter response with no major peaks versus the Sony, Hisense, and Valerion systems that emphasize specific frequencies for a punchier, exciting sound on less expensive hardware.

As I mentioned earlier, the Valerion system without the optional center channel was a total mess in terms of frequency response with a ton of peaks and dips, so I don’t think adding the center is really optional.

If we look at their bass response, the ELAC 12” subwoofer starts to roll in around 16Hz and reaches full sound pressure at 22Hz while the smaller drivers from the wireless subs don’t come in strong until after 30Hz and then compensate by emphasizing the mid-bass, which still gives a boomy sound that you can’t replicate without a subwoofer but doesn’t have the same “feel it in your bones” quality as the ELAC.

Vocal Clarity

Moving onto actual content, this part will work best if you have headphones. Starting with vocal clarity, the center channel is usually the most important for providing clear vocals when ambient volume is also high. So, for these clips, focus on how well you can understand the vocal track as well as the separation of the vocals from other ambient noises.

Here I thought the Hisense had the clearest and most separated vocals with a very convincing phantom center channel. While I thought the ELAC system was an improvement over the #1 ranked Hisense, it wasn’t as dramatic of an improvement as I was expecting comparing a dedicated center to a phantom center.

Front Sound Stage Separation

Next, looking at front sound stage width and separation, this is the main area that these wireless systems should dominate over sound bars because they don’t need to use tricks and DSP to produce a wide feel, so for these clips focus on the movement of sound from one side to the other.

The Hisense also took the top spot here and the position of objects on the screen matched exactly with the sound output. But in this case, there was a significant difference between the width of the ELAC system where the dedicated left and right front channels created more overall separation.

Surround Effects

Next to judge surround effects, unfortunately YouTube is just going to play back any audio that I record in stereo. So, in addition to critically evaluating each system in person, I also put a second set of stereo microphones facing behind me, and the audio you’re about to hear comes only from those microphones.

Here the Hisense came out on top again, with excellent directional rear audio at a great level that was impactful without being distracting. Interestingly, this was one area where I couldn’t tell much of a difference between my ELAC system and the #1 ranked Hisense.

Height Effects

Next, to measure the height channels, I moved that second set of stereo microphones and aimed at the ceiling over the main listening position, and this recording using those microphones will attempt to isolate and exaggerate height effects.

Here the Sony Bravia Quad took the top spot. I think this is largely due to the room correction setup process, because I think my rear speaker placement is further back from the main listening position than most rooms and as a result, the Sony seemed to have height effects coming from above me, while the Hisense and Valerion height effects were more behind me. In this case the Elac system that has four ceiling mounted, dedicated 2-way speakers absolutely blew away all of the wireless systems that are forced to bounce the height channel off the ceiling and hope for the best.

Low Bass Performance

Last, some clips to judge their subwoofer and low-bass performance.

The Sony SW5 rightfully took first place here, as it should since it costs two thirds of the price of the other systems by itself, but it was nice to see it perform up to that level. However, my ELAC Varro PS350 is only $150 more than the SW5 and steps up from a 7” driver to a 12” driver and the difference in the fullness and feel of the base response is night and day, even more significant than the difference between the Sony SW5 and the included subs from Valerion and Hisense.

Audio Bubble

There’s also one last quality of a good sound system that I think is the culmination of all of the other categories. Sony calls it the 360 Spatial Sound Mapping, and I’ve heard other people call it the audio bubble, but for me It’s when a set of speakers can produce a sound that appears to come from everywhere instead of a single point location. The two scenes I’m going to play are from Dune: Part Two where the sound makes the room feel ten times bigger than it is, and Top Gun: Maverick where it seems like the background music is playing on an entirely different sound system from the planes, guns, and vocals. For reasons I can’t fully understand, Sony, which is usually the king of the 360-degree sound bubble, came in unquestionably last here and the Hisense, the most budget system, was frankly incredible. 

Did it beat out the ELAC system with four dedicated height channels and a 12” sub? Of course not, but for the money, for the setup time, and for the size, I was almost speechless. I’ll preface that by saying that it is possible that my room just happened to be perfect for the acoustics of the Hisense, but I was beyond impressed.

The Bad Stuff

So now let’s talk about the negatives of these systems. First, the most common complaint is wireless congestion and speaker dropout, and these have been widely reported on in other reviews, especially with the older Sony HT-A9 system. During my testing, I experienced drop out specifically on the Valerion system, but it was 100% my fault. I had left the Bravia Quad on while the Valerion was trying to connect, which of course caused signal congestion and dropouts. But when testing them one at a time, I didn’t have any speaker connection issues at all. Interestingly, using the wireless speakers had a pretty large impact on the range of my computer’s wireless mouse that’s usually about 15 feet away from the computer. So, if you’re using a home theater PC with a wireless mouse and keyboard, these systems might cause unexpected issues for you.

Second, I have a growing concern that not necessarily these systems, but systems like these are going to be used to lock consumers into a specific brand ecosystem. For instance, the Bravia Quad has their S-Channel out port to be able to connect certain Sony TVs as the center channel, Hisense has Hi-Concerto mode that can use certain Hisense TVs and Projectors as the center, and AWOL has a version of the ThunderBeat that can use AWOL Ultra Short Throw projectors as a center. As you’ve seen in this video, all those systems work fine with my AWALL MicroLED, but TCL just released their Z100 system with Dolby FlexConnect, and it only works if you have a compatible TCL TV, which not only locks you into the current TCL ecosystem, but it prevents you from switching brands down the road if you want to keep using your sound system. I think that’s a dangerous path to go down.

Conclusions

So now it’s conclusion time. The Hisense HT Saturn is not only the lowest priced system, but it also finished first or second in every category and this may be a controversial take, but I liked it even better than the Bravia Quad in most content. That also made me curious to try out the Hi-Concerto mode using Hisense’s $6000 L9Q, that also has a sound system tuned by Devialet. Frankly, it was terrible and the projector’s speaker sounded worse than the phantom center produced by the HT Saturn and adding the L9Q’s speakers absolutely ruined the front sound stage separation. So, if you get the HT Saturn, there’s no need to get FOMO about not using Hi-Concerto mode.

The Sony Bravia Quad with SW5 subwoofer sounds pretty good, and I don’t think most people would find many faults with it. But while the Hisense HT Saturn is a $1000 system that sounds like a $2000 system, the Bravia Quad is a $3400 system that sounds like a $2000 system. I would say that if you just love Sony products or you have a really strange room with terrible speaker placement the Bravia Quad with its room correction and DSP may work for you, but in most cases the Hisense is a better option not only in terms of value, but also sound quality.

Lastly, the Valerion ThunderBeat system was pretty disappointing to me. While I think it had the best aesthetics and I liked the wireless dongle that you can hang from the back of a projector, it had several deal breaking issues, including a subwoofer that regularly overplayed its hand causing clipping and distortion, massively varied volume levels between PCM 2.0 and Dolby audio formats, and a $299 add-on center channel that’s basically required to fill in gaps in the frequency response curve but does not look, feel, or sound anywhere near what I expect from a nearly $300 speaker.

As always there are no sponsored reviews on this channel, but I do have links below for all of the speaker systems in this video, and as always, I appreciate when you use those links since as an Amazon Affiliate I do earn a small commission on the sale at no cost to you. 

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