Bowers & Wilkins’ Panorama 3 is its first Dolby Atmos soundbar
13 individual drivers are contained in a svelte and rather impressive bar
Bowers & Wilkins is very used to producing TV audio heaven through its partnership with Philips. But now the Zeppelin pioneer has brought the same expertise (and tweeters) to its new Panorama 3 soundbar, its first with Dolby Atmos. It’ll cost $999/£899.
The low-profile, 65mm high Panorama 3 should pack some punch, with a total of 400W of output: 40W to each tweeter, 40W to each pair of midrange drive units, 40W to each subwoofer and 40W to each Dolby Atmos Elevation drive unit (upward-firing in case you hadn’t guessed).
In fact, there are 13 individual drivers in a 3.1.2 configuration to make sure the Panorama 3 can fire the sound into every little nook and cranny of your living room. There’s also Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and aptX Bluetooth onboard, while as with Bowers & Wilkins’ other gear, Alexa is the voice assistant of choice.
There’s a single ARC/eARC HDMI connection (no passthrough) and once connected you can use your TV or Sky/Virgin/whatever box remote to control the audio. There’s also a digital optical input, too. There’s also support for the Bowers & Wilkins Music App to connect to streaming services including Tidal, Deezer and Qobuz.
The soundbar follows up on 2009’s Panorama and 2013’s Panorama 2 and like those bars, is designed as a premium one-box bar without the need for an external subwoofer. It’s also been designed for screens of 55-inch and up, with a length of 121cm.
We can’t wait to hear what the Panorama 3 sounds like. We’ll be bringing you a full review very soon on Stuff.tv.