Klipsch unveils the first Dolby Atmos soundbar with Dirac Live elite room correction – and it’s crammed with extra features too
Klipsch has announced a new member of its Flexus family, a joint venture between the firm and Japanese AV expert Onkyo. The new Flexus Core 300 – Powered By Onkyo, to give it its full name, is a 5.1.2-channel soundbar and the world’s first soundbar to come with Dirac Live Room Correction.
Dirac Live Room Correction is designed to deliver a clearer, more accurate sound with tighter bass. It does that by analyzing the sonic characteristics of your room and adjusting the sound accordingly, reducing unwanted resonances and adjusting timings to compensate for acoustic reflections. It’s similar to the tech used in Sonos‘ TruePlay system, or the SpaceFit sound correction in Samsung‘s soundbars… but Dirac Live is the hardcore version that elite home theater installers use. This requires a special mic, which is provided in the box.
And that’s not the only reason you’ll want to hear this soundbar in your home. The rest of the spec is pretty impressive too.
Klipsch Flexus Core 300 soundbar: key features and pricing
The new Flexus Core 300 is now the flagship of the range, sitting above the Core 200 and 100 models we saw back in January. It supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and inside you’ll find two 2.25-inch up-firing, two 2.25-inch side-firing and four 2.25-inch front-firing drivers. There are four 4-inch subwoofers for low-end thump and a dedicated center channel with Klipsch’s horn-loaded tweeter.
To pair with the new soundbar to create a full surround system, there’s also the new Flexus Surround 200 wireless surround speakers with up-firing drivers for Atmos, and a new Flexus Sub 200 wireless subwoofer with a 12-inch high-excursion woofer. You can connect up to two Sub 200s to any of the Flexus Core soundbars – combine all of this together and you’ve got a surround system with four upfiring channels and serious bass.
There’s HDMI passthrough that includes 8K support (and presumably 4K 120Hz, though Klipsch didn’t explicitly state this), which is still relatively rare (the Samsung HW-Q990D and Sony HT-A7000 support it, though).
There’s Wi-Fi and Ethernet for network streaming powers, plus Bluetooth for a direct connection from phone to soundbar.
There’s a new app too, called Connect Plus. Available for iOS and Android it gives you one-tap access to input selection, EQ presets and streaming services such as Spotify and Tidal Connect. It also works with Google Cast and Apple‘s AirPlay.
All of these new products will be available towards the end of 2024, and the Flexus Core 300 will have an official price of $999 (about £760 / AU$1,470), while the Flexus Surround 200 set will cost $399 (about £300 / AU$590), and the Flexus Sub 200 will cost $499 (about £380 / AU$730).