New Products

Today is the last day to order the special 75th Anniversary World Premiere Edition of the mighty Nakamichi Dragon 11.4.6 Home Surround Sound System unveiled in January at CES 2023.

The iconic Japanese brand is limiting production to 500 systems, each of which will include a gold plate on the soundbar, a remote control with a laser-etched logo, and a “Behind-the-Scenes Digital Photobook.” The systems are available on a first-come-first-served basis and expected to ship between June and August. Pricing remains unchanged at $3,499, making the Dragon the world’s most expensive soundbar-based surround-sound system we know of.

From what we saw and heard at CES, the five-piece Dragon ensemble is also one of the most impressive soundbar systems in town, which is why it netted a Sound & Vision Editor’s Pick. Editor Mark Henninger called Dragon the best sounding soundbar system he’s heard: “As far as wireless, all-in-one, integrated, active soundbar systems go, this one is bonkers in every respect. It effortlessly creates a seamless bubble of envelopment, handling all the nuances of music (including classical), gaming, and movie sound at whatever volume level any reasonable person would ever request.”

The latest in a series of high-end soundbar systems from the likes of Devialet, Sennheiser, and others, the Dragon reaches new levels in price, sophistication, and performance. The system supports Dolby Vision high dynamic range (HDR) and is the first wireless system to provide the more expansive DTS:X Pro processing in addition to Dolby Atmos to create a true, object-based 11.4.6 sound field — not via upsampling but natively — from a five-piece setup that puts 31 drivers to work.

At almost 5 feet long (58 inches) long, the soundbar itself boasts 17 drivers, including four drivers that fire up from its stainless-steel enclosure and seven digital amplifiers with a peak power rating of 3,000 watts. It also supports streaming via aptX HD-enabled Bluetooth.

“Omni-Motion” bipolar surround speakers handle side, rear, and height channels from two trapezoidal enclosures, each featuring a rotatable up-firing 3-inch driver plus four 3.5-inch drivers and two reliably sweet sounding air-motion transformer (AMT) tweeters that disperse sound from two angled side panels. Rounding out the package is a pair of wireless subwoofers, each housing a pair of 8-inch drivers in a dual-opposing hybrid isobaric configuration designed to produce explosive bass from a relatively small cabinet.

The system is designed for plug-and-play operation and rated to rumble down to 20 Hz while hitting sound-pressure levels (SPL) in the vicinity of 125 dB.

Hailed as the world’s first 21-channel wireless surround-sound setup, Nakamichi says it designed and built the Dragon system to achieve “an authentic three-dimensional home cinema experience” from a system that can be easily integrated into any environment and takes less than 15 minutes to set up.

Don’t worry, if you miss the limited-edition pre-order period, regular systems are slated to ship this fall. For more information, visit dragon.nakamichi-usa.com.