Klipsch Cinema 800 Soundbar Review

The Klipsch Cinema 800 is mostly made of plastic, and the top, front, and part of the bottom of the bar are covered with fabric. It has a similar design to the Klipsch Cinema 700, but the plastic horns at the end of the bar are visible.

The Klipsch Cinema 800's sub is mostly made of wood. It sits on four wooden pegs that keep the base off the floor. The driver and the power are located underneath.

You can purchase satellites from Klipsch separately.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 is fairly wide, so it likely won't fit between the legs of a 55-inch TV. However, it isn't very tall, so it won't obscure the TV screen unless your TV sits flush on the table.

The sub is a bit large and wide, meaning it may take up some space in your setup. That said, it connects to the bar wirelessly, meaning you have some flexibility when placing it in your room.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has a fair build quality. The bar is mostly made of plastic, though it doesn't feel very premium. The bar's fabric covering seems like it could rip or collect dust easily, too. On the right side of the bar, there's a removable panel that lets you access the USB ports for servicing the bar and connecting additional speakers. The sub is mostly made of wood, which feels pretty solid.

Note: The results in this review represent the third model that we purchased from the manufacturer. For the first bar we tested, the tweeter blew during our stereo dynamics sweeps, though this won't affect most users since these tests are designed to stress the bar. For the second model we purchased, sound played out of the sub, but not out of the bar.

• Manual
• 2x Soundbar side panel replacements
• 2x Wall mount brackets with screws and 3M tape
• Remote with batteries (2x AA)
• 2x Power cord (6.5 ft / 2.0m)
• Mounting template
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has an excellent stereo frequency response. Right out of the box, it offers a balanced sound profile that reproduces voices and lead instruments with clarity and detail, making it suitable for a wide range of music genres. Its subwoofer brings plenty of rumble in the low-bass, meaning you can feel the thump in bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop. If you prefer a different sound, you can customize it using the graphic EQ in its companion app.

If you prefer a more balanced sound with stereo content, we recommend using the bar with its default settings.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has a good stereo soundstage. The soundstage is perceived to be as wide as the bar itself, though it doesn't have any tricks to make it seem wider than that. However, it has good focus, so objects like voices seem to come from an accurate, pinpoint location in the sound image.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has a very good stereo dynamics performance. It gets loud enough to fill most rooms with sound. Plus, there isn't a lot of compression as you turn up the volume, ensuring that audio reproduction remains clean and pure at loud volume levels.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has good stereo THD performance. At a normal listening volume, distortion falls within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction. While there's a slight jump in THD at max volume, ultimately, this isn't very noticeable with real-life content.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has an impressive center channel performance. Its discrete center helps to more accurately localize voices to a pinpoint location in the sound image. Also, its frequency response is neutral in the mid-range, where most vocals are reproduced. As a result, dialogue is clear and detailed, though higher frequencies can also be alternately harsh or dull due to the uneven treble.

The bar can playback 5.1 surround sound formats like Dolby Digital, which you can find on both streaming platforms and Blu-rays. However, since it's a 3.1 setup, it has to downmix surround content into stereo to play it. The resulting sound isn't quite as immersive, and you don't get the sense of sound effects coming from all around you. If you want an improved surround sound, you can purchase satellites from the manufacturer separately.

This soundbar supports Dolby Atmos content, which is an immersive audio format commonly found on streaming platforms and Blu-rays. However, to play this content, the bar has to downmix it into stereo. As a result, it can't replicate the same sense of height, so you don't get a very immersive feel. Sound effects seem like they're coming from a speaker placed in front of you rather than from all around your couch.

Subjectively, downmixing Atmos content into stereo certainly takes away from the all-around immersive feel. However, we felt that the bar didn't perform quite as poorly as the score suggests. Its subwoofer offers solid performance with thump and rumble in the bass while remaining controlled. Plus, it simulates a wide stereo soundstage, so sound extends a little past the edges of the bar itself. Of course, it's not as impressive as more premium models with true Atmos support, as the bar struggles to simulate height. For example, drones that are meant to fly overhead just seem like they're coming from the speaker in front of you.

This soundbar has a fair selection of sound enhancement features. There's a 3-band graphic EQ to help you customize its sound, as well as three EQ presets: 'Standard', 'Dialogue', and 'Night'. The 'Dialogue' mode lets you cycle through three different levels, meaning you can control the volume of the dialogue in your audio. The 'Night' preset disables the subwoofer and reduces the dynamic range, which is helpful if you want to watch TV at night.

You can connect this soundbar to your TV via HDMI ARC and Optical Audio In, and there are even two Full HDMI In ports if you want to use it as a hub between different devices. There's also an Ethernet port to connect it to your network, as well as a Sub Out port.

This soundbar has amazing audio format support via ARC. It supports Dolby Digital, which is the most common surround sound format. It can also play lossless and object-based surround sound formats like Dolby Atmos and has eARC support. However, unlike the Sony HT-A3000, it doesn't support DTS content. Also, when you play Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus content, any dedicated left or right audio plays on both channels simultaneously. This is also true with the left and right surround channels, meaning that sound effects aren't as accurately localized within the soundstage. For example, a voice meant to come from the left seems like it's coming from the left and right simultaneously, which doesn't give you the same life-like feel.

This soundbar also has excellent audio format support via Full HDMI In. It can playback common surround sound formats like Dolby Digital and lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos. That said, it doesn't support DTS. The same implementation issue is present over this connection, and with Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus content, any dedicated left or right audio plays from both channels simultaneously, which takes away from the overall immersive feel.

Via Optical, this soundbar supports Dolby Digital content. You can find this surround sound format on many Blu-rays and streaming platforms. That said, any dedicated left or right audio plays on both channels simultaneously with this content, so you don't get the same clear and real feel with sound effects as you do with bars that provide a correct implementation.

This soundbar has excellent latency performance. It has fairly low latency via ARC and Optical, so the audio you hear is in sync with the video you see. As a result, it's a great choice for watching videos and movies, and you don't notice any lip-synching issues. Since different TVs and apps can compensate for latency differently, your real-world experience may vary slightly.

This soundbar can passthrough some of the highest bandwidth signals, including Dolby Vision Passthrough. When it's connected between different devices like a PC and a TV, text on your screen appears crisp and clear.

You can stream audio from other devices to the bar over a wireless connection.

The interface is fairly simple. It shows you the input you're on as well as the volume level. You can also hold down the LED button on the remote to see which audio format is playing.

The buttons on top of the bar let you power it on/off, change the input, and adjust the volume.

The remote has a similar design to that of the Klipsch Cinema 600. It lets you control all the bar's features, including the volume and the inputs.

The manufacturer says that the Klipsch Cinema 800 supports voice assistants if you connect it to a voice-assistant-enabled device that supports Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. However, you need to purchase a third-party device to use this feature.