Klipsch Cinema 800 Soundbar Review

The Klipsch Cinema 800 is a 3.1 setup released in 2020. Unlike the Klipsch Cinema 600, it supports Dolby Atmos content. You can upgrade it to a 5.1 setup by purchasing satellite speakers from Klipsch separately. Its main competitors include the Sonos Arc, the Klipsch Cinema 1200, and the Bose Smart Soundbar 700.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has a similar design to the Klipsch Cinema 600. It's mostly made of plastic, and the top, front, and part of the bottom of the bar are covered with fabric. At each end of the bar, there are horns made of plastic.

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" TV. However, it isn't very tall, so it shouldn'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, so you have some flexibility when placing it in your room.

The back of the bar has some openings for the inputs and the power cable. You can also mount the bar to the wall using the included brackets and screws.

The back of the sub has the input for the power cable as well as a pairing button. However, its port is located underneath.

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. That said, 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 shouldn'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 (2xAA)
• 2x Power cord
• Mounting template
• HDMI cable

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has an excellent stereo frequency response. Its neutral, balanced sound profile is suitable for listening to lots of different types of audio content. It can reproduce the deep thump and rumble in the low-bass accurately. In our subjective listening tests, we noticed that it sounds pretty neutral with a touch of extra brightness. There's also a subwoofer adjustment feature to help you customize its sound.

During our calibration tests, we found that with its subwoofer set to '-3', the overall stereo frequency performance isn't better than its default settings. Therefore, if you prefer a more neutral sound profile, we recommend putting the sub at its default setting of '0'.

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 fairly loud, but not as loud as the Klipsch Cinema 600. That said, there isn't a lot of compression when you push it to max volume, which is good.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has a 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, this shouldn't be too 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 Klipsch Cinema 800 has a poor surround performance. This 3.1 setup has to downmix surround content into stereo to play it, which doesn't sound as immersive. Sound seems like it's coming from in front of you rather than from speakers placed all around you.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has a poor Atmos performance. It has to downmix Atmos content into stereo to play it, which isn't very immersive-sounding. In our subjective listening tests, we noticed that the soundstage was wide, but its height didn't extend overhead.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has a very basic selection of sound enhancement features. There's a dialogue enhancement feature, which lets you adjust between three different levels based on how loud you want the dialogue to be. There's also a night mode that disables the subwoofer and reduces the dynamic range when watching TV at night. While it has a subwoofer level adjustment, it lacks premium sound enhancement features like an EQ or bass and treble adjustments.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has some physical inputs. You can connect it 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.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has amazing audio format support via ARC. It supports Dolby Digital, which is the most common surround sound format. It can also play some lossless and object-based surround sound formats like Dolby Atmos, and it has eARC support. However, it doesn't support DTS content.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 has excellent audio format support via Full HDMI In. It can playback common surround sound formats like Dolby Digital as well as some lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos. That said, it doesn't support DTS.

Via Optical, this soundbar supports Dolby Digital content. You can find this surround sound format on many Blu-rays and streaming platforms.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 soundbar has an excellent latency performance. It has fairly low latency via ARC and Optical, so the audio you hear should sync with the video you see. That said, over Full HDMI In, you may notice that the visuals seem to come before the sound. That said, some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience can vary.

Update 10/19/2021:Added more information about the bar's Chromecast capabilities.

You can only playback audio from your mobile device wirelessly to the bar via Bluetooth. The bar doesn't have a mic built-in, and it requires a third-party device like a cellphone to sync the bar to Google Home and cast via Chromecast. Since the support isn't built into the bar, we list the result as 'No'.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 can passthrough some of the highest bandwidth signals. However, it doesn't support Dolby Vision Passthrough.

The sub connects to the bar wirelessly using the pairing button. You just need to plug it into a power outlet to get it to work.

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.

On top of the bar, there are some buttons. You can use them to power the bar 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 Klipsch Connect app is fairly basic. You can use it to update the firmware, view product info, and look at the manual. There are also some how-to videos available. However, if you want to control the bar's features, you need to use its remote.

The Klipsch Cinema 800 supports HDMI CEC, so you can control its volume using your TV remote. However, there's no power-saving feature to help you conserve energy if you forget to turn it off manually.