Dali Katch One Soundbar Review

If you want to easily make your TV sound better, a sound bar is a popular choice for many people. Dali offers you a better choice: the Dali Katch One SoundBar. With Danish design and Nordic style, combined with Dali’s understanding and innovation in speaker products over the years, the Katch One is not only practical and good sounding but also good-looking.

It makes speakers no longer a visual killer in the home environment, but can easily add points to the space and become the favorite of the whole family.

Nowadays, due to the slimming of TVs, the installation space for internal speakers is getting smaller and it is difficult to achieve sufficient sound reproduction.

The demand for SoundBars has emerged in response to this. There are many SoundBar products available on the market, but the Dali Katch One is a product that combines the Hi-Fi experience with ease of use and cannot be compared with general SoundBars.

Unboxing

After opening the box, you can see that the Katch One has protection on both sides and the accessories are packed in a small cardboard box and placed on both sides, saving space overall and fitting well with the clean and neat style of the Nordics.

The Katch One’s accessories include a manual, power cord, remote control (including battery), two solid wood feet, a black wall mounting sticker, two wall mounting brackets, and a wrench.

Each accessory has a separate protective bag, which I personally really like because it is easy to take out and not lose when needed.

The Katch One uses two layers of protection: the first layer is a transparent bag and the second layer is a dustproof bag. From the accessory bag, you can see the manufacturer’s thoughtful service, from the speaker to the accessories, the protection of each role is well done.

Design

The Katch One offers three different colors of dustproof panels for users to choose from ivory white, iron black, and gray-white. The fabric of the dustproof panel has good acoustical characteristics and can ensure the quality of the sound. All three panels belong to the basic color system and are easy to match with the home environment.

There are two small holes at the bottom of the Katch One, which can protect the speaker when the solid wood feet are installed. The solid wood feet also have plastic strips to prevent slipping, making the speaker very stable when placed. The thickness of the solid wood feet is different at both ends, which is a small design idea, simple and not rigid.

The body and front panel of the Dali Katch One are made of glass fiber and ABS composite material, which not only has a strong structure to suppress resonance and maintain stability during single-unit operation, but also optimizes the flow of air to guide the music to the listening space.

The upper part is the control operation button, and a remote control is included for direct remote control. All wiring connections are located at the rear of the speaker, which can avoid directly seeing the wiring when hanging or placing it.

The Dali Katch One uses a total of 10 speaker units, including 2 21mm soft dome tweeters, 4 active midrange speakers, and 4 passive radiator woofers, providing clear and deep sound reproduction, perfectly completing the concept of a Hi-Fi speaker.

It also has 4 built-in 50-watt amplifiers to ensure the dynamic performance and shock power needed when watching movies and provides a super bass output connection to satisfy users with a heavier taste and larger space.

The Katch One also has a powerful DSP digital signal processing technology, with an internal working range of 24bit/96kHz, but it can handle up to 24bit/192kHz of any signal. Through DSP, it can also master and maximize the efficiency between the amplifier and the unit, easily handling 6 active units to transmit a seamless and undistorted audio signal.

The Dali Katch One also offers two playback modes. The first is the Focus mode, which provides a cleaner and more focused sound when watching the news, movies, listening to music, or playing video games. The second is the Wide mode, which allows music to fill the entire space, creating a sense of space and rendering power. It is perfect for a party at home.

The Dali Katch One Soundbar offers a wide range of input and output options. It has two optical digital audio inputs, a 3.5mm analog audio input, an HDMI ARC input, and Bluetooth wireless connectivity. It also has a SUB OUT output for connecting a subwoofer. This versatility makes it easy to use with any device in your home.

The Dali Katch One is designed to be compatible with a wide range of electronic devices. When an electronic device with a signal source is turned on, the Katch One can be synchronized to turn on as well. The HDMI input can be connected to a TV and the volume and power can be controlled directly through the TV remote control.

There are two fiber optic inputs that can be connected to a TV or other audio-signal sources such as a CD player, streaming media, or game console. The Katch One also offers Bluetooth connectivity with ACC and aptX, allowing it to quickly connect to a smartphone, tablet, computer, or TV for wireless connectivity.

There is a stereo mini jack that allows for analog input from any audio signal source. There is also a subwoofer output that allows users to connect an external subwoofer product. The built-in USB port can be used to connect a tablet or Google Chromecast Audio to increase streaming capabilities, but it cannot be used to directly play music.

The Dali Katch One is intuitive to use with simple and straightforward controls. The speaker has icons and LED display lights on its top, which clearly show the current mode and signal source. The design is sleek and minimalistic.

The volume adjustment display is different from the usual, with the Katch One showing the volume adjustment in a circular arc around the power button. This adds a touch of creativity to the overall design.

Sound Performance

Dali Katch One is an intuitive and easy-to-use soundbar that exudes a strong presence. Simply using it to listen to music is already a great pleasure. For example, when listening to a Japanese-POP album, “eyes” by Milet, the opening bass has a noticeable effect when played through Katch One.

The rhythmic heartbeat-like sound adds a different level to the song, and switching to FOCUS mode makes the bass more focused and the vocals a bit more recessed, resulting in a more focused and rounded sound.

Next, I listened to a piano piece, Yundi Li’s performance of Liszt’s “La Campanella” For this piece, I switched between the two sound modes, FOCUS mode and WIDE mode. I can only say that the experience was very different.

The first time I listened, I used WIDE mode, which made the piano sound more unrestrained, and I could feel the strength of the music more than with FOCUS mode. In contrast, FOCUS mode made the piano sound softer. Both modes were very good in terms of clarity and sound quality of the music.

Conclusion

The Dali KATCH ONE is a compact and sophisticated speaker that is perfect for any household. It reproduces movie audio with dynamic energy, clear dialogue, and tight, powerful bass. The music quality is also quite good, so what more could you ask for? I believe this speaker’s outstanding sound performance can meet the entertainment needs of 80% of households.

Don’t let unreasonable excuses like “It is too expensive” or “I don’t know how to appreciate it” stop you from considering the Dali KATCH ONE soundbar. It is an excellent choice that will enhance your enjoyment of life and artistic taste without taking up any space in your home.