As we know, this company was a big name in hi-fi in the 80s. Nakamichi was recognized for its high-tech tape decks.
Customers who are too young to remember those days, should know that those tape decks were rectangular “cassete tapes” which stored music on magnetic strips passed between two miniature reels.
The days have passed and MiniDisc, CDs, MP3s and streaming music have replaced cassettes. Unfortunately, the company faded as well. But, these days we had a huge surprise on the market. It seems that the Nakamichi brand has been brought back to life.
The company moved from cassettes to sound bars. Nakamichi has released the new Shockwafe Pro, which is an interesting new sound bar.
First, customers should know that this new sound bar doesn’t offer the latest cutting-edge tech, for example Dolby Atmos and Wi-Fi.
But, we must say that the new Shockwafe Pro does have bombastic performance on the inside, offering an acceptable music sound.
The company managed to give a natural sound to movies, while the bass power is performed by the huge sub.
The new Nakamichi Shockwafe Pro is the direct competitor of Vizio SB4551-D5. Of course, Vizio’s sound bar is better and has a good-looking design, but this doesn’t mean that the new Nakamichi Shockwafe Pro is not a worthy competitor.
Moving to the design, we must say that the new Nakamichi Shockwafe Pro is a 5.1-channel sound that has support for 4K video sources.
To be added that this device comes with a number of connectivity selections, for example HDMI with Dolby Digital and DTS decoders.
The sound bar measures 45.5-inches and homes five discrete drivers across the front. The speaker is also joined by two wired rears and a wireless sub.
The new Nakamichi Shockwafe Pro comes with angled drivers on the main unit in place of the left and right surround that we can see on many other sound bars on the market.
The device’s rears connect via a set of included wires to the large subwoofer. On the other side, the wireless sub homes an 8-inch driver. It measures 7.9 x 12.3 x 16.7 inches.
Furthermore, we must say that the new Nakamichi Shockwafe Pro comes with a large number of connection options, including one ARC output, two 4K-compatible HDMI inputs, a 3.5 auxiliary and optical and coaxial digital.
This speaker also comes with a USB port, but it is only used for firmware updates. On the other side, the company’s main competitor, Vizio SB4551-D5 comes with Wi-Fi streaming in the form of Chromecast built-in. It is a better feature, but Nakamichi offers Bluetooth 3.0, which is better than nothing.
Customers will definitely prefer having the option of Cast, because it offers better audio quality and features, for example a multiroom option.
In the end, we must say that the Nakamichi Shockwafe Pro has a backlit remote with its own LCD readout. This feature is very handy, because there is no display on the TV or the unit itself.
