Orbitsound T12 soundbar

By adding and subtracting the 'omni' or 'sum' signal with the figure-8 or 'difference' signal, it should be possible to arrive at a conventional 'left' and 'right' audio signal. Airsound says that despite some flaws in the theory, the M/S system can be used as the basis of reproducing sounds with space with the M signal representing the majority of what the listener hears and the S signal delivering the spatial information.

The T12 uses main drivers mounted on the front of the enclosure (the M signal for the majority of the sound) and S drivers on the side (the S signal for the spatial information).

The unit is not overly blessed with connection options

The system also employs a phenomenon known as ‘the surface effect’. The company says that the effect is best described as imagining yourself standing by a lake on a still day. You will be able to hear sounds a long way off right on the other side of the lake. This is because when sound is reproduced near a flat surface, it travels great distances at high levels of volume if the linear dimensions of that surface are greater than those of the main frequencies with the sound.

All fine in theory, but does it actually work? Well, it does, and we really enjoyed the type of sound the unit produced. There are several areas to wich the unit is designed to bring enhanced sound - firstly, there's TV playback. Of course this is going to depend on your TV - we tried it on a brand new 40in Samsung, which has moderately good sound for its class, and the T12 did much better than the TV's own speaker array.

The field created feels enveloping, while vocals remained in good clarity. Bass extension was particularly good, down to the very meaty sub that comes with the unit. The unit is not overly blessed with connection options - just an iPod dock on top, left/right audio inputs on the back and a line-in input. However, we tried putting the TV sound through the line-in jack via the TV’s headphone socket (as suggested by the manufacturer to increase connection options) and the performance was still very good. You can of course attach the speaker to audio-outs from your TV - this produces good results, as does attaching the audio outs on your Sky box or similar.