BOWERS & WILKINS PANORAMA 3 SOUNDBAR

Soundbars are a compromise, and they always were. From the start they’ve had the unavoidable constriction of being a long low speaker in front of your TV. It’s hard to get a big sound that way, so most soundbars require a separate subwoofer to add bass.

But soundbars have come so far that some manufacturers are now trying to do away with the complication and inconvenience of a subwoofer. It’s a difficult trick, but if anyone can pull it off, you might think it would be Bowers & Wilkins.

Equipment

Bowers & Wilkins wasn’t among the earliest speaker companies that moved into soundbars; it waited until the market had developed, and then came in with a shiny high-end Panorama soundbar in 2009, with an HDMI-equipped follow-up Panorama 2 in 2013. Now, after a fair gap and a good deal of change in how we all watch TV, we have the Panorama 3.

The new Panorama is less dramatic aesthetically — stylish rather than flamboyant. We approve of this, especially the switching out of a formerly mirrored top surface — a daft thing to put below a TV picture —