Solo performer

Bowers & Wilkins Panorama 3 soundbar

Soundbars these days often come from companies that manufacture TVs; they see the potential in selling an additional unit to beef up the sound of their own TVs that, er, don’t sound very good on their own. But the earliest soundbars all came from loudspeaker companies, especially those that were already innovative in their designs, and so weren’t entirely put off by the difficulties of designing a long wide thin loudspeaker into which you couldn’t fit a driver much wider than your fist.

Bowers & Wilkins wasn’t among the earliest of those companies; rather it waited until the market was proven and then came in with a shiny high-end version of the breed in 2009. That was the first Bowers & Wilkins Panorama soundbar, with an HDMI-equipped follow-up Panorama 2 in 2013.

Now, after a fair gap and a good deal of relevant development in how we all watch TV programming, we have the new Panorama 3.

Equipment

The new Panorama is less dramatic aesthetically than its predecessors; let’s call it stylish rather than flamboyant, of which we rather approve, especially that the company has finally cottoned on to the fact that a mirrored top surface is a daft thing to put below a TV picture. The Panorama 3 is now matte on top, with a painted metal grille split by a horizontal control surface, and a taut fabric wrap all around its width, with angled corners at the sides.