Ultra Short Throw (UST) projectors have been growing in popularity lately as consumers seek ever larger TV screen sizes for their living room or home theater. UST projectors offer massive screen sizes of 100 inches or more, without the high cost of a large flat panel TV or the installation complexity of a traditional projection system.
Projector Central and ProjectorScreen.com recently hosted an event called the 2022 Laser TV Showdown. This event brought together 14 of the top UST projectors into a room to determine the best picture quality in both the single laser and the triple laser projector categories. Winners of the event were revealed in our 2022 Laser TV Shootout Results. But the hosts decided to do a follow-up event where the host and A/V journalist Rob Sabin considered the sound quality of each UST projector as well.
Several of the UST manufacturers have teamed up with well established audio brands, like Harman Kardon and Bowers and Wilkins, in order to deliver high quality sound right out of the box, with no external soundbars or speakers required. UST projectors typically have fairly large cabinets which lend themselves to higher quality, fuller sound than what can be delivered with a thin flat panel TV.
Rob tested each of the projectors with a variety of different audio material and classified the contenders into Tier 1 (very good sound), Tier 2 (decent sound) and Tier 3 (yuck). Tier 1 sound systems can stand on their own, providing sound equivalent to a good soundbar. Tier 2 performers will get you by until you can add a decent home theater sound system. Tier 3 performers, as Rob puts it, deliver "an embarrassingly steep step down from the others. No one should mistake these for a permanent audio solution."
Rob decried the lack of upgradeability of the stock sound system as a missed opportunity. For all of the projectors - even the Tier 1 performers - a major audio shortcoming was reproduction of low bass. Had the manufacturers included a simple output for an external subwoofer, any of these systems could have benefitted hugely from the addition of a powered sub. Of the 14 projectors in the competition, only the Optoma CinemaX P2 offers the option for an external subwoofer. And Rob said adding a powered GoldenEar 8" subwoofer to the P2 brought the projector's audio performance up from Tier 2 to Tier 1. It not only extended the bass response but also improved overall dynamic range. Let's hope other projector makers follow suit with external subwoofer options in the future.
The winner of the Triple Laser event, in terms of video performance, was the Formovie Theater. Relatively unknown in the United States, the Formovie brand is made by Chinese manufacturer Fengmi and sold as the "Fengmi T1" in some markets. Fengmi partnered with British high-end audio legend Bowers and Wilkins to create the Formovie Theater's integrated speaker system. The Formovie projector got Rob's vote as a Tier 1 audio performer. In fact, he found it provided the best overall sound reproduction of any of the projectors tested. So it appears that the Formovie Theater is a double threat, both for big picture and big sound.
The video performance winner of the single laser event was the BenQ V7050i UST Projector. BenQ chose to design their sound system in house. Unfortunately Rob was not as impressed with the sound quality on the BenQ projector. It ranked in the lowest tier: Tier 3.
The Sound systems for the VAVA Tri-Chroma, ViewSonic X2000-4K and XGIMI Aura were designed and engineered in partnership with Harman/Kardon. Like the Formovie/Bowers and Wilkins sound system, the three systems designed with Harman/Kardon were also included in Tier 1. The last member of Tier 1 was the AWOL Vision LT-3500. Though designed in house, the AWOL's sound system was also a strong audio performer. As Rob states, Tier 1 models all exhibited "a high degree of midrange and high frequency clarity for both movies and music, suitably loud maximum volume and good dynamic control, and sufficiently good spatial rendering (to the extent you can apply that term to a tiny soundbar)."
Here's the Sonic Scorecard for the 2022 Laser TV contenders, from ProjectorCentral.com:
Of course, if you're planning to invest $2500 or more in a projector, we'd strongly recommend that you invest a bit more into a component surround sound system. These days you can get a great entry-level 5.1.2 home theater system with Dolby Atmos, receiver and speakers for around $1,000 or even less. You can check out our current recommendation for a budget home theater system here. We include a recommendation for a budget 1080p front projector in that system, but you can ignore that if you're buying one of these UST projectors.
You can read Rob's complete coverage of the Laser TV Showdown Part II (Sound) with detailed listening impressions of each model in his article on projectorcentral.com.
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