KLIPSCH CINEMA 1200 REVIEW! WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU BUY
Klipsch Cinema 1200 soundbar review by Andrew Robinson. Originally published July 18, 2021.
KLIPSCH CINEMA 1200 - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU BUY!
The Klipsch Cinema 1200 is the latest sound bar to hit the Cinema line. We loved the Cinema 600 sound bar. Is the 1200 even better? Here’s what to know before you buy.
KLIPSCH CINEMA 1200 SOUNDBAR SPECS
The Cinema 1200 is a 5.1.4 Dolby Atmos enabled sound bar system that comes with a massive wireless subwoofer and two Atmos-enabled wireless surround speakers. The bar features three, essentially dedicated loudspeakers across the front acting as the left, center and right channels -all featuring Klipsch tractrix horn tweeters. You also get two upward firing Atmos elevation speakers on the main bar, as well as two more on top of the wireless surrounds. The 12 “ wireless subwoofer is driven by an internal amplifier with 500 Watts of peak power that when paired with the soundbar and surrounds is good for a reported frequency response of 22Hz to 20kHz -more on that in a moment.
Despite the 1200 being a true, 5.1.4 system it can also decode 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos signals. It has 8K HDR video passthrough as well as ARC/eARC support. Other inputs include an additional subwoofer out, a 3.5mm analog audio and optical digital audio input. You also get Bluetooth, Wifi, Google Assistant, Alexa & Spotify Connect compatibility as well as the Klipsch Connect App. Throw in a backlit remote control, mounting hardware and all the basic cables you need to get up and running for a mostly plug and play installation and you have the 1200 all wrapped up.
KLIPSCH SOUND BAR DESIGN
The Klipsch 1200 is not a radical departure from Klipsch’s existing line of soundbars which include the Cinema 600 we reviewed and loved last year. While the all wood construction of the 1200 is a nice touch, like with other soundbars from Klipsch, it’s mostly covered by grille cloth -which is kind of a shame. If you aren’t familiar with the Cinema soundbar line, the only real visual cue that separates the 1200 from the rest, is the presence of the upward firing Atmos drivers and the absolutely MASSIVE subwoofer!
CINEMA 1200 SUBWOOFER
So about that -- The subwoofer is arguably one of the system’s strengths and its biggest weakness. Last year I raved about the truly incredible and taut bass that one could achieve with the Cinema 600’s 10 inch subwoofer. When the 1200 arrived and I saw the size of the new subwoofer, I thought whoa, they are not playing around. Its larger driver and more powerful amp have taken what was already a powerful platform and pushed it into the realm of crazy town. And like it’s more budget friendly sibling, the 1200 system is rather limited with respect to adjustments and control -especially when it comes to the subwoofer. If you’re hoping for MANUAL CONTROLS to come with the more expensive price tag, there aren’t any.
PROBLEM WITH BASS
Why is this a potential problem? My room, like most, has its strengths and its weaknesses - one being a 3-5dB bump in bass around 40Hz. I know this because I’ve measured it. This is something I take into account any time I review a loudspeaker or subwoofer. Knowing this helps me accurately convey my opinions to you and in extreme cases, I can try to absorb the excess bass energy using bass traps or just EQ the bump out altogether with software. The point is, NO ROOM is perfect, not even mine, and so like many of you, I may have to work a little harder to get bass-heavy speakers and subwoofers to integrate properly into our space, and when those speakers lack basic functionality, it’s a little harder.
My biggest concern with the Cinema 1200’s subwoofer is its lack of control -like physical controls and adjustability. As of this review, the 1200 subwoofer can only be adjusted +/- 6dB using the included remote. This makes it virtually impossible, at least in my room, to integrate the sub perfectly with the rest of the system. And if I’m a betting man, I expect others may end up having a similar experience. So what does all this mean? The resulting sound from the 1200 system frankly isn’t very good. The bass out of this sub is so overpowering - again, IN MY ROOM, that it goes from being the star of the show, to the villain rather quickly.
OFFICIAL RESPONSE FROM KLIPSCH REGARDING THE CINEMA 1200’S SUBWOOFER
When asked about the subwoofer and Klipsch decision to limit its adjustability this was their response,
“In all of our testing internally and externally, we’ve never had any complaints about the subwoofer being too loud, and we definitely won’t apologize for building kick ass, best-in-class subwoofers.”
While I certainly wasn’t looking for an apology, I still found it curious why the designers didn’t at least give users the option of turning the sub down beyond say -6dB given that when asked about pairing third party subs to the bar they had this to say,
”Any wired subwoofer that is attached would come equipped with its own gain knob, so the user can set a good balance between the two subs and use the master “Subwoofer Level” to blend to taste with the bar.”
That last phrase, blend to taste, stood out to me. The designers at Klipsch acknowledge that the customer may have different wants, needs or tastes-as it were -with respect to their system’s overall sound, especially when it comes to bass. They even acknowledge that a third party sub’s gain knob is handy when it comes to blending it in with their system. So why did they not put that same level of functionality into their own, more powerful sub so that customers could do the same? I don’t get it.
NIGHT MODE WORKAROUND
Thankfully, there is a workaround. Klipsch suggested placing the whole system into its Night 1 mode, which cuts the subwoofer’s volume by 50%. From there -- use the subwoofer level controls up or down to smoothen out the blend between subwoofer and soundbar. While this definitely helps, it didn’t result in an outright fix or a sound that I would classify as 100% balanced top to bottom. Was it better? YES - absolutely, but is it enough?
CINEMA 1200 MIDRANGE PERFORMANCE
When watching big budget action films like Ford vs Ferrari, 6 Underground or 2012 the Cinema 1200 system was more than up to the task -delivering a big, bold, dynamic presentation that was absolutely room filling and engaging. The 1200’s midrange is fuller and richer than most soundbars - at least once you have the bass dialed in and the blend between bar and sub just right.
PAIRING THE KLIPSCH CINEMA 1200 WITH A THIRD PARTY SUB
To be honest, the best subwoofer pairing in my room was the SVS 3000 Micro that I connected to the soundbar using the 1200’s subwoofer output bypassing the included sub altogether. This freed the bar from the unwanted chestiness and boomy resonances I had been hearing coming from the spicier Klipsch sub. This allowed me to better hear the bar and I have to say, with a properly dialed in sub, the 1200 bar is rather nice, especially in the midrange. It has good presence, great scale and intelligibility is good, but is definitely helped along by turning the Dialog setting to +1 rather than 0 which is the default.
DIALOG SETTING RECOMMENDATIONS
I wouldn't push the dialog setting up past +1 though. Going as far as +2 or +3 had a noticeable effect on the system’s high frequency, at times inducing very harsh sibilance and distortion. Keeping the dialog setting to 1 allows for an increased sense of intelligibility throughout the mids and highs without making the tweeters too hot. On their own, the high frequencies are a bit livelier but not Bowers & Wilkins 606 hot. (TOO SOON?) -- Klipsch, in recent years - at least in my opinion, has backed off their love of a more forward treble response in favor of one that ISN’T neutral, but NOWHERE near as aggressive as it once was.
CINEMA 1200 ATMOS PERFORMANCE
As for surround sound at Atmos playback, the Cinema 1200 is solid though I wouldn’t go so far as to call it best in class. This is a system that 100% benefits from using the surround speakers. By the way - the power cords that come with these aren’t very long so if you are thinking well, I’ll just use the 3rd party ones I have lying around the way I did - make sure the connections are the DOWNWARD 90 degree variety - because horizontals won't fit. With the surrounds installed the 1200 is capable of true, three dimensional surround sound. If you usually leave the surround speakers in the box, DON’T. They make a HUGE difference with this setup! The bar on its own, will not sound as spacious or possess that wrap-around faux surround quality some bars at this price can give you.
As for Atmos, you may need to experiment with the volume of the height channel to achieve a good “mix”. Once you do, their presence is noticeable. I found them to be just a little more subtle than the ones you get with the Samsung Q950A or AMBEO. But all things considered, the Cinema 1200 sounds good playing back older surround sound formats like Dolby Digital as well as new Atmos mixed content.
SURROUND MODES OF THE KLIPSCH CINEMA 1200
The Cinema 1200 has several different sound or surround modes, and all have a pretty big effect on your experience. I preferred the Standard, Direct or Movie settings and used those three extensively during this review -with Standard being the best for me overall. Music was sometimes okay, though I felt it accentuated the treble response of the bar too much at times, pushing it into forward or even aggressive territory. Game was meh and as for Party, it wasn’t one I wanted to attend.
VIDEO SWITCHING
A few other things to note about the 1200’s performance. The video switching is good and rather responsive. My PS5 hasn’t arrived yet so I was unable to test the bar’s 8K pass through claims but it worked flawlessly with all of our 4K devices. Wireless connectivity works, as does Bluetooth, both of which make music streaming from your phone or through the Google Home app easy. And of course the added subwoofer output works and works well.
KLIPSCH CONNECT APP
So what else? The App. Oh the Klipsch Connect App. In July of last year we were all told that an update was coming to the App that would allow for more customization and control over the Cinema 600 soundbar, not to mention The Fives. Today, we’re still waiting on those updates to happen. While I accepted being asked to wait then, I find it more difficult to do so a full year later making it impossible for me to ignore the App’s shortcomings. And it pains me to say but the Klipsch Connect App is a joke. You can’t even turn the volume down using the App, let alone dial in things like tone controls or, I don’t know, EQ the subwoofer? Klipsch acknowledges this isn’t a good look and they assure me that on or by August 30th of this year the App will be updated. According to Klipsch, the update WILL include:
“3 band eq adjustment, virtual remote control (anything the remote can do, the app can do), individual channel level adjustment.”
So I guess we’ll see…
Now sometimes what you can’t control inside an App, you can using the physical remote but sadly not the case here as the 1200 really is lacking in overall adjustability. Speaking of the remote, if you own a newer VIZIO TV like ours (we’re currently using the P Series Quantum X), the remote’s IR codes for the Klipsch Cinema 1200 are one in the same or have a lot in common with VIZIO’s. So if you go to change the volume on the soundbar and the channel on your TV changes, that’s why. I can’t say how widespread this issue is because obviously, I don’t have every TV out in the wild, but if this happens to you, at least you know your TV isn’t possessed. Klipsch is working on a fix so hopefully it can be addressed in a firmware update.
SAMSUNG Q950A VS CINEMA 1200
And as for comparisons, the most notable for me has to be the Samsung Q950A we just reviewed. To put it bluntly, the Klipsch Cinema 1200 system is a V8 muscle car whereas the Q950A is a Tesla. To say the Klipsch is outmatched with respect to tech and features when compared to the Samsung is an understatement. The Samsung has more channels, which is noticeable when comparing these two products head-to-head --- resulting in a more spacious sound field front to back and top to bottom. The side and angled drivers of the Samsung do a better job filling out the side of the soundstage before needing to rely on the surrounds. Samsung doesn’t limit your ability to dial in the Q950A sub -even providing you an automatic EQ option -which you don’t get on the Klipsch. So while there are aspects of the 1200’s performance that I enjoy, the Samsung is the safer, better and frankly more complete product - at LEAST as of this review.
KLIPSCH 1200 SOUNDBAR VS VIZIO ELEVATE
With respect to the VIZIO Elevate, I’m siding with the Klipsch Cinema 1200, purely because I was able to arrive at a sound that more or less worked for me, allowing me to set and forget the 1200 system for a while whereas I always felt like I was fidgeting with the Elevate to get it how I wanted it -and that got old. Plus I never did get the damn thing to connect to the Internet again (found!).
Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage soundbar
KLIPSCH VS BANG AND OLUFSEN
Now, in terms of raw, cinema horsepower and room defying sound the 1200 is better than single bar solutions like the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage, though if you’re going for better subtlety and nuance the B&O is the superior bar -not to mention the Stage is better for music, in my opinion.
CINEMA 1200 VS CINEMA 600
As for how the 1200 compares to one of my favorite soundbars of 2020, the Cinema 600? For me, I’m siding with the 600. The smaller sub works better in my room and frankly was more than enough bass for that system that I didn’t require more. But MORE IMPORTANTLY, given the control limitations of the Cinema ecosystem in general, blending the smaller sub with the 600 for a more balanced presentation was a lot easier - AGAIN - for me. Considering the Cinema 600 system is routinely half the price of the 1200, you might as well PAY less if you’re going to GET “less”. And if the App does get that update, the same functionality that the 1200 needs TO BE competitive will also be coming to the 600, arguably making it even more competitive at its price UNLESS you want TRUE ATMOS PLAYBACK, then 1200 is the way to go!
WHAT ABOUT THE CINEMA 800?
What about the Cinema 800? What about it. I don’t have it, but I can tell you that the biggest difference is that 800 does not have upward firing Atmos drivers - therefore it is not a TRUE atmos system but a VIRTUAL one.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So to wrap this up I’m going to have to say that the Cinema 1200 5.1.4 Dolby Atmos soundbar system from Klipsch feels like a work in progress. The blueprint for something great is there. The foundation, which is good, cinematic sound, is laid, but now it needs a dash of finesse. I’m really hoping that comes in the form of an App update. The Cinema 1200 will likely never compete in terms of features with the likes of Samsung, and for some that’s okay, but at a minimum Klipsch needs to a) show their customers that they’re going to follow through with their promises; and b) bring a small measure of control to their Cinema Series ecosystem so that it is more friendly to more people AND MORE ROOMS. But as it stands, the Cinema 1200 is good and maybe with an update or two, it can be great!
