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Soundmatters Slimstage 40

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Sound Bars: A viable alternative for surround sound in the home-theater?

by Florian Friedrich on04/05/2009

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Soundmatters Slimstage 40

Slimstage 40

Not exactly cheap, considering its performance. Still, the Slimstage 40 produces truly portly sound, despite its ultra-slim proportions. However, without an additional subwoofer, deeper bass frequencies lack potency.

Very flat and compact.
Sonorous center playback.
Discreet surround effect.
Versatile subwoofer output.

Surround effect only works when the listener is directly opposite the sound bar.
No deep bass.
Limited maximum sound pressure.
No built-in tuner.

The Soundmatters Slimstage 40 is a sound bar, available since autumn 2008 at around 700 GBP. Online prices have yet to improve on this number. Small speakers like those in the Slimstage 40 have a particularly hard time producing decent sound.

Soundmatters Slimstage 40 Key Factors

Concept and Design

extremely flat sound bar

Lithe and lissom: The extremely flat sound bar Slimstage 40 is one meter wide, and is designed to complement 40- and 42-inch TVs. Smaller and larger models are available for different screen diagonals.

The Slimstage 40 sound bar is just nine centimeters deep. Of course, this miniscule depth prevents you from standing a TV on top of the sound bar, but it will sit perfectly in front of the display instead - at just eleven centimeters in height - and will therefore not obscure the picture. This all-American contender is also ideal for wall-mounting, thanks to its tidy dimensions; you'll hardly even notice it on the living room wall.

informative display

Informative: The display indicates the selected input, surround mode, and volume.

US-based manufacturer Soundmatters designed the Slimstage 40 in Reno, Nevada. Its one-meter width is intended to suit 40- and 42-inch TVs, while owners of other display sizes can opt for the 79-centimeter Slimstage 30 (around 540 GBP) or the 123-centimeter-wide Slimstage 50 (around 900 GBP). If you want to beef up the lower bass frequencies, the manufacturer also offers the Substage 100 subwoofer, for around 220 GBP. The Slimstage models all come in black only.

Features and Technology

connections panel

Useful: A connection on the rear panel means you can hook the sound bar up to an external, active subwoofer - this also allows full setup options for level, frequency, and phase.

The sound bar's digital amplifiers distribute around 200 watts of output power to the four forward-facing, full-range speakers and the three downward-facing woofers (the latter of which have passive membranes).

For 3D surround sound, the model uses a DiMagic processor, which Soundmatters developed in collaboration with Tokyo's Denki University. The processor has one stereo mode and three surround modes, as well as a ten-channel equalizer.

Connectivity:

Along with three digital and two analog audio inputs on the rear of the device, the Slimstage 40 also provides preamp outputs for an active subwoofer or separate surround speakers. You can save the chosen surround mode separately for each input.

The versatile, front-mounted graphic display indicates the current audio format and volume level, as well as showing the selected surround mode or equalizer settings. On the other hand, the Slimstage does not offer an FM tuner or other tasty extras.

Remote Control:

The remote control gives you control over the surround level of the internal Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel decoder, which also offers directly switchable dynamic compression. You can also adjust the volume of headphones attached to the front of the device - there really are a lot of settings options.

remote control

Practical: We appreciated the sensibly-constructed remote control's direct access buttons, and simple operation.

Setup Menu and Settings:

The setup menu contains further-reaching room and listening-distance settings, but we searched in vain for a direct level adjustment for the integrated subwoofer. The Slimstage only offers this for an external subwoofer, but it does then include fine-adjustment of the phase and cutoff frequency.

Sound Quality in Detail

small speakers

Small speakers like those in the Slimstage 40 have a particularly hard time producing decent sound.

When compared with a typical TV's integrated speakers, the Slimstage 40 wins hands down, even without a separate subwoofer. The moped roars convincingly in the German cartoon movie "Werner - volles Rohr" on DVD, with a sound pressure of around 90 decibels, and center-channel voices are sonorous in "Movie" mode, with powerful bass fundament.

Slimstage 40 from Soundmatters

Not a bad performance, but too expensive, in our opinion, when compared with other sound bars: The Slimstage 40 from Soundmatters.

Surround Sound:

In terms of surround sound, the gurgling water in the submarine WW2-movie "U 571" genuinely appears to come from behind, so long as the listener sits exactly central relative to the sound bar. If you move away from the middle, the rear localization - which the Slimstage produces using phase differences - shifts to the side, so those on the end of a large sofa will miss out on the full surround-sound effect.

Rear-channel bass and treble frequencies are filtered and, therefore, sound duller than with genuine surround speakers. The stereo channels sound thinner than the center channel, which receives much more support from the bass speakers.

Frequencies below 60 Hertz:

With the explosions of the depth charges during our test-run with "U 571", we observed that the Slimstage sounded over-burdened with frequencies below 60 Hertz. In this case, instead of rendering deep bass power, it simply deteriorated into mushy noise. Of course, you can correct this shortcoming by attaching an external subwoofer.

Sound Modes:

In the "Stereo" mode, the Slimstage sounds full-bodied and conceals the lack of deep bass with a small excess of higher bass frequencies. The stereo basis itself appears rather narrow, and, while voices are homogenous, guitar strings sound a little dull.

The lively "Music" mode exaggerates treble frequencies, reducing the mid-range and bass fundament, as well as accenting the 3D effect with clearly audible side- and rear-components. We found that the "Live" mode brings up the mid-range excessively, while in "Movie" mode music sounds more spacious.

Technical Data and Product Details

frequency measurement