Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Platin Audio’s wireless home theater speaker system now handles Dolby Atmos

Simon Cohen
By

When it comes to getting a true Dolby Atmos home theater sound experience, your choices are pretty simple. You either buy an A/V receiver and hook it up to a bunch of wired speakers, or you go the soundbar route. But now there’s a third choice, with Platin Audio’s new Monaco 5.1.2 wireless home speaker system, which can be pre-ordered starting September 13 for $1,499, with deliveries beginning in mid-October.

Platin Audio Monaco 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos WiSA system.
Platin Audio

The Monaco 5.1.2 includes two front speakers, two surround speakers, a center channel, and a subwoofer, all of which communicate via the WiSA system for wireless audio. This means that each speaker is independently powered and can be placed anywhere within the same room. The speakers get their signal wirelessly from the included WiSA Sound Send module, which can transmit eight channels of lossless audio at up to 24-bit/96kHz, with incredibly low latency, so audio sync problems shouldn’t arise.

Recommended Videos

Platin Audio is no stranger to the WiSA platform — we checked out the company’s Monaco 5.1 system in 2021, and found it to be a worthy alternative to similarly configured soundbars. But at the time, we noted two challenges. First, it wasn’t compatible with Dolby Atmos, which seemed like a missed opportunity given the increasing popularity of the spatial audio format. And second, the system relied almost entirely on the TV being the center of all audio playback.

Related
Platin Audio Monaco 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos WiSA system.
Platin Audio

In other words, with the exception of an available optical port, all audio had to be channeled through the Sound Send’s HDMI input from a TV’s HDMI ARC or eARC port. And while that’s fine for movies, TV, and sports, it’s very limiting when it comes to almost any other audio like streaming music, Bluetooth, local digital music, turntables, or devices like a Sonos Port.

The new Monaco 5.1.2 still suffers from these music source limitations, but at least the Dolby Atmos part of the equation has been addressed. The two left and right front speakers are now equipped with up-firing drivers that can bounce sound off of the ceiling and back to your listening position for that key Atmos experience: height channel effects.

At $1,499, the Monaco 5.1.2 competes with some impressively equipped systems like the combo Sonos Arc/Sonos Sub at $1,648, the Sony HT-A5000/SA-SW3 combo at $1,500, and the soon-to-be-available $1,500 Sennheiser Ambeo Plus soundbar. Those products can’t match the Monaco’s discrete surround speakers at those prices, but they offer a lot more versatility in terms of listening to a variety of music sources.

Still, WiSA systems offer a compelling alternative to both A/V receiver-based systems as well as soundbars, so the Monaco 5.1.2 might be just what some folks are looking for — all of the speakers, but none of the wires.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like…
Bose’s new flagship soundbar delivers Dolby Atmos for home theaters
The Bose Smart Soundbar 900.

Today, Bose took the wraps off its first Dolby Atmos soundbar, the $899 Smart Soundbar 900. It goes on sale on September 23 but can be pre-ordered as of today on Bose's website. The addition of Dolby Atmos puts the new model in direct competition with the $799 Sonos Arc, our current top pick for the best overall soundbar.

Available in black or white, the Smart Soundbar 900 bears a strong resemblance to the 5.1-channel Smart Soundbar 700, featuring a rounded rectangular shape and a glass top surface.

Read more
DTS Play-Fi wants to eliminate the speaker wires in your 5.1 home theater setup
DTS Play-Fi Home Theater.

Despite having been around for more than a decade, DTS Play-Fi simply doesn't enjoy the same kind of brand recognition as Apple's AirPlay or Google's Chromecast, even though Play-Fi performs a very similar function: It lets you stream very high-quality audio over Wi-Fi to any Play-Fi-compatible speakers. But that might be about to change. Today, the company that is probably best known for its DTS and DTS:X movie theater surround sound formats, is announcing a new generation of its Play-Fi technology that expands the system into multichannel home theaters.

The new platform is called, somewhat obviously, Play-Fi Home Theater. It achieves the same goal as a wireless soundbar package or a WiSA speaker system in that it can eliminate all of your speaker cables, making the setup and positioning of your home theater speakers way easier. But Play-Fi Home Theater is considerably more sophisticated and expandable than either of those other options.
 A major asset
Play-Fi Home Theater's biggest asset is that it works over your existing Wi-Fi network. So there's no need for a specialized dongle or transmitter (which you'd need with a WiSA-based system), and you won't even need an HDMI cable to connect your TV to a soundbar or another control module as is the case with virtually all of today's batch of multispeaker soundbar systems.

Read more
Sony’s HT-A9 promises fully immersive Dolby Atmos from four wireless speakers
Sony's HT A9 fully immersive speaker

Today, Sony has pulled the wraps off two new Dolby Atmos-capable home theater sound systems. And though they're both designed to offer folks highly immersive sound and a simple installation, the way they approach that challenge couldn't be more different. The $1,300 HT-A7000 looks like a traditional soundbar, right down to the optional wireless subwoofer and surround speakers. But the $1,800 HT-A9 uses a set of four bookshelf-sized independent wireless speakers that can be placed anywhere in a room and use their onboard microphones to sense and respond to furniture, walls, and other acoustic features. Both will be available in September/October from major retailers. Here's a deeper look at each system.
Sony HT-A9: $1,800

The HT-A9 is a totally new concept in home theater sound, although it's clear that Sony took its inspiration from both Sonos and WiSA. It's comprised of four identical wireless speakers that are equipped with a tweeter, a midrange driver, a bass duct, and an up-firing driver. They communicate with a control box that is no bigger than the size of an Apple TV. The control box acts as a simplified A/V receiver, with one HDMI input, one HDMI ARC/eARC output, an Ethernet jack, and a center channel output (more on that in a moment). The control box connects the system to Wi-Fi, and it's compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, plus Chromecast and AirPlay 2 are built-in.

Read more