Damson S-Series makes Dolby Atmos affordable, simple and mostly wireless

A magnetic, modular soundbar, subwoofer, 2 little satellites and £800/$800 are all you need

Duncan Bell
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The trends in home cinema of late have been twofold: sprawling, expensive Atmos setups and more keenly priced systems that are 'wireless' to varying extents. Now, Damson has sort of combined the two! 

Meet the S-Series (partly) full (sort of) wireless Atmos system, yours for 800 quids or bucks. 

I went to a demo of this yesterday and for 800 notes, it's a very good sounding system. You also gain a lot of convenience from the rear speakers being wireless.

That's not only in terms of connectivity – via Damson's macho-sounding JetStreamNet wireless system – but also in terms of power. Their built in batteries are good for 8 hours of audio, although obviously this may vary depending on volume and how 'surroundy' the film you're watching is. The range is 'up to 50 metres', although I suspect anyone with a viewing room that big is probably gonna have a bit more than £800 to spend on a speaker setup.

The left, right, centre and vertical channels are all handled by the titchy 'soundbar' (more of a soundblock, really, at 24x8x6.5 cm). This takes the form of a pair of front firing speakers and a brace of upward firing ones, that bounce sound off the ceiling for the full Atmos 'it's got us surrounded!' audio effect.

The main audio processing unit and transmitter is actually the compact subwoofer, which finds room for 2 HDMI sockets, one 3.5mm input and support for Dolby Virtual, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos. Dolby is very much behind this setup it seems, contributing engineering assistance and hosting the launch at its Soho HQ.

Javier Foncillas, VP Commercial Partnerships, Europe, Dolby Laboratories, told T3, via a press release sent out y Damson, “Dolby Atmos offers breath-taking sound quality, that transforms the way consumers experience entertainment at home. We look forward to collaborating with Damson to offer greater flexibility and even more ways for consumers to be able to enjoy Dolby Atmos.”

The very compact S-Cube surrounds also serve as Bluetooth speakers, and the intention is to sell them separately. Ultimately, with upgrades, they could also be used as left/right speakers in an expanded S-Series setup, too.

Much as I liked the sound (for the price, anyway) and ease of setup, I do think these S-boxes are decidedly dowdy, but then a lot of people favour the 'look' that interior experts like to call 'nondescript and inoffensive'. 

The S-Series is on pre-order now, shipping after Christmas.

Duncan Bell
Duncan Bell

Duncan is the former lifestyle editor of T3 and has been writing about tech for almost 15 years. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. His current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years. 

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."

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