KEF wants you to choose its first Dolby Atmos soundbar over the Sonos Arc Ultra

KEF has unveiled its first ever Dolby Atmos soundbar, the KEF XIO. And as you'd expect from the renowned audio brand, it features some very clever design and impressive specification. It's also one of the priciest soundbars in its category.

The XIO is a 5.1.2 soundbar with an optional wireless receiver for an external subwoofer.

Inside there are a dozen Class D amplifiers powering twelve drivers: two 50mm full range drivers, six 50mm Uni-Q MX drivers, and four 50 x 180mm P185 low-frequency drivers. Together they put out an impressive 820W of power.

One of the things that's particularly notable about this soundbar is that KEF has purposely designed it to excel in music as well as movies. That's not always the case with even the best soundbars, which often prioritise excitement over musical precision.

KEF XIO soundbar: key features and pricing

The Uni-Q drivers in the XIO are smaller versions of the ones you'll find in KEF's high-end speakers, and the three top-mounted ones can detect how the soundbar is positioned and adjust their roles accordingly. For example, if you wall-mount the XIO, two of the drivers take care of upward-firing audio while the third takes care of the centre channel.

The rectangular P185 low-frequency drivers are arranged in pairs, like those in KEF's subwoofers, to take advantage of force cancellation. The vibration from one driver is counteracted and cancelled out by the vibration of its twin, removing unwanted resonances.

The drivers also have KEF's patent-pending VECO velocity control sensor, which monitors the woofer in real time and adjusts its movement to reduce distortion and compression.

The XIO is available now for £1,999 / $2,500 (about €2,300 / AU$3,600).