Wolf Acoustics Alpha Wolf Sound Beast Soundbar Plus Subwoofer Review
This Wolf Acoustics combo certainly plays as loud and brash as it looks. There’s plenty of bravado on movies and a surprising amount of clarity on music sources too. Whether it can really envelop you in 7.1 surround sound is questionable. And given that there’s no multi-channel licensing on hand here from Dolby or DTS, means Wolf might be excluding a big chunk of its potential home cinema audience. Others will certainly turn their noses up at the lack of Wi-Fi, app control or room correction for this price. But for those who just want a raucous party music machine and like their dinner served big with not much attention paid to the place setting, then Wolf Acoustics might endear its soundbar plus optional sub to a fanbase. The trouble for the company is that it could find its biggest challenge is identifying who those people actually are.
What Is the Wolf Acoustics Alpha Wolf Soundbar and Subwoofer?
Well, perhaps we must hand it to founder Mustafa Mehmet for having the gall to produce a small number of audio products off his own bat under the banner of his newly-formed Wolf Acoustics. The company is UK-based and Mehmet says his plan is to make ‘high end products for everyone to have access to’. Having learned to play the saxophone, achieved a music degree and studied sound engineering, he applied his knowledge to the pursuit of creating ‘something distinctive in the music space’. The Wolf name apparently derives from the unique sound that a pack of wolves uses to distinguish itself from other packs.
The company’s audio portfolio presently stands at four products. In addition to the Sound Beast soundbar and Studio Grade subwoofer we review here, Wolf also offers what it calls the Surround Sound headphones and the Sound Beast powered speakers.
The Alpha Wolf 7.1 Sound Beast (are there too many names in there?) soundbar itself doesn’t really resemble anything we’ve seen before. It’s more like one of those unapologetic black PA speaker blocks you might find at a disco or live event. We’ll discuss the individual drivers and layout in the next section. But we also look at, and listen to, the Alpha Wolf 12-inch sub, which differentiates itself little from the many such cuboid bass boxes that typically accompany budget speaker packages. Note that the soundbar’s MSRP of £2,999 has now been revised to £1,800.
Design
The soundbar section is big and heavy. To be precise, it’s 1.21 metres long and the 16 kg weight could be hernia-triggering if not handled carefully. It’s also worth dwelling for a moment on the 22 cm height because you won’t be able to shove this one on the shelf in front of the telly; it will block quite a lot of the picture. So, just as well Wolf Acoustics supplies hardware in the box to mount it onto a wall, and we assume most will choose to do exactly that.
... hernia-triggering if not handled carefully
The wood casing is formed from chunky MDF, although the front fascia employs a glossy piano black template into which the many drivers are mounted. There are also 12 rather aggressive looking male steel grille connectors which protrude from that front plate. The grille itself is a rather standard arrangement of stretched acoustically transparent material wrapped around an MDF frame.
There are 14 x 3-inch paper drivers, with two each assigned to L, C, R, SL, SR, SBL and SBR, while five 1-inch soft dome tweeters support each of the five main channels only (while excluding the rears). Two 6.5-inch bass drivers sit either side of the centre channel and there is a passive radiator port built into the right endcap. A central semi-circular panel includes a basic LCD display, USB in port and buttons for standby, input and track skip. Round the back is a recess on the left side for all the inputs. It should be noted that as the connection panel faces downwards, you might end up kinking the power, HDMI or other cords when the soundbar is on a level surface.
The Studio Grade subwoofer is rather generic, but nothing out of the ordinary for its below-£500 price point. The front square profile measures 35 cm x 35 cm with a 43-cm depth. This is the type of product you might find hawked along with a budget to mid-price 5.1 home cinema system. Its large and single 12-inch paper cone is mounted into gloss piano black frontage, similar to the bar, while the side casings employ a textured black wood veneer. The rear panel amp connection plate is functional with various connections as discussed below.
Features and Control
As far as control of the soundbar/sub combo goes, there is precious little at the user’s disposal. A responsive but basic plastic remote control allows manipulation of rudimentary EQ settings including independent volume buttons for each channel. There is also a ‘channel mode’ button which promotes playback of any source to map out to 2.1, 5.1 or 7.1. For example, you might choose to listen to a stereo source using the full array.
... at least some of these functions should be getting a look-in
There is no Wi-Fi, hard-wired Ethernet or network facility, nor is there any form of app control. When you’re hovering around the £2k mark, at least some of these functions should be getting a look-in. Not surprisingly, there is no form of in-room calibration procedure, other than the aforementioned ability to alter the volume of each channel independently. There is, however, a reliable Bluetooth 5.0 connection with aptX HD for 24-bit music support.
With eight Class D-based amp modules built in, there is a claimed 310 watts of power on offer from the bar and the frequency response spans 40 Hz – 20 kHz. The drivers themselves are classed as long-throw and onboard DSP ensures that the two pairs of outermost drivers will deliver virtual surround sound for a more spacious sonic envelope. We are told that a Qualcomm chipset decodes 5.1 and 7.1 sources, but the lack of Dolby or DTS licensed algorithms is another key omission from this platform.
... onboard DSP ensures that the two pairs of outermost drivers will deliver virtual surround sound
Inputs on the rear downward-facing overhang panel include 2 x HDMI, optical TOSLINK, coax, USB, L/R RCA and a karaoke microphone port. There is also a line-level output for an optional subwoofer and from which we linked the Wolf 12-inch model. The USB connections support MP3, WMA, APE and FLAC, so there are some further options for Hi-Res music playback.
The subwoofer sports 300 watts (RMS) of output into 4 ohms with a claimed frequency response of 20 Hz to 250 Hz. There are no published response or roll-off curves, so the low-end figure there might have to be taken with an eyebrow firmly raised. The sub includes a high-level connection, as well as RCA. There are further plastic rotary dials for gain, low pass filtering and phase control.
Set Up and Operation
We tried the Wolf bar/sub combo in both a TV room setting and in a dedicated cinema/listening room. In the latter environment, the bar straddled two sides of my equipment rack, but its topside was a few inches clear of a 2.35:1 projection screen. Direct sources in our test comprised a Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-ray player (HDMI), TCL C845 Display (HDMI ARC) and Spotify (Bluetooth).
... there are some further options for Hi-Res music playback
The sub sat flush to side walls in both scenarios and was connected via a single RCA to the left/mono input. Because the soundbar itself produced quite a full-blooded response by itself, I found the optimal low pass setting on the sub to be around 75 Hz, rather than anything higher. You can disable the bass drivers on the bar and let the sub handle the balance of the output. Note that the sub did make an unwelcome ‘pop’ sound each time when triggered by an audio signal from the soundbar.
Performance
It would seem a crime not to first try out the Wolf set with some aggressive movie content. The opening section of Jurassic Park (1993, 7.1, 4K UHD) where the velociraptor cage is lowered onto the concrete plinth, elicited some clearly defined left/right panning. There were also some impressive and rooted bass effects as the forklift manoeuvred across the concourse. Even the left and right ‘surround’ speakers managed to project some effects and atmosphere out to the sides of the room. Dialogue also rose above the surface with good isolation and was generally natural and untainted. Unfortunately, when taxed with the first high-pitched velociraptor shriek, the 7.1 soundbar felt edgy and harsh. As a result, this high-frequency aggression could subject the listener to fatigue over prolonged sessions.
Dialogue also rose above the surface with good isolation and was generally natural and untainted
During the helicopter chase sequence of Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018, 7.1, 4K UHD), the sound is big but brash all the same. You can pick out all those trumpets and trombones in the score and the chopper blades swirl convincingly in and out of the soundstage. There is some formidable weight here and you can’t deny the soundbar has balls. The trouble is that it all gets a bit overbearing, particularly when you crank up the volume a few notches. The bar has plenty of bass extension, so the need for the Studio Grade sub was questionable given the additional price proposal on the table.
There is another anomaly which didn’t sit well with me on music sources. Stereo music from Spotify or CDs sounded better in the 7.1 channel mode than in 2.1. This characteristic also applied to Orbital’s ‘Way Out’ track from the Spare Parts Express CD. The bar’s output on the number in 7.1 mode was spacious and the Wolf easily handled those clear, meandering keyboard signatures darting across the front stage along while amply supported by the throbbing bass line. But perhaps this soundbar is more suited to being a mega-competent party speaker. Would it fare better in a dance hall or on an outdoor deck? When defaulting again to 2.1 mode on the same track, that wide wrapper collapsed and tended to colour the music.
... you can’t deny the soundbar has balls
In the ‘Rex Tremendae’ from Karl Jenkins’s Requiem (Spotify), the plodding floor tom drums were powerful and the choral voices definable, but there was some midrange detail lacking. To add to that, bass descended into boominess, so the track improved in this case by completely disengaging the subwoofer.
Conclusion
Wolf Acoustics Alpha Wolf Sound Beast Soundbar Plus Subwoofer Review
Should I buy one?
... some impressive individual performance characteristics to enjoy with the soundbar
The Wolf soundbar and subwoofer are not necessarily a write-off. There are some impressive individual performance characteristics to enjoy with the soundbar, even if the optional and average sub seems surplus to requirements. The biggest challenge for this entrepreneurial company is that it needs to identify clearly who its target audience is. It’s not a refined enough product combo to challenge the likes of Sennheiser, Devialet or Sonos to top soundbar billing. Consequently, the price of the Wolf components doesn’t even really make sense in the current marketplace. And to omit some of the most imperative tech must-haves in this category will have many scratching their heads. The marketing and product naming convention also needs a radical overhaul.
... ultimately you must get the offering right
With all that said, Wolf Acoustics may get some traction with these products as they stand now. We understand the company has already shifted a fair few and believe it’s onto something. Wolf is also willing to keep the R&D engine alive (in cahoots with its Chinese manufacturer) and craft a 7.1 soundbar ‘V2’ in the future. Nobody is denying that developing and selling AV products isn’t a gargantuan and eye-wateringly costly task, but ultimately you must get the offering right. In its efforts, we certainly wish the company well. For the moment, the Wolf combo won’t attain a Recommended badge just yet, but we look forward to the next conquest.
