Harman Kardon Citation Multibeam 1100 : My impressions after two days

I thought I'd share my experience with everyone, maybe it might help someone who's looking at the exact same soundbar and just can't decide yet.

Two months ago I had the Samsung Q990b, got an amazing deal on it. Lots of excitement and hype surrounding it, but long story short it's not for me. Way too boomy in my room, just overkill and inconsistent for me too. And I don't want to piss off my neighbours, returned it.

So I started looking at soundbars via Google that are known to hold their own without a subwoofer, exactly what I was looking for because this won't bother neighbours nearly as much compared to a big sub firing down on the ground. (neighbours below me and on both sides) and soon found the Multibeam 1100. I've been testing it for two days now and I have to say that I'm in love.

This is doing exactly what I have been looking for, provide a powerful bass in movie scenes where it should and in games too. I have the soundbar and rears and no sub. Watched the early part of the movie A Quiet Place 2 when shit starts to go down and holy crap, my first thought was "did they put a subwoofer inside this soundbar?" I find it incredible what a powerful bass comes out of the bar and with the surrounds I had sound all around me. There was a scene where a guy in a car honks at John Krasinski in the movie and it shook me to my core, this should be fun with horror movies and games.

It's the same for games, I've tested Red Dead Redemption 2, and I have to say exploring that swamp with all the gators was an awesome experience, nature sounds all around me, a strong bass when a alligator growled at me. A Plague Tale Requiem became a completely different experience for me where the voices, footsteps, rain sound clear and the bass presence is there when needed. I've never heard Skyrim sound this good either, man I can't wait to hear Starfield with this. Also tried Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga, just lovely all around.

It honestly really sounds very similar to the Samsung except that was with a subwoofer and it was too boomy, this isn't boomy. For me it's perfect. With everything I tested I kept saying to myself that I really don't even need a subwoofer, or at least there is no rush to do so at all. Maybe once I've watched several movies in full that I might decide I need a sub after all, but during testing i haven't thought so at all yet.

What I personally appreciate too is that the UI is simple, clean and doesn't offer unneeded options. I had no need to change to any other modes or presets, nor do I think it even has these. For me this sounded fantastic out of the box.

My plan was to also get the Philips Fidelio B97 and compare it to the HK, because of how amazing the current price is, the full package is like 500 euros, whereas the HK soundbar set me back 680 euros, and that's only the soundbar. But so far it's damn worth it. So I'm not sure yet what I'm gonna do. The Philips comes with sub, and might not even work without it, let alone sound very great probably.