Nakamichi - DRAGON (8" Sub Configuration)

Nakamichi Dragon is the best right now but I dont have 4000 dollars for that. But yes I had the Q990D and currently have the Q990F and is great.

I have the Nakamichi Dragon and it's just about on par with my old discreet 7.1.4 setup. The only thing that is kind of lacking is height effects, but you're not going to get *good* heights with any soundbar.

I’m guessing you maybe bought it by now or decided not to. I have the dragon with 2-12” subs. I haven’t heard the dual opposing 8” subs. IMO, it’s amazing. I’m about to update the firmware to get the ULTRA AHD which supposedly makes a big difference. But anyway, I’m no sound engineer but for me, i dig it. Most the audiophiles out there will steer you away and tell you to build a home theater system with separate components and also say it’s Way over priced. The dragon is plug and play. No wires to run, and to me, it sounds incredible. The center bar sounds so crisp, the 2-12’s get you that bass you want and the rears for sure immerse you more than most rears that come with sound bars. Get what you want man, I’m happy with the dragon I just hope it lasts

Just got mine 2 days ago and I love it

I have the dragon with 2 12 inch subwoofers in front and 2 8 inch subwoofers in the back in my basement and it sounds incredible. I have the Nakamichi shockwafe wireless 11.2.6 in my master bedroom and firmware update and it's the best bang for the buck sounds very good.

No doubt the 990 series is good but "sounds worse" is definitely a far, probably biased claim about Dragon's performance. Have you heard them side by side? On Amazon, there are many verified customer reviews comparing Dragon to Samsung or Sonos or even separates and receivers and a large amount prefers the Dragon.

90% of people who complain about the dragon have literally never even heard it. Of the 10% that have, half of them it wasn't in their room after tuning. That leaves about 5% of owners who don't love the sound. I know 3 people with the dragon that are literally more than over the room with it. The overwhelming majority of user reviews on YouTube/the internet also love it. The price, and the original subs not performing to claimed standards are the only 2 real complaints for a soundbar system. But the subs aren't bad, and the 12s are insane. For the people that just don't like the sound, well sure. Freaking every single thing is subjective. But get over yourself with the baseless "dragon is trash" message. Its not. Its expensive, and at that price I wish it came with 12s instead.

All of his complaints are "valid," but they are also all just what I call "YouTube video complaints." Lol I watch reviews too, and used to think it made me quite the expert. I certainly had the *knowledge*. But you know what's better than knowledge? *EXPERIENCE.* Ain't no one who has ever actually heard a dragon and a q990 system in the same room ever gonna say they're close. They're definitely not. The internet has made everyone believe their experts in their content niche, but remember, 90%+ of the comments you'll get are people who have never owned the product. (Sometimes even when they say they do 😅) Or they just own the product they're defending. Now VALUE wise.. totally different story. A q990 system, or a second hand Sonos system destroys the dragon value wise. You can get a Sonos Arc and sub for under 400 each, and era 100s for around 150 each. Let's say between 1000-1200 total. The dragon is better, but not 3x better. If you want the best sound possible from a soundbar system, go dragon w/ 12in subs front and put the 8s in the back (unless you're gonna go wild and do 4 12s) Second to that would be an arc ultra w/ dual subs and Era 300s as rears.

The Nakamichi Dragon is my daily driver. I play Helldivers on the system for the surround sound, games and movies have never sounded better than this. Highly recommend it, as I believe Nakamichi is also running a sale on it right now.

I've had the Nakamichi Dragon for a while now. I always liked how powerful it sounds, especially after I added a 12" sub to it. That thing hits HARD. For some context i purchased Dragon after I decided to downsize from my previous house to a better location. Now living in an apartment, I had to find a setup that worked without driving my partner or my dog crazy. That said, it wasn’t perfect. The bass was a bit strong after integrating the 12” sub to the point that it kinda was overpowering the rest of the system. The soundstage was wide and height/surround effects were solid. Definitely better than other soundbars i’ve heard such as the Q990D and the Sonos Arc but the placement of objects around my listening area didn't feel as precise or sharp as I was expecting. Then this firmware upgrade dropped adding some new ‘AHD Ultra’ mode and yeah… I wasn’t expecting much, but it made a pretty noticeable difference. The update process overall took around 30 minutes, i made some food and i was ready to dive into the update. Thankfully, everything went smoothly…unlike some other recent updates I’ve read about online where people ran into some major and pretty annoying issues. Glad I didn’t have to deal with any of that. Right away, I noticed that the bass finally blends seamlessly with the rest of the system. It felt way more natural and tight, making the experience sound more cohesive. What really amazed me was how much the surround and height effects improved. It went from “eh, sounds are just kinda around me” to “woah, wait, that sound came from there.” Watched Gravity again after the update and damn, the difference was clear. The overhead effects finally felt real, and the airlock scene felt like it was closing in and locking me off instead of just sounding like it was happening around me. I’ve also been enjoying Helldivers 2 recently and thought that this would be the perfect game to test AHD Ultra. I’ve clocked in over 120 hours in the game on Dragon before the update and it was already lit but based on what i heard w Gravity, I was excited to hear the difference. Playing the game, it was like the battlefield replaced my walls. Turrets, grenades and gunshots had a satisfying depth, and the added details made it feel like I was even more connected to the game. Being able to tell where my fellow Helldivers and enemies were with the added surround detailing brought a whole new layer of immersion to the game. Anyway, that's just my two cents as a happy Dragon owner. It was already solid, but now it feels next level. If you're interested in one, I would highly recommend.

The AHD Ultra update has improved the experience of Dragon for me, which I didn’t even realize was possible short of adding more channels/speakers. I’m enjoying gaming, especially FPS and single player story driven games immensely, and swear I can hear details I didn’t catch before the update. Nakamichi should do a better job of publicizing this firmware upgrade, as it really turned the Dragon from a 9.5 to an 11 for me.

This sub has a weird obsession of the Q990x series…I tried both in my room, few weeks apart before getting a Nakamichi Dragon, and the JBL Mk2 was better overall for me than the 990F. The 12” subwoofer helps a ton, the Atmos was *slightly* better in some instances with the q990; but overall, I appreciated and liked the Mk2 much more. Being able to place the surrounds wherever I wanted was huge, and I liked the JBL app more too. The room correction and calibration it does is pretty good as well, biggest thing with all of them is providing the correct input so they can give you the correct output. Playing music through my Samsung tv via iPhone vs playing through Apple TV 4K was completely different. If you want to spend some coin and get something that will really blow you away, check out the Dragon. The price/performance ratio isn’t the greatest, but it’s the closest thing I could find that could match my old actual home theater 7.2.2 setup short of the sub stage. I went with the one that came with the quad 8’s, and have modified it a ton lol basically just using the 8’s amps for inputs to a Crown XLS2502 that’s driving the 8’s for 200hz-80hz, and using dual 600w Monoprice 15’s modified to have a 15” passive radiator instead of their port for 70hz and down. Sub stage ran through an Anti-Mode 2.0 for full room correction and EQ. I like to tinker with stuff too much and it’s definitely not healthy. Don’t go down this path, nothing is ever sufficient 🤦🏻‍♂️😂

No, you should be fine, it’s just whether you get one of the faulty bars that does happen occasionally which sucks to have to deal with. I demoed the Arc Ultra, Sony Quads and Nakamichi dragon by buying them and then kept the Quads, and then rebought the Arc Ultra for another room, but when I sent the dragon back from Amazon I had to pay a few hundred bucks for shipping because it was all in one box weighing at 140-160lbs. Even though it said free 30 day returns. Good luck with the Samsung as it’s highly recommended..

What guy said the soundstage was the weakest? I’m Comparing The new Shockwafe at $2277 vs the dragon at $3999, Obviously that’s with the 8” subs. Basically half price and never enough tech said Atmos is better, immersion is better and the subs are better on the Shockwafe! Maybe I’ll give it a try! I demoed the dragon and I liked things but disliked things more and overall to me it wasn’t worth it. Everyone is different and I’m sure the new subs are good, but only hitting 30hz for a $1500 sub is clearly not a good deal, it’s average at best. Many of the people touting these highly overpriced subs obviously have never heard real subs before, but if it makes you happy do it. I’m obviously not a Nakamichi hater or I wouldn’t consider demoing the new shockwafe, Watching NET say it’s better than the dragon with 8’s and basically half price, gave me a inkling to actually give it a try.

I’d agree with what @djsimmz said. I demoed the dragon and it was good, but I couldn’t get any overhead-spatial effects and the subs would die and bottom out and the noises it would make drove me insane. I myself have the Sony Quads and although their sub is also pretty bad, I still can’t believe how awesome its Atmos effects are. I also tried the arc ultra with era 300s and a gen 4 sub and I’d say that system does everything well. It was close but the Quads just wow me and I was sold. I would look at the Shockwafe with the 2 10” subs that is going for 2299-2499, as with the dragon and it’s chuffy 8” subs, I would need the 12” subs and I’m not paying 6 thousand for 2 12” subs that are not great. People, some of them say the 12”s are great and they are far from great, but this just shows how pitiful the 8”subs are. I would demo my Quads vs the new Shockwafe, but forget the dragon imo

Wait for holidays and then get the Sony Quads. They were $2499, then I got them on one of the big sale days for $1799, but now it’s up to $2600. IMO after demoing the Arc Ultra Ultimate Edition, Nakamichi dragon and Quads, the Quads gave me the best 360 degree sound with excellent Atmos performance for an upfiring system which I thought was a gimmick but damn they work wonders on these. There is the klipsch core300 that allows for a aftermarket sub which is great. The Marshall Heston 120 gets some pretty good reviews. So many different options

I bought the dragon but sent it back in less than 2 weeks. The bass is just bad regardless of the dragon lovers and there was no height effects. I compared it to the Sony Quads and the atmos on them is second to none, where I got basically no height effects from the dragon. I’m currently running a 2.1 for my music timeouts as no bar sounds good or should I say compares to a good 2.1. I have since heard the Shockwafe and I personally think the new drivers and bigger dual 10” subs mesh better than the dragon with the dual 8” subs which bottom out way too early. I also paid over $4,000 and now the dragon fluctuates between between $2700-$3899 while the shockwafe has been as low as $2099. So I’m obviously not a Nakamichi hater which I got a lot of from the dragon fanboys. I’m thinking about trying it out in the family room as I really liked what I heard and keep my Quads in my med sized master bedroom. So, what did you eventually get and how do you like it??

Good 4 U!! I’m interested in people who have or had the dragon with 8” subs( not the $1500 12” subs) as that’s just crazy and have put it head to head with the Shockwafe. I just heard it and was impressed by the bass, Atmos and how powerful the rear speakers are. Had the dragon with 8”s and how they would huff n puff and die while making annoying sounds. I’m sure the 12”s are much better but everything else was ear piercing brash in your face that I could never get to my liking. After reading this post i assumed you were thinking dragon, but I’m glad you saved big money over hype. Enjoy for 4 years buddy!