TCL A65K Soundbar Review: Small Size, Big Sound

TCL A65K 回音壁评测：小巧身材，震撼音效

$500 $400 at Amazon 亚马逊售价 $500，现价 $400

Rating: 7/10 评分：7/10

TIRED: Compact and portable. A good fit for smaller spaces and TVs. Acoustic music sounds loud and distinct. Excellent room adaptation using AI. 优点： 小巧便携。非常适合小空间和小型电视。原声音乐听起来响亮且清晰。AI 空间自适应功能表现出色。

WIRED: Surround sound was lacking. Some music sounds washed out and muddy. 缺点： 环绕声表现不足。部分音乐听起来音质发虚且浑浊。

Living in a small space has some challenges, but poor cinematic sound doesn’t need to be one of them. For those in an apartment or who have a smaller room for watching television and listening to music, the TCL A65K Soundbar is not a bad option among the best soundbars out there. 居住在小空间里确实有一些挑战，但糟糕的影院音效不应是其中之一。对于住在公寓或拥有较小视听室的用户来说，TCL A65K 回音壁在众多同类产品中是一个不错的选择。

Priced at $499 on Amazon (the list price is $699), this pencil-shaped soundbar is about 35 inches long and stands two inches high but packs 460 watts of power. With the included sub (which measures about 14 x 14 inches square), you can blast the latest Netflix movie or crank up any one of the three new Drake albums at high volume. Dolby Atmos support, a brilliant room adaptation feature that uses AI, and a compact design are the main highlights. 这款铅笔形状的回音壁在亚马逊上的售价为 499 美元（标价 699 美元），长约 35 英寸，高 2 英寸，却拥有 460 瓦的功率。配合附带的低音炮（约 14 x 14 英寸），你可以尽情播放最新的 Netflix 电影，或以高音量畅听 Drake 的新专辑。支持杜比全景声（Dolby Atmos）、出色的 AI 空间自适应功能以及紧凑的设计是其主要亮点。

Call it a niche product if you want, but judged as a compact audio product, I liked the features and design of the TCL A65K even if the actual audio quality can’t compete with the Sonos Arc Ultra or even come close to the Focal Mu-So Hekla. Audiophiles should definitely take a pass, but the rest will find a lot to like for the price, the small size, and smart design. 你可以称它为小众产品，但作为一款紧凑型音频设备，我很喜欢 TCL A65K 的功能和设计，尽管其实际音质无法与 Sonos Arc Ultra 竞争，甚至无法与 Focal Mu-So Hekla 相提并论。发烧友们肯定会绕道而行，但对于普通用户来说，其价格、小巧的尺寸和智能设计都非常讨喜。

Setting It Up

设置过程

One of the TCL A65K’s smart design choices has to do with the product size. The A65K soundbar weighs only 2.5 pounds so I found I could easily hold it with one hand. The sub, which is designed to face toward you, weighs almost 12 pounds. But it’s also not a back-breaker. Compare that to something like the Focal Mu-So Hekla soundbar at 34 pounds and the A65K feels featherlight. TCL A65K 的一项智能设计选择与产品尺寸有关。A65K 回音壁仅重 2.5 磅，我发现可以轻松单手握持。设计为朝向用户的低音炮重约 12 磅，但也并不沉重。相比之下，重达 34 磅的 Focal Mu-So Hekla 回音壁，A65K 简直轻如鸿毛。

I like that TCL includes a basic wall mounting kit, which consists of two brackets and screws. I skipped that to make the soundbar more mobile and moved it from my family room to my office a few times. Placed on a TV stand, the all-black A65K looks comically small given that the television I own is a 65-inch model. I put the sub on the floor and went through the app setup, which was surprisingly easy since it mostly involves connecting over Bluetooth and choosing a sound mode, such as movie or music. You can also plug in a phone using the USB port, go with HDMI from your TV, or stream over Bluetooth (but not Wi-Fi). 我喜欢 TCL 附带的基础壁挂套件，其中包括两个支架和螺丝。我没有使用它，为了让回音壁更具移动性，我曾多次将它从客厅搬到办公室。放在电视柜上，对于我那台 65 英寸的电视来说，全黑的 A65K 显得有些滑稽的小。我把低音炮放在地板上，并完成了 App 设置，过程出奇地简单，主要涉及通过蓝牙连接并选择声音模式（如电影或音乐）。你也可以通过 USB 接口插入手机，使用电视的 HDMI 接口，或通过蓝牙（不支持 Wi-Fi）进行流媒体播放。

I used HDMI and Bluetooth for my testing and tweaked a few settings on the TCL Home app. The USB port is nice, but it’s of the older USB-A type, which is disappointing, since most of us have moved to the world of USB-C almost entirely. You can skip the app entirely if you don’t want to adjust settings. You can also skip the included remote (which has a nice layout and lets you switch inputs quickly, but is otherwise pretty basic) and control music from an app like Qobuz or use your TV remote. 我在测试中使用了 HDMI 和蓝牙，并在 TCL Home App 上调整了一些设置。USB 接口很实用，但它是老式的 USB-A 类型，这令人失望，因为我们大多数人几乎已经完全转向了 USB-C 时代。如果你不想调整设置，完全可以跳过 App。你也可以不用附带的遥控器（虽然布局不错，切换输入源很快，但功能比较基础），直接通过 Qobuz 等 App 控制音乐，或者使用电视遥控器。

One configuration step was critically important, though. The TCL AI Sonic feature can help adapt the A65K audio for your room size. I listened to music before and after and it made a big difference, which I’ll touch on later. The process is straightforward. The app prompted me to turn my iPhone around so the microphone faces the speakers. I held it a few inches away from the speaker at first, then sat down on my couch for a second test. The AI adjusted the sound to be fuller and more spacious, although movies and music never filled the room. 不过，有一个配置步骤至关重要。TCL AI Sonic 功能可以帮助 A65K 根据房间大小调整音频。我对比了开启前后的音乐效果，差异非常明显，稍后我会详细说明。过程很简单：App 提示我转动 iPhone，让麦克风朝向扬声器。我先是在距离扬声器几英寸的地方拿着手机，然后坐在沙发上进行了第二次测试。AI 将声音调整得更加饱满和宽广，尽管电影和音乐依然无法完全填满整个房间。

That’s one compromise with a smaller soundbar—the diminutive cabinet just isn’t big enough to produce those massive explosions or drum fills on a Radiohead song that you’d get with a larger soundbar. Knowing this, and that the price is a few hundred less than full-size soundbars, I dove into testing. 这是小型回音壁的一种妥协——小巧的箱体不足以产生大型回音壁所能带来的那种震撼爆炸声或 Radiohead 歌曲中的鼓点填充。了解这一点，再加上它比全尺寸回音壁便宜几百美元，我开始了深入测试。

Movies and Surround Sound

电影与环绕声

The TCL A65K soundbar has up-firing audio drivers, making it seem like a plane or a spaceship is flying around the room. TCL partnered with Bang & Olufsen for the sound design. There are nine dedicated speakers in the soundbar, including the center and side channels. The upfiring height channels support Dolby Atmos or DTS:X. Unlike some Sony soundbars that use virtual surround sound and not actual drivers angled to the ceiling, the dedicated audio drivers in the A65K should be more convincing when, say, a helicopter rises above the tree line. TCL A65K 回音壁配备了向上发声的音频驱动单元，营造出飞机或宇宙飞船在房间周围飞行的感觉。TCL 与 Bang & Olufsen 合作进行了声音设计。回音壁内有九个专用扬声器，包括中置和侧置声道。向上发声的高度声道支持杜比全景声或 DTS:X。与一些使用虚拟环绕声而非实际朝向天花板驱动单元的索尼回音壁不同，A65K 中的专用音频驱动单元在表现直升机飞越树梢等场景时，应该更具说服力。

In practice, the TCL A65K is too small to make the surround sound that convincing. It’s a nice idea to pack in so many speakers with so much power. In the movie Unbroken, which I use for testing all surround sound products, the planes and gunfire didn’t fill the room enough. I used the AI Sonic room adaptation feature, but it didn’t help the surround sound that much. 在实际使用中，TCL A65K 的体积太小，无法让环绕声达到那种令人信服的效果。在如此小的空间内塞入这么多扬声器和功率是一个不错的想法。在我用于测试所有环绕声产品的电影《坚不可摧》（Unbroken）中，飞机和枪声并没有很好地填满房间。我使用了 AI Sonic 空间自适应功能，但对环绕声的提升并不明显。

One of my favorite sound design tests is in the movie Predator: Badlands when the main character extends both ends of a spear, the tip pointing to the sky with a sudden clank. I loved how the Focal Mu-So Hekla made it seem like that clank sounds like it’s coming from the ceiling. Not so much with the A65K soundbar. However, at $499, I wasn’t expecting sonic perfection. In the sci-fi series The Boroughs on Netflix, a muscle car rumbles by and the sub makes it sound loud and powerful— even if we’re not talking movie-theater-quality sound at all. 我最喜欢的音效测试之一是电影《铁血战士：荒地》（Predator: Badlands），主角伸展长矛两端，矛尖指向天空时发出的清脆金属撞击声。我很喜欢 Focal Mu-So Hekla 营造出的那种声音仿佛来自天花板的感觉。A65K 回音壁在这方面表现一般。不过，考虑到 499 美元的价格，我并没有期待完美的音质。在 Netflix 的科幻剧集《The Boroughs》中，一辆肌肉车轰鸣而过，低音炮让声音听起来响亮且有力——尽管这完全谈不上电影院级别的音质。

In the sci-fi movie Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, I noticed the music overwhelmed the voices at about 50 minutes into the movie (about a time traveler bent on saving humanity). Playing around with a few more custom sound settings in the TCL Home app, I increased the center channel, lowered the “front top” audio and sub, and enabled a voice enhancement option. It’s a pain, and I wish the A65K adjusted itself automatically, but it was effective. That’s why my take on the sound quality for movies is “not bad” for the price and size of the soundbar. 在科幻电影《Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die》中，我注意到在电影进行到约 50 分钟时（关于一名致力于拯救人类的时间旅行者），背景音乐盖过了人声。在 TCL Home App 中调整了一些自定义声音设置后，我调高了中置声道，调低了“前置顶部”音频和低音炮，并启用了语音增强选项。这很麻烦，我希望 A65K 能自动调整，但调整后确实有效。这就是为什么我认为这款回音壁的电影音质对于其价格和尺寸来说是“还不错”的。

Music Quality

音乐音质

The theme here so far is—you won’t compete with your local cineplex for home theater sound, bu… 到目前为止，核心观点是——你无法在家庭影院音效上与当地电影院竞争，但……